Jury – TIFF

JURY 2023

FEATURE FILMS

Constantine Giannaris made his first independent films whilst he was living in London. He moved to Greece in 2000. His movies have showcased in international film festivals and forums. His first feature film in English shot in London (3 Steps to Heaven) showcased in the Quinzaine des.Realisateurs/Camera D’or Cannes 1995. His second feature (Apo tin Akri tis Polis/From the Edge of the City) was shot in Athens and showcased in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival 1999. This was followed by Dekapenaugoustos / One Day in August (in competition Berlin Film Festival 2002) Omiros / Hostage (Panorama Special Berlin Film Festival 2005). His recent feature film Man at Sea premiered in Berlinale 2011. His latest film is Spring Awakening (2015). At present he lives and works in Athens.

Marta Minorowicz graduated from the Andrzej Wajda Film School and Theatre Studies at Jagiellonian University. Her debut feature fiction film "Illusion" won the Grand Prix at Tirana Film Festival in 2022. Her feature-length documentary-fiction hybrid "Zud" was nominated for the Crystal Bear Award at Berlinale 2016 and received the Fathy Farag award at Cairo International Film Critics Week for best artistic contribution, along with a Special Mention at Gdynia Film Festival. Her documentary films "A Piece of Summer" and "Decrescendo" have been awarded at many festivals including the Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand Filmfest (2010) and, in the same year, the Golden Dove at DOK Festival, Leipzig.

Ylljet Aliçka is an Albanian writer, scriptwriter and former Albanian ambassador in France, UNESCO, Portugal and Monaco.He wrote several short stories collections and novels, and also worked on several screenplays films and theatre dramas ("Slogans", "Provincial Chronicle", "International", "Plastic Flowers", "Poet", "Professional", "Planting Trees", etc.) Based on his books: one of them, Slogans, a French-Albanian movie, among others, awarded at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Prize at the International Film Festival of Tokyo. His books have been published in more than 12 foreign languages. He was Albanian representative at Eurimage (Council of Europe, 2006-2020), since 2018, Member of Scientific Committee of European Federation of Education (FEDE), Lyon-Geneva, and he is among the founder members of “Fondazione Fabrizio De Andre” (Milan). Actually, he is Professor Doctor at Mediterranean University of Albania, University of Arts and Marubi Film Academy.

DOCUMENTARY JURY

Sangeeta Datta is a writer, filmmaker, musician and cultural commentator. Her film work includes the award winning feature Life Goes On, collaboration on Brick Lane and Chokher Bali. She has collaborated with Rituparno Ghosh on several film projects. Her last documentary Bird of Dusk is a tribute to her late friend and creative colleague Rituparno Ghosh,supported by NFDC ( National Film Development Company, India). Sangeeta has several books on Indian Cinema including BFI World Director Series: Shyam Benegal, Rituparno Ghosh: Cinema, Gender and Art (Routledge co-edited) Tagore: The World as his Nest ( Jadavpur University co-edited). Currently she is writing a book on feminist Indian actor/director Aparna Sen. Sangeeta has curated Indian film seasons at the British Film Institute and in 2022 she curated an extended season of Satyajit Ray films to mark his centenary year. She has also been adviser for South Asian films for the London Film Festival and London Indian Film Festival. Sangeeta has taught Literature and Film Studies at St Xavier’s College, Bombay India and Birkbeck College, University of London. She runs a not for profit cross-arts company called BAITHAK in London, which celebrates South Asian literature, performing arts, cinema. It offers a platform for young talent and new work.

