He has also written two memoirs, The Invention of Solitude (1982) and Hand to Mouth (1997), and a book of critical essays, The Art of Hunger (1992).  Auster’s Collected Prose was published in 2003 and his Collected Poems in 2004.

He also wrote the screenplay for the movie Smoke (1995) and was co-director (with Wayne Wang) of Blue in the Face (1995). Subsequently, he wrote and directed the film Lulu on the Bridge (1998). His most recent film is The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007), which can be seen out of competition at the San Sebastian Festival, the Official Jury of which will be chaired by the author.

His other works include I Thought My Father Was God (2001), the NPR National Story Project anthology, The Random House Book of Twentieth Century French Poetry (1982) – which he edited– and numerous translations of French writers and poets, including Jacques Dupin, André du Bouchet, Joseph Joubert, Stéphane Mallarmé, Phillippe Petit, Maurice Blanchot, and Pierre Clastres. He also edited the recent Samuel Beckett: The Grove Centenary Edition (2006).

In 2006 Auster was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and won Spain’s most prestigious prize for literature – the Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Letras. Among other awards he has won are the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Prix Médicis for the best foreign novel published in France (1992), the Morton Dauwen Zabel award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1990), the Silver Bear from the Berlin Film Festival for Smoke (1995), the Independent Spirit Award for best screenplay (1996), and the Borders Books Original Voices Award (2002). His work has been translated into thirty-five languages.

 PERNILLA AUGUST

Swedish actress Pernilla August has an earthy radiance and an amazing talent that translated well from stage to screen when she made a lasting impression in Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander (1982).

In 1992, she won the Best Actress Award at Cannes Film Festival for her performance in The Best Intentions, directed by Bille August and written by Ingmar Bergman. In 1993 she again worked with Bille August, this time in the world-famous Jerusalem(1996). Pernilla played in Private Confessions (1996), once again written by Bergman, but directed by Liv Ullman.

In 1999, Pernilla August became Shmi Skywalker, mother of Anakin Skywalker in George Lucas’ Star Wars – Attack of the Clones.

During recent years, Pernilla has worked in Sweden and abroad. One of her many happy and inspiring meetings was with the Danish director Per Fly, with whom she made the award-winning Manslaughter, and more recently the celebrated Forestillinger (Performances, 2007). She was also in Kristian Petri’s internationally appreciated Details (2003), Ole Bornedal’s I Am Dina (2002), Simon Staho’s Day and Night (2004), and Björn Runge’s Daybreak (2003) and Mouth to Mouth (2005).

Her television parts include: In the Presence of a Clown, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, Bo Widerberg’s The Wild Duck, and Kevin Connor’s Mary Mother of Jesus.

She has also worked, among others, in the following plays: The Dream Play, Hamlet, for which she won the British Drama Magazine’s Best Supporting Actress Award as Ophelia, The Dolls House, The Winter’s Tale, Mary Stuart and Ghosts, all directed by Ingmar Bergman and performed at the National Theatre of Sweden.

 NICOLETTA BRASCHI

The Italian actress and producer Nicoletta Braschi was born in Cesena and moved to Rome in 1980 to study at the Accademia d’Arte Drammatica Silvio D’Amico.

Her impressive filmography as an actress, ending for the time being with Roberto Benigni’s La tigre e la neve (2005), includes titles by some of the most important Italian and international film directors, having worked on several occasions under Roberto Benigni, Giuseppe Bertolucci and Jim Jarmusch: Mi piace lavorare-Mobbing (Francesca Comencini, 2003), Pinocchio (Roberto Benigni, 2002), La vita è bella (Roberto Benigni, 1997), Ovosodo (Paolo Virzì, 1997), Pasolini: un delitto italiano (Marco Tullio Giordana, 1995), Sostiene Pereira (Roberto Faenza, 1995), Il mostro (Roberto Benigni, 1994), Johnny Stecchino (Roberto Benigni, 1991), La domenica specialmente (Giuseppe Bertolucci, 1990), Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 1989), Il piccolo diavolo (Roberto Benigni, 1988), Come sono buoni I bianchi (Marco Ferreri, 1987), Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch, 1986), Segreti, segreti (Giuseppe Bertolucci, 1985) and Tu mi turbi (Roberto Benigni, 1983).

