Participants

Asaf Gavron is an Israeli writer, translator and musician.

Yaara Better Pocker is a writer, producer and a cliche of herself.

Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler is a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and head of the institute’s Media Reform Program and Democracy in the Information Age Program.

Adam is an anthropologist of religion, Head of Public Discourse at the Van Leer institute and the head of the institute's digital team.

Specializes in research and development of governmental and policy projects.

Dr. Miri Rozmarin is a senior professor for gender studies at Bar-Ilan univesity, a research fellow at the Van-Leer institute and had her doctorate at Tel Aviv University.

Lecturer at Bezalel Academy, writing instructor.

Screenwriter, Author, Middle School teacher

May Pundak is the Israeli executive director of the "A Land for All" movement, a feminist lawyer and activist. May deals with the seam between policy, education and community activism and has a bachelor's and master's degree in law. She is also a Mandel School for Educational Leadership graduate and lives with her family in Jerusalem.

ריטה קוגן, נולדה בסנט פטרבורג ב-1976. עלתה ארצה ב-1990. גרה בתל אביב.

Yoni Salmon, owner of the veteran animation blog "Shulyat Hakosem", lecturer, illustrator, animation director and project manager at TMC Animation Studio.

Mayan Rogel is an Author, screenwriter and story-hacker, podcaster and narrative expert. Rogel is a mom and a martial arts expert.

Film writer and critic, artistic consultant and director. Artistic director at JIFF, the Jerusalem International Film Festival. Editor, co-founder of the Srita.net film website. Program manager at the Holon Cinematheque.

Assi Meshullam is an artist and associate professor in the art department at the University of Haifa. He has a BA in archaeology and art and MA in biblical studies.

Poet and musician ("Emmanuel and the Yearnings"). His debut poetry book (“The Sun Sings to Melchior”, Hava La’or Publishing, 2020) has awarded him the Minister of Culture's Prize for Poets in their Early Career.

Hagai Dagan is an Israeli writer and scholar. Educated in Israel and Germany, he received a PhD in Jewish Thought and Philosophy from Tel-Aviv University. He is currently head of the Israeli Culture department at Sapir College, Israel.

Artist, graphic designer, typographer, with expertise in typographic and calligraphic design, alongside design for the arts & culture worlds.

Utopia 2023 production team, Yenimy comes from a background in design, from stage and costumes design, to jewelry and carpentry.

Games developer, author, and former journalist. Worked in the fields of sci-fi and fantasy for 20+ years, living and breathing them through his entire life. Currently creative director at FunCrafters.

Content professional and Journalist, Future Digital Nomad and Presently Happy Jerusalemite.

Geopolitics Consultant, Guide, PhD at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Historical-political sociologist, specializing in the interface between religious and national movements.

Award-winning director and screenwriter. Creator of "The Jews Are Coming" (Hayehudim Ba'im), an Israeli satirical television series. Writer on numerous successful TV shows, such as "Fauda" and "Tehran".

Student and assistant teacher at the Tel-Aviv University, Filmmaker and writer for different magazines (Off-Screen, Takriv, Tel-Aviv Cinematheque).

Content Writer

Educator and a performer of food and arts. Loves learning and teaching, playing games and gamifying - and having and making fun happen.

Dr. Hadas Erel, Head of the Human-Robot Interaction research in the media innovation lab at Reichman University.

Amir Harash is a novelist, scribe, and literary scholar. Author of the books "Bronze – Canaanite Fantasy" (2019) and "Horror in West Rishon" (2023).

Prof. Gomel teaches in the Department of English Literature and American Studies at the Tel Aviv University with research specializations in science fiction and fantasy, narrative science, Dickens, Victorian culture and Post-humanism. Alongside her research and teaching, Prof. Gomel is also a published author of science fiction and fantasy texts and novels.

Israeli literature critic and culture researcher and theorist, specializing in popular culture and literature.

