International Documentary Competition
Nick Read
Chairperson
United Kingdom
An award winning, Emmy & BAFTA nominated filmmaker known for making acclaimed observational documentaries. Based in London, he has produced, filmed & directed over 80 films, many of them in remote or high-risk locations (‘Inside Israel’s Jails’, ‘Slumdog Children Of Mumbai’, ‘The Condemned’). His work has won two Foreign Press Association awards, the Rory Peck Impact Award and the Human Rights / Human Wrongs Award. His ‘Bolshoi Babylon’, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival 2018, opened in 100 UK cinemas and was long listed for BAFTA & Academy awards. His most recent film ‘My Name Is Happy’ premiered at IDFA 2022 and went on to win numerous festival awards including the 2023 KFF Golden Horn for best documentary feature.
Margje de Koning
The Netherlands
After directing documentaries for 12 years, Margje de Koning, apart from teaching at the University of Amsterdam, was commissioning editor for over 17 years. Since 2005 she has been responsible for the Television Department of IKON and in 2012 she became Head of TV, Radio and New Media programming at IKON. From 2016 IKON has been incorporated within EO (Dutch Public Broadcast) with Margje de Koning as Head of Documentaries for EOdocs. In September 2019 she left the public broadcaster in order to become the new artistic director of the film festival Movies that Matter.
Eliza Kubarska
Poland
Polish director, artist and mountaineer. Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Wajda School in Warsaw. The director of internationally awarded documentaries, whose premieres and screenings took place at prestigious festivals from Hot Docs and LA Film Festival, to IDFA, Visions du Réel and the Krakow Film Festival. She has collaborated with ARTE, ZDF and HBO television. Author of such films as ‘Badjao. Ghosts from the Sea’ (jury prize at Hot Docs), “Wall of Shadows” (winner of 30 international awards, including the Zürcher Filmpreis for best director) and “The Last Expedition”. In 2023, she received the Grand Prix of the International Alliance of Mountain Film Festivals for outstanding achievement in filmmaking. She has participated in expeditions to the Karakorum, Himalayas, Greenland and the High Atlas Mountains, among others.
Monica Lazurean-Gorgan
Romania
An experienced producer, a documentary filmmaker and member of the AMPAS/Oscar and EFA. Monica is the producer of ‘Acasa, My Home’ by Radu Ciorniciuc, winner of the Sundance Cinematography Award and other 40 international awards and producer for the film ‘Between Revolutions’ by Vlad Petri, winner of FIPRESCI award at Berlinale 2023. Monica is the director for the film ‘A Mere Breath’ (Best Doc @ Sarajevo 2016) and ‘Wood’ (CPH:Dox, HotDocs etc).
Dragan von Petrovic
Serbia
An editor and director of documentary and fiction films. He grew up in Leskovac, Yugoslavia. He studied philosophy and finished the AFC Film Directing School before enrolling in the Film Editing Department at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. His feature documentary ‘Dragan Wende – West Berlin’ (2013) was screened and awarded at many festivals, and nominated for the best German documentary of the year and Prix Europa. He worked as a freelance film editor on films awarded at the festivals in Venice, Karlovy Vary, Sarajevo, Locarno, including the ‘Picnic’ (dir. Jure Pavlović) – European Film Award for the Best Short Film 2015. Celebrated as the best editor in 2021 by the Association of Film Editors of Serbia, he is co-founder of DOKSERBIA documentary association.
International Short Film Competition
Corina Schwingruber-Ilić
Chairperson
Switzerland
Lives and works in Lucerne and Belgrade. Since 2010 she has been working as a freelance filmmaker and editor. She is a co-founder of PRO SHORT (Swiss Short Film Association) and a member of the Swiss and European Film Academy. She has made many successful short films. ‘All Inclusive’ (2018) was shown in Venice, Toronto and Sundance, and won the Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig and the Swiss Film Award. Her latest short ‘Been There’ (2023) premiered in Locarno and won a candidacy for the European Film Award 2023. Corina is an alumna of the Locarno Filmmakers Academy, the IDFA Academy and the Berlinale Talents.
