Jury 2023
International jury 2023
International jury 2023
Alex Reinberg studied screenwriting at Filmacademy Vienna and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He has realised several short films that have been screened and honored at festivals worldwide. His latest film, ‚Hollywood’, co-directed and co-written with Leni Gruber, received a nomination for the best Austrian short film in 2023. Together with Leni he is currently working on several TV projects for the ORF, a mini-series for the ZDF and their first narrative feature.
International jury 2023
Péter Bálint he is a film distribution expert, Chairman of Hungarian Film Distribution Association. He is a teacher at the Communication and Media Department at Milton Friedman University. For 23 years he was the General Manager of UIP-Dunafilm, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures, Universal and DreamWorks Animation Studios in Hungary. For eight years he was a curator of National Cultural Fund’s College of Film Art and for 12 years a member of the National Film Institute Ageing and Classification Committee. He has recently been giving extensive advice on the distribution of Hungarian and European film.
International ecumenical jury 2023
Beata Golenska since 2017, member of a team organizing Terni Film Festival (Italy), and various cultural and social events in Terni and Rome. With educational background in communication and literature, professional experience in multilateral and multilingual environments in Europe and Asia, for over 20 years has been using cinema and photography as a bridge across cultures and peoples. Co-organizer of a ‘mobile’ EU film festival in Ireland (2010) and the first-ever EU Film Festival in San Marino (2023).
International jury 2023
Ágnes Bodnár is a television professional and film distributor. She studied at the College of Foreign Trade and the College of Applied Arts. She started working in television in 1997 as an editor and then editor-in-chief at Spektrum and HBO. In 2005, he joined RTL Klub as an external collaborator, where he worked as the Eastern European representative of CLT-UFA’s film stock in Luxembourg and later as the program director of CLT-UFA’s Hungarian cable channels. At the same time, she founded her own film distribution company, where she currently represents and sells films from several film rights companies to national and foreign television channels.
International jury 2023
Bruno Isaac Grade Caetano was born in Portimão, Portugal, in 1979. He is a self-taught animator, who later graduated from CIEAM (Centro de Investigação e Estudos e Multimédia na Faculdade das Belas-Artes de Lisboa) with a specialization in Stop Motion technique. Despite having a strong preference for this technique, his professional career led him to participate in several projects with various animation techniques as well as in other areas of artistic interest. He has worked as an animator, producer and director at various production companies, and is a founding member of COLA Animation, an ever growing international cooperative of united artists, focusing in producing, teaching and divulging animation.
International jury 2023
Director László Csuja (1984) graduated and received the doctoral degree from the Academy of Film and Drama of Budapest (SZFE). His first feature length documentary titled Nine months war (2018) was about the Ukrainian- Russian military conflict, premiered in Sarajevo IFF and won the special jury prize. His first feature, Blossom Valley (2018) was premiered in Karlovy Vary IFF and won the jury prize. His second feature named Gentle (2022, directed with Anna Nemes) a Hungarian-German co-production premiered at Sundance World Cinema Competition and then won several awards worldwide.
International jury 2023
József R. Nagy, PhD (1966), Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Miskolc, Vice Dean. Since 1993 he has been specializing in visual anthropology, documentary film theory and practice. He graduated with a thesis on documentary film at the University of Miskolc as a student of Gyula Gulyás and János Gulyás, and defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Debrecen. He is a lecturer in documentary filmmaking, media and cinema culture, media and communication studies at the University of Miskolc, and has consulted on several documentaries. In his films, the lifestyle, life and cultural history of workers’ colonies, housing estates and the Carpathian Euroregion are presented.
International ecumenical jury 2023
Dr. László Réti (*1985) graduated from the Faculty of Law at Pázmány Péter Catholic University. Since 2004, he was a journalist at IGEN catholic periodical; between 2008 and 2010, he was editor-in-chief. He started making films as a journalist. In 2011, he founded his film production company, Igen Média Kft. Several of his historical documentaries were nominated for the Hungarian Motion Picture Award (Kingdom without a King, Subdivision 5).
Fipresci jury 2023
Dublin-born Eithne O’Neill studied in Germany and France and worked abroad before teaching cinema and literature at Paris 13 University. On the editorial board of the French monthly Positif for 25 years now, she has been on FIPRESCI juries such as Berlin, Jerusalem and Rotterdam. In addition to contributions to academic journals, her publications include the books Stephen Frears, Le Voyage de Chihiro. Hayao Miyazaki, Ernst Lubitsch (with Jean-Loup Bourget) and Chemins Faisant, Poetry. A member of the SFCC, of SPAF (Syndicat de la presse artistique française), she is also active in Irish Language and Literature groups in Paris.
International jury 2023
Fiona Ziegler graduated in literature, history and international politics before studying film directing at the Prague Film Academy FAMU. She has written and directed seven short films that have been screened and awarded at international festivals. Her debut fiction Lost in Paradise, being the first Swiss-Czech co-production, was released in 2022, both in the Czech Republic and in Switzerland. Her tragic-comedy features the themes of emigration, belated coming of age and identity. Fiona is member of the Bern Film Fund in Switzerland, lives in Prague and works on her first feature length documentary as well as on her first series project Palace of Worries.
Fipresci jury 2023
Kata Gyürke has diversified experiences in different fields of cultural journalism: she participated in the making of several TV and radio shows as host or editor-reporter. In the last couple years she mostly works for printed and online media. Among others her articles appear in Fidelio and magyar.film.hu. She is a regular visitor of the film festivals of the region, like the Berlinale of Karlovy Vary IFF, but she has taken an interest in CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival for years as well. As a member of the Film Critics Department of the MÚOSZ [National Association of Hungarian Journalists] she participates in the review of films that are potential recipients of the film critics’ prize on a regular basis. She is also active in the work of the international FIPRESCI, last fall she has been a member of the jury in Mannheim-Heidelberg.
