Juriu
Ryszard Mietkiewicz
Born 7 of March 1963 in Warsaw, Poland. He has studied math at the University of Warsaw for 6 years. Then, in 1990, has joined Warsaw International Film Festival (WIFF) crew. During 1992-2008, all The Festival Artworks have been signed his name. In 2009 was a member of Argentinian Official Competition Jury of Mar del Plata International Film Festival. He's been a member of 'programming team' of WIFF for the last 32 years, and the creator and coordinator of Free Spirit Competition.
Léopold Martel
Léopold Martel is a 2nd year medical student at Medicine and Pharmacy University (UMF) Cluj-Napoca. As a child, he was introduced to classical and contemporary cinema and had the chance to receive an education that allowed him to understand many masterpieces of cinema, whether they were French, by names such as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Roman Polanski, or international such as Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock. For Léopold, cinema is not time wasted on Sunday evenings, but a real passion. When evaluating films, he be a person of discernment, as his aim is to understand each artistic concept in depth, to create a dialogue with each piece.
Alexandru Necula
Alexandru Necula is a 4th year medical student at Medicine and Pharmacy University (UMF) Cluj-Napoca. Friends describe him as a person who watches far too many films. He has been involved in the world of cinema since high school when his philosophy teacher introduced him to art films and the Transilvania International Film Festival. Since then, he's been hooked on cinema and hasn't missed any TIFF edition. A fan of the style and thinking of Bresson, Antonioni and Bergman, he is also interested in Polish, Iranian and Greek cinema, particularly Kieślowski, Kiarostami and Lanthimos. When he watches a film, he tries not to have expectations so that he can appreciate it in its purest form and understand the artistic intentions of the director. The discussions about cinema he has with friends also play a key role in this process because they bring different perspectives he wouldn't have thought of. In addition, he enjoys noting the specifics of a director's vision of sound effects, the brightness of characters' faces or colour choices.
Adelina Hess
Adelina Hess is a first year Master's student at the University of Lille where she studies Intercultural Relations and International Cooperation. Passionate about multiculturalism, she has recently spent a year in Bologna as part of an Erasmus stay. Of Romanian origin, Adelina has always been attracted to our country's culture and, wishing to be directly connected with it, she came to Cluj to do an internship at the French Institute.
Passionate about cinema, Adelina has attended all the editions of the International TV Series festival Séries Mania, which has been held in Lille since 2005. She has also taken film and audio-visual communication courses to develop her film culture. Adelina started doing theatre when she was in secondary school and pursued her passion at the conservatory in Marcq-en-Barœul for 8 years.
Raluca Bălan
Raluca Bălan is a 3rd year drama student at the Faculty of Theatre and Film, UBB Cluj-Napoca. Participating in Transilvania IFF as a member of francophone jury allows her not only to share her passion for cinema with other equally enthusiastic young people, but also to contribute to the recognition and promotion of the French film industry. Since she’s in her final year of drama studies, she is already familiar with the process of analysing and interpreting artistic works. She is used to working in teams and participating in constructive debates, which will facilitate her active involvement in the jury and collaboration with the other members.
Andreea Radu
Andreea Radu is 22 years old and she’s in her final year of BA studies at the Faculty of Theatre and Film, Department of Drama, UBB Cluj-Napoca. She has seen Transilvania IFF films every year since she's been at university, including in 2021 when the Rohmer retrospective, one of her favourite French directors, took place. She is delighted that this year director Jean-Luc Godard is celebrated at Transilvania IFF, and looks forward to seeing his films on the big screen and participating in discussions about the productions. Participating in this project allows her to combine two great passions: a love of cinema and a passion for the French language, all interspersed with the magic of meeting new people with similar interests.
Rina Mikkonen
Riina Mikkonen is executive director and programmer at Tampere Film Festival, Finland. Mikkonen is in the competition selection committee at Tampere Film Festival and has curated numerous short film programmes since she started her short film journey in 2005.
Mikkonen has a Master’s Degree in Media Studies from University of Turku and has also studied literature, art and culture history, gender studies and information science. She has experience also as a film critic, editor, librarian and information specialist.
In cinema, she appreciates both the aesthetics and ethics and is interested especially in queer and environmental topics.
Nicholas Pinnock
Nicholas Pinnock has been seen across theatre, television and film for over 30 years. In 2023, he will be seen in Django, an English-language reimagining of Sergio Corbucci’s classic 1966 Western, as the lead role of John Ellis. He is also currently filming “The Book of Clarence,” a Black biblical film directed by Jeymes Samuel (Legendary, out Sept 22nd) and “This Town,” a limited series for BBC.
