Jury members

Competition Jury

Sibel Kekilli

Bio

Sibel is a German actress with Turkish roots. With her debut in Fatih Akin's Head-On she gained major public attention. She has won twice the highest German movie award, the Lola, for Best Actress with Head-On and When We Leave.

The recipient of an award at the Tribeca Film Festival, she became known internationally with her portrayal as Shae in the HBO award- winning series Game of Thrones. Sibel starred in several national and international productions like Winter Journey (2006), the very successful comedy What a Man (d. Matthias Schweighöfer) and multiple seasons of Tatort.

Her latest appearances include the Finnish noir series Bullets (d. Özcan Alper) and Yunan (d. Ameer Fakher Eldin), which will be released later this year. Quite recently Kekilli also gave her theater debut at the Berliner Ensemble with "Fremd" by Michel Friedman.

In her honor, TIFF will screen Head-On, the 2004 Golden Bear-winner, in a restored version.

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson

Bio

Born in 1978, Hafsteinn holds a Master of Fine Arts in film from Columbia University, New York.

His first feature Either Way (2011) screened at film festivals all around the world and was re-made in the US as Prince Avalanche, starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch. His second feature Paris of the North (2014) traveled extensively after its competition premiere in Karlovy Vary.

Under the Tree (2017) premiered in the Orizzonti sidebar at Venice and was the Icelandic Oscar candidate in 2018. In 2023, his English debut Northern Comfort opened TIFF.

Hafsteinn co- created, wrote and directed Balls, his debut in television, which premiered in Iceland in the spring of 2023. The show was hugely popular in Iceland and has been very warmly received in other Nordic countries.

Konstantinos Kontovrakis

Bio

After years of activating as a film critic and festival programmer, Greek-born Konstantinos moved to production in 2010 and has been consistently producing ever since.

He has produced and co-produced more than 25 internationally acclaimed films, including BAFTA and Un Certan Regard winner How to Have Sex by Molly Manning Walker, Palme d’Or winner and Oscar- nominated Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund, Angela Schanelek’s Berlinale winner Music and Uberto Pasolini’s upcoming The Return, which stars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.

He was the Greek Producer on the Move in Cannes 2014 and he is a member of the European and the Hellenic Film Academies. In 2018, Konstantinos received the prestigious European Co- Production Award at the European Film Awards.

Markéta Šantrochová

Bio

Markéta closely cooperated with the Program Department of Karlovy Vary film festival for almost a decade, before boarding in 2004 the newly founded Czech Film Center and co- developed its agenda and position in Czech and international film environment.

Since 2013 she is the Head of Czech Film Center, which has operated since 2017 as a division of the Czech Film Fund, the main public financing body for cinema in the Czech Republic. In May 2019, Markéta was named the president of the European Film Promotion.

Paul Negoescu

Bio

Born in 1984 in Bucharest, Paul studied film directing at UNATC, Romania's top film school. He has directed several award-winning short films selected in international festivals, and two of them, Renovare and Derby, received nominations at the European Film Academy Awards in 2009 and 2011.

His debut film, A Month in Thailand, premiered in the International Critics' Week sidebar at the 2012 Venice Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI Award at the Sofia Film Festival and the Best First Feature Award (Romanian Days competition) at TIFF.

His second feature, Two Lottery Tickets, was a box office hit in Romania and was later released in several countries. In 2022 he returned with Men of Deeds, which won the top trophies at the 2023 Gopo Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. He is currently working on his sixth feature film and he teaches Directing at UNATC.

What's Up Doc Jury

Dana Bunescu

Bio

Dana is a Romanian editor, sound designer and director. After Physics studies, she graduated from the Multimedia Department of UNATC, Romania's top film school. She collaborated with numerous directors relevant for the so-called Romanian New Wave: Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Tales from the Golden Age), Călin Peter Netzer (Child’s Pose, Ana, mon amour), Andrei Ujică (The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu), Radu Jude (Aferim!, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn). She has co-directed two documentary features: The Distance Between Me and Me, together with Mona Nicoară, and The Chalice. On Sons and Daughters, together with Cătălina Tesăr. For Ana, mon amour she received the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 2017 Berlinale.

Mira Staleva

Bio

Mira got involved in the Sofia International Film Festival since its very beginning, in 1997. She is the managing director of the festival and also heads the Sofia Meetings, a co-production market in the frame of the festival focusing on first and second time directors. She is also involved in production, distribution, exhibition and audience development projects. She co-produced The King of the Belgians by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens, which premiered at the Venice film festival, and the directorial duo's next film, The Barefoot Emperor, which premiered at Toronto. Currently she is co-producing The Fortress, Jessica Woodworth's feature to be shot in Armenia, and Brighton 4, the newest film by Georgian filmmaker Levan Koguashvili. Mira is a member of the European Film Academy and she is also in the LUX Prize selection board.