Toril Simonsen
Norway
Has worked for more than 30 years at the Norwegian Film Institute where her principal focus was on promotion of Norwegian short and documentary films. Member of the Board of Directors of the Norwegian Short Film Festival (established 1978) 1981-2003, director of the festival 1989-91. One of the founders of the Nordic short and documentary film festival Nordisk Panorama, co-director of the first festival in 1990. Member of the Board of Directors Fredrikstad Animation Festival 2001-2003.
One of the founders of the Norwegian film magazine Z, established in 1983. Member of the editorial group until 1987. Jury member at several international short and documentary film festivals.
Heinz Hermans
Germany
Festival founder and CEO of interfilm Berlin – International Short Film Festival. He studied politics and Italian in Germany and Italy. In 1981 he founded the art house cinema Eiszeit in Berlin which he directed for 9 years. From its beginning in 1982, he has directed one of the largest worldwide international short film festival interfilm Berlin. Director of many film festivals including the short film festival Pollicino (1992-1997) in Catania, Sicily, super short film festival Going Underground held in the trains of the Berlin and Seoul subways (2001-2012), Short Visions in Ningbo, China (2014). In 2018 he co-founded and directed the first Almagro International Film Festival in Spain. He works as a visiting professor at the SCAU university in Guangzhou.
Tomek Popakul
Poland
Graduate of the Film School in Łódź, specialising in animation, he also studied screenwriting for a year. He is the director of animated films (‘Ziegenort’, ‘Black’, ‘Acid Rain’, ‘The Moon’, ‘Zima’) which have been awarded many times and presented at international festivals. His films have been selected twice for the Sundance Film Festival and have also received the Vimeo Staff Pick award twice. He is a composer of cacophonous music (albums as Astma: ‘Anekumena’, ‘End of the Anthropocene’, ‘Mountain Scream’, ‘Rat Angels’).
National Competition – short films
Jacek Borcuch
Chairperson
Poland
Director and screenwriter, studied philosophy at the University of Warsaw and acting at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw and the Gdynia Acting Studio. His film ‘All That I Love’ was a sensation at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, where it was the first Polish film ever to be shown in the main competition. This multi-award-winning film was also Poland’s 2011 Oscar candidate for Best Foreign Language Film. Subsequent films ‘Nieulotne’ and ‘Sweet End of the Day’ also returned with Sundance Festival awards. Borcuch’s directorial debut ‘Kallafiorr’ opened the era of independent films in Polish cinematography and was the first independent film to receive wide cinema distribution. Director of the series ‘Mrok’ (2006), ‘Bez tajemnic’ (2011) and ‘Warszawianka’ (2023).
Joanna Łapińska
Poland
Graduate of the psychology department at the University of Warsaw, cultural manager with many years of experience. From 2002 to 2016 she was associated with the T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival, from 2007 to 2016 she was artistic director of the festival. Originator and head of the New Horizons Studio and the Polish Days project aimed at the international film industry. Since September 2016, programme director of the Transatlantyk Festival. Head of Gdynia Industry at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia in 2021 and 2022, in 2023 she was appointed Artistic Director of this festival as the first woman ever to hold this position. Juror of numerous international film festivals. Member of the European Film Academy.
Julia Orlik
Poland
Graduate (2021) and lecturer at the Film School in Łódź. She lives in Krupski Młyn, where all her student films were made in the family garage. In addition to animation, she is also interested in bloody special effects, film make-up and conducting film workshops for children and young people. Her etude ‘I’m Here’ was shortlisted for the GSA BAFTA Student Film Awards 2021 and won the Golden Dove at the DOK Leipzig Festival, the Grand Prix at the Etiuda & Anima International Film Festival, the Best Animation Award at Animafest Zagreb and the Slamdance Film Festival in Los Angeles, among others. She completed her education with the diploma ‘This Will Not Be a Festival Film’ (2022), which, in spite of its title, was screened and awarded at numerous festivals.