In 2020, he returned as the lead in the ABC/Sky series, “For Life” (produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson). Pinnock was named producer on “For Life” for season two in addition to appearing in the lead role. In 2019 he was seen in the Netflix drama, “Criminal” (co-starring David Tennant) and on the big screen in the films “The Last Tree” and “Dark Encounter.” That same year, Pinnock announced Silver Milk Productions, a London based entity, that focuses on creating thought provoking and fresh content across television, film and documentaries.
A seasoned theatre actor, in 2018 Pinnock delivered an outstanding performance in “Ear for Eye” at the Royal Court in London. In 2016, Pinnock starred in History Channel’s four-part series “Barbarians Rising” playing the role of ‘Hannibal,” and as the male lead in ITV 1’s (and Netflix’) crime drama “Marcella”.
In 2016 Pinnock was seen returning to the stage for his second round in “The Royale.” Pinnock reprised the role of ‘Jay Jackson,’ after a successful run at the Bush Theatre. That same year, Pinnock was seen in the television miniseries “Guerilla”. He was also seen in the role of Frank Sutter in Sky’s much acclaimed “Fortitude”, in ITV’s “Midwinter of the Spirit”, and in the film “VS.”
Alexander Melyan
Alexander is a film critic and video essayist based in Yerevan, Armenia. In 2019, he co-founded Cine[scope], a multimedia platform where he has hosted a podcast and authored numerous reviews and articles. He is a regular contributor to Epress.am media outlet. His main area of interest lies in exploring the historical and cultural context of various cinematic movements through the medium of video essays. His twelve-part series of video essays featuring Soviet Avant-Garde, Italian Neorealism, New Taiwanese Cinema, Iranian Second New Wave and so on, is currently being broadcast on one of the Armenian public television channels, Boon TV.
Since 2020, Alexander has worked as a programmer at both the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival and One Shot International Short Film Festival. He was also a member of the FIPRESCI jury at the 18th edition of the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival.
Martichka Bozhilova
Producer of AGITPROP, Bulgaria. Her high-end author-driven films have been selected and awarded at Cannes, Berlin, IDFA, Toronto, Sundance, Tribeca, Pusan and many others, and broadcast all over the world. Among her films are: Touch Me Not (Golden Bear Winner, Berlinale), Palace for the People - film (Dok Leipzig, Dok Buster Award) and four-part TV docu series for ARTE, aired on BBC, ARTE, MDR, NHK, SVT etc.; Exemplary Behaviour (Dok Leipzig, Golden Dove), Georgi and the Butterflies (Silver Wolf, IDFA), The Mosquito Problem and other stories (Cannes), Corridor #8 (Berlinale), Omellette (Sundance), The Boy Who Was a King (Toronto), Dad Made Dirty Movies (sold to more than 30 territories). Producer of successful factual TV series for National Geographic and HBO. Producer of Father’s Day high-end drama series for Bulgarian National Television named Best TV Drama Series for 2019. Co-producer of the first official drama series co-production in South Eastern Europe – SABRE (in production). Producer of The Cars We Drove into Capitalism (Dok Leipzig 2021, CPH: Dox 2022).
Jury member at numerous prestigious film festivals and lecturer at a number of international documentary workshops. Mentor at European Women's Audiovisual (EWA) Network. Commissioner at the Re-Act Co-Development and The Malik Bendjelloul Memorial Foundation’s Fund. Director of Balkan Documentary Center, the institution behind two acclaimed training initiatives – BDC Discoveries and Docu Rough Cut Boutique, organized in collaboration with Sarajevo Film Festival. Director of Sofia DocuMental Film Festival. Member of the European Producer’s Club.
Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
Monica Lazurean-Gorgan is an experienced producer, a documentary filmmaker and member of the AMPAS/Oscar and EFA. Monica is the producer of Acasa, My Home by Radu Ciorniciuc, winner of the Sundance Cinematography Award and other 40 international awards and producer for the film Between Revolutions by Vlad Petri, winner of FIPRESCI award at Berlinale 2023. Monica is the director for the film A Mere Breath (Best Doc @ Sarajevo 2016) and Wood.