Giuseppe Gariazzo

Bio

Giuseppe is a film critic for Italian national newspaper “Il manifesto”. He works as a programmer for Trieste Film Festival. He is also in the staff of Job Film Days Festival in Torino and Med Film Festival in Roma. He worked, among others, for Torino Film Festival and Critics' Week, the renowned sidebar of the Venice film festival. He published books on African cinema and essays in Italian and foreign volumes, including the "History of the World Cinema" and the “Encyclopedia of the History of Cinema”.

Romanian Days Feature Jury

Vera Mijojlić

Bio

Vera Mijojlić is a cultural producer who founded the South East European Film Festival, SEEfest (seefilmla.org) in Los Angeles in 2006. SEEfest is the premier American cinematic showcase and cross-cultural bridge for celebrated and often-daring movies from 20 East and Southeast European countries. In her dual capacity as Director of the Festival and its Artistic Director, Vera brings European filmmakers to Los Angeles, serves as a catalyst for commercial distribution deals, and aligns corporate sponsors with the festival and its year-round activities.

She has curated major film retrospectives for the UCLA Film Archive and Austin Film Society, and initiated a national tour of landmark short films with the Los Angeles Filmforum, which was presented at the Pacific Film Archive, Harvard Film Archive, National Gallery of Art, and MoMA. In addition to the 2023 Nonprofit & Corporate Citizenship Award nomination by the Los Angeles Business Journal and 2018 Women in Leadership Award from the City of West Hollywood, she has received multiple recognitions from the State of California, as well as the County and City of Los Angeles, and City of Beverly Hills. Among other industry affiliations, mentorship and support for independent films, Vera also proudly serves on the Advisory Council of the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades, and is a member of the European Film Academy.

Vera began as a cultural reporter and film critic in Sarajevo, where she was also the location manager for the N.Y.-based Jalbert Productions which filmed the official documentary of the historic 1984 Winter Olympic Games. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Belgrade, and has a distinguished record in humanitarian work.

Yaara Ozery

Bio

Yaara is a film programmer, scholar and lecturer. She is a senior programmer and part of the selection committee of the Haifa film festival, and a co-editor of the industry events. Yaara teaches at the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University, and at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. As a scholar, she focuses her research on women’s cinema and documentary cinema. She worked as a program manager for DocAviv, The Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival. She served as a jury member for several film festivals and as a consultant for several film funds. In 2017 she founded Mirrors – The Tel Aviv University Women’s Film and Television Conference.

Yorgos Krassakopoulos

Bio

Yorgos he has been working in the film industry since the 1990s. He was a founding member and head programmer of the Athens film festival. He worked as a film critic in print, radio and television. In the early 2000s, he was co-founder of arthouse distributor Playtime. Since 1992 he has worked with the Thessaloniki film festival in various capacities, joining the team full-time as a programmer in 2011. In 2016 he became the festival's Head of Programming, also being in charge of the Thessaloniki documentary film festival. Yorgos has participated in numerous international festivals as a jury member and has been a member of the European Parliament’s LUX Prize selection committee for several years.

Romanian Days Short Jury

Manuel Pena

Bio

Born in 1980, Manuel is the artistic director of the International Short Film Festival of Bueu, FICBUEU. In 2003 he graduated the Directing department of the International Film School of San Antonio de Los Baños (Cuba). Manuel has directed three short films and a documentary. He participated in nearly 200 international film festivals, in which he won fifteen awards, including one at our own TIFF. In 2004 Manuel co-founded the production company Hipotálamo Films, which he left in 2007 to found FICBUEU. In 2021, he started the production company Nortecatro Cinema, whose first work is Azul 91, Manuel's debut feature.

Geraldin Bryant

Bio

Head of Festivals, Talents & Materials at The Bureau Sales, Geraldine started in sales with Celluloid Dreams and then moved to Playtime. Previously, she worked for 10 years in many festivals, among which the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.

Fabio Tucci

Bio

Following a degree in Cinematic Arts, Fabio started working in the film industry in 2005. After gaining experience as a general manager in cinema exhibition and domestic distribution, he has been working in international sales since 2017. He is currently a Festival manager and a member of the acquisition team for True Colours.

FIPRESCI Jury

Wanda Bendjelloul

Bio

Wanda is a Swedish film critic, author, filmmaker and TV producer with a background in current affairs: On a weekly basis, she reviews films for the biggest Swedish morning paper Dagens Nyheter. She also discusses the new releases on Sweden's Channel 4.

