Awards and Juries

Marina Gumzi studied dramaturgy, theatre studies and film production in Ljubljana, Berlin and Paris. Since 2013 she has been running NOSOROGI (Playing Men, Tales from the Chestnut Woods, Fiume o morte!), a micro production company, where she works as a producer and writer. As a co-scriptwriter and dramaturg, she collaborates with younger generation creators from Slovenia and the wider region. She was a member of the Next Wave postgraduate study group at the Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie, where she began to explore new models of film distribution, contemporary trends in curatorial practices in AV media, and the potential offered by contemporary technologies for the development of film art. She lives and works in Berlin and Ljubljana.

Ayla Kanbur studied Philosophy before completing her doctoral degree with a thesis titled Poetry and Cinema. She has directed short films and continues to combine her academic work as a professor with script consulting and film criticism at Düzce University. Her publishing career began with the film journal 25th Frame; her work has since extended to various articles in journals and books, editorial board positions at Antrakt and New Cinema New Human, editing a book on Turkish cinema master Lütfi Akad, and co-authoring the volume From Freedoms to Losses and Beyond. She has also served on juries at several film festivals, including the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and the Istanbul International Golden Tulip Film Festival.

Bálint Szimler, born in Hungary in 1987. spent his childhood in New York. He studied under Ildikó Enyedi at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. His short film Itt vagyok (2010) was screened in Cannes' Cinéfondation and nominated for Best Short Film at the European Film Awards. Lesson Learned, his feature fiction debut, won the Kingfisher Award at Liffe 2024.

Maja Alibegović is a director, photographer, and curator. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana and completed her master’s degree in Film and Television Directing (Documentary Film) at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, in 2021. She is the author of several short documentary films that have been screened at festivals across the region.

Rok Kajzer Nagode graduated with a master's degree in film and TV cinematography from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and TV – AGRFT in Ljubljana in 2019. As a director of photography, he works in short film, documentary, feature film, experimental film, TV series, and music video production. His work has been shown at international festivals (TIFF, London BFI Festival, Pula Film Festival, TFF, etc.); he is the author of a large-format film that was part of the Slovenian pavilion at the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture. His work received several awards, including the Slovenian Association of Cinematographers Prize and two Prešeren Prizes for Students. He is a member of the European Film Academy, the IMAGO Film Preservation and Restoration Committee, and an associate professor of film and television cinematography at AGRFT.

Gábor Osváth je leta 2008 vpisal študij na Univerzi za gledališko in filmsko umetnost v Budimpešti. Ob prvem študijskem produkcijskem projektu se je spoznal z režiserjem Bálintom Szimlerjem in direktorjem fotografije Marcellom Révom – zadevni film (Here I Am) se je leta 2010 uvrstil na tekmovanje Cinéfondation v Cannesu. Leta 2012 je ustanovil podjetje Filmfabriq, ki producira kratke filme, dokumentarce in oglase. Zasnoval je tudi Boddah, ki se je hitro uveljavil v madžarski kinematografiji. Leta 2024 je v okviru Boddah nastal Lesson Learned, prvenec Bálinta Szimlerja. Je umetniški sovodja mednarodnega festivala kratkih filmov Friss Hús Budapest.