International jury 2023
Gergely Hajnal director, producer. He graduated from Péter Pázmány Catholic University in Aesthetics, Communication and Media Studies and Pedagogy. In addition to filmmaking, he has organised film festivals, film clubs and many other film programs. He was involved in the establishment of the István Szőts Film Workshop. He has created or worked in most cinematographic genres, while documentary is what he loves most. The subjects of his films are often people on the margins, trying to move in a positive direction. He writes reviews, participates in juries of festivals in Hungary and abroad. He is a featured editor of Duna Msz Nzrt. His feature-length documentary „Szabadító” was awarded the Hungarian Cinema Prize this year.
International jury 2023
Joan Parsons is an experienced cinema professional with over 20 years of work in the cinema sector, across all operational roles and in more recent years working in senior leadership positions. Currently Interim Head of Culture and Arts for Queen’s University Belfast, Joan leads Cinema and Gallery teams for the University while developing wider cultural projects and plans. Joan has successfully delivered financial and cultural excellence and has been involved in organising and delivering significant UK-wide partnership projects. Joan is well known in the cinema sector, attends multiple festivals annually and is often asked to speak to audiences at events and students studying film at various levels.
International jury 2023
Kim Soyoung is one of South Korea’s most respected independent documentary filmmakers. Professor of Film Studies at the National University of the Arts Korea, Director of the Trans-Asia Screen Culture Institute, and founding programmer of the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, she has been a visiting professor at Duke University, UC Berkeley, Irvine University, the Free University of Berlin, among others. She is editor of History of Korean Cinema and author, editor or co-editor of several books on colonial modernity, gender and cinema. Her latest film trilogy explores the history of the Korean diaspora in Central Asia and Russia.
Fipresci jury 2023
Malik Berkati is a Swiss journalist, film critic and political scientist, based in Berlin, Germany. He has worked for several years at festivals in Western Switzerland (PR and program adviser). He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of an international multilingual online magazine focusing on culture and civic awareness (j:mag), and a correspondent in Berlin for various newspapers and magazines from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. He has served on numerous international juries in Europe and Asia, as well as on the German Film Critics Jury for Best German Documentary (2017 and 2022), the Best German Short Film (2019-2021), and since 2020 Jury Member of The Critics Award for Arab Films of the Arab Cinema Center (ACC).
International jury 2023
György Paraszkay designer, graphic artist, photographer has been making movie and theater posters, record and book covers since 1980. He has had solo and group exhibitions around the world over the decades. In the 2000s, he was the official photographer and graphic designer for the Hungarian Cultural Seasons (Magyar Kulturális Évadok). Between 2009 and 2020, Mr Paraszkay acted as graphic designer, cinematographer, exhibition organizer and cultural manager of the P’ART cinema in Szentendre. From 2012 to 2019, he was official photographer of the Szentendre Theatre. His photo album titled A SLICE OF TEATRUM (EGY SZELET TEATRUM) was published in 2022. Currently he works as a freelance artist.
International ecumenical jury 2023
Drs. Rolf Deen (*1957) is a long-time board member of the Dutch Film Talk Foundation supporting small scale initiatives in the field of cinema and sponsor of the World Cinema Exchange Award. Rolf graduated in 1987 from the former Catholic Theological University of Amsterdam in theology, majoring in Jewish studies and minoring in film studies and educational science. He is also an alumnus of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Rolf retired from 35 years of professional work in several roles: lecturer of religion studies, advisor to the Dutch catholic bishop’s conference, executive producer in public broadcasting, learning and development specialist in the manufacturing industry and is now a student in bereavement therapy. He is an independent consultant and translator, writes and speaks about cinema and spirituality.
International jury 2023
Noémi Veronika Szakonyi is a freelance film director and producer. She studied International Relations in Hungary and Political Science in Germany. Noemi started her film studies on a scholarship at Beijing Film Academy. After leaving China, she applied to the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest for the directing documentaries master course, from where she graduated in 2015. Noémi is the founder of Match Frame Productions, a boutique film production company based in Budapest, focusing on documentaries. As a director, she is working on her first long-term feature documentary Afterglow and premiered her first film Six Weeks in main competition at Sarajevo Film Festival in 2022. Six Weeks won the Just Film Grand Prix at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Noémi is currently writing her second feature, Bite into the Soul.
International confederation of art cinemas jury 2023
Tamara Visković graduated from the University of Zadar, majoring in philosophy and art history and completed her postgraduate studies in literature at the University of Zagreb. She worked as a curator at the Croatian Artists Union, and later as the program manager of the Split Multimedia Center. She organized and produced several cultural programs. She has been a member of the jury at several international film festivals, including the Berlinale (2020) and the Sarajevo Film Festival (2022). Currently she is the headmistress in Centar Zlatna vrata and the head of cultural programs. She is publishing articles and essays on music, visual art and popular art in national newspapers.
International ecumenical jury 2023
Eszter Vígh (*1994) studied Theology at the Debrecen Reformed Theological University and completed the study with a Masters Degree. She currently works as one of the pastors of a new church plant in Budapest, Bartók-District, with a special focus on art and gastronomy. Being a member of the Hungarian Interfilm Association helps to build bridges between visual arts and protestant theology.