Nil Kural

Bio

Nil is a Turkish film critic and film programmer. After working as a film critic for the Milliyet daily newspaper and the Milliyet Sanat arts magazine, she became the head of the Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival. Nil also worked as an advisor for the Istanbul film festival. She has served as a FIPRESCI jury member at the Vienna, Karlovy Vary, Locarno and Venice film festivals. She is a member of the European Film Academy.

Natalia Serebriakova

Bio

Nataliia is a film critic. She writes for Ukrainian magazines such as Korydor.in.ua, DTF-Magazine, SKVOT, and also for Cargo. She was the curator of Kyiv Critics' Week in 2018. She has been a member of the Union of Ukrainian Film Critics since 2018 and in 2022 she became the program manager of the Scanorama Film Festival. She was the programmer of the Ukrainian Days event at La Cinematheque Francaise in 2022. Starting last year, she is a Golden Globes voter and a FIPRESCI member.

Ecumenical Jury

Ileana Bîrsan

Bio

Ileana is a film critic and educator. She graduated the Faculty of Philology, University of Bucharest, and studied film at the University of Zürich. Since 2007, she has been writing articles on cinema for various publications and has participated as a lecturer in various programmes of cinematic education. She is co-founder of DokStation Music Documentary Film Festival. In 2017, she co-directed with Claudiu Mitcu the documentary The Trial. Currently she is completing a PhD at the Centre of Excellence in Image Study. She is also a film production coordinator at Wearebasca production company. In January 2024 she founded, along with other members of SIGNIS Romania, FILMIKON, an international festival showcasing films awarded by ecumenical juries at festivals around the world.

Piet Halma

Bio

Piet studied theology, communication strategy, and journalism and has a broad experience in communications, public broadcasting and peace keeping. He served at the ecumenical broadcaster IKON in the Netherlands and PAX, an international peace organization to protect civilians against acts of war. He served for many years the board of the Association for Christian Communication (WACC), an NGO that cares for the communication rights of the voiceless in our world. Piet has been active as jury member at the Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Cottbus, Leipzig, Kyiv, Locarno and Venice film festivals. Since 2019 he has been a Honorary Life Member of Interfilm. At the moment he is a book and film critic for a daily newspaper in the Netherlands.

Tímea Kókai-Nagy

Bio

Tímea has been working in the cultural field for many years, with her experience spanning various segments of the film industry. She spent almost a decade with Budapest Film, the largest arthouse cinema operator in Hungary. She also served as Secretary of the Hungarian Art Cinema Association and worked for a film distributor specializing in alternative cinema content. Currently, she is the Head of Communication at a Budapest-based artistic hub focused on culture. Since 2014, she has been responsible for international affairs at CineFest Miskolc IFF. Additionally, she is a member of INTERFILM and the President of Interfilm Hungary, founded in 2021. She was a member of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale in 2022.

Edgar Rubio

Bio

Edgar is a film producer and director who graduated from the Loyola University. Since 2001 he has been a lecturer in film, screenwriting and multimedia production. He is the Head of Communications for Mexico’s National Dialogue for Peace and a former Head of the Communication Department of SIGNIS, a non-governmental organization based in Rome and dedicated to building a culture of peace through media. He has been in SIGNIS and Ecumenical juries in many festivals, such as Venice, San Sebastian, Berlin, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Locarno, Havana, Toulouse and Monte Carlo.

SIGNIS Jury

Irina–Margareta Nistor

Bio

Irina is a renowned film critic and a prominent figure in Romania's film industry. In 1980, she began her work as a translator at the Romanian Cinematheque and the Romanian National Television, where she subtitled over 1000 films and served as editor of a series of programs. She has translated plays, dictionaries, novels, motivational books, and children's books. For over 20 years, she has conceived and hosted the weekly radio show "The Voice of Films". She participates in cine-concerts with silent films, providing them with a voice, including at this year’s TIFF. Since 2012, she has been the Director of the International Psychoanalysis and Film Festival held in Bucharest, Iași, and Cluj. In 2022 she served as a member of the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes Film Festival.

Elias Khlat

Bio

Elias is a producer and filmmaker with extensive experience in the advertising and media field, following his studies in Advertising Design. With Eklat, his signature name, he took on creative design, animation and post-production projects before settling into a fully-grown production house that specializes in corporate and documentary films. Committed to repositioning Tripoli on Lebanon’s cultural scene, Elias is involved in various civil initiatives organizing social and cultural events, empowering the youth, and fighting for the preservation of the city’s cultural heritage. In 2013, he founded Tripoli Film Festival. Over the years, he served many film festivals as curator, consultant or jury member, and he had organized many events related to cinema in Lebanon and abroad.

