Jury - International Competition of Feature Films
Jury - Short FilmsEnikö Eszenyi
Eniko Eszenyi was born in Csenger, Hungary in 1961. From 1979 to 1983 she studied acting at the ESZENYI, Budapest. After graduation, she joined the company of Vígszínház, Budapest, which is the largest prose theatre in Hungary. Soon she became the leading actress of the company, and in 1992 she started to direct as well. Since then she has been working as a director with her company, and also receiving invitations from other theatres inside and outside of Hungary. She has worked in Prague, Bratislava and Washington D.C. In the meantime, she has been working as a film actress too, and up until now she has starred in more than 25 films and 30 television-films. She was awarded many times the Critic’s Award and other Awards for Best Acting and Best Directing for her theatre and film activities. She also holds honours from the State, the Ministry of Culture, and the City of Budapest. In 2009, she became the artistic director of the Vígszínház.
Heiko Fischer
Heiko Fischer was born 1962 in Leipzig. He initially was employed in jobs in the army, industry and financial services, worked for culture organizations and youth clubs, and later from 1999 to 2002 as a press officer and project manager for the Film Festival Cottbus, and after that in 2003 for the International film fest Braunschweig. He has organised the trinational Neiße Film festival, which is held in the German-Polish-Czech border region every May, since its founding in 2004, by himself. He also works as a programming curator for the German film club Kommunales Kino Cottbus and since 2000 for the Polish festival Lubuskie Film Summer Lagow.
Jan Kačer
Jan Kačer is an actor and a stage, television and film director. His cooperation with the compelling creative personality, philosopher of the new film wave, Evald Schorm, was of great importance. They jointly made the films “Courage for Every Day” (1964), “The Return of a Prodigal Son” (1966), The Seventh Day – the Eighth Night (1969), and as an actor he appeared in many other films “The Valley of the Bees” (1967), “Operation on My Daughter” (1986) or “Bringing Up Girl in Bohemia” (1997). Jan Kačer was born in 1936 in Holice. In 1960, he completed his studies of directing at DAMU in Prague. He was a co-founder of the Dramatic Club in Prague and was working there, particularly as a director (“Cherry Orchard”, “The Inspector-General”, “The Lower Depths”, “Crime and Punishment”) from 1965–1974. Since 1976, he has been working in the Theatre E. F. Burian in Prague and in the National Theatre in Ostrava. Later, he was a member of the theatre “Na Vinohradech”, directed plays in the National Theatre in Prague, making guest performances at other theatres as well as working as a director in the National Theatre in Oslo. Since 2004, he has been working with TV Prima, in turn acting and directing in Prague and Ostrava.
Dorota Nvotová
Dorota Nvotová was born in 1982 in Považská Bystrica. As an actress she made her debut at the age of six when she appeared in the film “Eylid Secrets” (directed by Juraj Nvota) and the fairytale „Sleeping Beauty“ (by Stanislav Párnický). Four years later, she made her first appearance on stage at the Astorka Theatre, starring in „Incident“. In 2000, she was cast by Martin Šulík for the film „Landscape“. It was followed by „Girlie“ (2002), which earned her the Best Actress Award at the Thessaloniki IFF, “Coal Tower” (2002), “Life at Stake” (2008), and “Music” (2007) a “The Case of Unfaithful Klára” (2009). Besides for her acting, Dorota Nvotová is actively involved in music. In 2003, she released her debut album called “Overground” that was made with her former band of the same name. Next came her solo albums “Dorota Nvotová” (2004) and a “The Powerful Sob” (Sila vzlyku, 2007). She is the author of the incidental music of the performance “Illusionists”, “If I Was Born Again” a “La Strada”. She currently lives, in turns, in Slovakia, Prague and Nepal.
Jay Weissberg
Jay Weissberg is a New York-born film critic living in Rome. He has been with the industry paper Variety since 2003, travelling to one or two film festivals per month, as well as participating on juries and panel discussions at a number of film-related events worldwide. His articles on early cinema, and book reviews, have appeared in Sight & Sound and Senses of Cinema, and he is curating a section of the upcoming Pordenone Silent Film Festival this October on “British detectives in silent cinema”. In addition to his film critique, he has a background in art history, and for many years he worked for one of the leading London-based dealers in Old Master drawings.
Jury - International Competition of Short Films
Jadwiga Głowa
Works as an adjunct at the Institute of the Audio-Visual Arts at the Jagiellonski University of Krakow. She deals with Central-European documentary film-making and Czech and Slovak features. She chairs the selection jury at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival in Krakow and has been a member of several documentary film festivals. She works as an expert with the Institute for Film Studies and has published several studies and two books – “Zooming in on History’s Turning Points. Documentaries in the 1990s in central and Eastern Europe. Papers from an international seminar held on May 29, 1999” (1999) and ““Film Documentary in Times of Havel” (2005), which earned her a doctor’s degree.
Adrian Sitaru
After studying Film Directing in Bucharest, Adrian made the short film „Waves“ (Valuri, 2007), which won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival as well as the prize for Best Short at the Sarajevo Film Festival, Namur, Dresden, and Aspen along with another 22 awards. „Waves“ was also selected in the Official Competition of Sundance 2008 and Art Film Festival 2008. Adrian Sitaru finished his first feature film in 2008, „Hooked„, selected in Venice Days at the International Film Festival of Venice 2008 and Toronto IFF 2008 and was awarded at festivals such as Palm Springs, Thessaloniki, Mons, Buenos Aires and Estoril. In 2009, he shot 2 short films, The Pekingese and The Cage, which is currently in post-production. He is currently preparing for his next feature film For Love with Best Intentions, a project that has allowed him to participate in the Cinefondation Cannes Residence and BINGER Filmlab.
Ivana Zajacová
Studied at the Department of Animated Film at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava where she currently teaches. Her first graduation film „To Know“ (Vedieť, 2000) won a Jury´s Special Mention at the 2002 Cineteca Bologna Festival and was selected for the official KODAK screening „Talent 2000“ at the Cannes Film Festival. Her second graduation film „Cheers!“ (Nazdravíčko!, 2005) co-directed by Jozef Mitaľ, received 2006 Slovakia´s film award Sun in a Net for Best Animation. Working as an animated actor, art director, animator or producer, she became involved in films by various authors (e.g. „Today Is My First Date“ (Dnes mám prvé randevú, 2001) directed by Boris Šima, „Pik and Nik“ directed by Martin Snopek). In 2006, she founded an animated film producing company and since then she has continued producing several projects „Four“ (Štyri) by Ivana Šebestová, „Fongopolis“ by Joanna Kozuch, „The Last Bus „ by Martin Snopek, „Rarach“ by Ivana Zajacová and „About Dream and Snow „ by Ivana Šebestová).