International Competition Jury

Christa Saredi
Originally a translator and interpreter, in the early eighties, Christa Saredi started in the film industry as head of international promotion for Swiss Films. She then worked as production and sales assistant and as publicist on several international and Swiss films and as a consultant for the Locarno and Rotterdam film festivals. As founder and manager of World Sales Christa Saredi, specializing in promotion and sales of quality films, she has attended all important international film festivals and markets. Over the years, Christa Saredi has discovered the directors Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismäki, Ang Lee, Michael Haneke, Bakhtiyar Khudojnazarov and Thomas Vinterberg and made decisive contributions to their careers. She co-financed and co-produced several films and represented many more directors from all over the world, such as Assi Dayan, Hal Hartley, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Lucrecia Martel, Mira Nair, Pan Nalin, Lars von Trier, Arturo Ripstein. She now works as consultant, guest speaker and trainer at various international film industry events, schools and training programmes and is member of national and international evaluation committees. Christa Saredi is co-founder and board-member of the company that created RiffRaff (Zurich) and runs Bourbaki (Lucerne) - 8 of Switzerland’s most attractive arthouse screens.

Bogdan George Apetri
Romanian filmmaker based in the United States. A former lawyer in his native country, he moved to New York where he graduated from the prestigious Columbia University with a dual Master of Fine Arts degree, in Film Directing and Cinematography. There, he directed and produced a series of short films that were selected by many prominent festivals across the world (Clermont-Ferrand, Rotterdam, Palm Springs, Cottbus, Montreal, etc.) and garnered several important awards in the process, culminating with a 2006 Student Academy Awards nomination. He directed and wrote “Periferic” (“Outbound”), a Romanian feature film produced by Alex Teodorescu (producer for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and Two Days”, winner of Palme d’or at Cannes in 2007) and Josef Aichholzer (producer of “The Counterfeiters”, Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2007). The project was selected at some of the best film festivals across the world (Locarno, Toronto, Warsaw, Rotterdam) and won numerous international awards, including the Special Jury Award and the FIPRESCI Award at the 2010 Warsaw International Film Festival. Bogdan also co-produced “3 Backyards” by Eric Mendelsohn, a US feature that won the Best Directing Award at Sundance in 2010. It stars Edie Falco (“The Sopranos”), Elias Koteas (“The Thin Red Line”, “Shutter Island”) and Embeth Davidtz (“Schindler’s List”, “Fracture”).

Alvaro Brechner
Born in Montevideo, 1976. Directed several documentaries for History Channel, Odyssey Channel, TVE and the short films The Nine Mile Walk, Sofía, and Segundo Aniversario. These shorts have participated in more than 140 international film festivals, obtaining several awards. Alvaro’s feature directorial debut, Mal día para pescar did premiere at 2009 Cannes Film Festival as one of the seven films in competition at the International Critic’s Week. It received over 30 awards and has participated in more than 60 international festivals, including the 26thWarsaw Film Festival (Free Spirit Award), Montreal, Los Angeles Latino (Best Film Opera Prima), Mar del Plata (Best Actor), Moscow, Shanghai, Austin (Best Film & Audience Award), Brooklyn (Best Director), Sofia (Best Film Fipresci), São Paulo, Pusan, Haifa, Stockholm, Lima (Best Screenplay), La Habana, Gijón, Kerala, Palm Springs and Chicago. In Spain, the film got nominated for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actor by Spanish Film Critics Circle (CEC). In Uruguay, the film won ten Uruguayan Film Critics Association Awards, including Best Film, Best International Film Debut, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor. It was also Uruguayan candidate for Oscar Academy Award - Best Foreign Language Film.

Milcho Manchevski
He is a scriptwriter and director of feature films “Before The Rain” (1994), “Dust” (2001), “Shadows” (2007) oraz “Mothers” (2011). „Before the Rain” won an Academy-Award nomination and thirty awards, including Golden Lion for Best Film in Venice, Independent Spirit Award, and many others, including the Audience Award at 11. WFF. The New York Times included „Before The Rain” on its list of the best 1,000 films ever made. Manchevski’s films have screened at more than a hundred festivals, and have been distributed in close to 50 countries (theatrically, TV, cable and video). He has published fiction, essays and op-ed pieces in New American Writing, La Repubblica, Corriere Della Sera, Sineast, The Guardian, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Pravda, etc. He authored a (very small) book of fiction, „The Ghost of My Mother” and two books of photographs „Street” (1999) and “Five Drops Of Rain” (2010) which accompany the two photo exhibitions. He has lectured at a number of universities, cinematheques, art museums and art institutes.