Alex Epstein is an Israeli writer of Russian descent known for his micro stories, two-time winner of the Israeli Prime Minister's Prize for Authors and Poets (2003; 2016). Epstein’s publications include a children’s book, poetry, novels and short story collections. His work has been translated into numerous languages, including English, French, Portuguese and Russian. In 2013-14 Epstein took part in the Utopia “Designing Tomorrow” project, getting authors, designers and creatives together with technology entrepreneurs and scientists.

Film-maker - editor and director

Artistic Director of the Fantasia International Fantastic Film Festival in Montreal. Canada

writer, filmmaker, artistic programmer and genre film expert

Editor of prose and screenplay, essayist and cultural critic, recipient of the 2021 Israel Minister of Culture's Award for Editing. Head of the Hebrew Literature Department, Kinneret-Zmora-Dvir publishing.

Virt is a creative, writer and artistic producer, she addresses identity, urbanism and digital spaces in her creative work.

Speaker, moderator, podcaster, researcher, philosopher, teacher. Fogel teaches at the Tel Aviv University's department of Jewish philosophy and numerous other institutes, alongside being academic director of Alma, cultural and intellectual center for Hebrew culture.

Brenner creates and explores visual world and themes using both digital tools and traditional techniques.

Friendly hacker, cyber security researcher and speaker. Founder of BSidesTLV and the Leading Cyber Ladies movement, avid sci fi reader.

Journalist, Kan - The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation

Amateur lecturer with academic pretensions on all things SF and Fantasy, for over 20 years.

HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) researcher and designer, Reichman University’s Sammy Ofer School of Communications, Head of HCI MA program, Director of miLAB.

Director, screenwriter and social activist, Head of the video program in the department of visual communication at Shenkar College.

Friedman is an Associate Prof. in the Sammy Ofer School of Communications and the head of the Advanced Reality Lab.

Web developer, writer

Comedian, Screenplay Writer, Actor, Video Editor, Standup Comic.

Zoe Polanski is a composer, sound artist, producer, and guitar player. Her music travels between the worlds of ambient, electronica, and post-rock.

Urban Planner and Software Engineer. I love Cities, People, Technology and areas in which they converge.

Blogger, artist, faculty member at Bar Ilan University, journalist at Haaretz newspaper.

Science Fiction scholar in the English Department, University of Haifa.

Cultural events and exhibition's producer, reporter at Portfolio magazine and a Visual Culture B.A student

New media artist since Y2K .Cyber Art culture pioneer. Crypto artist since 2018.

International Programming Team, Utopia 2021, Actor, Writer, Amateur Gardner, Bird Enthusiast, Sailor, Dad of a Good Doggo

Copywriter at the Adler-Chomsky ad agency, writes independently about ideas and topics at the nexus of cinema, pop culture and psychology

International Programming Team, Utopia 2021. MA in literature, researching Hebrew literature in America, interested in Jewish dystopian writing and genre films.

Visual artist, politically queer, optimist for real

Researcher and writer in the field of Psychoanalysis, holder of Master's degree in English Literature from TAU, in Lacanian psychoanalytic formation.

Film-maker, critic and journalist, Cinema Studies graduate from the Tel-Aviv University Film School.

Bogen is a veteran film journalist, film program curator, academic scholar and festival director at LIFF (Lighthouse International Film Festival, NJ, USA)

Theater and performance artist, academic researcher, educator and social activist at the focal point of digital culture, technology, media and intimacy.

A writer focused on the surprising connections between strange things - technology, psychedelia, science fiction, mysticism and esoterica, cute animals and strange peoples.

A seasoned film critic (Haaretz, City Mouse, Mako) and founder of the award-winning film-blog srita.net. currently based in Brooklyn, NY.

Researcher, digital artist, curator and writer. Senior Lecturer in the Technology Management Program at Tel Aviv University. Founder of the Print Screen Festival for Digital Arts.

Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Designer and educator in Shenkar College, GA member of A Land For All

Biologist, art theorist, concept creator and curator for festivals and conferences.

Ex-marine biologist turned science-fiction author, flesh-eating-disease survivor and (according to the US government) Undesirable Element.