She has produced two of Roberto Benigni’s films, Pinocchio and La tigre e la neve. As a stage actress, her most recent performances have been in Sogno di una notte di mezza estate, directed by Claudio Abbado (2004), and Il Metodo Gronholm, directed by Cristina Pezzoli (2006-2007).

She has won several awards, including the Flaiano in 1998, the David di Donatello as Best Actress for Ovosodo, also in 1998, and the Award for Best Actress at the International Mar del Plata Film Festival in 2004 for Mi piace lavorare.

 BAHMAN GHOBADI

Bahman Ghobadi was born in 1968 in Baneh (Iranian Kurdistan). He joined a group of independent filmmakers as a student, making numerous short films, among which Life in the Fog (1999) earned especially high acclaim, winning the Special Jury Award at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

Having worked as an assistant director on Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), Ghobadi directed his first feature film, A Time for Drunken Horses (2000), which won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes Festival and brought him international recognition. Marooned in Iraq (2002), his next film, was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.

Bahman Ghobadi is two-time recipient of the Golden Shell, San Sebastian Festival’s highest award. The first went to his third film, Turtles Can Fly (2004), and the second to his fourth work, Half Moon (2006), this time ex-aequo with Mon fils à moi, by the French director Martial Fougeron.

 EDUARDO NORIEGA

Eduardo Noriega was born in Santander in 1973. He studied music and piano at his local High School of Music and in 1990 attended his first acting lessons, making his first appearances in the staging of works such as Federico García Lorca’s Yerma, directed by Román Calleja. In 1992, he travelled to Madrid to study theatre at the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático (RESAD); starting to work right from his very first year in short films by directors like Alejandro Amenábar or Mateo Gil. In 1994, he made his feature film debut as an actor (Historias del Kronen, by Montxo Armendáriz), having stayed among the leading Spanish actors ever since.

Alejandro Amenábar’s Tesis (Thesis, 1996) opened the doors to success for him, and he once again worked with the same director in Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes, 1997). The list of prestigious filmmakers to have directed Eduardo Noriega includes Pedro Olea (Más allá del jardín, 1996), Rafael Moleón (Cuestión de suerte, 1997), Antonio del Real (Cha cha chá, 1998), Miguel Santesmases (La fuente amarilla, 1998), Alfonso Arandia (Carretera y manta, 1998), Mateo Gil (Nadie conoce a nadie, 1999), Marcelo Piñeyro (Plata quemada, 2000), Guillermo del Toro (El espinazo del diablo, 2001), Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón (Visionarios, 2001), Daniel Calparsoro (Guerreros, 2002), Marc Recha (Les mans buides, 2004), Miguel Courtois (El Lobo, 2004) and Serge Frydman (Mon ange, 2005).

His most recent films are Che Guevara (Josh Evans, 2006), Alatriste (Agustín Díaz Yanes, 2006), Vantage Point (Pete Travis, 2007), Transsiberian (Brad Anderson, 2007) and Lolita’s Club (Vicente Aranda, 2007).

Eduardo Noriega’s career is packed with awards and nominations: Best Actor at Alcalá de Henares Festival for Alejandro Amenábar’s short film Luna, in 1994; Goya nomination as Best Actor for Alejandro Amenábar’s Abre los ojos, in 1998; Best Actor at Aguilar de Campóo for Mateo Gil’s short film Allanamiento de morada, in 1999; Best Actor at Menorca Festival for Miguel Santesmases’ La fuente amarilla, in 1999; European Revelation 2001 from Le Studio at Cannes Festival; Goya nomination as Best Actor for Miguel Courtois’ El Lobo (Wolf), in 2005.