Artem Vassiliev
He was born on the 17th of December 1970 in Moscow. In 1994 he graduated from Moscow State University. In 1993 becomes one of the founders and partners of the company Teko Film, specialized in TV commercials production and digital post-production. In 1999 Artem Vassiliev becomes general producer of Teko Film Production (Metrafilms since 2003). Currently METRAFILMS is one of the leading commercial production companies in Russia and develops it’s own film projects. One of the partners of “Phenomen Films” (2005-2010) production company with three feature films completed: (“Paper Soldier” by Alexey German Jr, “Room and a Half” by Andrey Khrzhanovski, and “Act of Nature” by Sergey Osipian and Alexander Lungin.

The Competition 1-2 Jury

Sitora Alieva
Born in Dushanbe. Made her film debut as actress at the age of 7. In he following 9 years played about ten roles in art and television films. In 1987 graduated from the scriptwriting and film history department of the Film Institute VGIK (course of E. Surkov and L. Mamatova). From 1987-88 expert of the Culture Fund. From 1987-91 senior film-editor at the studio “Tadjikfilm”. Since 1991 lives and works in Moscow. From 1991-93 editor at the Fund for Cinema Support. From 1994-96 assistant to D. Dondurei, editor-in-chief of the journal Film Art, at the same time film program coordinator of the International Film Festival in Sochi held by “Kinotavr” Company Group. From 1999-2005 director and member of the selection committee of the IFF Sochi, the IFF “Faces of Love”, and the International Children’s Arts Festival “Kinotavrik”. From 2002-2005 executive director Open Russian Film Festival “Kinotavr”. Since 2005 programme director of the ORFF “Kinotavr”. Served on the jury of numerous film festivals.

Andrzej Bart
Novelist, scriptwriter and film director. He prefers people to talk about his books and films and to leave him alone. Spent his early years writing an epic novel “Rien ne va plus”, which was finally published in 1991, and earned him a prestigious Kościelski Award. His novels “The Man the Dogs Didn’t Bark At” (1983), “The Travel Bug” (1999), “The Fifth Rider of the Apocalypse” (1999), “Don Juan Revisited” (2006), and “Flytrap Factory” (2008) were translated into several foreign languages. Bart directed about a dozen documentaries, including biopics about Eva Rubinstein, Marian Brandys and Marek Rudnicki. A feature film based on his novel “The Reverse” (2008) became a huge success, winning numerous awards at home and abroad and becoming Poland’s official submission for the 2009 Academy Awards®. Bart’s TV movie, “Boulevard Voltaire” got six awards at the 2011 Sopot Festival, including two for Bart: Best Director and Best Script.

David Mackenzie
His first feature, the experimental road movie “The Last Great Wilderness” premiered in Edinburgh in 2002 and went on to have its international premiere in Toronto the same year. Second film “Young Adam”, starring Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton premiered in Cannes in 2003, and won several awards, including a London Film Critics Award for David, the Best New British Feature award from the Edinburgh Film Festival and a Scottish BAFTA for Best Director. His fourth film “Hallam Foe” was the winner of eight international awards including the Silver Bear and the German Art House Cinema Guild Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2007 - the same prize that Mackenzie’s third feature “Asylum” won in 2005. Next feature “Spread” premiered at Sundance in 2009, where it was a major seller of the festival. “You Instead” premiered at the Glasgow FF and then SXSW in early 2011 and is due for release in the UK and internationally from September. “Perfect Sense” starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green premiered in Sundance in January 2011 and is due for release in the UK and internationallyfrom October. It won The List’s Best UK Feature award when it had its European Premiere at Edinburgh FF in June.

