Jury members

Competition Jury

Bogdan George Apetri

Bio

A former lawyer in Romania, Bogdan George Apetri moved to New York where he graduated from Columbia University's Film Program with an MFA degree in Film Directing. His student films screened and won awards at prominent short film festivals across the world. He was a National Finalist at the Student Academy Awards in 2006. In 2010, he directed and wrote the feature film Periferic (Outbound). Funded in part by Romania's National Center for Cinema, the film was shown at some of the best festivals across the world (Locarno, Toronto, Rotterdam, New Directors/New Films) and won numerous international awards (Thessaloniki, Warsaw, Viennale) including the FIPRESCI Award (The International Federation of Film Critics Award) twice. It was picked up by MK2 in France. In 2020 he directed his second feature film, Neidentificat (Unidentified). Awarded a special Jury Prize in Warsaw, it went on to gather a FIPRESCI Award at the TIFF Transylvania International Film Festival and the Grand Prize at the Anonimul Film Festival in Romania. It also won two Gopo Awards. In 2021 he released his third feature film, Miracol (Miracle). It premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and was picked up by the prestigious Memento International Sales film company, screening and winning awards around the world. Bogdan co-produced 3 Backyards by Eric Mendelsohn, a feature film that won the Best Directing Award at Sundance in 2010 and was selected for New Directors/New Films in New York. He co-produced Advantageous by Jennifer Phang (Jury Prize at Sundance in 2015), The Bravest, the Boldest by Moon Molson (Sundance 2014), The Mend by John Magary (2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominee), Nobody’s Watching by Julia Solomonoff (Jury Prize at Tribeca, 2017), Love Hunter by Nemanja and Brane Bala (New York Times Critics’ Pick, 2014), Bikini Moon by Milcho Manchevski, Song Without a Name by Melina Leon (Cannes 2019) and Blaze by Ethan Hawke (Sundance Special Jury Prize, 2018). He will direct his fourth feature film in 2023.

Gülin Üstün

Bio

She is the head of Meetings on the Bridge curating the workshops, training programs and the yearly planning. She has started her career in international advertising agencies and established their production departments. In 2000, she joined Atlantik Film, one of the biggest production companies, as a producer. She was in charge of the promotion, marketing, financing and international sales of the films. She established GU-FILM for production and consultancy for project development and marketing. She has done several line productions services and also a co-production with Belgium. She also is the cinema programmer at Soho House İstanbul. She also works as script and project development consultant. She is an Eave and Torino Film Lab Script&Pitch program alumni. She has been member of the jury at Toronto Film Festival and also advisor for funds and workshops. Currently she is also developing the 4th film of an award-winning director

Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir

Bio

Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir is an Icelandic actress and theater director with a broad range from drama to comedy. She started out as a saxophone player and singer in a pop-group and thought music would be her path. But acting became her playground. Halldóra graduated from the Icelandic Theater Academy in 1995 and has been a leading actor at the City Theater in Reykjavík ever since, as well as working extensively in film and television. She has been awarded and honored for her work both in Iceland and internationally. Halldóra played the two leading parts in the film „Woman at war“ by Benedikt Erlingson, and was nominated to the European film award for her performance. Halldóra is a professor at the Icelandic University of the Arts and program director of the BA-acting program along her work as actress and director.

Carlos Rodríguez Ríos

Bio

1994: Co-founder and promoter of the film broadcaster "100.000 retinas", an association focused on promoting contemporary cinema in Barcelona. 1998-2010: Co-director of CINEAMBIGÚ, a weekly space to screen unreleased films in Barcelona. 1999-2010: Co-director of the Barcelona Asian Film Festival - BAFF. Since 2010: Manager of Noucinemart (film distributor). Since 2010: Director of the D’A FILM FESTIVAL BARCELONA (Barcelona Auteur Film Festival).

Srdan Golubović

Bio

Srdan Golubović (Belgrade, 1972) is a film director. His first feature film Absolute Hundred (2001) screened at festivals such as Toronto, San Sebastian, Pusan and Rotterdam, winning a great number of awards. His second film The Trap (2007) had its international premiere at the Berlinale Forum and was selected in Toronto and Karlovy Vary. It went on to win 22 international awards and made it to the final shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His third film Circles (2013) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award, and screened at the Berlinale Forum, winning the award of the Ecumenical Jury. His newest film Father (2020) premiered at the Berlinale Panorama, winning both the Audience award and the Ecumenical Jury award. He teaches Film directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.