Cristina Haneș is a Romanian creative documentary film director and producer. She co-founded NoCut Film Collective in 2016 with Isabella Rinaldi (Italy) and Arya Rothe (India); Cristina also works as a producer with Radu Stancu and deFilm production company from Romania. Currently involved as a producer in international co-productions with Costa Rica & Mexico for “Matryoshka” directed by Maricarmen Merino Mora (deFilm) and with India for “Zero Hour” by Nachiket Guttikar and Deeksha Ketkar (NoCut Film). NoCut Film Collective’s first production, the feature length documentary film ‘A Rifle and a Bag’ (2020, 89 mins, India, Romania, Italy, Qatar) won the Special Mention of the Jury at 2020 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in the Bright Future Competition. NoCut’s most recent co-production with Nepal & South Korea for “No Winter Holidays” by Rajan Kathet and Sunir Paney world premiered at 2023 Sheffield DocFest in the First Feature Competition. Her short documentary film “António e Catarina” (2017, 40 mins, Portugal) won the Pardino D’oro Award for Best International Short in Pardi di Domani at 2017 Locarno Festival. Alumna of DocNomads MA, Berlinale Talents and Aristoteles Workshop. She completed her BA in the field of Cinematography in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Marie-Christine Hartig is active as the Co-Festival director of ethnocineca- Int. Documentary Film Festival Vienna, part of the programming team of the art association SOHO in Ottakring and as a founding member of CineCollective, Co-director of the Open-Air Cinema Kaleidoskop-Film and Freiluft am Karlsplatz. As a freelance curator and mediator in film and art, she works on socio-political issues at the intersection of science and art.

SHORT FILMS JURY (OSCAR & EFA AWARDS)

She was born in Città di Castello in 1993. After studying psychology at the University of Padua, in 2014 she moved to Rome to study cinema. She attended directing courses with Daniele Ciprì, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Fabio Mollo and Claudio Cupellini, making numerous short films.  In 2017 she graduated with honours under the supervision of Susanna Nicchiarelli with the short film Corvus Corax and a thesis of anthropomorphisation in cinema. In 2019 she won the Zavattini Prize with the autobiographical short film Superheroes without Superpowers, made entirely with VHS from family archives. The short film is the only italian one selected at Orizzonti section of 76° Venice International Film Festival 2019. The short film won the FEDIC Special Mention as the best short film of the festival; subsequently it participating in more than fifty national and international festivals. In 2021 Beatrice was the Italian director chosen for Biennale College Cinema, receiving funding for her first feature film The Den, it premieres at the 78° Venice International Film Festival.  The Den also won the Raffaella Fioretta Prize for best Italian film at Alice nella Città, a parallel section of the Rome Film Festival. In April 2022, the film was released in the Italian cinemas and it received a warm reception from critics, who called it "a promising debut of pure cinema". La Tana receives a nomination at Nastri d'Argento as best subject and it was presented in the Bimbi Belli festival by Nanni Moretti. The film is currently still selected in many festivals around the world.

Cyrus Neshvad is a Luxembourg director of Iranian origin. He has directed several short films including THE ORCHID, ANTOINE, SON, PORTRAITIST and THE RED SUITCASE which have all been produced by CYNEFILMS. Collectively these films have officially been selected in over 400 festivals. PORTRAITIST qualified for the Oscars in 2020 and won 55 awards including the Letzebuerger Filmpraïs 2021 (Luxembourgish Oscars). His latest short film The Red Suitcase won 21 awards and was nominated for the Oscars 2023, after being awarded as the Best Short Film in Tirana International Film Festival, Oscar qualifying festival. Cyrus Neshvad is currently in the post production of his first feature film THE SHELTER supported by the Film Fund Luxembourg. The movie should be released during 2024.

Kaveh Mazaheri, a highly respected figure among the fresh wave of Iranian independent filmmakers, has been celebrated for his unique style, profound narratives, and insightful portrayals of complex human relationships. He has made six short fiction films and more than twenty documentaries. One of his films named “Retouch” which became very successful in Iranian cinema history has won more than 80 international awards and it was qualified at three Academy Awards qualifying film festivals such as Tribeca, Krakow and Palm Springs in 2017. That’s why many of his prizes are being kept and showcased at the special “Retouch” booth at Iranian Cinema Museum. Moreover, his last film “Funfair” was qualified for Academy Awards 2021. “Botox” is his first feature fiction, which won the Best Film and Best Screenplay at the Torino Film Festival in 2020. Retouch and Botox have also been the main winners of the Tirana Film Festival in the past years. Today, he is one of the most well-known independent Iranian filmmakers who currently lives in France.