Christian Popp
Christian was born in Romania in 1971. After a Master Degree in History and Arts in France and Germany he has been between 1998 and 2005 a commissioning editor for ARTE. From 2005 to 2022 he worked as producer for in Germany and France interscience film, Docdays Productions and YUZU Productions. He has produced more than 40 documentaries. Beginning of 2023 Christian joined the French company TAG FILM. The films Christian produced have screened at Festival de Cannes, IDFA, Sundance, Berlinale and more.
He was for more than 20 years consulting and mentoring at various documentary events (IDFAcademy, EAVE, Documentary Campus…). Beside his job as producer and expert, he was Head of Industry at FIPADOC for the 2020 and 2021 editions. Christian was a IDFA Jury member in 2017 and a member of the ARTE-Jury of the Duisburger Filmwoche 2019-2021.
Bartosz Żurawiecki
Bartosz Żurawiecki – born 1971 in Poznan (Poland). Journalist, film critic, writer, columnist, playwright. Author of the novels: „Three Men in Bed, To Say Nothing of The Cat” (2005) „Me or my 66 loves” (2007), „Absent” (2011), „To Lolelaj” (2017), non-fiction books „Cursed Festivals” (2019) and „People, not ideology” (2021). Co-founder of Campaign Against Homophobia. Working in monthly magazine „Kino” and bi-monthly LGBTQ magazine „Replika”.
Ariel Schweitzer
Ariel Schweitzer is a film historian, critic and teacher (Paris VIII, Tel Aviv University). He is the author of the books Le nouveau cinéma israélien (Yellow Now, 2013), translated to Hebrew in 2017, and Le Cinéma israélien de la modernité (L'Harmattan, 1997), also published in Israel in 2003. A critic and member of the editorial staff of Cahiers du cinéma, he is also the Hebrew translator of Notes sur le cinématographe de Robert Bresson and the curator of numerous retrospectives devoted to, among others, Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Vittorio De Sica, Amos Gitai, David Perlov and Uri Zohar.
Michel Franco
Awarded at Cannes for After Lucia (2012), Chronic (2015) and April's Daughter (2017), and winner of the Silver Lion in Venice for the terrifying New Order (2020), Mexican Michel Franco will also be present at Transilvania IFF.22, where he will be part of the Official Competition Jury. Director, screenwriter, and producer, he has quickly established himself as one of the most original voices of contemporary Latin America: "I no longer try to impose an aesthetic on a film. At the beginning of my career, I had more rules, but now I'm very relaxed. I had more cinematic references, and now I have none. I borrow more from books than films. In a way, the aesthetic of my films is very close to my way of being."
Since his 2009 debut Daniel & Ana, Franco has brought complex, often shocking stories to the screen: "I like to look at the dark side of human nature, and to do that I have to challenge my characters. I don't believe that when we are put to the test the best will come out of us." Part of the festival programme, viewers will have the opportunity to see the Mexican filmmaker's latest film, Sundown (2021), in which Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg play a couple faced with a life-threatening situation during their holiday in Mexico.
Darko Peric
Born in Serbia (Kladovo) Darko started his professional career in Spain in 2008, acting in TV series. Before that he has been living in Serbia, Romania and Germany (Berlin) where he played in numerous independent short films and theatre plays.
His first major job was in the Spanish series “Crematorio” for Canal Plus in 2010. After this, he continued working in Madrid in different productions, from different series to feature films. In 2015 he performed in “A perfect day” directed by Fernando León de Aranoa with Benicio del Toro and Tim Robbins.
In 2016 he was cast for the Spanish series for Atresmedia “Mar de la plástico” where he plays the role of “Oso”, main villain in the series. This role shifts his career and gives him greater visibility in the industry.
Darko Peric was cast in 2017 to interpret the role of Helsinki in the series original title “La Casa del Papel” on “Money Heist” as it’s known to English speaking audiences. Created by Álex Pina, the series was originally produced by Atresmedia until 2016 when Netflix acquired the rights to stream the series and distributed through their streaming service worldwide. “Money Heist” has become the most successful Netflix production and in 2018 the Spanish series won in the category Best Drama at the 46th Annual International Emmy Award.
Nicoletta Romeo
From 1999 to 2006 she worked as Head of Programming for the Venice International Critics Week, an autonomous section of the Venice Film Festival. From 2000 to 2007 she worked as a programme advisor for the Thessaloniki Film Festival and 4 Ecrans, Paris. Since 1996 she has been collaborating with the Trieste Film Festival, and in 2016 she was appointed TSFF Artistic Director.
She curated several retrospectives dedicated to Greek, Romanian, Polish, Georgian and Yugoslav cinema.