What's Up Doc Jury

Alexandru Solomon

Bio

In the early 1990s, Solomon emerged as a young director of photography and he started making documentaries aside from filming feature films. Solomon was among the first Romanian film-makers who committed themselves to a then compromised genre; he became one of the leading political film-makers from Eastern Europe, active on the international documentary scene. Solomon's first long feature, The Great Communist Bank Robbery (2004), broadcast on Arte and on BBC's prestigious Storyville, was a multi-awarded hit. Cold Waves (2007) is a chilling slice of political history that played for 12 weeks in Romanian theatres. It deals with the love and hate story between Radio Free Europe, the Romanian audiences and the communist regime. Kapitalism - our secret recipe (2010), a feature doc on the rise of a new ruling class in the East, was presented at IDFA and Sarajevo. His latest long feature, Tarzan’s Testicles (2017) is an eerie trip to the world’s first primate institute, that premiered in Karlovy Vary. The experimental films he made with acclaimed artist Geta Brătescu (like Cocktail Automatic) are part of collections in museums worldwide. In 2016 he published his monograph “Representations of Memory in Documentary Film”. Alexandru is teaching at the University of Arts in Bucharest and is the president of the One World Romania Association.

René Kubášek

Bio

René Kubášek is in charge of international relations at the Ji.hlava IDFF. Prior to that, he served as a diplomat at the Czech Cultural Centre in Romania and the International Visegrad Fund. He has been a collaborator of a number of NGOs, and in the years 1998–2004 he organised the Forum 2000 Conferences, an initiative of the former Czech President Václav Havel. As a documentary photographer, he has presented his work at exhibitions in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Dimitris Kerkinos

Bio

Dimitris Kerkinos studied Film Studies at the University of Manitoba, Canada, and did his Ph.D dissertation on “Society and Cinema in Cuba of the 90s” for the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of the Aegean, Greece. He joined the Thessaloniki IFF in 1999. He has been programming the Balkan Survey section since 2002 and he is the Head of Tributes for both the fiction and the documentary festivals organized annually by TIFF. He has curated numerous retrospectives to directors, thematic tributes, as well as, spotlights to national cinemas for TIFF and other festivals. He has published essays on cinema and anthropology and has edited many monographs on documentary and fiction film, such as, Patricio Guzmán, Peter Wintonick, Carol Reed, Goran Paskaljević. He has lectured Visual Anthropology and Ethnographic Documentary at Panteion University in Athens (2004-2008). Since 2019 he is the Artistic Director of fARAD Film Festival.

Juriu What's Up Doc

René Kubášek

Bio

René Kubášek este responsabilul cu relațiile internaționale la Festivalul Internațional de Film Documentar Ji.hlava. Anterior, a fost diplomat la Centrul Cultural Ceh din România și la Fondul Internațional Visegrad. A colaborat cum mai multe ONG-uri, iar în perioada 1998-2004 a organizat Conferințele Forum 2000, o inițiativă a fostului președinte ceh Václav Havel. În calitate de fotograf documentarist, și-a prezentat lucrările în cadrul unor expoziții în Republica Cehă și în străinătate.

Romanian Days Feature Jury

Gaga Chkheidze

Bio

After studying German language and literature for two years at Tbilisi State University, Gaga Chkheidze graduated from the Faculty of Literature and Arts of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany. In the 1980s he worked as producer at the State Broadcasting Company of Georgia and as educator, teaching German Literature at Ilia State University and Tbilisi State University. In the 1990s he worked as translator and program coordinator at the Forum of New Cinema (Berlin International Film Festival) and Arsenal Cinema (Berlin). Gaga Chkheidze is the founder and director of the Cinema Art Center Prometheus and Tbilisi International Film Festival (since 2001). During 2005-2021 he was a Board Member of the Georgian Film Fund. Gaga Chkheidze was appointed twice as the director of the Georgian National Film Center: in 2005 and 2019, for a period of three years.

