INTERNATIONAL JURY
PATRICIA MAZUY (FRANCE)
WRITER AND DIRECTOR, JURY PRESIDENT
Born in Dijon in 1960, Patricia Mazuy entered HEC to fulfill her father's wish. She mainly worked at the film club, confirming her love of westerns and thrillers, then left school for Los Angeles. There, she shot a short film with her babysitting salary and met Agnès Varda and her editor Sabine Mamou. She hired her as an intern on A Room in the City. After editing Vagabond, she devoted herself to her first film Thick Skin (1989).
PIA MARAIS (SOUTH AFRICA)
WRITER AND DIRECTOR
Pia Marais studied fine arts and sculpture in London, Amsterdam, and Düsseldorf before turning to cinema. She graduated from the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) in Berlin, where she began to develop her interest in visual storytelling. She is known for her ability to explore complex social and psychological issues through a minimalist style. Her debut feature film, The Unpolished (2007), earned international acclaim. In 2012, she directed her second film, Layla Fourie, which received the Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2018, she made her first documentary Dear Comrades.
Since 2017, she is a Professor for Film at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne.
VEIT HELMER
DIRECTOR, WRITER AND PRODUCER
Veit Helmer studied film directing at Munich Film school and became famous with his cutting edge short films Surprise and Tour Eiffel, shown at Cannes and Venice. His first feature film Tuvalu (1999), was invited to 62 festivals, including San Sebastian and Berlinale. His cult movie Absurdistan premiered in Sundance 2008 competition. He collaborated with famous artists, such as actor Udo Kier on Gate to Heaven (2003), composer Goran Bregovic for Baikonur (2010) and the actors Paz Vega and Miki Manojlovic for The Bra (2018).
JAANA SAARINEN
ACTRESS
Jaana Saarinen is an Finnish actress. Throughout her long career Saarinen has performed both on the stage, film and TV. Appearing in her first feature film aged only five in Molskis Sanoi Eemeli, Molskis, Saarinen's notable performances on the screen include roles in the TV series Hopeanuolet (2007) for which she won the Venla Finnish TV Award for Best Actress, as well as her lead role in the feature film A Mother (2019) for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the Jussi Finnish Film Awards. In 2022 Saarinen was recognised with the Juha Muje Award at the Red Carpet Film Festival for her long-standing work on the screen, and in 2024 was nominated for the Ensemble Award at the Jussi Finnish Film Awards alongside co-star Heikki Kinnunen for the film Long Good Thursday (2024).
ANDREY M. PAOUNOV (BULGARIA)
DIRECTOR AND WRITER
Andrey M. Paounov is best known for his documentary feature films. His debut, Georgi and the Butterflies (2004), won the Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). His first feature, The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories, was included in the 46th International Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. Andrey’s second full-length documentary, The Boy Who Was a King (2011) won the Best Documentary Feature Jury Award at the 2012 RiverRun International Film Festival. In 2018, Walking on Water, which follows renowned artist Christo’s Lake Iseo project, premiered at the Locarno Festival.
In 2021, Paounov made his fiction debut with January, which received the Best Director Award at the 26th Sofia International Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the Golden Rose National Film Festival.
BALKAN JURY
ROMAN BONDARCHUK
DIRECTOR AND WRITER
Roman Bondarchuk graduated from the Kyiv state University of Theatre, Cinema and TV. His teacher was Yuriy Illenko – one of the founders of Ukrainian Poetic Cinema school. Roman has created a number of short films, documentaries and music videos. An author of the book of novels and contemporary art exhibition. The award-winner of national and international film festivals. Among his famous films Volcano, Cafe "Voyage", Euromaidan. Rough cut and Ukrainian Sheriffs.
Roman is a member of the Ukrainian Union of Cinematographers, as well as the Ukrainian Film Academy. Since February 2022, he has been working on the development of the Ukraine War Archive for the preservation and systematization of evidence of the Russian invasion to Ukraine.
