Alejandro Iñárritu, : Alejandro G.Iñárritu studied filmmaking and theater and composed music for Mexican features before his directorial debut, Amores Perros (2000), which was nominated for an Oscar (Best Foreign Language Film) and earned 53 other awards. His 2003 film, 21 Grams, starred Benicio del Toro and Naomi Watts, who received Oscar nominations for their roles, and Sean Penn. Babel (2006) won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival. Iñárritu won three Oscars for Birdman (2014) (Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing, and Best Writing Original Screenplay) and won the Oscar for Best Achievement in Directing a second time for The Revenant (2015). He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Phap Ban, Author: Born in Genoa in 1960, Phap Ban started to publish comic books for Furia, Intrepido, and other magazines during high school. He worked as a freelance illustrator during university, and then, at twenty-four, he discovered meditation. This ultimately led him to Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and the monastery he founded in France, Plum Village. Ban lived in Plum Village for ten years, first as a layman, then as a monk. He received complete ordination in 2010. When he returned to Italy in 2013, he resumed his creative work, this time as an artist for Disney. He has also taught courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Genoa and at the Lecce School of Cartoon.