Barbara Wurm

Bio

Barbara Wurm is an author and curator. She studied Slavistics, among other subjects, in Vienna, Moscow, Munich and Leipzig. She has worked on the selection committees of DOK Leipzig and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, is currently active at the goEast Film Festival, and contributes to the programming of various film festivals and cinematheques. An expert on Eastern European film, she wrote her dissertation on Soviet educational film and has co-edited books on various subjects, including Dziga Vertov. Her research and educational focuses at Humboldt University in Berlin are Eastern European cultural studies, as well as film theory and history. She contributes to newspapers and magazines as a film critic.

Kjell R. Jenssen Jenssen

Bio

I have been a curator for Cinemateket in Oslo for more than 20 years. Have a Master in Film Studies from NTNU (University of Trondheim). Have written extensively on film in Norwegian magazines and contributed to several books. Are currently project manager of the Norwegian part of the EU funded FILMar project on restoring and screening costal-related films (in Portugal, Norway and Iceland).

Juriu ZFR Scurtmetraj

Csaba Bereczki

Bio

Născut în 1966 la Oradea, și-a terminat studiile la Universitatea de Artă Teatrală și Cinematografică din Budapesta. Între 1992 și 1994, a fost bursier al Republicii Franceze la Colegiul de Film FEMIS din Paris și la Atelierul de Documentar Ateliers Varan. Din 1994, a lucrat în Franța ca asistent de regie și distribuitor de film, printre alții cu Jean-Paul Rappeneau și Tony Gatlif.

Din 2002 este regizor de film independent. Primul său lungmetraj, în 2003, se numește "Cântecul proștilor"/ “The Song of the Fools”, o coproducție maghiară și franceză. În acest film au jucat actori precum Károly Eperjes, Julie Depardieu, Maia Morgenstern, Stéphane Höhn și Lajos Kovács și a avut premiera la Festivalul Mondial de Film de la Montreal.

În 2005, a început o serie de emisiuni care prezintă muzică populară tradițională din Transilvania, intitulată "Életek Éneke". Pe lângă serialul TV în nouă părți, în 2008 a fost finalizată și versiunea cinematografică a filmului, care a fost proiectată cu mare succes în cinematografele din Ungaria, precum și în cadrul mai multor festivaluri internaționale de film.

Din 2011, este șeful Departamentului internațional și de vânzări al Institutului Național Maghiar de Film. În plus, Bereczki este reprezentantul Ungariei în cadrul organizației de coproducție cinematografică a Consiliului Europei, Eurimages. Din 2014, el este membru permanent al consiliului de administrație al organizației.

Bereczki a filmat în 2014 filmul său documentar "SOUL EXODUS", care a avut premiera în 2016 în cinematografele din Ungaria. Acest film spune o poveste de identitate cu muzica klezmer prin intermediul destinului a cinci muzicieni americani cu rădăcini est-europene. Lucrarea a câștigat premiul pentru cel mai bun documentar la cea de-a doua ediție a Galei Premiilor Filmului Maghiar, în 2017.

Romanian Days Short Jury

Csaba Bereczki

Bio

Born in 1966 in Oradea, he completed his studies at the Budapest University of Theater and Film Arts. From 1992 to 1994, he was a Fellow of the French Republic at the FEMIS Film College in Paris and at the Ateliers Varan Documentary Workshop. From 1994 on, he worked in France as an assistant director and film distributor with among others Jean-Paul Rappeneau and Tony Gatlif. He is a freelance film director from 2002. His first feature film in 2003, was titled „The Song of the Fools”, a Hungarian French co-production. It features actors such as Károly Eperjes, Julie Depardieu, Maia Morgenstern, Stéphane Höhn and Lajos Kovács and premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival. In 2005, he started a series presenting traditional folk music from Transylvania, titled “Életek Éneke”. In addition to the nine-part TV series, the cinema version of the film was also completed in 2008 and screened with great success in Hungarian cinemas, as well as in several international film festivals. Since 2011, he serves as the Head of the International and Sales Department of the Hungarian National Film Institute. Furthermore, Bereczki is the representative of Hungary in the Council of Europe's film co-production organization, Eurimages. Since 2014, he has been a permanent member of the organization’s board of directors. Bereczki shot his documentary film “SOUL EXODUS” in 2014, which premiered in 2016 in Hungarian cinemas. This film tells an identity story with klezmer music through the fate of five American musicians with Easter European roots. The work won Best Documentary Award at the 2nd Hungarian Film Award Gala, in 2017.