EXPERIMENTAL, BALKAN & IN ALBANIAN JURY

Can Merdan Doğan (1987, Turkey) is a filmmaker and playwright. He studied at Ankara Universiy Theater Department and completed his Master’s at Kadir Has University, Cinema and TV, in Istanbul. Doğan was nominated for “ playwright of the year” at the Journal of Theater Awards in 2013 for the play “I Played Games with My Dad When I Was a Kid”, which won the Afife Award for the year’s best actress in a musical comedy. His first Feature Film, Arabesque Underground (2014), in which he worked as a screenwriter and assistant director, premiered at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, and won 5 other awards in Turkey. His short movie STILETTO: A Pink Family Tragedy (2021) premiered at the 65th BFI London Film Festival’s Short Film Competition and won “Best International Short Film '' award at the Dublin International Film Festival. The Film has been to over 20 film festivals in Germany, The Netherlands, South Korea and Turkey, and won several awards. The film was aired on Canal + France in 2022. Most recently, he has been pursuing his PhD. in Media, Theater and Popular Culture in Germany and writing his debut Film Backstage. He is interested in queer cinema and hybrid forms of storytelling.

Born in Tirana, raised in Athens; Neritan Zinxhiria lived his own cinema paradiso at Cinema Trianon, a historic movie theatre in Greece. He created his first short film at 18 and four years later, he wins all major Greek film festivals with his second short "Chamomile". Regarded as one of the best Greek short films ever made, the film was also credited internationally by Cineuropa as one of the most important short films of 2013. His third short "The Time of A Young Man About To Kill", a prize winner in Audi’s hometown Ingolstadt, was produced by Gabriele Oricchio and Valeria Golino and shot in Italy. In 2016, he presented "A Country of Two" - an experimental mosaic of found footage and photos, which had a successful run in film festivals, art venues, and museums around the world (New Museum+DESTE, Encounters IFF, Festival Des Cinemas Differents de Paris/Pompidou). Holder of 2018 Artworks Excellence Award by the prestigious Stavros Niarchos Foundation, his films have been screened in more than 200 film festivals worldwide. His last short film "Light of Light", nominated for a Tiger Award, had its World Premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2023.

Marek Wesolowski, an experienced cinematographer, initially started in postproduction before exploring various aspects of the film industry, including fashion commercials, feature dramas, and art films. With a deep passion for storytelling, Marek strives to create distinctive cinematography that enhances brands, characters, and thought-provoking narratives, contributing to the cinema.

PANORAMA JURY

Executive Director – National Center of Cinematography Executive Producer - Former-Kinostudio “Shqipëria e Re” - 1985 - 1996: Feature films : “Sinjali i dashurise”; “Vetmi”; “Ne Emer te Lirise“; “Pesha e Kohes”; “Zemra e Nenes”; “Vazhdojme me Bethovenin”; “Perdhunuesit”; “Nata”. Producer – Film Company “Eurofilm” 1996 - 2004: Feature films: “Dasma e Sakos”; “Butrinti”; Documentary films “Te Bekuarit”; “Ne Boten Blu Vazhdon Lufta”; “Legjenda e Baltes”; “Rruga Egnatia”. Line producer: Co-productions feature films: “Chiko”, Hungary; Indipendent feature films “Shakespeare's Storm” - 2018; “The Castle”, 2019, USA; Production Coordinator feature films: “Falja e Gjakut”- USA. TV Producer - 2005-2019: “Une, Ti dhe Kasandra”; “Dhimbja e Dashurise”. Line producer feature films: “Anatema”, Kosovo; “Muajt e Mjaltit”, Serbi; “Shqiptari”, Germany; “Alarm fur Cobra” Germany; Indipendent documentary film “The Hidden Documentary”. Participating in international film festivals in:Thessaloniki; London; Bitola; Moscow; Budapest; New-York; Berlin, Cannes, Rome; Prishtina; Sarajevo; Prizren, Cotbus, Mons, Trieste, Warshaw, etc.

