Jury 2025 - TIFF

JURY

PerspecTIFF Jury

Co-founder, Art Director, and Programmer of UnderhillFest, Montenegro’s international documentary film festival, and Programmer of the Herceg Novi Film Festival, the country’s most significant film event with a legacy of 30+ years. Author and host of the TV program The Seventh Continent, dedicated to film, and interviewer of renowned filmmakers at Cannes, Berlin, and Venice. Currently Director of Radio Crne Gore. A frequent jury member at major European festivals and member of FEDEORA and FIPRESCI. Active as a producer, lecturer, and writer with contributions on film and culture in regional media. Member of the European Film Critics Panel at Cinematik Festival (Slovakia), and former lecturer at the Faculty of Visual Arts. Co-founder of CIRCLE, a training program supporting women in documentary film. Served on the Temporary Council establishing the Film Center of Montenegro. Proud IVLP alumnus.

Born in 1976 in Tirana, Joni Shanaj is a filmmaker, writer, producer, and educator shaping Albania’s post-dictatorial cultural landscape. With an M.A. in Social Anthropology (Lund University) and Film & TV Directing studies (Skurups Högskola), he embodies a DIY spirit and artistic independence. Part of Albania’s first generation of independent intellectuals, he has long championed creative freedom. For over a decade, he has lectured at the University of Arts in Tirana, inspiring filmmakers toward experimentation. Through SCRB & NKNB, he produced Another Day (2023, Eneos Çarka), premiered at IDFA and award-winning at Dokufest and Linea D’Ombra. He also directed Ivi Tirana Punk (2001) and Pharmakon (2012), Albania’s Oscar entry, bridging film, literature, and anthropology as a key voice in the country’s creative renaissance.

Or is a graduate of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film & Television School, a Berlinale Talents alumni. Her debut feature - MAMA Premiered at Cannes 2025, and was selected to TIFF 2025 among other festivals. Wrote and directed a documentary feature and a few short fiction that participated in festivals around the world, among them - the short film Anna, which won the Cinéfondation Award at the Cannes FF. All her films tell stories about women from the outskirts of society.

Documentary & Experimental Jury

Menelaos Karamaghiolis is an Athens-based artist and filmmaker working across fiction, documentary, installations, artist films, and radiomovies, highlighting overlooked real-life heroes and using cinema as a tool for dialogue and social change. His award-winning films include ROM (1989), called “a turning point for Greek documentary,” BLACK OUT (p.s. RED OUT) (1998), hailed as “the first post-modern Greek film,” and J.A.C.E. (2012), screened at 52 festivals, winning 11 awards. He pioneered Greece’s first interactive documentaries (Meeting with Remarkable People) and founded Døcumatism, turning Athens’ Kypseli into a cultural lab. His projects AfroGreeks and Greekies extend this vision through installations and community events. His work has been presented at EMST Athens, Venice Biennale, Serpentine London, and Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (mini-retrospective 2020, solo show 2023).

Samir Ljuma is an award-winning cinematographer and producer celebrated for his sensitive portrayals of human behavior, relationships, and emotions. With a vivid, multilayered visual style, he has collaborated with Macedonian and international directors, including Sergej Georgiev (Via Dinarica), Ilija Cvetkovski (Avec L’Amour), Hanis Bagashov (Mishko), and Tamara Kotevska & Ljubomir Stefanov on the double Oscar-nominated Honeyland, which won three Sundance awards, including Best Cinematography. As a producer, he has supported projects like Kate Stonehill’s Fake News Fairytale and Leslie Iwerks’ Selling Lies. Recent works include The Walk (DOC NYC 2023), All That We Are, Napoli 1990–2023, Palace of Youth, The Beauty of the Donkey, War Fever, and shorts Zarobljeno Srce Moje and Nikola Nikola. Awards include the ASC, IMAGO, IDA, Cinema Eye Honors, and Sundance Cinematography Award.

Film producer, director, and screenwriter, he co-directed the feature Soldato Peter (2023) with Giliano Carli and has directed numerous documentaries and TV programs. As a producer, he has worked on over 40 features and documentaries with directors including Agostino Ferrente, Samir, Sandro Baldoni, Alina Marazzi, Giuseppe Bertolucci, and Godfrey Reggio. Key works include Selfie (2019, Ferrente), The Bridges of Sarajevo (2015), Anna Piaggi (2019), Everything Speaks of You (2012), We Also Want Roses (2007), Italian Dream (2008), and Anima Mundi (Reggio, music by Philip Glass). His films have screened at major international festivals. He teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Milan.