 SUSÚ PECORARO

Susú Pecoraro studied at the Conservatorio Nacional de Arte Dramático in Argentina and soon started working for theatre, cinema and television, developing an extraordinary career in all three areas of performance.

Her cinema debut came in 1977 with Miguel Antín’s Allá lejos y hace tiempo. This was followed by Mis días con Verónica (Néstor Lescovich, 1979), Señora de nadie (María Luisa Bemberg, 1981), El arreglo (Fernando Ayala, 1982), and Camila (María Luisa Bemberg, 1981), her first big hit on landing an Academy Award nomination for Best Film in a Foreign Language.

After Tacos altos, directed by Sergio Renán (1985), came another acclaimed movie, Pino Solanas’ Sur (1987), winner of the Golden Lion at Venice in 1988. Her next performances were in Los amores de Kafka (Beda Docampo, 1988), ¿Dónde estás amor de mi vida que no te puedo encontrar? (Juan José Jusid, 1992), Las cosas del querer II (Jaime Chávarri, 1994), Historias clandestinas de La Habana (Diego Musiak, 1997), Roma (Adolfo Aristarain, 2003), competitor in the Official Selection at San Sebastian Festival, the short 18-J (Alejandro Doria, 2004) and Cara de queso (Ariel Winograd, 2005).

Susú Pecoraro is one of the most important stage actresses in Argentina, with a long career starting in 1975 marked with outstanding recent landmarks in the shape of Tennessee Williams’ La noche de la iguana (The Night of the Iguana, 1995), directed by Carlos Rivas, Patrick Marber’s Closer, directed by Mick Gordon (1999-2000), Monólogos de la vagina, directed by Lía Jelín (2002), Porteñas, directed by Manuel González Gil (2003), and La duda, under the direction of Carlos Rivas (2006).

She has also starred in big TV hits making her one of the most popular actresses in Argentina.

Susú Pecoraro has received many awards for her professional work, the most recent of which are those received in 2004 and 2005 for her part in Roma (Havana New Latin American Film Festival, Clarin Award, Silver Condor from the Argentine Film Critics Association, Tandil Festival, Spanish Film Festival in France) and the Premio a la Honorable Trayectoria in 2007 from the Argentine Actors’ Association and the Argentine Senate.

 PETER WEBBER

Peter Webber made his impressive debut as a feature-film director with Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. The film was a resounding world success garnering several awards including 3 Oscar nominations (Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design); 2 Golden Globe nominations (Actress in a Leading Role, Achievement in Film Music), 10 nominations for the BAFTA Awards and several international awards, including the Jury Prize for Best Photography for Eduardo Serra at the San Sebastian Festival of that year.

Webber repeated his international box-office success with his second film, Hannibal Rising (2007), based on Thomas Harris’ book about the childhood and adolescence of the famous character, Hannibal Lecter.

Before starting to direct films, Webber accumulated a great deal of experience directing dramas and documentaries for television. His TV dramas include The Zebra Man (1994), The Double Life of Franz Schubert (1997), Underground (1999), Men Only (2001, winner of the RTS Award for Best Cinematography), The Stretford Wives (2002) and the episode entitled The Dare (2004) for the acclaimed US series Six Feet Under.

He has directed around 10 documentaries, mostly for the British Channel 4 but across a broad spectrum of subject.: Eurotrash (1994), Badass TV (1994), Fortean TV (1994), An A to Z of Wagner (1995), winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Lyon Operascreen Film Festival and finalist for the Royal Television Society Awards, Equinox – God Only Knows (1995), Naked Classics: “The Maestro” & “The Prodigy” (1997, two documentaries from a series of four on classical music), The Deep: “Creatures of the Abyss” & “Fields of Gold” (1997, two documentaries in a series of three about the deep oceans), Apocalypse When? (1999), Equinox: Curse of the Phantom Limbs (1999) and Equinox: The Secret Life of the Crash Test Dummy (2000).

Born in the UK in 1968, Webber makes his home in London.