Sweet Authored five fantasy novels and is an instructor of science-fiction and fantasy writing at the University of Toronto.

Architect and concept Artist

Basic income founder (Mein-Grundeinkommen.de, sanktionsfrei.de), process facilitator, musical theatre actor, stage director.

Curator and entrepreneur with expertise in film and immersive content (XR)

Researcher of Digital Culture and Design-led Innovation

Researcher and designer working at the intersection of technology and society

Science fiction author. During 2012-2018 she drastically limited her social media presence to detach from known attention and recognition systems while writing a collection of utopian miniatures in forests, on farms and in cities all over Europe.

Professor, Lecturer & Consultant on the Disruptive Effects of Digital Transformation

Illustrator, Designer and Storyboard Artist

Bartov’s work mixes pop-culture and sci-fi with computational design and sculptural elements, exploring representations of time and beauty in the flaws of the digital world.

Digital consultant, Konnektiv, Co-founder of the Global Innovation Gathering (GiG) Network, member of the re:publica program team

Dermühl is a trained futurologist, social entrepreneur and strong believer in empowering people to design desirable futures

Conference curator of the Transmediale festival, Berlin.

Technology researcher and writer with a hybrid portfolio of work in industry, arts and culture, academia and NGOs.

Film maker - Director, Producer, Screenwriter - AV: The Hunt

Senior Lecturer in the General History Department at the University of Haifa in Israel and head of the American Studies Program.

Angelini came into film from a longer, multi-faceted career in the creative arts. He started in music, touring in bands, later enrolling for a Masters of Architecture program during the depths of the 2008 real estate crisis, during which the seeds for his directorial debut, OWNED: A Tale of Two Americas began to take shape. Giorgio served as the executive producer for the feature film My Friend Dahmer (2017). Giorgio is the writer and producer for FEELS GOOD MAN.

FEELS GOOD MAN is Jones’s directorial debut, but he’s uniquely suited to tell the story. He’s a cartoonist who came up in the same indie comics scene as the film’s subject, Matt Furie, and has art directed animation and motion graphics for journalists and documentary filmmakers, working with ¬companies including The New York Times, VICE and The Center for Investigative Reporting.

Timpson has worked in every facet of the film industry; from managing an arthouse, distribution and programming, creating film events, producing television and feature films, operating government film funds and mentoring many filmmakers. For his multi-faceted and long-running film & media entrepreneurship he was the inaugural recipient of New Zealand’s Art Entrepreneur Award and is a Board member of the New Zealand Film Commission. His annual film competition 48HOURS with Peter Jackson as mentor began in 2003. After producing numerous genre films, Come to Daddy (Tribeca 2019), starring Elijah Wood, was his directorial debut.

Film Director, My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To

Istanbul-born director, cinematographer, and photographer. Behram holds a bachelor's degree in cinema from Columbia College Chicago, has directed a number of short films, "The Antenna" is his feature debut.

Writer, producer, director, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot.

Producer, Festival Programmer and Acquisitions Consultant ,Mahnert opened her independent company Screen Division in 2013, working as a freelance producer, acquisitions consultant and festival programmer. She is a programmer at the Sitges Fantastic Film Festival, Head of Programming at Fantastic Fest in Austin and since April 2020 also the Executive Director at the Frontières Co-Production Market, the leading industry initiative for genre film professionals.

Director of documentary and narrative films, including Lapsis (2021) and In Silico (2021).

Utopia 2020 rising star in world genre film-making spotlight, Lao film-maker - Chanthaly, Dearest Sister, The Long Walk.

screenwriter, DJ, XCCV

Living a simple life in Tel-Aviv while dreaming and writing about other worlds. Holds great appreciation for creatives & artists.

Film Scholar and critic, Author of 3 books on Israeli Cinema and has a passion for teleporting which he can't currently pursue for lack of proper technology.

Sci-fi film-maker from Mexico (THE INCIDENT, THE SIMILAR, PARALLEL), co-founder of Red Elephant Films and Autocinema Coyote (Coyote Drive-In)

Director, the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam