Ioana comes from a busy acting background in both drama and film, dating back as far as 2005. She has an MA in Theatre from Kingston University and her work includes projects varying from stage plays to films and music videos. With a higher understanding of the craft she is currently working as a writer and drama tutor when she is not involved with the festival. Her experience covers several areas of film making: from acting to film production.

Started his career at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where he trained in classical acting and theatre arts and at the renowned Bristol Old Vic Company. His training also included appearances for BBC TV Bristol. His career in acting and directing has included Repertory, National Theatre, WestEnd, Theatre-in-Education, TV comedy, Film, Music videos. Early work also provided invaluable experience in 16mm celluloid camera operation (Aaton/Arriflex/ Beaulieu). He is a founding director of the Man in the Moon Theatre, Chelsea (1981-2003) where he was Artistic Director, co-producer and script adviser. In 1985 he started teaching at the Academy DS Whitechapel, teaching theatre and incorporating screen acting on location. His work has taken him to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, former Yugoslavia, Poland, Jamaica, Uruguay, Brasil, Argentina. He is currently engaged in Cognitive Anthropology, namely fMRI brain mapping studies, (Wellcome Institute) having so far investigated Role-Play//Pretend Play, with Art and the Brain currently in development. He is an active member of the Royal Institution and the Royal Anthropological Institute and has spoken about Consciousness at science conferences in Arizona and Hong Kong.

Having grown up in a North London estate, working in film always seemed an impossibility to Nathan - it was always the posh boys game. This never stopped him from dreaming, however. For hours he would watch the countless B movies and westerns on daytime TV, he was captivated by Disney animations such as Aladdin and The Lion King, the awe of Jurassic Park and Close Encounters, and had the life scared out of him by Alien. Into his teens, he began to understand film more but this was still very much as an enthusiast. Films such as Taxi Driver changed his perception of how character could be defined, Pulp Fiction and Momento on how traditional story structures could be changed, and Natural Born Killers for just how weird films could go. 

Like many others, he came into film in the 5dmkII generation, at the same time YouTube became a huge platform and editing software became affordable and available. For the first time, it was possible for anyone to film, edit and distribute their own work and from there on he got the itch. So in his early twenties, he left a career in hospitality management to embark on film.

He received a distinction at foundation level and then went to study a BA in Film & Television, receiving 1st class honors for his degree. In the second year of his BA, he co-produced and directed his first feature film Sleaford Mods - Invisible Britain. The film was successfully crowdfunded and went on to sell out cinemas across Europe.  

After graduating with a 1st, he continued developing his own web series Augury and acted as Director of Photography on the feature film UK18 directed by Andrew Tiernan. After the success of these, he directed the again successfully crowd-funded feature film Scales.

He has worked alongside the best-selling authors Jade Winters and Kiki Archer to develop their work into short films, the first of which Love on the Cards have received many screenings and won the Audience Award at the Palm Springs LGBTQ Festival and screen at InsideOut Toronto.

In 2018 he was delighted to receive the Film Director of the Year award at the International Achievers Awards.