National Competition – documentaries
Piotr Śliskowski
Chairperson
Poland
Graduate of the Cinematography Department of the Film School in Łódź in 1990. From 2016 a lecturer at the cinematography faculty (doctorate in 2018). President of the Polish Society of Cinematographers (from 2019). Director of photography for documentaries, TV series and feature films. He cooperated with, among others: Ryszard Bugajski („Generał Nil”, 2009), Feliks Falk („Joanna”, 2010), Jan Hryniak („Trick”, 2010), Waldemar Krzystek („80 Millions”, 2011), Piotr Trzaskalski („The Master”, 2005, „My Father’s Bike”, 2012), David Blair („Hurricane”, 2018) or Michał Rosa („Piłsudski”, 2019). At the Camerimage Festival he received a distinction in the Polish Film Competition for the film „The Master” (2005), and was also several times nominated to the Golden Frog award in the main competition.
Marta Minorowicz
Poland
Marta Minorowicz graduated from the Andrzej Wajda Film School and Theatre Studies at Jagiellonian University. Her debut feature fiction film „Illusion” won the Grand Prix at Tirana Film Festival in 2022. Her feature-length documentary-fiction hybrid „Zud” was nominated for the Crystal Bear Award at Berlinale 2016 and received the Fathy Farag award at Cairo International Film Critics Week for best artistic contribution, along with a Special Mention at Gdynia Film Festival. Her documentary films „A Piece of Summer” and „Decrescendo” have been awarded at many festivals, including the Special Mention at Krakow Film Festival, the Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig.
Joanna Ostrowska
Poland
Doctor of Humanities, specialising in history, she also studied at the Institute of Audiovisual Arts at the Jagiellonian University, the Department of Judaic Studies at the Jagiellonian University, Gender Studies at the University of Warsaw, the Department of Hebrew Studies at the University of Warsaw, and the Film School in Łódź. Academic lecturer, film critic and theatre dramaturg. From 2019, she is the programmer of the LGBT+ Film Festival in Warsaw. Her research work explores topics related to sexual violence during World War II and the forgotten victims of Nazism. She is the author of the acclaimed books ‘The Unmentioned. Sexual Forced Labour during World War II’ (2018, Mauthausen-Memorial-Forschungspreis Award) and ’They. Homosexuals in World War II‘ (2021, Nike Readers’ Prize 2022).
International competition DocFilmMusic
Michał Fojcik
Poland
Sound designer for over 100 feature films, documentaries and animations. He has worked on such films as ‘White Courage’, ‘Prime Time’, ‘Gods’ and ‘Acid Rain’. Winner of the Polish Eagle Award and an award at the Gdynia Film Festival for the sound for ‘Eagle. The Last Patrol’. For his work on the film ‘Pianoforte’, he received the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel award for best editing of music for a documentary film. He runs the Sound Mind sound post-production studio.
Ana Sofia Fonseca
Portugal
An award-winning Portuguese-Capeverdian director, who loves telling compelling human stories that inspire change. Her feature documentary ‘Cesária Évora’ (2022) had a successful theatrical distribution in several countries, such as France, Netherlands and Portugal. Its international circuit began with a world premiere at SXSW, and continued at more than 60 festivals, including IDFA, Krakow Film Festival and Sheffield Doc Fest. It was nominated for ‘Best Music Documentary’ at the IDA Awards, and won several awards, including the Sophia Award for Best Documentary from the Portuguese Film Academy. With more than 25 years of storytelling experience, she is founder of Carrossel Produções, a Lisbon-based production company, where she’s currently developing several documentary projects.
Matej Bobrik
Slovakia/Poland
Slovak film director born in Prague. Graduate of the directing department at the Film School in Łódź and the DOK PRO documentary course at the Wajda School. His student film ‘Where the Sun Doesn’t Rush’ took part in competitions at international film festivals, including IDFA, DOK Leipzig and Visions du Réel. His debut documentary ‘The Visit’ produced by Munk Studio won the Silver Eye award at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival. Matej Bobrik’s latest film ‘Distances’ won the award for Best Documentary Film from Central and Eastern Europe in Jihlava in 2023. He currently lives in Warsaw, creates original films and directs documentary series for, among others, Netflix and Canal+.