International Film Festival Cinema City 2011
National Class - the jury
Philippe Azoury
Philippe Azoury, born in 1971, is a film critic, mainly for the french daily Libération since 1999. He also writes about Books and Photography for the french weekly Les Inrockuptibles, and makes some collaborations with Vogue, Cahiers du Cinéma, GQ, Nobody (Japan), Trafic... He's the co-founder of Discipline in Disorder, a blog about books, and one of the unfamous guys behind the electronic music blog Alainfinkielkrautrock. This last decade, he published several books: Jean Cocteau, Désordres (Cahiers du Cinéma), Fantômas, Style Moderne (Yellow Now), Stigma (in collaboration with Antoine D'Agata). This year, he published the book À Werner Schroeter qui n'avait pas peur de la mort (Capricci). He's long-time working on a monography about Philippe Garrel.
Sharunas Bartas, film director and actor, was born in 1964, in Siauliai, Lithuania. He graduated film directing at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow (VGIK) in 1991. In 1989 he founded the Studio Kinema, the first independant film studio in Lithuania. The purpose of the foundation of Studio Kinema was clear: it was to create an environment for the making of films free of any form of commercial censorship or violence, and one which allowed original authorship without creative interference. Bartas is one of the most outstanding European contemporary film directors. His films have been shown at Cannes, Venice and Berlin, among many other international film festivals. He is the subject of one of this year’s Cinema City tributes.
Eva Hubert is the Executive Director of Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. Having studied politics, history and pedagogy in Hamburg, Eva Hubert worked for several years as a teacher and was elected into the Hamburg state assembly as a member of the Green Party. For eight years she has been working at the Hans-Bredow-Institute doing media research.
Beki Probst is head of the European Film Market since 1988. Born in Istanbul, she studied law and journalism before joining the daily newspaper Tercuman and the weekly newspaper Hayat.
Dorota Kędzierzawska was born in 1957 in Polish town of Łódź. Her mother, filmmaker Jadwiga Kędzierzawska, directed children’s films and took her daughter along οn various shoots, exposing her to the world of film and using her as an assistant when she got older.
Sergey Lavrentiev began his career as a theatre actor in the 1970’s. He graduated the VGIK. During the perestroika he went on to become a leading film critic, known as one of the founders of the new wave in Soviet film criticism.
Ana Maria Rossi, a film and TV director. Graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. She worked on television for years, setting up and directing numerous shows, some of which are still broadcast. She has made documentaries, promotional films, commercials. She worked in marketing as well.
Igor Sterk was born in 1968. He graduated at Ljubljana Film Academy. His first feature film Express, Express (1997) won 15 international awards. His second feature film Ljubljana (2002) was selected for the Tiger Award Competition at Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Visar Vishka is an actor. He graduated at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skoplje in 1999 in the class of Ljubiša Georgievski. He has starred in many films and tv series, including Balkan Bazaar, selected in the “Balkan Box” programme of this year’s Cinema City.
He was born on October 22, 1985, in Belgrade. He graduated from the Classic department of Language High School. Senior student of film directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, under Slobodan Šijan and Stefan Arsenijević. He speaks English and Italian. With the short film Thursday he received the first prize in the selection “Up to 10 000 Bucks” at Cinema City in Novi Sad 2010. After that, the film was programmed at over 10 domestic and international festivals, winning awards for the camera and acting in Montreal, Canada and the award for Best Director in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Currently working on his first feature film Humidity, with which he participated in the Script Station selection of Berlin Film Festival and in the CineLink, the co-production market at Sarajevo Film Festival.
Vladimir graduated film directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade (2000). Since then, he wrote, edited and directed a notable series of TV documentaries about the integration of Gypsy children into Serbian society. His student short film Dolphins are Mammals (1997) won several international awards, including a FIPRESCI special mention at Montreal, Canada. Vladimir Paskaljević is the author of the acclaimed novel BDSM, on paradoxes in civil war and an absurd of growing nationalism, and a book of short stories called The Optimists (2006). His father, Goran Paskaljević, made an award winning film based on the same book. Devil’s Town (2009) is his feature debut film. It was premiered at Karlovy Vary IFF, Rotterdam IFF, Montreal WFF and won awards in Palm Springs IFF, Trieste IFF, Bellinzona IFF, Athens Panorama of European Films, among others.
Damir Todorović graduated acting from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, under Petar Banićević. He is involved in various areas of stage expression: acting, video art, directing, performance. In 2006, thanks to the world acclaimed casting director Shaila Rubin, he started his international film career. Films in which he has played significant roles to the date are: Anthony, Warrior of God (2006), The Nativity Story (2006), Splendid's (2004), Fade to Black (2006), Butterfly Zone (2009) and Tatanka (2011), currently playing in Italian cinemas, based on Roberto Saviano's latest book, Beauty and Hell. Damir also has wide experience in theatrical performance. Since 2001, he has collaborated with numerous theater companies in Serbia, Italy, France, Spain, Croatia, Macedonia and the UK.