Live Action & Animation Jury

Konstantina Kotzamani is an award-winning Greek filmmaker whose shorts and medium-length films have premiered at Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, and Locarno, earning critical acclaim and multiple honors, including three Hellenic Film Academy Awards and two European Film Academy nominations. Her 2017 film Limbo was Oscar-qualified, while Electric Swan (Venice 2019) was named Best Short of the Year by the French Critics’ Association. Her latest work, What Mary Didn’t Know, supported by CNC France, ARTE, the Swedish Film Institute, and the Greek Film Centre, premiered at Locarno and is streaming on ARTE. Her films are featured on MUBI and Criterion and have screened worldwide. She has served on juries at major festivals, including BAFICI, Istanbul, and Montreal. Also a writer and script consultant, she co-wrote Third Kind (Cannes 2017) and Arcadia (Berlinale 2019). Her debut feature, Titanic Ocean, a six-country co-production shot in Japan, is in post-production for 2026.

She graduated in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. She was awarded a PhD in art practice at the same faculty. She is a visual artist, director, animator and educator. Her first film ""Rabbitland"", co-directed with Nikola Majdak (2013) was awarded the Crystal Bear at the Berlinale. It has received numerous other awards and has been shown at more than a hundred festivals worldwide. Their second film “Untravel“(2018) was screened at Berlinale, Annecy and Sundance, nominated for the Annie Award and received numerous awards. Their third film “Money and Happiness” (2022) has been premiered in Locarno, and screened at Annecy and numerous other festivals. At present they are working on project development for their first animated feature film “New Rabbitland”. Working within their own studio, they also make many commercial animation projects as well as conducting animation workshops. She lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia

A self-taught filmmaker, Yves Piat gained attention with Nefta Football Club (2018), a short film blending humor and tenderness. It was selected in over 150 festivals worldwide and received nominations at both the Oscars and the César Awards. His work explores the space between social reality and poetic detachment, with a minimalist approach and a taste for twist-driven storytelling. He seeks to reveal, with a human touch, the extraordinary within the everyday. Yves Piat is currently developing two feature film projects.

Student, Balkan, In ALBANIAn Jury

Fabrizio Bellomo (1982, Bari) is a multidisciplinary artist working across film, installation, and visual art. He participated in the 38th, 39th, and 41st Torino Film Festival, winning the Special Jury Prize. His projects Villaggio Cavatrulli and Abito Mari were presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2018, 2025). His work has been exhibited internationally at MACRO Rome, Triennale di Milano, Scuderie del Quirinale, Fondazione Pino Pascali, Festival dei Popoli, Cinemed Montpellier, Tirana Art Lab, and IIC Tokyo, among others. Collaborating with institutions such as Fondazione Forma, Apulia Film Commission, and Galleria Continua, his works are included in the collections of MuFoCo, ICCD, Museo Archeologico di Fano, and Nctm e l’Arte. Recent solo exhibitions include Abito Mari (GOCAT, Tirana, 2025), ’Nziembru (Fondazione Elpis, Milan, 2024), and Meccanicismo (KCB, Belgrade, 2018).

With architectural studies at ETH Zürich and experience in Paris, Berlin, Athens, and Tirana, Efijeni navigates between architecture and film as a curator and producer. She co-founded and runs the Greek production company Reconstructing Memories, focusing on films exploring identity and belonging across shifting geographies. In 2019, she curated Cine Tarkovsky in Tirana, transforming the former dictator’s villa into a screening space and hosting Palme d’Or winner Vassilis Kekatos. Her debut production, Light of Light, premiered at the 52nd IFFR and won multiple awards, including Slamdance’s Grand Prix, Golden Athena (AIFF), Hellenic Film Academy Best Documentary 2024, and Manaki Brothers’ Small Iron Camera 300. She is producing Neritan Zinxhiria’s debut feature The Appalling Human Voice of the Animals, supported by the EU Next Generation fund, while her short Noi premieres at Raindance. Active in Greece and Albania, Efijeni nurtures emerging regional talent.

Elis Mataj, PhD. Director, film lecturer and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the University of Arts. Mataj teaches film directing and is actively involved in coordinating student film projects. In this role, he fosters connections between students and both national and international film festivals, helping to promote their work on broader professional platforms.

Panorama Jury

Adele Budina is an Italo-Albanian producer and founder of Tirana-based A.B. Film. With a background in Political Science and early experience in diplomacy, she transitioned into cinema, building a strong international profile. She debuted onscreen at 16 in Letters in the Wind (Edmond Budina) and directed her first short, Mostly Happy Marionettes (2024, Bosnia). Budina has collaborated with leading Italian companies—including Palomar, PACO Cinematografica, Vision Distribution, Minerva Pictures, and Eagle Pictures—producing award-winning films supported by MIC, Lazio Region, QKK, and other European institutions. She has curated retrospectives, theatre programs, 21 Italian TV documentaries, and audiovisual museum projects, and served on the board of Occhio Blu – Anna Cenerini Bova. A screenwriter, juror at five international festivals, and trainer for youth cinema programs, Budina remains a passionate advocate for Albanian cinema and cross-cultural collaboration.

