Cinema City 2012.
Laurence Herszberg
Laurence Herszberg is the director of a famous Paris cinéma, Forum des Images, which gathers all the films ever made in Paris in one place, organizes a permanent education on the art of film, as well as masterclasses with famous directors and actors, a festival of TV series, daily film projections, and screens the selection Director’s Fortnight simultaneously with the Cannes festival.
Davide Manuli
Davide Manuli studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York. He acted in The Contenders (Tobias Meinecke, 1993) and in Peter Del Monte’s Nelle tue mani (2007), which won a Golden Globe. As a director, he was awarded the International Critics' Prize - FIPRESCI at the Locarno Film Festival for his film Beket (2008). His latest film The Legend of Kaspar Hauser, starring Vincent Gallo, was premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012.
Mary Nazari
Mary Nazari - scriptwriter, producer and general and programming director of Pioner Cinema Network in Moscow, Russia. Her brilliant and outstanding debut SILENT SOULS won a few awards at the festivals – The Gold Ozella Prize of the Venice Film Festival in 2010, Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Best Director and Best Scriptwriter of Mar del Plata Film Festival, Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2011 and many others. Pioner Cinema Network is a new type of cinema showing art-house movies from all over the world and is the member of Europa Cinema Network. Last year she was invited as a jury member of the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
Lorena Pavlič
Lorena Pavlič is the director of the international film festival Kino Otok in Izola, Slovenia. From 2004 to 2007 she was the managing director of Kinodvor art cinema in Ljubljana, the leading art cinema in Slovenia. During her studies of Communication science at the University of Ljubljana she worked as a freelance in the cultural field including journalism, editorial houses and event management.
Martin Schweighofer
Martin Schweighofer was born in Vienna. He studied journalism and drama at the University of Vienna. From 1980 until 1993 he worked as a film critic and arts editor for several Austrian periodicals. He cofounded the theatre company Theater im Kopf. He has served as a member of various selection boards of film subsidy agencies and he is a founding member and former director of the film festival Diagonale (1993-1996). Initiator of a pan-European film promotion organization that subsequently developed into European Film Promotion (EFP), he is currently a member of the European Film Academy and the Board of Directors of the Austrian Film Institute. Since 1993 Martin Schweighofer is the CEO of the Austrian Film Commission.
EXIT POINT JURY:
Fridrik Thór Fridriksson
Fridrik Thór Fridriksson (1953) is Iceland’s most important director. He began as an amateur with a Super-8 camera. During his university studies he headed a film club, and was the founder, Editor-in-Chief and critic of the first Icelandic film magazine. He founded the Icelandic Film Corporation in 1990, which has since become Iceland's most important film production company. He gained international recognition with his feature CHILDREN OF NATURE (1991), which was nominated for the Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film. His films are both deeply personal and have a strong rooting in Icelandic culture, often depicting characters at the crossroads of tradition and modernity.
Simon Perry
After 10 years as an independent producer (prominent credits include Michael Radford’s ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE, 1984 and WHITE MISCHIEF, and Gillies Mackinnon’s THE PLAYBOYS), Simon Perry was chief executive of the UK’s national film agency, British Screen Finance 1991-2000. Notable successes during his time in office included Neil Jordan's THE CRYING GAME, Sally Potter's ORLANDO, Mike Leigh's NAKED, Milcho Manchevski's BEFORE THE RAIN, Marleen Gorris’ ANTONIA’S LINE, Ken Loach’s LAND AND FREEDOM, Peter Howitt’s SLIDING DOORS, Danis Tanovic’s NO MAN’S LAND and Gurinder Chadha’s BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM. Then, after five years of teaching, consulting and working in private sector film finance, Perry was chief executive of the Irish Film Board 2006-2010. Successes there included John Carney’s ONCE, Lenny Abrahamson’s GARAGE, Lance Daly’s KISSES, Ken Wardrop‘s HIS & HERS and John Michael McDonagh’s THE GUARD. He is president of Ateliers du Cinéma Européen (ACE), the Paris-based provider of advanced training for European producers.
Jean Roy
Film critic for the film buff magazine Cinéma (1979-1988), for the weekly Révolution (1980-1986) and the daily L'Humanité (since 1984). Author of a book on John Ford, of a book on CITIZEN KANE, and co-author of ten others books or so. Former director of the French Federation of Film Societies, former general secretary of the French Film Critics Guild, former vice-president of the International Film and Television Council (UNESCO), former director during nineteen years of the Critics' Week within the Cannes Film Festival, currently president of the French Film Journalists Union and president of FIPRESCI. Member of the European Film Academy and the French Film Academy. Teaches in several universities and film schools.
Mira Staleva
Mira Staleva was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. After finishing her education in theology and psychology she joins the team of Sofia IFF from the very beginning. She is Deputy Director of Sofia IFF/Art Fest Ltd., Head of Sofia Meetings, the co-production market of Sofia IFF and programmer for the festival. Art Fest is a production, distribution and exhibition company.