Weronika Czołnowska

Bio

WERONIKA CZOŁNOWSKA finished post graduate studies in film production at the Polish National Film School in Lodz and Course for Creative Producers at Wajda School. In 2017 she became the Head of Industry at the New Horizons IFF and up till now is in charge of organizing the festival industry events, inc. the biggest film industry in Poland: Polish Days. However, short films are her old passion. Weronika used to produce shorts, inc. “Frozen Stories” by Grzegorz Jaroszuk nominated for European Film Award and presented at more than 70 international festivals including Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand or Sundance FF. For many years she also worked as a curator and programmer selecting shorts for festivals (e.g.Warsaw Film Festival) and was in charge of promotion and sales of student shorts at the Polish National Film School in Lodz. First love never dies.

FIPRESCI Jury

György Báron

Bio

György Báron was a professor habil at the University of Theatre and Film Arts (SZFE), now he is a teacher of FREESZFE, Budapest. He is the president of the Hungarian Society of Film Critics within FIPRESCI. Staff-critic of weekly magazine Élet és Irodalom and monthly film periodical Filmvilág. Since the 1980s he has published more than thousand reviews, essays and studies, both in Hungarian and other languages. He has made educational documentaries for various television channels, radio programs on film topics and he is the author of the books Hollywood and Marienbad and Descent to the Underworld.

Andoni Iturbe Tolosa

Bio

Andoni Iturbe Tolosa is vice-dean and Lecturer of the Audiovisual Communication and Advertising Department at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication, University of the Basque Country (Spain). He teaches Art Direction. He holds a PhD in Film Studies at the University of the Basque Country and is a graduate in Journalism and in Art History. He has extensive experience in media (newspapers and radio). He is a freelance film critic and film writer. He is a member of the Spanish Association of the Film Historians (AEHC) and president of the Cinema section at the Basque Studies Center-Eusko Ikaskuntza. As a film critic, he has worked for Noticias Group, the second leading newspaper group in the Basque Country, and also for radio stations of EITB (the Basque public television and radio station). He has published about Almodóvar, Sebastian Lelio or John Carpenter in important publications.

Tommaso Tocci

Bio

Tommaso Tocci is a writer, translator and a film critic for Italian media company Mymovies.it. He grew up in Rome, received his education in London and is now based in Paris. He is active on the international festival circuit as a critic, reporter and film programmer, having been published in Ioncinema, Indiewire, RogerEbert.com, CinemaScope, Filmmaker Magazine and Filmkrant and having worked for Berlinale Talents, Edinburgh International Film Festival and Giornate degli Autori in Venice. He teaches a FIPRESCI criticism workshop at the Warsaw Film Festival.

Juriul Tinerilor Francofoni

Stefan Arsenijević

Bio

FIRST FILMS FIRST | Programme Manager

Writer/Director

Juriu Full Moon Script Contest

Paul Negoescu

Bio

Paul Negoescu, născut în 1984 în București. A studiat regia de film la UNATC. A regizat mai multe scurtmetraje premiate și selecționate în festivaluri internaționale de film importante precum Cannes (2012), Berlin (2008, 2009 și 2010), Karlovy Vary sau Rotterdam. Două dintre scurtmetraje (Renovare și Derby) au fost nominalizate la Premiile Academiei Europene de Film în 2009 și 2011. Filmul său de debut, "O lună în Thailanda" a avut premiera la Festivalul de Film de la Veneția în 2012 și a câștigat, printre altele, Premiul FIPRESCI la Festivalul de la Sofia și Premiul pentru debut la Festivalul de Film Transilvania. Cel de-al doilea lungmetraj, "Două lozuri" este un film independent de micro-buget care a devenit unul dintre cele mai de succes filme românești la box office și a fost foarte bine primit atât de critici cât și de festivalurile internaționale de film, fiind distribuit în mai multe țări. Cel de-al treilea său film de lungmetraj, "Povestea unui pierde-vară" a fost distribuit de Netflix în peste 30 de țări. Momentan se află în post-producție cu cel de-al patrulea său film, “Oameni de treabă”

