30 July, 2024
Spanning across eight competition categories, this diverse mix of professionals and film enthusiasts will watch and evaluate the films during the festival and select the winning films in their respective categories. The jury of International Short Film category will also select a film to be designated as DokuFest’s Short Film Candidate for 2024 European Film Awards.
Dina Iordanova
Dina Iordanova was born in Bulgaria. She is a film historian, an emeritus professor of global cinema at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She has published extensively on the cinema of the Balkans and on film festivals. She is particularly interested in documentary film. Recently she gave talks on Eastern European documentary cinema at the Visible Evidence conference in Gdańsk and at ZDOK in Zurich. She has served on the juries of documentary festivals in Yamagata, Thessaloniki, Sibiu, and at IDFA.
Somnur Vardar
After studying English Literature at Istanbul’s Bogazici University, her passion for films, and interest in writing and journalism led Somnur Vardar to the graduate Media Studies programme of New York’s New School for Social Research. She wrote, produced, edited, and directed documentaries on a wide range of issues, first at a national news TV channel and then as an independent producer and director. Oral history and urban ecology are her main areas of interest as filmmaker. She lives and works in Istanbul.
Stefan Pavlovic
Stefan Pavlovic (b. 1989) is an award-winning filmmaker currently based between Amsterdam. His debut feature film Looking for Horses (2021) was screened at over forty international film festivals, and won fifteen prizes, among others, the Burning Lights Competition at Visions du Reel, Jury Prize at Sarajevo Film Festival, Grand Prix at RIDM, Best Film at Kasseler Dokfest. Stefan was awarded the Prins Bernhard Documentary Stipend in 2021 and was selected for the Berlinale Talents program in 2022. He is a programmer at the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival and at the International Film Festival Assen, in the Netherlands. Stefan received his BA in film directing at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and his MA at the Netherlands Film Academy in Artistic Research in and through Cinema.
Basil Tsiokos
Basil Tsiokos is a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, focusing on nonfiction features. He was previously the longtime Director of Programming for DOC NYC and the Nantucket Film Festival, and before that the Artistic and Executive Director of NewFest. Basil has regularly served on the feature nominations committees for the International Documentary Association's IDA Awards and Cinema Eye Honors, as well as the advisory board for the SXSW Film Festival. He has written about documentaries since 2010 on what (not) to doc. Basil holds a Masters degree from New York University and two undergraduate degrees from Stanford University.
Hama Haruka
Hama Haruka, she's been a staff of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF) Tokyo Office since 2001, and the director of the Tokyo Office since 2015. She’s been a selection committee member of International Competition program since 2003. Coordinated “Nexus of Borders: Ryukyu Reflections”(YIDFF 2003), “Vista de Cuba”(YIDFF 2011) and “Latinoamérica”(YIDFF 2015) programs. She also works for Cinematrix, a film distribution company based in Tokyo, in which Takamine Go's feature-length film "Hengyoro"(2017), the film that Hama produced. She’s involved in coordinating domestic and international screenings including curation for the Film Program at the Aichi Triennale 2016.
Sylvain George
Sylvain George was born in Lyon, France. He graduated in philosophy, legal and political sciences, cinema. Influenced greatly by the thinking of Walter Benjamin, he directed since 2006 poetic, political and experimental film essays, notably on the theme of immigration and socials movements. His films “The Impossible”, “May they rest in revolt”, “The outbursts”, “Vers Madrid-The burning bright” (2013), “Paris is a moveable feast – A film in 18 waves” (2017), have been screened in many international festivals where they won several prizes in international competition (best films, Fipresci prize…). He is currently completing the trilogy “Obscure night”, the first two parts of which were in the official selection and in international competition at the Locarno Festival in 2022 and 2023 (special mention of the jury).
Doris Bauer
Doris Bauer is co-director of the international short film festival VIENNA SHORTS. She studied political science at the University of Vienna and works as a cultural manager and curator. Until 2014 she was director of the open-air cinema espressofilm, which she co-founded, and managing director of the DVD rental Filmgalerie 8½. In 2012, she co-founded the interest group Association of Austrian Film Festivals, as whose spokesperson she acted until early 2018. Most recently, she was involved in the development of THIS IS SHORT, a European streaming platform for short films.
Ilinca Vânău
Ilinca Vânău is a curator, researcher, and writer living in Edinburgh, originally from Romania. She is an associate film programmer for Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, on the Scottish-English border and a pre-selector for documentary films at Cork International Film Festival in Ireland. Ilinca holds degrees in Film Studies from the University of St Andrews, where she is currently working as a teaching assistant and completing her PhD. Her research focuses on sound and posthumanism across narrative, artists’ moving image and installation works made by women filmmakers and artists. Ilinca is drawn to hybrid experimental and documentary approaches and a cinema that feels uncontained, alive and imperfect.
Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal
Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal is a programmer, film critic and distributor currently part of the programming teams at Ambulante, Berlin Critics' Week, Reykjavik International Film Festival and Black Canvas FCC. He is co-founder of La Ola Cine, a film distribution company based in Mexico City. His texts on film have been published in outlets such as Cinema Scope, Film Comment, MUBI Notebook and in editorial efforts of film fest such as Locarno, Viennale, Mar del Plata, among others.
Shpëtim Selmani
Shpëtim Selmani was born on 16 May 1986. He acts in theatre performances in the country and internationally and has received awards for his acting. Shpëtim Selmani writes prose, plays and poetry. He published the book Shënimet e një Grindaveci (Hot-tempered Notes) in 2015 and a poetry collection Selected Poems 2010-2017 – Poetry in Time of Blood and Despair (Multimedia, Prishtina) in 2017. His most recent novel “Libërthi i Dashurisë (Booklet of Love)” was published in 2019 by Armagedoni in Prishtina. This work was awarded with the 2020 EU Prize for Literature and has been translated and published in German, French and Macedonian. His book “The Ballad of Ant” (2022) has been recently published by Dukagjini, Prishtina and published in Italian language by Crocetti. Also, during the 38th Vilenica International Literary Festival, Shpëtim Selmani, received the prestigious "Vilenica Crystal" award from the Slovenian Writers' Association in 2023. Recently, his play "It is Bill Gate’s fault" has been recommended for translation by Eurodram - the European network for drama in translation.
Sigrid Hadenius-Ebner
Sigrid Hadenius-Ebner is the Festival Producer at Uppsala Short Film Festival. She is responsible for the industry events at the festival, spanning from Uppsala Talent Days and the Uppsala Short Film Pitch, to planning all seminars, panels, and masterclasses. Since 2023 she is the head of the National Competition, and since 2014 she has been a part of the selection committee for the International Competition. She is also a freelance programmer and curator for other festivals and cultural organisations. Sigrid has a background in art history (Uppsala University) and film studies (Stockholm University).
Yun-hua Chen
Yun-hua Chen, who holds a PhD in Film Studies from the University of St Andrews (Scotland), is an independent film scholar and a contributing editor at film magazines Film International and Cinephilia. She also writes for Filmexplorer and Goethe-Institut’s online magazine, among others. Her monograph Mosaic Space and Mosaic Auteurs was published by Neofelis Verlag in Berlin, and her latest essays can be found in Greek Film Noir (Edinburgh University Press, 2022) and Cinema - Journal of Philosophy and Moving Image (2023). Currently, she serves on the board of the German Film Critics Association. She worked as the festival director of dokumentART, an annual documentary and short film festival in Neubrandenburg (Germany), a selection committee member at the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival and OpenEyes Film Festival, a jury member at Beldocs, Beijing International Short Film Festival, Curtas Vila do Conde, and Las Palmas, and a Fipresci jury member at DOK Leipzig, IFFMH, and Berlinale, among others.
Ali Hussein Al-Adawy
Ali Hussein Al-Adawy, a curator of film and artistic research projects, researcher, and critic. He teaches and edits sometimes and writes at other times. He’s interested in film between cinema and contemporary art, moving images, critical theory, urban contemporary art-related practices, and modern and contemporary cultural history. He curated a number of film programs and seminars such as Labor Images (Ongoing since 2019), Serge Daney: A Homage and Retrospective (2017), and Harun Farocki: Dialectics of Images…Images that cover/uncover other images (2018). He also curated many exhibitions and public programs, for example, together with Paul Cata, the exhibition ”The Art of Getting Lost in Cities: Barcelona & Alexandria” (2017)and the seminar “Benjamin and the City”(2015). He was one of the founders of Tripod, an online magazine for film and moving images critique (2015-2017), and was part of the editorial team of TarAlbahr, an online platform and a publication for urban and art practices in Alexandria (2015-2018). He has also completed an MA in the intersections between human rights and contemporary art at Bard College, New York.
Babette Dieu
Babette Dieu has been working with film festivals and markets since 2016. She has held positions such as coordinator of Cannes Docs at the Marché du Film (France) and co-project manager of the EFM Toolbox programs at the European Film Market (Germany). Babette has also worked with festivals such as Doclisboa (Portugal), FIFF (Belgium) and DOK Leipzig (Germany). She has been a film programmer at events such as FIDÉ (France), the Montreal Feminist Film Festival (Canada), the Paris German Film Festival (France) and the Festival En Ville (Belgium). Babette is also a member of DAE - Documentary Association of Europe.
Christine Camdessus
Christine Camdessus started her production company in 2001 ALEGRIA PRODUCTIONS. In 2018, Christine became Managing and Artistic director of Fipadoc - International Documentary Film Festival, a festival dedicated fully to documentaries which takes place in Biarritz, France the last week of January. It brings general public and professionals together for screenings outstanding documentary films.