Will Tizard
Will Tizard is an American journalist, teacher and documentary filmmaker based in Prague who covers the former East bloc for Variety and writes about the Czech Republic for publications such as The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Telegraph and is editor of the Time Out Prague Guide and former managing editor of The Prague Post. He is currently directing and co-producing a film - working title BURIED - about men with “issues” fighting to recover Nazi loot in Central Europe.
Hungry Days Jury:
João Pedro Rodrigues
João Pedro Rodrigues interrupted his studies in ornithology to attend the Lisbon Theater and Film School, where he earned a degree in 1989. From 1989 to 1996 he worked as an assistant director and editor with well-known names of Portuguese cinema such as Teresa Villaverde and Maria de Medeiros. His short HAPPY BIRTHDAY! participated at the Venice Film Festival in 1997 and received a Special Mention of the Jury. He returned to Venice in 2000 to present his first feature PHANTOM in competition. His second feature TWO DRIFTERS was screened at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival 2005. In 2009, he directed TO DIE LIKE A MAN, a drama about transvestites in Lisbon premiered in Cannes, and confirmed himself as one of the most talented directors of his generation. His work explores confused sexual identities and desire. He has co-directed several short fiction and documentary films together with João Rui Guerra da Mata.
Zvonimir Jurić
Zvonimir Jurić was born in 1971 in Osijek. He graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb in 1999, Department of Film and TV directing. He has directed a few awarded short documentaries, amongst which is JURIĆ: TVRĐA 1999, which won the award for best documentary in Motown. Jurić’s first all-night feature film, THE ONE THAT WILL REMAIN UNNOTICED, was announced best debut film at the Pula Film Festival in 2003. Alongside Goran Dević he directed THE BLACKS (2009), a film that received plenty of attention from international critics, as well as awards FIPRESCI and the Special Award for direction at Cottbus, a Grand Prix in Ljubljana, Linz, also at the Festival of Author Film in Belgrade, and finally, three Golden Arenas at Pula Film Festival. Juric’s latest work is a short film, YELLOW MOON, which was a part of the competition of the 2010 Berlinale, and won a Gran Prix at the Sarajevo Film Festival, alongside many other recognitions.
Santiago Fillol
Born in 1977 in Córdoba, Argentina, Santiago Fillol lives and works in Barcelona, Spain, since 2001. He obtained a PhD in Audiovisual Communication from the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He is a teacher and lecturer there since 2003. His first feature documentary ICH BIN ENRIC MARCO (codirected with Lucas Vermal) was shown at many worldwide film festivals, including Locarno, San Sebastian, Rotterdam, Buenos Aires (BAFICI), Las Palmas and many others. He works as a collaborator and assistant to French filmmaker Nicolas Klotz (HEARTBEAT DETECTOR, LOW LIFE). He is currently working with Klotz on the script for his new feature, CEREMONY. He also worked as a co-scriptwriter on the new feature films by Oliver Laxe (YOU ALL ARE CAPTAINS, winner of the FIPRESCI prize in Cannes 2010) and Isaki Lacuesta (winner of the Golden Shell in San Sebastian for THE DOUBLE STEPS). He has given lectures and conferences at many universities, film archives and cultural centers, including the Ecole Supérieure d’Art des Rocailles de Biarritz (France), the CCCB (Barcelona), the Centro Galego de Artes da Imaxe (La Coruña, Spain), La Cinemateque de Tánger (Morocco), and the Centre Artistique Centquatre (Paris), among others. He is an advisor and editor at the DVD publishing label Intermedio since 2005. He writes on cinema for several newspapers and magazines, including La Vanguardia’s cultural supplement “Cultura/s” and “Cahiers du cinéma España”.
UP TO 10,000 BUCKS JURY
Rajko Petrović
Rajko Petrović was born in Čačak. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Department of Film and TV Directing. He finished a documentary film school Ateliers Varan Paris, at which the teacher, as well as the founder was Jean Rouch. He is one of the founders of Ateliers Varan Belgrade - a centre for documentary film, where he worked as a director and producer. His documentaries were screened at the most prestigeous national and international festivals. His most significant films are OTKUCAJI and ISTOČNO OD RAJA. Since 2009, he has been working as the selector of the Festival of Engaged Film Free Zone in Belgrade.
Nevena Matović
Nevena Matović has been a journalist and editor on Radio Belgrade 2 since 1991, where she now edits and hosts shows "Culture Circles" (Tuesday theme "Filmorama") and "Club Two". She is also the author of dozens of documentary reports under the name "Speak So I Can See You". As host-editor she has put together 15 shows from the cycle Treyor (Housekeeper's broom, Srdjan Karanovic, Unjustices - thirty years later, the Award "Borivoje Mirkovic", Orations). She was the assistent director on two documentaries by Igor M. Toholj TRI KAPE ZA ČUVANJE (2004-2005) and TAČKA PREKIDA (2006). She is currently working on preparation of her own feature-lenght documentary, TEČA SVETA. She has published and continues to publish in magazines like Monitor, Filaz, Camera Lucida.
Irena Škorić
Irena Škorić graduated film and TV directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. Her short fiction film FAREWELL won many awards and was the Croatian candidate for Student Oscar film award.