Carla Fotea

Bio

Carla Fotea este producătoare de film și lucrează la microFILM. Se concentrează pe proiecte de ficțiune și documentar realizate de regizori debutanți, dar e implicată și în filmele unor regizori consacrați și seriale. Printre filmele la care a lucrat se numără „Babardeală cu bucluc sau Porno Balamuc” de Radu Jude (Ursul de Aur, 2021), „Casa cu păpuși” de Tudor Platon (Sarajevo 2020), „Tipografic Majuscul” de Radu Jude (Berlinale Forum 2020), „Ivana cea Groaznică” de Ivana Mladenovic (Premiul Special al Juriului, Locarno 2020), „Monștri.” de Marius Olteanu (Premiul Publicului, Berlinale Forum 2019) și alte co-producții minoritare.

Carla participă în 2022 la EAVE Producer’s Workshop. Este membră a Academiei Europene de Film și a EWA Network.

Iulian Postelnicu

Bio

Iulian Postelnicu, actor și scenarist, este proaspăt câștigător al Premiului Gopo 2022 pentru cel mai bun scenariu pentru filmul Neidentificat(alături de Bogdan George Apetri) și câștigător al Premiului Gopo 2020 pentru cel mai bun actor în rol principal(pentru rolul din filmul Arest). Iulian este cunoscut publicului pentru rolurile din filmele Arest, Un etaj mai jos sau Otto Barbarul.

Juriu Competiția Locală

Florin Piersic Jr

Bio

Florin Piersic Jr este unul dintre cei mai apreciați actori ai generației sale. Este absolvent al Academiei de Teatru şi Film, Secţia actorie, promoţia 1991. One-man show-ul Sex Drugs Rock and Roll de Eric Bogosian deschide calea teatrului independent în România, iar Piersic jr primeşte Premiul pentru cel mai bun actor al anului 2002 la Gala UNITER. În 2004 creează casa de producţie Artificial Horizon; este scenarist, regizor şi producător pentru filme de scurtmetraj (Advertising, Veneţia, Mecanica poetică), precum şi lungmetraje (Fix Alert, Eminescu versus Eminem, Killing Time).. Continuă să lucreze ca actor de film (Călătoria lui Gruber, Charlie Countryman, Quod Erat Demonstrandum), dar şi ca actor de teatru (Zaruri şi cărţi, Opposites Attract, Tom şi Jerry, Vestul singuratic). În 2013 are loc premiera one-man show-ului Freak Show, o suită de monologuri, majoritatea publicate iniţial în Opere cumplite: Volumul unu.

Gabriela Suciu

Bio

Gabriela Suciu a studiat la Universitatea Naționață de Artă Teatrală și Cinematografică „I. L. Caragiale” din București, unde a absolvit cu diploma de licență în Arta Regiei de Film și TV și masterat în Producție de Film. În 2012 înființează UNATC Atelier de Film, o casă de producție de film a universității menită să sprijine debuturile cinematografice și continua cu un doctorat în cercetarea co-producției internaționale de film, devenind profesor invitat la aceeași universitate la cursurile masterale. În primii 10 ani de carieră produce peste 45 de scurt-metraje, 7 documentare, 6 lung metraje, reclame și videoclipuri, și coordonează traducerea în limba română de cărți de cinema și publicare de reviste de specialitate, implicându-se totodată și în organizare de festivaluri de film. Filmele produse de ea au fost selectate și premiate la festivaluri de film internaționale din toată lumea, iar în anul 2014 primește nominalizarea de Tânără Speranță la Premiile Gopo.

Radu Stancu

Bio

Radu Stancu este producător și fondator al companiei de producție deFilm. A studiat producția de film, montajul și designul de sunet la Universitatea de Film din București (UNATC) și este absolvent al Making Waves, EAVE Producer’s Workshop, EAVE Ties That Bind, EAVE Marketing Workshop. S-a implicat într-o serie de producții cinematografice, scurte și lung-metraje, de la ficțiune sau animație până la documentare, care au fost prezentate și premiate în festivaluri de film precum Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, IDFA, Karlovy Vary, AFI, Sarajevo, Namur sau Cottbus.