Born in Poitiers 37 years ago, Véronique Briole became Véra the day her Hungarian grandparents first called her by that name. She spent all her childhood in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. Arriving in Paris where she stayed with a girlfriend, she studied for a short time at the Court Florent before enrolling in a small acting school in the Abesses district. With a classmate, she set up a theatre company. Then came cinema : "Pigalle" by Karim Dridi (1994) Prix Michel Simon - Best Actress 1996, "La Fille seule" by Benoît Jacquot (1995), "Zonzon" by Laurent Bouhnik (1997), "La jeune fille" by Siegfried (1997), and in 1999 "Madeleine" by Laurent Bouhnik, Best Actress at the Festival de Locarno 1999. Véro Briole has written childrens' stories and screenplays, one of which gave rise to a 50 minutes film for television. She has a gift for drawing, loves singing and would like to make a record one day.

Jaak Kilmi was born in Talinn, Estonia, in 1973. He began studying cinematography in 1992 at the Talinn Pedagogical University Film Department, choosing directing as his main optional subject. During his six years of studies, he made three short films : "Aguli-Ellinor", 8 min (1993), "Ta-Ram Ta-Ram",17 min (1995) and "Külla Tuli" fiction, 39 min (1998). The latter won the Grand Prix du Jury at the 1998 Rencontres Inernationales Henri Langlois, as well as awards at a number of other festivals (Angers, Oberhausen, Potsdam, Stuttgart. Following the completion of his studies, Jaak Kilmi directed two other short films : "Tähesoit" 39 min (1999) and "The Human Camera" 39 min (1999). Jack Kilmi is a member of the Estonian Film Critics Union and writes numerous articles for the specialist press.

"Ever since I have been writing screenplays (ten years), of which the most recent ones for cinema are "Les Convoyeurs attendent" and "Sous les pieds des femmes", I have always positioned myself as a defender of the written word in the world of images, and this thanks to the work I have done in television an which I continue to do. This defence of the screenwriting score (of which the cinema world is greatly suffering) obliged me to take other, more "violent" undertakings, like the creation of a production company (Illétime Défense Production), but also and above all to found, with friends, the review Synopsis and to actively participate in the creation of the Conservatoire de l'Ecriture, a means of situating the written word in its right perspective, in the hope of rallying in the years to come the new talents who will play an active part in its evolution, as much in cinema as in television." Jean-Luc Sègle, born in 1956. Screenply and dialogue writer.

El Hadj Bensalah was born in 1946 in Mascara (Algeria)a historical town renowned for its wines. On leaving school, he was a French teacher for four years, also putting on films at the school between 1966 and 1970. He then went on to study film at the Institute of Arts and Broadcasting, which was based in Brussels at the time. Graduating from there in Direction and Editing in 1974, he completed his diploma thesis on film music the same year. El Hadj Bensalah made two short films during his studies: "Maroc face et profil" (15 min) and "La Rencontre" (3 min), and has been in charge of the Cinémathèque in the City of Oran since 1975. El Hadj Bensalah is currently preparing the fifth edition of the Journées Internationales du Court-Métrage d'Oran festival, of which he is the founder, taking place in October 2000. For March 2001, he is planning to create the Salon International du Livre Jeunesse et du Film (International Book and Film Festival for the Young).