Free Spirit Competition Jury

Jane Schoettle

International Programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival®, responsible for programming films from Australia, New Zealand and Israel, as well as American independent cinema.
She is the founder and former Director of the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children, recognized as one of the top five children’s festivals in the world. During her tenure at Sprockets, she also established the John VanDuzer Children’s Film Collection, which provides teachers with the opportunity to screen engaging and educational films not otherwise available in Canada. She also established Reel Comfort, which brings screenings and workshops to patients in acute care psychiatric wards in hospitals, and Special Delivery, a filmmaking workshop for at-risk youth in under-serviced communities. Schoettle has worked as a script consultant for private clients and participated in numerous film residency programmes, most recently for the South Australian Film Corporation at the Adelaide Film Festival and for Screen Australia held in Sydney. She has served on numerous international festival juries and was part of film industry panels on festival-related subjects.

Paweł Borowski
Graduated with honours from faculties of painting and animation the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (1997). Made three short films. One of them, „I Love You” (2003) was on the very few theatrically released Polish shorts and was part of many film festivals, including Berlinale and Tribeca. In 2009 made a feature debut „Zero”, which was presented at numerous film festivals: Pusan, 25. WFF (closing film), Sao Paulo, Rotterdam, Munich, Milan and won several awards, including four Grand Prix.

Auraeus Solito
Was born in Manila on Philippines. His feature debut “The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveiros” (2005) was a huge international success - it was presented at Sundance, Berlinale - and won Teddy Award there, Rotterdam and WFF. His next movies are “Tuli” (2005), “Pisay” (2007), and “Boy” (2009). The latest one “Busong” (2011) is in a non-competitive section at this year’s WFF.

Documentary Competition Jury

Liat Benhabib
Film producer. Founder and director of „The Yad Vashem Visual Center”, the world’s largest digital library and collection of films, survivor testimonies, and information on Holocaust. Founding member of the “Forum for the Preservation of the Audio-Visual Memory in Israel”. B.A. (with honors) in the faculty of Film and Television and in Psychology, Tel Aviv University. Worked as researcher, casting director, assistant director or producer for Israeli feature films and television series, by directors Eran Riklis, Ari Folman, David Ofek and Yossi Madmoni, among others. Film instructor for adults with special needs -- script adviser, director and producer at film workshops organized by „Nitzan” -an Israeli NGO for people with special needs. Producer of the Video-Art installations by Michal Rovner and Uri Tzaig and Co- Producer with „Belfilms Productions” of 116 short films for the permanent exhibition of the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem inaugurated in March 2005.

Christian Frei
He was born in 1959, in Schönenwerd, Switzerland. He studied Visual Media at the Department of Journalism and Communication at Fribourg University. He shot his first documentary in 1981, and has been working as an independent filmmaker and producer since 1984. He works regularly for Swiss National Television SF DRS. In 1997, he shot his first feature length documentary, “Ricardo, Miriam y Fidel”. In 2001, his “War Photographer” (WFF 2002) followed photojournalist James Nachtwey during his various missions. The film received an Academy Award Nomination for „Best Documentary Feature” and won twelve international film festivals. “The Giant Buddhas”, his third documentary feature, which deals with the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha sculptures, wins the 2005 Silver Dove at the Leipzig Film Festival and enters competition at the renowned film festivals of Sundance and Toronto. His documentary feature “Space Tourists” (2009) was invited again to numerous film festivals, including competitions in Amsterdam and Sundance, where he is the first Swiss film to win the World Cinema Directing Award. Since August 2010 he is President of the Swiss Film Academy. He lives and works in Zurich.

Janusz Mrozowski
He was born in Poland in 1948. Since 1970 he lives in Paris. In 1978 directed short film “A thing”, produced by Pierre Braunberger, famous producer of New Wave. In 1987 founded Filmogene studio. In 1998 shot in Burkina Faso his first feature film “Lucy rematch”, awarded in Pretoria the prestigious M-Net All Africa Film Award (African Oscars). His “Bad Boy cell 425” (2009), the only polish-language film shown at Cannes in 2009, awarded Gold Teeth (Camera) for Best polish Documentary Film 22th Polish Film Festival in USA. His next movie “Bad Girls cell 77” had a world premiere at 26th Warsaw Film Festival.

