Video Essayists Biographies

Yoana Pavlova

Yoana Pavlova is a Bulgarian critic, curator, educator, independent researcher, and occasionally an artist who has been based in France since 2011. Founder of Festivalists.com, a playform for experimental media criticism, she explores digital arts and culture in the form of text, visuals, and through analogue materials. Mentor at various European programs for aspiring film critics and journalists, she also took part in Critics' Choice in 2019 with her fiber art piece Ripple.

Inge Coolsaet 

Inge Coolsaet is a freelance film critic and translator based in Belgium. She’s co-editor of the film publication Fantômas and works at argos centre for audiovisual arts in Brussels. Her writing has been published in several publications such as Point of View magazine, Talking Shorts, Kortfilm.be, photogénie and Cineuropa. Alumna of Berlinale Talents, she started exploring the possibilities of audiovisual film criticism.

Joost Broeren-Huitenga

Joost Broeren-Huitenga (1982) is a freelance film critic and media journalist from the Netherlands. He studied Media Studies at Utrecht University, graduating with honours. Today, he is an editor for Dutch monthly De Filmkrant (currently the only independent film publication in The Netherlands), film critic for Amsterdam-based daily Het Parool, and freelance writer and editor for numerous Dutch and international publications. His video essays have been screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam's Critics' Choice program and featured on Fandor, among others.(1982) is a freelance film critic and media journalist from the Netherlands. He studied Media Studies at Utrecht University, graduating with honours. Today, he is an editor for Dutch monthly De Filmkrant (currently the only independent film publication in The Netherlands), film critic for Amsterdam-based daily Het Parool, and freelance writer and editor for numerous Dutch and international publications. His video essays have been screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam's Critics' Choice program and featured on Fandor, among others.

Kevin B. Lee

Kevin B. Lee is the Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema and the Audiovisual Arts at USI Università della Svizzera italiana. A filmmaker, media artist, and critic, he has produced 400 video essays exploring film and media. His award-winning Transformers: The Premake introduced the “desktop documentary” format and was named one of the best documentaries of 2014 by Sight & Sound. His video essaysReading // Binging // Benning and Once Upon a Screen: Explosive Paradox received the most mentions respectively in the 2017 and 2020 Sight & Sound video essay polls. Through Bottled Songs, his collaborative project with Chloé Galibert-Laîné, he was awarded the 2018 Sundance Institute Art of Nonfiction Grant, the 2018 European Media Artist Platform Residency, and the 2019 Eurimages Lab Project Award at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In 2020 he co-curated the Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist with Will DiGravio and Cydnii Wilde Harris. Previously he was Professor of Crossmedia Publishing and co-director of the Masters Program in Artistic Research at Merz Akademie, Stuttgart.