Jury 2024

International Documentary Competition

• Marcin Koszałka

  Chairperson

  Poland

  A cinematographer, film director, mountaineer and alpinist, as well as a marathon runner. He is a member of the Polish and European Film Academies. He is a professor at the Film School in Katowice and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. He was awarded the prize for Best Cinematography at the Gdynia Film Festival. He was also awarded for his documentary debut ‘Such a Beautiful Son I Gave Birth To’ (1999) at the KFF. He made his feature film directorial debut with the thriller ‘Red Spider’ (2015). He triumphed with the film ‘White Courage’ (2024) at the 49th FPFF in Gdynia, among others.

• Jenny Horwell

  United Kingdom

  Jenny is the main programmer of Bertha DocHouse, the documentary-only cinema in London. She joined the organisation as producer in 2012, having spent the previous few years working at film festivals and events, most notably in the founding team of the Branchage Film Festival (2008 – 2011). Jenny took the role of Assistant Programmer of Bertha DocHouse when the dedicated screen opened in 2015, and became Director and Programmer in 2022, over-seeing a year-round cinema programme that aims to celebrate the breadth and depth of documentary filmmaking.

• Ondřej Kamenický

  Czechia

  Ondřej Kamenický is the Director of One World International Human Rights Film Festival. Ondřej studied cinema studies at Faculty of Arts (Charles University, Prague), curator studies at Faculty of Art and Design (University of J. E. Purkyně, Ústí nad Labem) and has been part of the festival since 2009. One World is held in Prague and more than 50 towns in the Czech Republic, shows documentaries and fiction films on human rights, social, political, environmental and media issues and includes Q&As, panel debates, virtual reality events, social impact projects, screenings for schools, East Doc Platform for film industry. One World distributes films, assists to new festivals (e.g. in Nicaragua, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Armenia), focuses on people with disabilities, is an active member of Human Rights Film Network and Green Film Network, International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk and organizes also One World in Brussels.

• Nima Sarvestani

  Sweden

  Nima Sarvestani is an Emmy award-winning director and producer with over 40 years of experience in documentary filmmaking for cinema and television. He began his career as a journalist in Iran, and since relocating to Sweden in 1984, he has focused exclusively on documentary storytelling. In 1992, he founded his own production company, Nimafilm Productions, through which he has produced a wide range of internationally acclaimed films. Sarvestani is known for tackling complex and challenging subjects—particularly related to human rights and social justice—and making them accessible and compelling for a broad audience. His work is deeply character-driven, creating a natural narrative flow and a strong emotional resonance. Among his notable works are: ‘The Evil Cycle’ (1998), ‘Naked and Wind’ (2002), ‘Dead Man’s Guest’ (2003), ‘Iranian Kidney Bargain Sale’ (2006), ‘On the Border of Desperation’ (2008), ‘I Was Worth 50 Sheep’ (2010), ‘No Burqas Behind Bars’ (2012), ‘Those Who Said No’ (2014), ‘Prison Sisters’ (2016), ‘Stronger Than a Bullet’ (2017), ‘Erik Forsgren’ (2018), and ‘Born to Struggle’ (2022), ‘Surviving the Death Committee’ (2025).

• Mira Staleva

  Bulgaria

  She studied theology and psychology, but then changed direction and became involved in various areas of the audiovisual industry – so far 25 years. She started working at Cinema House and Sofia International Film Festival since its very beginning and currently she is a managing director of the Sofia IFF and Sofia Meetings, production and distribution – Art Fest Ltd. Sofia IFF is the biggest film festival in Bulgaria and the only one accredited by FIAPF. Variety has labelled Sofia IFF as one of the 50 unmissable film forums in the world. Sofia Meetings is a coproduction market which is focused on projects of upcoming directors and gather more than 400 key industry executives – producers, funds,sales, distributors, exhibitors from all over Europe. Mira is involved in consulting, development, production, distribution and exhibition of audiovisual content, audience development and festival management and curation. Recent titles produced: ‘Luka’ by Jessica Woodworth, ‘Brighton 4’ by Levan Koguashvili, How I learned to fly by R. Andric, Darkling by D. Milic, Barefoot emperor by J. Woodworth and P. Brosens, ‘King of the Belgians’ by J. Woodworth and P. Brosens. Member of the board of the European Film Academy and CICAE.

