July 28, 2026
DokuFest is honoured to present this year’s esteemed competition juries. Across eight competition categories, 21 distinguished professionals from the worlds of film, music, the arts, and culture will evaluate 104 films from around the world, recognising the most outstanding works of this year’s edition.
BALKAN DOX JURY: AGNÈS WILDENSTEIN / ENEOS ÇARKA / YASEMİN AKINCI
AGNÈS WILDENSTEIN
Independent film programmer Agnès Wildenstein was born in Strasbourg, France, and lives in Lisbon, Portugal. After being a researcher for the French TV Archives I.N.A. she participated in the creation and activities of Paris Forum des Images, Acquisitions and Programming for six years. Then, Agnès worked at La Cinémathèque française in Paris for ten years, at Locarno film festival in Switzerland for twelve years. She was a member of the Jean Vigo Award jury for ten years, and member of the selection committee of ARTE France Cinema from 2012 to 2015. A jury member in more than twenty international film festivals around the world.
She was the invited curator for the 2019 edition of Portuguese cinema seminar Doc’s Kingdom. Agnès was associate programmer for DocLisboa from 2014 to 2019, where she curated the first complete retrospective in Europe of Colombian director Luis Ospina in 2018, and a retrospective on East German documentaries in 2019. She has been an associate programmer at Sheffield Doc Fest in 2020 and 2021. She curated a program on German women filmmakers from eastern and western Germany including a focus on director Helke Misselwitz, at Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris in 2021. She is a consultant for several film festivals.
ENEOS ÇARKA
Eneos Çarka is a filmmaker and researcher. His films have screened at numerous festivals, galleries, and cultural events such as IDFA, HotDocs, Los Angeles Filmforum and more. He received the FIPRESCI Award in 2023 for his MFA film "The Silence of The Banana Trees" and served as a Jury Member in the IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary in 2022. His first feature documentary "Another Day" debuted at IDFA Luminous section in 2023 where it received a Best First Feature Nomination as well as the Best Balkan Dox at DokuFest. He is an alumnus of the DocNomads MFA program in Creative Documentary and is currently conducting artistic research on elemental cinema at University of Southern California.
YASEMİN AKINCI
Yasemin Akıncı is a Turkish filmmaker and editor based in Marseille, France. After studying cinema at Galatasaray University in Istanbul, she continued her education at the École Supérieure d'Audiovisuel (ESAV) in Toulouse. Her first feature-length documentary, A Strange Colour of Dream, premiered at IDFA in 2024 and won the Balkan Dox Award at DokuFest. Blending observational cinema with imaginative visual forms, her work explores memory, architecture, and the fragile relationship between personal histories and the spaces we inhabit.
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE DOX JURY - HEIDI FLEISHER / IGOR BEZINOVIĆ / STUART SLOAN
HEIDI FLEISHER
Heidi Fleisher is a freelance American producer and consultant based in France. She has over 15 years of experience in documentary film, spanning acquisitions, production, sales and training. Her work gravitates around creative documentaries that blend the emotion of the human experience with a distinctive artistic vision. She formerly handled international acquisitions for France Télévision’s feature doc strand 25 Shades of Docs, worked as head of sales & acquisitions for ARTE Sales, and as a development exec in Los Angeles. She often intervenes as a mentor, educator, curator, juror, and expert for international festivals, workshops and industry events, and as a consultant for various film institutions and independent filmmaker / producers. Previous producing / co-producing credits include feature docs THE CASTLE by Martin Benchimol, WAKE UP ON MARS by Dea Gjinovci, DON'T BREATHE by Nino Kirtadze, and the short documentary collection ELEMENTAL, produced with Sandbox Films.
IGOR BEZINOVIĆ
Igor Bezinović is a filmmaker from Rijeka, Croatia. His films include The Blockade (Oktavijan Award for Best Croatian Documentary, 2012), Veruda (Oktavijan Award for Best Croatian Documentary, 2015), A Brief Excursion (Big Golden Arena for Best Croatian Feature, 2017), and Fiume o morte! (Tiger Award, 2025; European Film Award for Best Documentary, 2026), alongside numerous short films.
His work has screened internationally at festivals and institutions including IFFR, DOK Leipzig, Ji.hlava IDFF, CPH:DOX, Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Museum of the Moving Image, Viennale, and the San Sebastián International Film Festival, among others. He studied Film Directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and Philosophy, Sociology, and Comparative Literature at the University of Zagreb.
STUART SLOAN
Stuart Sloan is Head Programmer of Docs Ireland, the island’s largest documentary film festival, which he helped establish in 2019. A documentary editor from Northern Ireland, his films have screened at major festivals including SXSW, IDFA and Thessaloniki, and on broadcasters such as PBS and TG4. His editing credits include All Ears, The Last Season, Tides, These Are My Ours, and Burkiit (2024). He previously worked with Belfast Film Festival, co-founded the pop-up cinema initiative Second Chance Cinema, and continues to edit documentaries while developing experimental archive projects with Docs Ireland.