Juriul Tinerilor Francofoni

Andrada Moruțan

Bio

Andrada Moruțan este studentă în primul an la masterul de Film and Audiovisual Studies de la Facultatea de Teatru și Film, Universitatea „Babeș-Bolyai” din Cluj-Napoca. Programul de master o pregătește în mod special pentru a curatoria programul unui festival de film, dar și pentru a-și forma ochiul în vederea analizării unui produs audio-vizual din multiple perspective tehnice sau sociale. Ea a avut ocazia de a-și exersa limba franceză, studiată în clasele 1-12 în ciclul primar și liceal, și de a-și îmbogăți bagajul de informații și cultură prin programul Erasmus internship de 3 luni în Paris, în anul 2019, la Association Parisienne des Artistes Roumains. Acolo a lucrat la organizarea festivalului de scurtmetraje Trashxploitation Festival, al cărui scop era de a expune, printr-o rețea de colaborări cu artiști internaționali, scurtmetraje care adoptă subiectul “trash” în procesul de producție sau narațiune.

Ulterior, aceste experiențe au fost integrate de Andrada în cel mai recent proiect din care a făcut parte, For You International Film Festival din Bistrița, care a avut prima ediție în 2023. Anul acesta, ea o asistă pe Mariam Hamdy, director artistic al festivalului, în procesul de curatorie pentru secțiunea de scurtmetraje.

Cristiana-Georgiana Sabou

Bio

Cristiana-Georgiana Sabou este studentă în anul I la Facultatea de Litere, specializarea limbi moderne aplicate, din cadrul Universității „Babeș-Bolyai” din Cluj-Napoca. Limbile pe care le studiază sunt franceza și engleza. Cristiana a fost întotdeauna pasionată de industria cinematografiei și se consideră o cinefilă împătimită. În cadrul parcursului ei academic a avut ocazia să vizioneze peste 300 de filme și, cu un ochi critic, să analizeze diferitele criterii care fac ca o peliculă să fie de calitate. În plus, a participat la concursuri de analiză culturală care necesitau cunoștințe vaste despre pictură, cinematografie și literatură.

Interesată de tot ce ține de cultura din Hexagon, pe perioada liceului, Cristiana a făcut parte dintr-o trupă de teatru francez, fiind astfel familiarizată cu practicile artistice și cu jocul actorilor. În calitate de jurat, Cristiana promite că va demonstra o obiectivitate impecabilă, atenție la detalii și spirit de echipă și cooperare.

Maïtena Houliat

Bio

Maïtena Houliat are 25 de ani, este franco-română și absolventă a Institutului Francez de Modă din Paris. În prezent, este studentă în anul I la Filosofie, la Universitatea „Babeș-Bolyai”. Pasiunea ei pentru cinematografie a început de la o vârstă fragedă și s-a dezvoltat de-a lungul anilor, culminând cu un stagiu de două săptămâni în timpul liceului la cinematograful Elvire Popesco din București.

Deși designul vestimentar a rămas prima sa opțiune, Maïtena nu a abandonat pasiunea pentru cinema. Pe parcursul studiilor în Franța, a profitat de diversitatea și bogăția culturii cinematografice, învățând să o studieze și să o aprecieze. În plus, prin prisma studiilor de filosofie, a învățat să cerceteze și să analizeze o operă cu rigurozitate și detașare.

Florence Devaux

Bio

Florence Devaux, în vârstă de 22 de ani, face un stagiu de practică la Institutul Francez din România la Cluj-Napoca de la începutul lunii martie, în cadrul ultimului an de masterat în relații internaționale. Franțuzoaică, ea a studiat la Strasbourg timp de 5 ani, dar a dezvoltat un interes pentru România când a venit aici vara trecută.

Își dorește să facă parte din juriu datorită interesului său pentru cinematografie și dorinței de a descoperi noi producții francofone. Este curioasă și, pe perioada studiilor, și-a dezvoltat abilități de analiză care îi vor permite să urmărească filmele cu atenție și discernământ.

Ștefan-George Popa

Bio

Originar din Brașov, Ștefan-George Popa are 23 de ani și este masterand la Studii Politice Europene Comparate, în cadrul Facultății de Studii Europene a Universității „Babeș-Bolyai” din Cluj-Napoca. Ștefan și-a finalizat studiile de licență la Facultatea de Litere din cadrul aceleiași universități, specializarea franceză-norvegiană și a petrecut un semestru în Franța, cu o bursă Erasmus, la Universitatea din Lille.

Ștefan-George este pasionat de film. Anul trecut, și-a susținut lucrarea de licență pe tema influenței cinematografiei internaționale asupra literaturii franceze. În această lucrare, a analizat romanul „Omul care râde” de Victor Hugo și trei adaptări cinematografice din trei țări diferite: un film american mut din 1928, un film italian din 1964 și un film francez din 2012.

Ștefan-George este interesat să acumuleze experiență în analiză cinematografică și gândire critică, și consideră că participarea la acest juriu reprezintă o provocare interesantă pentru orice individ.