Anxhela Çikopano, Ph.D., is a researcher in theater and the history of cinema at the Centre of Art Studies in the Academy of Sciences of Albania, as well as a lecturer in the History of Cinema at the University of Arts in Tirana. She holds a 4-year diploma in Theater Directing and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology, focusing on Albanian customary laws and theater. Her research centers on socialist and post-socialist theater and cinema in Albania. She has published a monograph titled "Customary Laws in Albanian Drama" and is currently working on a second book about revisionist theater in communist-era Albania.

Arti Lushi was born in Librazhd on 1985. He studied Political Sciences dhe Communication/Public Relations in University of Tirana. In 2015 he co-founded TransformArt, an cultural initiative for promoting modern albanian poetry and organised poetry reading evenings. He’s the author of four books; two of wich are in prose (Humus, 2010), (Gjakime, 2015) and (Palcë dhe Frymë, 2020), (Zoti i Kripës, 2025) in poetry. His work is published in many anthologies, in Albania and Europe. Lately he won the first price in “Prishtina Book Panair” with “Zoti i Kripës”, Buzuku 2025 He lives and works in Tirana.

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.

Born in Tirana, Albania. He is a graduate of Albanian Economic University and University of Law. President of the "Albanian Producers and Filmmakers Association" Member of European Film Academy In 2011 he was selected for "Producers On The Move" in Cannes Film Festival, by European Film Promotion He is Producer in "On Film Production" movies company. He produced: "AFTER DARK" (2025) by Erenik Beqiri ", "Hatixhe & Shaban" (2025) by Visar Morina, "The Troubleshooters" (2025)by Nico Zavelberg, "Luna Park" (2024) by Florenc Papas "SIRIN" (2023) by Senad Sahmanovic "RISE&FALL OF COMRADE ZYLO" (2022) by Fatmir Koci "Gjirokastra" (2020) by Yuriy Arabov& Aleksandr Sokurov "My Lake" (2019) by Gjergj Xhuvani "Zana" (2019) by Antoneta Kastrati Other movies: "Man of The House" by Andamion Murataj, "Alarm für Cobra" by Nico Zavelberg , "Kanun" by Jérémie Guez , "The Fine Line" By Tuna Kaptan ,"Distant Angels" by Gjergj Xhuvani, "Amsterdam Express" by Fatmir Koci, "Amaneti" by Namik Ajazi, "The Albanien" by Johannes Naber, TV movie "In search of !" by Gjergj Xhuvani, "Komuna e Parisit" by Altin Basha "Honey Moons " by Goran Paskaljevic ,"Alive" by Artan Minarolli, "Lenin and us " by Saimir Kumbaro Has also produced more than 10 documentary series (around 50 episodes) and 4 TV series (with 10 episodes each) and more than 45 shorts movies.

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.

Capture Frame Jury

Ena Bulku graduated with a master's degree in graphic painting with a deep experience in art therapy projects, treating creativity as part of life. As a PR specialist for various creative and social projects, Ena excels in building artistic initiatives through powerful public relations strategies. She has curated several visual arts exhibitions of Albanian and foreign artists. For four years she directed the artistic calendar of the Center for Openness and Dialogue, COD, in the Prime Minister’s office. Currently, she holds the position of Director of the Gallery of Contemporary Art Tirana, known also as GOCAT, where she promotes contemporary art and cultivates a vibrant cultural community.

Rubin Kadiu is a visual artist, a graduate of the University of Arts in the field of Monumental Painting. In 2016, he completed his Master of Science studies with the same specialization. As an artist, he has held several solo and group exhibitions both in Albania and abroad. Since 2023, Rubin has been part of the Center for Openness and Dialogue at the Prime Minister’s Office, where he serves not only as the head of the dialogue and multimedia sector but also as a curator for various exhibitions featuring both local and international artists. Selected Exhibitions as an Artist: “The Unknown” | “Memories” | “Unveiled Identity” | “Retro” | “Onufri Remade” | “Expo NET”. Selected Exhibitions as Assistant Curator / Curator: “How to Pay Back the Sun” | “Territories of Lived Experiences” | “Tracing Taso” | “Unknown Albanians” | “Send me a muse”.