INTERNATIONAL SHORT DOX JURY - HEPHZIBAH DRUML / ROSS McCLEAN / YAVUZ GÖZELLER
HEPHZIBAH DRUML
Hephzibah Druml studied art history at the University of Vienna and the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Following stays in Frankfurt and New York, she has been working since 2012 for the Kontakt Collection in Vienna, which focuses on art from Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. She currently heads the collection's programming and production, a role in which she has realized numerous projects, including exhibitions, both in Austria and abroad. Since the 2026 summer semester, she has also been teaching as a university lecturer at the Photography class at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She was a member of the Innovative Film Jury at the 2025 Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film in Graz.
ROSS McCLEAN
Ross McClean is a Belfast-based filmmaker and a graduate of the European documentary directing programme DocNomads. His acclaimed shorts Hydebank (2019), Echo (2023), and No Mean City (2025) premiered at leading festivals including IDFA, DOK Leipzig, True/False, Sheffield DocFest, and Visions du Réel, earning multiple international awards and an IFTA nomination. His debut feature documentary, Magilligan (2026), supported by Doc Society and ARTE, premiered in the International Competition at Visions du Réel.
YAVUZ GÖZELLER
Yavuz Gözeller is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and curator whose work focuses on experimental cinema, film history, and interdisciplinary moving image practices. He works as a screenwriter and story consultant across film, television, and digital platforms. He develops film programs and exhibitions, as well as workshops and educational initiatives, in collaboration with film festivals and cultural institutions. He is the Founding Director of Istanbul Experimental, Turkey's first festival dedicated exclusively to experimental cinema, and currently serves as President of the Media Arts Association of Turkey.
INTERNATIONAL SHORTS JURY - KARIM AÏTOUNA / PER FIKSE / VIV LI
PER FIKSE
Per Fikse (Norway, b. 1965) has been Director of the Minimalen Short Film Festival in Trondheim since 1999, after joining as a programmer in 1994. Now in its 39th year, Minimalen is a key arena for short film in the Nordic region, presenting around 250 films each January across international and Nordic competitions, along with retrospectives and special focus programmes. Alongside his curatorial work, Fikse has created short films and published on film, including articles in Short Film Studies (Intellect Books), with recent writing exploring the particular qualities of short fiction and the relationship between art and mainstream cinema.
He is frequently invited to serve on juries at film festivals around the world, including Tampere (Finland), Uppsala (Sweden), Jaffna (Sri Lanka), Hamburg (Germany), Kiev (Ukraine), Riga (Latvia), Tehran (Iran), Las Palmas (Spain) and In the Palace (Bulgaria).
VIV LI
Viv Li is a Chinese filmmaker based in Berlin. An alumna of Sundance Institute and Berlinale Talents, her film ACROSS THE WATERS was nominated for the Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes 2024 and won the Lights On Women’s Worth Award. Her work has also competed at Venice Film Festival and won awards at IDFA. Her documentary debut TWO MOUNTAINS WEIGHING DOWN MY CHEST premiered at Berlinale 2026, earning a Teddy Award nomination and making her works present across all “Big Three” film festivals.
KARIM AÏTOUNA
A graduate of studies in law, film studies, and cultural management, Karim Aïtouna is a producer based in France and Morocco, with a portfolio that includes fiction and documentary, reflecting his commitment to supporting diverse storytelling across borders. With more than 22 feature films produced, his productions have screened and awarded at festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, and Sundance.
HUMAN RIGHTS DOX JURY - MARIGONA SHABIU / MARION SCHMIDT / MICHELLE GUREVICH
MARIGONA SHABIU
Marigona Shabiu is a human rights activist from Kosovo and the Executive Director of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights - Kosovo (YIHR KS), a position she has held since 2017. She leads the organization's work on human rights, peacebuilding, transitional justice, dealing with the past, and youth engagement in Kosovo and across the Western Balkans. Marigona is currently pursuing a PhD in Politics at the University of Westminster, where her research focuses on transitional justice and memory politics. She holds a Master's degree in Public Affairs from Indiana University Bloomington and Bachelor's degrees in Political Science and Public Administration. With over a decade of experience in civil society, Marigona has led and contributed to numerous national and regional initiatives promoting human rights, democratic governance, reconciliation, and civic participation.
MARION SCHMIDT
Marion Schmidt is a cultural manager, consultant, and facilitator committed to building more equitable, safer, and collaborative environments in film, culture, and the NGO sector. She works globally with film markets, festivals, and organisations as a strategic consultant, industry curator, and mentor, and leads the #DocSafe Initiative. Marion recently became a certified systemic integrative coach and is developing her first feature documentary as a producer.