International Short Film Competition

• Anna Bławut-Mazurkiewicz

  Chairperson

  Poland

  Producer, lecturer and copyright lawyer. Member of the Polish and European Film Academy. Winner of the award for best documentary and short film producer at the Krakow Film Festival (2024). Co-founder of Aura Films and Enter Film, specialising in feature films, series and documentaries. She supports auteur cinema with documentary (‘Everything Needs to Live’), animated (‘Cosmogonik’) and feature film projects (‘Chocolate Day’). He teaches at the Lódź Film School and the Wajda School.

• Gregory Coutaut

  France

  After studying cinema and English in his hometown of Bordeaux, Gregory Coutaut moved to Paris where he first worked as a translator in the audiovisual field. After various experiences at La Maison du film court, Ecran Total magazine and the dubbing department of Canal+, he began his activity as a film critic among the editorial staff of FilmDeCulte website.
  In 2017, he founded with Nicolas Bardot LePolyester.com, an online magazine dedicated to international arthouse cinema news, of which he is the co-editor-in-chief. As part of this activity, he conducts numerous interviews with filmmakers and covers several dozen film festivals per year, in France and abroad (where LePolyester is sometimes the only French-speaking media present). Until 2021, he chaired Aloha Distribution, a distribution company that allowed the release of several foreign feature documentaries in French cinemas.
  In 2022, he joined Paolo Moretti’ selection team for the the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival as an artistic advisor. He oversaw the short films selection, which included Elisabeth Subrin’s MARIA SCHNEIDER 1983, which won the César for Best Documentary Short Film. In 2024 he joined Ava Cahen’s committee for the short film selection of Canne’s Critic’s Week.

• Ana Nedeljković

  Serbia

  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

• Léo Soesanto

  France

  Léo Soesanto is a Paris-based film journalist, festival curator and writer. He’s currently the short film competitions curator at Riga International Film Festival. He has more than 15 years of experience in festival programming (short, feature and TV series), advising and moderating from Cannes Critics’ Week, International Film Festival Rotterdam or Bordeaux Independent Film Festival among many events. His writing has appeared in such publications as Libération, Les Inrockuptibles, Vogue, GQ, Premiere, Grazia and the French Cinematheque catalogue. He was a member of many festival juries, including Cannes, London, Locarno, Toronto and Morelia. He’s a member of Fipresci (International Federation of Film Critics) and a Berlinale Talents (2025) alumnus.

International competition DocFilmMusic

• Urszula Śniegowska

  Chairwoman

  Poland

  Head of the annual American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland (16th edition will be held from November 6 till 11), and U.S in Progress program, matchmaking US and Polish projects; programming advisor to Watch Docs Human Rights in Film and New Horizons IFF. Formerly curator of film and art at the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw.
  Juror at multiple US and European festivals (Cannes La Quinzaine Section, Berlinale Panorama and Forum, Sarajevo, Cluj), Cleveland, and Denver. Member of the European Film Academy and recipient of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Lithuania.

• Ayat Najafi

  Germany, Iran

  Born 1976 in Tehran, is a Berlin-based film and theatre director and multimedia artist. His work spans interdisciplinary theatre and experimental/documentary film, exploring gender equality, human rights, intercultural dialogue, ecology, and everyday life. His artistic practice examines the interplay of truth and performativity. His documentaries ‘Football Under Cover’ (2008) and ‘No Land’s Song’ (2014) screened at over 100 international festivals and won numerous awards. His latest film, ‘The Sun Will Rise’ (2023), premiered at Venice Days. Najafi has staged theatre works in Berlin, Tehran, and international festivals. In 2017, he co-founded the ecological art project SANDSTORM, exhibited in Istanbul (2020) and Berlin (2021).