Shorts Competition Jury

Anne Parent
She studied advertising and communication in Paris, and started to work in performing arts and events in Paris before to join the Clermont-Ferrand’s film festival team in 1996 to develop the Short Film market. From there, she has prospected to build the exhibition area which gathered 32 countries in 2011, and to also increase the number of the attending professionals acting in the short film industry especialy the buyers, distributors, and programmers from all over the world. The Clermont-Ferrand’s short film market is now the place to be for any professional wishing to act in the cinema and create a strong networking.

Grzegorz Jaroszuk
He was born in Warsaw in 1983. In 2011, he graduated in directing at the Polish National Film School in Lodz, Poland. During his studies, he made six short films: “Wszystko jest” / “Everything Is Here” (2005), “Ostatni dzień” / “Last Day” (2006), “Biblioteka” / “Library” (2007), “Egzemplarz autorski” / “Author’s Copy” (2007), “Historia braku samochodu” / “A Story of a Missing Car” (2008), “Opowieści z chłodni” / “Frozen Stories” (2011), “Początek nowego sezonu” / “The Beginning of the New Season” (2011). “Frozen Stories” are presented at the 27th WFF as part of Polish Short Films Panorama.

Sergio Oksman
He was born in Brazil, 1970. Studied Journalism in São Paulo and Film in New York. In 2000 he created Dok Films, a production company based in Madrid. Among his works as a director are “Ronaldo: A Flight Manual” (1997), “Gaudí in the Favela” (2002), “The Beautician” (2004)”, “Goodbye, America” (2007) and “Notes on the Other” (2009), winner of Best Short Film at the 25th Warsaw Film Festival.

FIPRESCI Jury

Carmen Gray
She is a New Zealand-born film critic and arts journalist based in London. She writes for publications including Sight & Sound, Little White Lies, Dazed & Confused, AnOther and Under/current. She has a special interest in the cinema of central and eastern Europe and has served on the juries of a number of major international film festivals, including Berlin, Moscow, Wroclaw and Toronto. She is also part of the programming team for government-funded film education charity FilmClub UK.

Ola Salwa
Polish journalist and film critic, writing for several years for Przekrój weekly and Film monthly. Collaborates also with Polish edition of Elle, Kino Polska TV, and with magazine of the Polish Filmmakers Association. Also writes about fashion and design. Participated in the Warsaw FIPRESCI Project workshop for young film critics during the 25th Warsaw Film Festival and in the Trainee Project for Young Film Critics during the 39th Rotterdam International Film Festival.

Dean Kotiga
Born and grew up in Motovun, where (with the help of beloved Motovun Film Festival) he developed his love for film. After high school he moved to Zagreb where he finished his Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature and History at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, where he’s now finishing his Master of Arts in Comparative Literature. As film critic, he’s a regular contributor to all of the most important film-dedicated publications (Croatian Film Chronicle), websites (filmovi.hr) or radio programs (Filmoskop), where he publishes his reviews, interviews, essays and other film-related texts. Besides that he also publishes in culture magazine 15 days and on independent-culture oriented website kulturpunkt.hr, while before that he published on websites filmski.net and vip.hr. He is a member of the Croatian Society of Film Critics and FIPRESCI, and also has participated on some festivals as jury member or as the round table expert.

Ecumenical Jury

Dr Guido Convents
Born in 1956, is Belgian. He has a degree in History and Anthropology. He wrote his PhD on the history of cinema. He has published many books and articles about non western contemporary cinema and the History of Cinema. He published also on early Polish film history and especially on Kazimierz Prószyński. Wrote a chapter in a book titled „W cieniu braci Lumière / In the Shadows of Lumière Brothers”, edited by Prof. Marek Hendrykowski (1995). He writes also on the history of Catholics and their relation to film. At the SIGNIS Secretariat he is responsible for professional contacts with the media world, secretary of the Cinemadesk and he is editor of the magazine SIGNIS Media. He is consultant for international festivals, secretary of the Professional Film Critics Association (Brussels), and president of the Belgian African Film Festival (AFF).