She is regularly invited to serve on juries and selection committees worldwide and frequently moderates panels and facilitates roundtables in international film industry settings. She is co-founder of the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE), co-director 2020–2024, now board member and senior consultant. She sits on the board of the Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS), is a member of the Palestine Film Institute (PFI), and co-founded DOX BOX e.V. in 2014 — a support organisation for documentary filmmakers from and in the Arab region — where she held various roles and led the international Documentary Convention 2018 and 2019. Marion has worked across diverse contexts in Europe, the SWANA region, and Africa, from established organisations to grassroots collectives, with nearly two decades of experience. Credits include: Goethe-Institut, DW Akademie, GIZ, Berlinale, Durban FilmMart, and others.
MICHELLE GUREVICH
Michelle Gurevich is a songwriter, producer and performer, known for her tragicomic ballads which take inspiration from European and Russian chanson. Her music has been widely used in films such as “Party Girl” (Cannes Camera D’or, Amachoukeli), as the opening theme song of “Down Cemetery Road” (produced and starring Emma Thompson), Netflix series “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey”, and by fashion brands such as Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and Dries Van Noten. Prior to music she spent a decade as a video editor and now makes most of her own music videos using home-movie and found footage.
GREEN DOX JURY- FINLAY PRETSELL / LOUISE MARTIN PAPASIAN / SEBASTIAN BRAMESHUBER
FINLAY PRETSELL
BAFTA-winning filmmaker Finlay Pretsell is driven by raw, authentic non-fiction cinema that immerses viewers in unique experiences. Drawn to the human condition and genuine characters, Pretsell’s most recent film DOUGLAS GORDON BY DOUGLAS GORDON premiered at the 76th Berlinale Panorama to much acclaim. At one point he raced bicycles worldwide but discovered filmmaking fed his curious adventurous spirit much better. His acclaimed debut, TIME TRIAL, opened doors to creating meaningful experiences through film.
LOUISE MARTIN PAPASIAN
Louise Martin Papasian is a filmmaker and film programmer. She has been a member of the FIDMarseille selection committee since 2021 and holds a Master's degree in Film Production from the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in San Sebastián.
SEBASTIAN BRAMESHUBER
Sebastian Brameshuber studied stage and film design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and film at Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains in France. His films are rooted in documentary practice, exploring the charged relationship between historical and personal realities through a reduced cinematic language. They have been shown and awarded at festivals including Berlinale, Viennale, Cinéma du Réel, Art of the Real, FIDMarseille, IDFA, and BFI London, among others. In 2019, the Filmarchiv Austria and Anthology Film Archives held first retrospectives of his work. He was awarded the Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel for Movements of a Nearby Mountain in 2019 and London in 2026.
NATIONAL COMPETITION JURY - AULONA SELMANI / FLORIAN FERNANDEZ / SVEN SCHWARZ
AULONA SELMANI
Born in 1997 in Binningen, Switzerland, she grew up in Kosovo, where she began writing short stories and poetry at the age of eight, developing an early sensitivity to storytelling and image. In 2015, she began her studies in film directing at the University of Prishtina, alongside working as a freelancer in the local film industry. In June 2023, she completed her Master’s degree in directing at ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts).
Her artistic practice moves between the intimate and the political, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and memory. Her short films include Pariah State (2023), Almost Crying (2023), and And the Wind Weeps (2023). Almost Crying received several awards, while And the Wind Weeps had its world premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
Her debut feature film, Serra, has completed shooting and is currently in post-production. As an actress, she holds a leading role in the feature film Etera by Michele Pennetta and in the short film Alles Gut by Jelena Pavlović.
FLORIAN FERNANDEZ
Holding a Master’s degree in Film Studies, Florian has coordinated and participated to the reshape of the various industry initiatives held at the SFC | Rendez-vous Industry for ten years, before becoming, in 2024, head of this four-day forum organized by the Festival de Cannes. The event aims to highlight short & first feature film projects, emerging talents and facilitate the interactions between the filmmakers and the industry. Florian is also programming consultant for Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, and associate programmer at SXSW for the Documentary Shorts, and collaborates with various industry events such as European Short Pitch.
Since 2023, he partners with Solal Films to take care of the festival distribution & sales of a handful of short films carried by unique voices selected at festivals such as Berlinale, Locarno, IFFR & hundreds around the globe.
Florian formerly took part in Encounters Film Festival pre-selection team for several years, was distribution consultant for The Short Film Lab (Argentina), and Head of Short Film Hub at Drama Int’l Short Film Festival (Greece), where he launched a residency program for projects in development in 2024.
SVEN SCHWARZ
Since 2004 Sven Schwarz has worked with film festivals starting at the Hamburg feature film festival and in 2010 he became the Managing Director of the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg where he also curates special programs like country focuses and thematical screenings. He studied American Literature and Media Studies at the University of Paderborn and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, USA. Sven Schwarz is a board member of the international short film association Short Film Conference and also part of the Hamburg-based artist collective A Wall is a Screen that produces and curates short film events in public spaces all over the world.