She has served as jury member in numerous European film festivals and has collaborated with training programmes such as Midpoint Feature Launch, First Cut Lab and Czech Film Springboard as a consultant.
For a few years she worked as a translator for some subtitling companies based in Italy and UK.
In 2012 she funded with other two partners the production company Mansarda Production. Among others, she produced the documentary “L’ultima spiaggia” (The Last Resort) by Thanos Anastopoulos and Davide Del Degan, which premiered in May 2016 at Cannes in the Official Selection-Special Screenings.
Judith State
Judith State is a professional dancer with a classical ballet foundation and a foreign languages bachelor's degree in English and Spanish.
An ISVP dance scholarship holder of Broadway Dance Centre in New York, as well as a WEBdance scholarship holder of the ImpulsTanz Vienna.
In 2016 she was cast in one of the leading roles of acclaimed director's Cristi Puiu "Sieranevada", marking her debut in cinema and the beginning of a new stage in her life. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and brought her a Gopo Award nomination for Best supporting actress. In 2018 she collaborated with Cristi Puiu again for "Malmkrog" and was cast in the leading role of Marius Olteanu's debut, "Monsters.", which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, and awarded Judith with a Gopo for Best actress in a leading role. In 2020 she collaborated with Daniel Sandu for "The Father Who Moves Mountains", and Liviu Marghidan for "Refuge" (leading roles) and in 2021 with Hungarian director Gyuri Kristoff as the lead of his dance feature film “Zenith”. She was then cast in the leading role of acclaimed director’s Cristian Mungiu “RMN”, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022.
She's currently working as both performer/choreographer and actress, combining these fields with her passion for music and singing as well.
Harry Macqueen
Harry is an actor and filmmaker from the UK.
In 2015 he wrote, directed, produced and starred in the micro-budget feature film “Hinterland”, which was nominated for several awards and screened in many festivals around the world.
His second feature as a writer/director, “Supernova”, starred Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci. The film premiered in competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2020 to rave reviews. It was shortlisted for two BAFTA Awards and a European Film Award. In 2022 “Supernova” was voted one of the ‘Best British Films of the 21st Century’ by critics.
Harry has won numerous acting awards both in the UK and internationally.
Katarina Tomkova
Katarina has worked for the Slovak Film Institute as an international film promoter during 2009 – 2015. Since 2015, she has collaborated on several films acclaimed at the festival circuit: 5 OCTOBER (Rotterdam IFF), HOTEL SUNRISE (IDFA, Hot Docs), NINA (KVIFF, TIFF), THE SOUND IS INNOCENT (Visions du Reel), SILENT DAYS (KVIFF, Marrakech IFF), SERVANTS (Berlinale Encounters) and 107 MOTHERS (Venice IFF - Best Screenplay Orizzonti, European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI 2022 nomination), many of them balancing between the documentary and fiction genre.
During 2015 - 2021, she was programming series workshops for the MIDPOINT Institute, for which she is now a feature film tutor. She is a SOFA 2015 and EAVE Producers Workshop 2016 graduate. In 2021, she was the Slovak representative in the Producers on the Move program of the EFP.
Pedro Andrade
Pedro Andrade (A Coruña, Spain, 1986) has been working in film festivals for the past 10 years as executive producer, specializing in the development of industry programs for Zinegoak Association (Zinegoak Bilbao LGTBQ+ Film Festival) and ZINEBI, International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao (ZINEBI Networking) As today, he is the coordinator of the D'A Film Lab Barcelona for the D'A - Barcelona Film Festival and senior advisor for cultural and audiovisual events and film development.
Charles Tesson
Charles Tesson is the vice-president of the French Film Critic’s Union. He has been the Artistic Director of Critic’s Week at Cannes Film Festival from 2012 to 2021. He was the President of Aide aux Cinémas du Monde (CNC- Institut français) from 2016 to 2021. He has been film critic in Cahiers du cinéma (1979-2013), and former editor of this magazine (1998-2003). He is also professor in cinema, history and esthetics, at la Sorbonne nouvelle (University of Paris III). He wrote several books and essays on cinema, as Satyajit Ray (1992), Luis Buñuel (1995), El from Luis Buñuel (1996), Photogénie de la Série B (1997), Théâtre et cinéma (2007) and Akira Kurosawa (2008). He directed few special issues for Cahiers du cinema, as « Made in Hong Kong » (1984) with Olivier Assayas, « Made in China » (1999) and codirected the book L’Asie à Hollywood (2001).