Rev. Hans Hodel
Born in 1938 in Switzerland, studied pedagogy and protestant theology in Bern. He served as pastor in a parish, especially committed to the youth movement. From 1966-1987 he was professor in a teacher training school for religion, ethics and media and also editor of the ecumenical publication RL for religion and ethics in public schools. From 1987-2003 he served as a film commissioner of the Swiss Protestant Churches, which included the responsibility for the non theatrical film- and video distribution ZOOM. As member of INTERFILM he became jury coordinator of the association since 1989. That year he was one of the founding fathers of the foundation trigon-film and acts since 2005 as its, vice-president. Between 1989 and 2002 he was member of the film commission/office for culture of the Swiss federation. From 1990 and 2002 he was member of the Steering Committee of the World Association for Christian Communication Europe (ERA-WACC). Since 1989 he participated in several INTERFILM and Ecumenical Jurys. He was nominated president of INTERFILM in 2004.

o. Marek Kotyński
Born in 1962 in Poland, is a redemptorist father. He studied theology in Pontifical Gregorian University a Rome and Pontifical Spiritual Institute Teresianum a Rome, where he got a doctorate in theology. Currently prepares the habilitation about religious meaning of the cinema. Since 2008, he is teaching in the Cultural Institute of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, and he works precisely on the relation between cinema and spirituality. He has published several articles about the spiritual dimension of the cinema. He is the member of the SIGNIS-Poland.

NETPAC Jury

Amaia Torrecilla Olasolo
She studied Translation and Interpretation at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is currently completing a degree in East Asian Studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Since 1990, she has been working as a freelance translator for different subtitling companies and publishing houses. In 1994, she co-founded the „100,000 retinas” cultural association, a promoter of films never before released in Spain, in their original languages. In 1999, they created the „Barcelona Asian Film Festival-BAFF”, the first festival which focused solely on the support and promotion of Asian films in Spain. During its existence, the BAFF established itself as one of the most important Asian film festivals in Europe. She is presently directing her own company, Eguzkialde Arts Management, a cultural management company based between Berlin and Barcelona, which alde Arts Management aspires to build a cultural bridge between Asia and Europe.

Jeffrey Jeturian
He studied Broadcast Communication at the University of the Philippines. After college, he worked as a production assistant, script continuity supervisor, art director, production designer, director for television and assistant director before making his debut as a film director. His first feature, Sana Pag-ibig Na (Enter Love, 1998), was shot on a budget of US$ 50,000. His second film, Pila Balde (Fetch A Pail of Water, 1999) is a widely-acclaimed socio-realist articulation on the plight of slum dwellers and their struggle for survival. It received numerous awards at Wolrdfest Houston, Cinemanila, and was presented at several countries. Tuhog (Larger than Life, 2000), Jeturian’s third film, is a satirical take on the state of film making in the Philippines. It competed at the 2001 Venice Film Festival and also received several local and international awards. Meanwhile, Kubrador (The Bet Collector, 2006), Jeturian’s seventh film, is perceived widely as Jeturian’s most accomplished film. It was was exhibited in more than a hundred international film festivals, including a US premiere at the Museum of Modern Art (New York). Jeturian’s other films are Bridal Shower (2004), Minsan Pa (One Moment More, 2004) and Bikini Open (2005). The Manunuring Pelikulang Pilipino, the most prestigious organization of film critics in the Philippines, added Pila-Balde, Tuhog and Kubrador to its list of twenty important Filipino films produced during the past twenty years. A biting critique of the Philippine middle class, Bisperas (Eve, 2011), Jeturian’s eight and most recent film, received five awards, including Best Picture, during this year’s Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival (Manila).

Konrad Wągrowski
Born 1973, film critic and journalist, speciasing in popular culture. Since 2000 until present works as editor-in-chief of Esensja. pl, an internet magazine of popular culture (www.esensja.pl). His text were published in, among others, following magazines: Cinema, Film, Świat Filmu, Wprost, and Ozon. Runs a column named „Popkulturystyka” at the popular film portal Stopklatka. pl. Wągrowski is a buff of Asian Cinema. He particularly likes its popular genres like horror, fantasy, ganster movies, and martial arts. Wrote several pieces about Asian filmf for Cinema (Imported DVDs, Stopklatka (The Story of Asian Horror Movies), and Esensja (Orient Express).