EJAlbum founder and administrator, project manager and curator of art and cultural events, specially focused on photography. Elton Koritari has been working in the Creative Industry for years, managing art projects, curating exhibitions, directing communication campaigns and also representing in Albania some of the most important brands in that sector. He’s work is mainly focused on research about communities, social activism and visual education

Student Critics Jury

Alvin Çyço is a Film & Television Directing bachelor student at the University of Arts in Tirana, Albania. He has done a numerous short student films, including those within the country and abroad. Documentaries have been part of his journey, telling the story of Rock music in Albanian regions lately. Wanting to tell stories that are untold, telling those stories in his way, creating, contributing in our society is what satisfies and makes him keep going.

Horgito Hoxha, 21 years old, is a student at the University of Arts in Tirana, majoring in Film and Television Directing. During his studies, he has realized film etudes, as well as portrait and general documentaries, where he has experimented with visual language and different forms of storytelling. Alongside his work in the field of film, he is also the author of two literary books. His goal is to further develop the connection between literature and film, viewing them as powerful tools for artistic and human communication.

Heldi Mema is a filmmaker and a cinema student at the University of Arts, Albania. His passion for film began in childhood and has been reflected in a wide range of creative projects, from graphic design to screenwriting and directing. He has participated in various artistic processes, both personal and collaborative. As a member of the jury, he values authenticity, originality, and the creative force expressed through cinema.

Ana Veseli is a filmmaker from Kruje, Albania. She has worked across film, television, and digital media in roles ranging from directing and scriptwriting to producing and content creation. Her projects include short films, TV shows, documentaries, and digital campaigns in both Albania and abroad. She is currently in her second year of a Master’s in Film and Television Directing at the University of Arts in Albania.

Rejnis Plaku, 32, has devoted most of his life to filmmaking. With over 12 years of experience as a video editor, he discovered his true passion for directing and completed a Bachelor’s in Film Directing. He is currently pursuing a Master’s at the University of Arts in Tirana. Plaku has directed numerous documentaries exploring real stories with depth and authenticity, as well as the short fiction film LORA, continually refining his artistic vision and technical skills to tell compelling stories and contribute to Albanian and international cinema.

JURY

PerspecTIFF Jury

Vuk
Perović

Joni
Shanaj

Or
Sinai

Documentary & Experimental Jury

Menelaos
Karamaghiolis

Samir
Ljuma

Gianfilippo
Pedote

Live Action & Animation Jury

Konstantina
Kotzamani

Ana
Nedeljković

Yves
Piat

Student, Balkan, In ALBANIAn Jury

Fabrizio
Bellomo

Efijeni
Kokëdhima

Elis
Mataj

Panorama Jury

Adela
Budina

Anxhela
Çikopano

Arti
Lushi

Screenplay ContesTIFF Jury

Bruno
Carnide

Dritan
Huqi

Adam
Selo

Capture Frame Jury

Ena
Bulku

Rubin
Kadiu

Elton
Koritari

Student Critics Jury

Alvin
Çyço

Horgito
Hoxha

Heldi
Mema

Ana
Veseli

Rejnis
Plaku

JURY

PerspecTIFF Jury

Vuk Perović

Joni Shanaj

Or Sinai

Documentary & Experimental Jury

Menelaos Karamaghiolis

Samir Ljuma

Gianfilippo Pedote

Live Action & Animation Jury

Konstantina Kotzamani

Ana Nedeljković

Yves Piat

Student, Balkan, In ALBANIAn Jury

Fabrizio Bellomo

Efijeni Kokëdhima

Elis Mataj

Panorama Jury

Adela Budina

Anxhela Çikopano

Arti Lushi

Screenplay ContesTIFF Jury

Bruno Carnide

Dritan Huqi

Adam Selo

Capture Frame Jury

Ena Bulku

Rubin Kadiu

Elton Koritari

Student Critics Jury

Alvin Çyço

Horgito Hoxha

Heldi Mema

Ana Veseli

Rejnis Plaku

Vuk
Perović

Joni
Shanaj

Or
Sinai

Menelaos
Karamaghiolis

Samir
Ljuma

Gianfilippo
Pedote

Konstantina
Kotzamani

Ana
Nedeljković

Yves
Piat

Fabrizio
Bellomo

Efijeni
Kokëdhima

Elis
Mataj

Adela
Budina

Anxhela
Çikopano

Arti
Lushi

Bruno
Carnide

Dritan
Huqi

Adam
Selo

Ena
Bulku

Rubin
Kadiu

Elton
Koritari

Alvin
Çyço

Horgito
Hoxha

Heldi
Mema

Ana
Veseli

Rejnis
Plaku