• Jakub Piątek

  Poland

  Director and university lecturer. His short film debut, ‘Mother’ (2009), was screened at over 50 festivals worldwide. His feature-length debut, ‘Prime Time’ (2021), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the USA. In 2023, he made his feature-length documentary debut with ‘Pianoforte’ that won many awards, including the 2024 Polish Film Award Eagle and the International Emmy Award in the Arts Programming category. He also directs premium feature series. He lectures in the Directing Department at the Film School in Łódź and at the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw.

National Competition - short films

• Magdalena Kamińska

  Chairperson

  Poland

  Film producer, founder of production company, Balapolis. She produces award-winning films and series. She was honoured by KIPA for her creative courage at the OFF Camera festival for her film “Baby Bump”, directed by Kuba Czekaj. The documentary film “The Hamlet Syndrome”, directed by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski and produced by Balapolis, won the Grand Prix of the Semaine de la Critique section in Locarno and the Golden Hobby Horse at the Krakow Film Festival in 2022. Among her recent productions are “White Courage”, “Simona Kossak” and the series “Black Daisies”.

• Kaja Krawczyk-Wnuk

  Poland

  Screenwriter. Graduate of Film Studies at Jagiellonian University and Film and Television Production at the Łódź Film School. Member of the Polish and European Film Academies. Chief scriptwriter of the series ‘Prawo Agaty’ and producer of the first Polish HBO series ‘Bez Tajemnic’. Co-writer of the film ‘Polot’, which was awarded in the Script Pro competition in 2018. She is an author of the screenplay for ‘Leave No Traces’ by Jan P. Matuszyński (based on a reportage by Cezary Łazarewicz), which was presented in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival and awarded Silver Lions in Gdynia. Winner of the Script Fiesta festival competition for the best script for a Polish feature film in its first edition.

• Wiola Sowa

  Poland

  Director of animated films. She is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and the Film School in Lodz. She has won the Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage twice, and has also received scholarships from the City of Kraków and the Goethe-Institut. From 2008 to 2012, she was president of the Polish branch of ASIFA. In 2008, her film Refreny won the Silver Dragon and the Silver Hobby-Horse and the FIPRESCI award at the Krakow Film Festival. Her films have been screened and awarded at numerous festivals in Poland and abroad, including at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, the Barbican Centre in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris and many others. She is currently an assistant professor at the Institute of Art and Design at KEN University in Krakow, where she teaches animation.

National Competition - documentaries

• Izabela Łopuch

  Chairperson

  Poland

  Film and television producer, as well as the founder and CEO of Spirit Animal. She is a graduate of the Institute of Audiovisual Arts at Jagiellonian University. Between 2012 and 2022, she was Head of Original Production at HBO Poland, producing or serving as executive producer on series including ‘Wataha’, ‘Ślepnąc od świateł’, ‘Nago. Głośno. Dumnie.’. She also produced the short film anthology ‘At Home’, several feature films co-produced by HBO Europe, and dozens of documentaries. These include the European Film Award-winning and Oscar-shortlisted ‘Communion’ by Anna Zamecka, as well as other films that have been appreciated in Krakow and at other festivals, such as ‘The Balcony Movie’, ‘Angels of Sinjar’, ‘Boylesque’, and .The Wind. Documentary Thriller’ and ‘Lesson of Love’.

• Grzegorz Brzozowski

  Poland

  Film director, PhD in sociology, film critic. Studied, among others, at the University of Warsaw and Yale, teaches visual anthropology, among others at the University of St. Gallen. Graduate of the Wajda School, participant in a number of international documentary workshops (e.g. VGIK, Nisi Masa, Aristotle Workshop). Director, screenwriter, author of, among others, the film ‘Stranger on My Couch’, awarded the Silver Hobby-Horse for the best Polish documentary at the 2017 Krakow Film Festival, and the film ‘Only Day and Night’, which received the Maciej Szumowski Award for for remarkable social awareness in 2024 in Krakow. Film critic and head of the ‘Patrząc’ review section on the ‘Kultura Liberalna’ portal, honoured for his review in the competition for the Krzysztof Mertrak Award.