PETIA ALEXANDROVA (BULGARIA)
FILM CRITIC
Petia Alexandrova have many studies in the fields of critic, theory and history of cinema. She is professor at New Bulgarian University, doctor of science, author of the books “Pains of the Title. From a Word to a Cinema Image”, 2006; “Lost in Seeing. Barriers in front of audiovisual media”, 2011; “Transitional stories for culture and communications”, 2015 and “Short-form films: Advantages and challenges. Models and practices of Bulgarian short features”, Institute of Art Studies, 2019. She worked in Bulgarian National Radio and Bulgarian National Television, Literature magazine, Standard newspaper, LIK magazine, ARTizanin magazine. Screenwriter of TV shows (“Monday Eight and Half”, “Ah, These Students”, “Lantern Magic”) and documentaries (“Kardzhali, Faces of the Landscapes”, “Guardians of Our Conscience”, “Deafening Silence”).
OLIVER NEUMANN (AUSTRIA)
PRODUCER
Born 1976 in Mannheim, Germany, Oliver studied at the Vienna Film Academy, specializing in editing. In 2008 he changed course and founded FreibeuterFilm and works mainly as a producer.
Since then, he has produced more then 25 internationally- awarded feature films including Macondo (2014) selected for Berlinale Competition 2014, High Performance (2014), Hidden Reserves (2016) and Joy (2018).
The most recent films he produced are highly acclaimed Great Freedom (2021) by director Sebastian Meise, which was shortlisted for Best International Feature film at the Academy Awards and won the Prix du Jury in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes, Hinterland (2021), a neo-expressionist anti-war thriller from Oscar-winning director Stefan Ruzowitzky, which won the Prix du Public UBS Piazza Grande at Locarno Film Festival, The Village Next to Paradise (2024) directed by Mo Harawe, which had it’s world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes.
DOCUMENTARY JURY
MIHA ČERNEC (SLOVENIA)
PRODUCER
Miha Černec was born in 1975 in Ljubljana. He studied Slavic languages and literature at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. During his studies he wrote reviews and translated. He was one of the founders of the cultural journal Balcanis which covered current events and issues from the countries of former Yugoslavia and was published is several languages. He was member of the editorial board for five years. During this period he became increasingly involved in film production where he is still active today. Several years of work together helped his companies to create a homogenous production team, which now has an established name that can choose among the best Slovene directors. He is an EFA member and president of Association of Slovenian producers.
He works in the field of fiction, documentary and animated film. He runs the companies Staragara and Tramal Films in Slovenia and Staragara IT in Italy. He currently lives in Italy.
VALENTINA GANEVA (USA/BULGARIA)
DIRECTOR, EDITOR, FILM CRITIC
Valentina Ganeva holds BA degree in Film and Theatre History, Theory and Criticism from the NATFA, Sofia. After a successful career as a film critic in her native Bulgaria, she relocated to Los Angeles in 1990 and became a film editor. She was the co-owner, exec. producer and one of the main editors at Murex Films, Inc., a post-production company in Santa Monica, CA. Among her editorial credits are numerous music videos, commercials, documentaries. In 2024 she made her directorial debut with the documentary Schindler Space Architect.
BORIS DESPODOV (BULGARIA)
DIRECTOR, PRODUCER
Boris Despodov has been involved in cinema for almost two decades. As a producer he is an active participant in the Arab New Wave. His films have been screened at most of the most prestigious film festivals. His debut documentary Corridor No. 8 was awarded the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 58th Berlinale Film Festival. His film Three Sisters and Andrey won the Best Short Film Award at the Sofia International Film Festival in 2009. In 2016, he directed and produced the film Twice Upon a Time in the West starring Claudia Cardinale. In 2024, he co-produced alongside Golden Lion winner for his Venice debut, Aimad Abu Alala, the film The Last Miracle by director Abdeluahab Shawki. The film has been selected to open El Gouna. It was banned by the Egyptian authorities 24 hours before its premiere, making it one of the most sought-after films of the moment according to Screen Daily magazine.
FIPRESCI JURY
Tommaso Tocci, Italy
Hamed Soleymanzadeh, Iran
Katerina Lambrinova, Bulgaria