Ben Bassauer
Ben Bassauer is the head of acquisitions and sales at Monoduo Films which he founded in 2011. He is an alumnus of Bard College in New York where he studied Film & Electronic Arts. Ben worked for Magnolia Pictures as an acquisitions assistant and the Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market before starting his own company. Monoduo Films is a sales and distribution company exclusively representing music documentaries.
Inka Achté
Inka Achté is a Finnish filmmaker and a former sales agent (Taskovski Films and Autlook Filmsales) with nearly 20 years of experience working in the film and TV industries. As well as directing non-fiction in short, long and series formats, she has tutored filmmakers at various industry contexts including IDFA consultancies, Cannes Docs, The Asian Documentary Clinic, Qumra, Medimed and Baltic Sea Docs. Inka has an in-depth understanding of creative documentary from various perspectives: in addition to directing, distribution and tutoring, she currently works as Head of Programming for DocPoint Helsinki Documentary Film Festival and as Head of Acquisitions at Raina Film Festival Distribution, a festival service agency she co-founded in 2019.
Petra Holzer
A graduate from Media and Communication Studies and Theatre & Film Studies, Vienna University she is a documentary director, instructor, curator, and researcher. With “contra” she was involved in campaigns on topics like disability, irregular migrants, violence. The documentaries and campaigns she collaborated with were shown in many countries and TV channels. Her articles have been published in various journals and publications. Currently she is director of BIFED-Bozcaada International Festival for Ecological Documentary.
Bojana Marić
Bojana Marić, Lightdox, Co-Founder, Sales and Acquisitions. Bojana holds MA in Archaeology from University of Belgrade, Serbia. Interpreting human’s past has a lot to do with storytelling and Bojana was naturally driven to documentaries as another form of creative research. Her passion brought her to Lightdox, a Swiss and French based international sales and distribution agency representing powerful and transformative documentary storytelling. We are passionate about high-quality author-driven documentaries with a distinctive cinematic language. We tend to each film with an individual approach and partner with filmmakers in every step of the way, through festival, theatrical and non-theatrical distribution, marketing and impact campaigns
Dafina Halili
Dafina Halili, an award-winning journalist based in Prishtina, Kosovo, works for Kosovo 2.0. With over a decade of experience, she specializes in human rights journalism. Her reporting covers a range of critical issues, including gender-based violence, women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, minority rights, and the coverage of war crimes. Most recently, her investigative piece titled "Ghost Schools, Ghetto Schools, and Segregated Shifts" won her the second EU Investigative Journalism Award 2023 in Kosovo, while her story “I Never Imagined This Could Be Done Also to Men,” was shortlisted for the prestigious Fetisov Journalism Awards.
Rohan Berry Crickmar
Rohan Berry Crickmar Is a film producer and festival programmer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He currently works as Development Producer with LS Productions and produces with his own company EWDIM Productions. He has produced the EdinburghIFF 2022 premiering documentary The Tomorrow That'll Come and is currently co-producing the documentary feature Little Warrior with BAFTA Breakthrough director, Paul Sng, as well as Zaina Erhaim’s account of her experiences in Syria as a female reporter during the civil war Our Feminine Wars. As a festival programmer he has over a decade of experience working with festivals like Africa in Motion, Edinburgh IFF and Cork IFF.
Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck
Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck is a videoartist, film curator and teacher. She does video installations for stage productions and exhibitions and has been working for filmfestivals as programmer (Berlinale Shorts, Kassel Documentary Festival, Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Filmwinter Stuttgart, Pictoplasma) or jury member for over 20 years. Since 2019 she is head of Berlinale Shorts, the official short film competition of the Berlinale.
Armando Lulaj
Armando Lulaj (Tirana, 1980) is a writer of plays, texts on risk territories, filmmaker, and producer of conflict images. His research is oriented towards accentuating the border between economical power, fictional democracy, and social disparity in a global context. In 2003 he founded the DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art. DCCA is a nexus of artists, filmmakers, academics, film critics and art historians, which seek to shed light on the ways in which our contemporary society works but also offer the necessary tools to imagine alternative futures and strategies of resistance to the status quo. Lulaj’s work is part of important public and private collections.
Oana Ghera
Oana Ghera is a Romanian film curator with an academic background in film studies and scriptwriting. She is the Artistic Director of the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival (BIEFF) since 2020 and more recently she joined the pre-selection committees of Go Short (Nijmegen) and Vienna Shorts and she participated in the curation of the 2024 market catalogue of SFC | Rendez-vous Industry, in the context of the Cannes Film Festival. In 2023, she was appointed as the Industry Coordinator of the European Short Pitch. Previously, she was a co-programmer for the NexT International Film Festival (2016 - 2019). She has been part of script reviewing commissions for the Romanian National Film Center (CNC) in 2020 and 2022 and participated in numerous juries for film festivals.
