Zara Abdullaeva — Author of books, articles, essays on the history and theory of cinema, theater and literature. Author for The Film Art Magazine, Seance, Soviet Film, Theater, Literature Review, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Kommersant, and others). Author of a blog on the website of the Film Art Magazine.Laureate of a number of professional awards: USSR Filmmakers Union Award for the best book of the year ("Living Nature. Pictures of Roman Balayan", 1989) and Russian Guild of Film Criticsthe Awards.
Alvis Hermanis — Since 1997, he has been the artistic director of the New Riga Theatre, some of the programming of which is devoted to the classical repertoire, particularly the works of German and Russian writers. However, he also stages more contemporary works such as Sonia by the Russian author Tatiana Tolstaia (presented at the Avignon Festival in 2008). His productions have been seen in over 40 countries—more specifically, in Wellington, Bogota, Seoul, Montreal and Moscow. They have also featured at several major festivals including the Salzburg Festival, the Avignon Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, the Holland Festival, the International Theatre Festival in Belgrade and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels. In 2012, the Swiss cultural magazine Du, bringing together theatre world experts from twenty countries, named him one of the ten most influential personalities in contemporary European Theatre.
Galina Timchenko — Founder and executive director of Meduza. Ex-chief editor of the Lenta.ru Internet publication, recognized by Harvard University as the most widely quoted media in the Russian-language news field. In October 2014, together with several former journalists, Lenta.ru launched a new media outlet in Latvia, since it was not possible to create an independent publishing house in Russia.