Jonid Jorgji was born in Tirana in 1986. He studied Film and Politics. From March 2022 he leads the Agency of Creative Industries in the Municipality of Tirana. Part of this Agency is also Tirana Film Office. Also, from 2009 he is the President of Young Albanian Filmmakers Association. His main focus was helping young artists, developing and implementing their projects. In the last ten years he has been very active working on cultural, social, educational policies in Albania. In 2016 Jorgji founded his own company, EJF Production, an audiovisual production and distribution company. He has produced and directed with his company many films, documentaries, commercials and electoral campaign. He worked in media for more than 10 years. The Sweet Dealer - Web series 2020; The Lions Heading Venice - Feature movie 2019; A Circus Story 360° VR - The first VR 360 movie in Albania.

Irena Prici is currently Director of Policies in the Ministry of Culture, Albania. She has been Member of working group related to Open Call Projects in the field of Art and Culture. During 2007-2013 she has served as Press Spokesperson at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports, and Head of the Public Relations Sector at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth. Despite her engagement in the public sector, she has worked as a journalist for many years in different media in Albania.

Since her graduation with a BA in Theatre and Tv Directing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, Jona Hasija has been an active part of the Albanian television media scape, initially directing entertainment programmes and later political shows. In addition, Jona has held the post of Artistic Director in one of Albania’s leading TV stations for 5 years. At present, she directs some of TOP Channel’s prime time TV shows. Jona has participated in various media communication training programmes in Albania and abroad.

SCREENPLAY CONTESTIFF JURY

Nominated twice for the Sophia Awards of the Portuguese Film Academy, Bruno Carnide is an independent Portuguese director and founding director of Leiria Film Fest – International Short Film Festival. Carnide directed several fiction, animation and documentary short films, which won dozens awards and have been exhibited in hundreds film festivals around the world, including Oscar Qualifying Festivals. He is curator at Museum of the Moving Image, in Portugal, and also a lecturer in the field of cinema at Polytechnic of Leiria and Instituto Superior Miguel Torga (Portugal). As a freelancer, Bruno Carnide has directed hundreds of corporate and commercial videos for companies such as Google, Volkswagen, Ford, MTV, Nickelodeon, RTP or Schweppes. He is occasionally a jury member at International Film Festivals.

Adam Selo is a director and producer, based in Bologna. In 2004 he founded his independent production company, Elenfant Film. His work of distributing his films in festivals, led him to the founding of Elenfant Distribution, a distribution team that deals with the distribution and sale of national and international short films. Later, he founded with the director Olga Torrico the production company Sayonara Film, that produces documentaries, short films, animations and follows the road of the distribution. Between the shorted produced by his company there is Gas Station, by Olga Torrico, awarded in Venice in 2020 at International critics Week. The last productions are After the Bridge, by Davide Rizzo and Marzia Toscano, premiered at Hot Docs International Film Festival, Toronto and Casablanca, by Adriano Valerio, a French/Italian Co-Production, recently premiered in Venice, at Giornate degli Autori 2023.

Ylljet Aliçka is an Albanian writer, scriptwriter and former Albanian ambassador in France, UNESCO, Portugal and Monaco. He wrote several short stories collections and novels, and also worked on several screenplays films and theatre dramas ("Slogans", "Provincial Chronicle", "International", "Plastic Flowers", "Poet", "Professional", "Planting Trees", etc.) Based on his books: one of them, Slogans, a French-Albanian movie, among others, awarded at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Prize at the International Film Festival of Tokyo. His books have been published in more than 12 foreign languages. He was Albanian representative at Eurimage (Council of Europe, 2006-2020), since 2018, Member of Scientific Committee of European Federation of Education (FEDE), Lyon-Geneva, and he is among the founder members of “Fondazione Fabrizio De Andre” (Milan). Actually, he is Professor Doctor at Mediterranean University of Albania, University of Arts and Marubi Film Academy.