• Aliaksandr Tsymbaliuk

  Poland

  Cinematographer and documentary director who graduated from the Cinematography Department at the Łódź Film School. His directorial debut ‘Koka’ received multiple international awards, including the Artistic Vision Award at Big Sky (USA), the Special Youth Jury Award at Visions du Réel (Switzerland), Best Medium-Length Documentary at Viewpoint (Belgium), and Best Cinematography at the 64th Krakow Film Festival (Poland). He was nominated at Camerimage and also won the PSC Award for Best Documentary Cinematography. He worked as one of the cinematographers on ‘Queendom’, directed by Agnia Galdanova, that was shortlisted for the 96th Academy Awards (2024), nominated for an Emmy Award in 2025, and screened at SXSW, IDFA, and CPH:DOX (NEXT:WAVE Award). He continues to explore the visual language of non-fiction cinema, both as a cinematographer and director.

FIPRESCI

• Jakub Demiańczuk

  Poland

  Film and comics critic, editor. Journalist in the culture section of the ‘Polityka’ weekly, regular contributor to ‘Kino’, the New Horizons Film Festival and the American Film Festival. Member of the Writing Group of the Polish Filmmakers Association and FIPRESCI. Programmer of the New Dutch Cinema Review held in Warsaw from 2022 to 2023. His texts mostly deal with popular culture and its reaction to social, political and historical changes.

• Giulia Dobre

  Romania

  Giulia Dobre is a visual anthropologist for the Romanian National Radio and for several Romanian and French magazines and internet sites. Trained as a BA, MA and PhD in Visual Anthropology at the UNATC in Bucharest, San Francisco State and Berkeley University. Author of several screenplays of US indie films. Crisis Reporter for RAI and ARTE since 2013.

• Yael Shuv

  Israel

  Yael Shuv has been the chief film critic at Time Out Tel Aviv since the publication’s first issue in 2002. Having graduated from New York University with a master’s degree in cinema studies, she teaches film courses at the Open University of Israel. She has served as an artistic advisor for the Israeli Film Fund and as a FIPRESCI juror at international film festivals such as Locarno, Venice, Karlovy Vary, Palm Springs and Rotterdam. Yael is also the author of two books for children: “The Ice Cream Princess” and “The Enchanted Carousel.”

Jury FICC

• Theresa Grysczok

  Germany

  Theresa Grysczok is a freelance filmmaker, illustrator and program coordinator based in Germany. She is currently working as a programme assistant at Braunschweig International Film Festival (BIFF). She studied animation at the School of Art in Kassel and has created several short films, organized exhibitions, and conducted film-related workshops mainly about animation and puppet-building. Together with fellow filmmakers, she founded Sticky Frames (2015) – a collective that showcases artistic animated short films and promotes artist networks through film events.

• Maja Moan Brataas

  Norway

  She has been a member of the Tromsø Film Club for many years and since 2021 has been a member of the board of directors and the programme team that selects the films screened in each series. Cinema is her big passion and she enjoys sharing it with club members who are looking for an unforgettable film experience.

• Lech Moliński

  Poland

  Cultural animator, organiser of film events, populariser of film tourism. Co-founder and president of the Wrocław Film Foundation. Lecturer at the Warsaw Film School. Artistic director of the International Documentary Film Festival “Okiem Młodych” from 2011 to 2018, and of the SPEKTRUM Film Festival from 2015 to 2021. Co-creator of projects such as Polish Cinema for Beginners, MIASTOmovie, and the Śródmieście Film Cooperative. Also works as a film journalist. He has contributed to Stopklatka.pl and PortalFilmowy.pl, served as editor-in-chief of the cultural website G-Punkt.pl, and published articles in Dwutygodnik, KINO, and the quarterly Rita Baum, among others. Co-author (with Jerzy Wypycz) of the books “Nikt nie woła, każdy pamięta. Filmowy Dolny Śląsk‘ and ’Te wszystkie Raje, Zrywy i Jutrzenki. About small cinemas in Lower Silesia”. Member of the film discussion club Polish Cinema for Beginners.

Student's jury