Main International jury - International competition
Vitaly Manski - President
Vitaly Mansky (1963, Lviv, Ukraine/SSSR) graduated at the prestigious State institute of
cinematography in 1989 (VGIK) and soon becomes one of the most respected Russian
documentarists and producers. He has filmed more than 30 films as a director, all of which
projected at multiple festivals throughout the globe. His producer signature signed on films
by directors: Renata Litvinova, Dimitri Zhelkovsky, Sergey Loznica.In the year of 1996, he
starts the project of archiving private amateur videos of life in the SSSR since the 30'es till
the 90'es of the last century. Mansky is a producer of the national award "Lavrovaya vetv"
which every year awards the best Russian documentary films. He lives in Letonia since the
year of 2015.
Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Yeşim Ustaoğlu (Turkey) After making several award – winning shorts in Turkey, Yeşim
Ustaoğlu made her feature film debut with 1994’s ‘The Trace’ (İz). The film was presented at numerous international festivals, including Moscow and Gotenburg and won the Best Film Award at Istanbul Film Festival. Yeşim Ustaoğlu received international recognition for her 1999 film, ‘Journey To The Sun’ (Güneşe Yolculuk) which competed in Berlinale and received the Blue Angel Award (Best European Film) and the Peace Prize before sweeping the Istanbul Film Festival by winning Best Film, Best Director, the FIPRESCI Prize and the Audience Award. Ustaoğlu complated her recent film, ‘Clair Obscur’ (Tereddüt), 2016. ‘Clair Obscur' world premiered in International Toronto Film Festival at 2016 and awarded internationally and nationally around the world. She is developing her current project 'Left Over'.
Anna Hoffmann
Anna Hoffmann (Germany) studied Literature and Cognitive Anthropology in Hamburg and
Archival Science in Potsdam. She first gained curating experience at the Hamburg municipal cinema Metropolis. From 1987 to 1990, she was a member of the selection committee of the European Low Budget Film Forum, a predecessor of Filmfest Hamburg. In addition to freelance work as an editor, critic, translator, subtitler and production assistant for fiction and documentary films, she was director of the European Documentary Film Institute in Mülheim/Ruhr from 1993 to 1996. She has been the Berlinale Forum’s programme manager and a member of its selection committee since 2001.
Short film jury
Dimo Popov - President
Dimo Popov (Macedonia) graduated at FDA in Skopje at the film camera department in the year of 2000, while he had his MA degree at FAMU Prague in 2013. He is a member of the ''Macedonian cinematographers association''. When Popov isn't shooting films, then
feels at his best while playing on his clarinet. He has shot numerous shorts, documentary
and full-length film realizations with Macedonian and directors from the whole Balkans, to be envious.
Ujkan Hysaj
Ujkan Hysaj (Kosovo) A director and producer whose career in the arts begun as a comics drawer, after what he had entered the world of cinema as an editor, then working as a producer and director of a few awarded short and documentary films at the World film festivals in: Melbourne; Warsaw; Tampere; Abu Dhabi... His most successful short film is Kolona Columnz (2013) which had been projected at over 60 festivals and has won 13 awards.
Ivan Ivanovski
Ivan Ivanovski (Macedonia) was born in 1983. He graduated at Faculty of fine arts in Skopje, department for
sculpture. In 2013 he completed the Academic Program for Directing at FAMU, in the Czech Republic. So far he has
realized 17 individual exhibitions (Skopje, Kumanovo, Gevgelija, New York, Ljubljana, Berlin ...) and a number of group
exhibitions (Nottingham, Rome, Amsterdam, Pristina ...). He works on sculptures, drawings, installations, paintings,
videos, films and animations. He is the author of the sculpture "Bird - People" in the Skopje City Park. His animated
films have been screened at a number of regional and international film festivals. At the moment he is working on his
5th animated short film “Bait”.
