Our 2024 Guests
-
Alan Gilsenan
Main Competition Jury
Alan Gilsenan is an award-winning Irish writer, filmmaker and theatre director. His diverse film work spans documentary, fiction and experimental. His most recent films include The Days of Trees – a reflection on trauma and memory, which recently won the 2024 Irish Film & Television Academy Award for Feature Documentary – which premiered at the 2023 Cork International Film Festival last autumn, and The Irish Question, which recently premiered at the 2024 Dublin International Film Festival.
His many film productions include the feature films Timbuktu, The Meeting and Unless; the documentary The Yellow Bittern: The Life & Times of Liam Clancy; the experimental film A Vision: A Life of WB Yeats; The Ghost of Roger Casement; the television documentary series Daniel O’Connell: Forgotten King of Ireland; a film installation inspired by Joyce’s Ulysses for Dublin’s MOLI entitled ULYSSES | FILM; and Ghosts of Baggotonia, a film poem combining personal memory and the literary ghosts of bohemian Dublin.
He is a former Chairman of the Irish Film Institute and a member of the Boards of both Screen Ireland and RTÉ. He is currently Chairman of Fighting Words, a national organisation promoting creative writing for children and young people
-
Kerem Soyyilmaz
Director (Main Competition Section)
Kerem Soyyilmaz (1984) was born and raised in Besiktas, Istanbul. With a background in commercial films, Searching for Rodakis is his first documentary. Searching for Rodakis won 4 awards including the Best Film Award at the 30. Adana Golden Boll Film Festival. He is currently based in Copenhagen, working on film and intercultural projects between Denmark and Turkey.
-
Derik Lynch
Director (μicro Competition Section)
Derik Lynch (b. 1986, Alice Springs) is an initiated Yankunytjatjara man. He is a performer, filmmaker, and artist who grew up between Alice Springs and remote Communities in the Northern Territory and South Australia. He has worked both nationally and internationally in theatre, film and TV including performances at the Sydney Opera House (AUS) and Southbank Theatre (UK), where he was invited to an audience with Queen Elizabeth II. Marungka tjalatjunu is Derik’s debut film as writer/director and tells part of his own story. Derik currently divides his time between the remote community and Adelaide, working as an artist, educator and health practitioner.
-
Bruce Clark
Main Competition Jury
Bruce Clark is a seasoned writer, broadcaster, and lecturer, renowned for his expertise in religion, geopolitics, southeastern European history, and textiles. Serving as the online religion editor of The Economist, Bruce has contributed extensively to publications and actively engages in global debates on faith and the environment. He holds a strong interest in local Northern Irish history, particularly its linen heritage, and has authored acclaimed works such as “Twice A Stranger: How Forced Migration Forged Modern Greece and Turkey” and “Athens: City of Wisdom.”
With a career spanning over three decades, Bruce has held prominent roles at The Economist and the Financial Times, covering diverse topics from Balkan conflicts to transatlantic relations. He began his journalistic journey with Reuters, honing his language skills in French, modern Greek, and Russian. A graduate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, Bruce’s academic background includes Philosophy and Social and Political Sciences. His multifaceted career underscores a commitment to storytelling and intellectual inquiry, shaping narratives that resonate across borders and disciplines.
-
Pablo Chavanel
Director (Main Competition Section)
Born in 1983, Pablo studied analogue photography, art history and photojournalism at university. He then perfected his skills with a BTS in audiovisual studies and began his career as a cameraman and video editor in journalism agencies in Paris. He worked on several TV reports. Fascinated by documentaries, he moved to Cambodia in 2015 and shot his first short documentaries along the Mekong River. As a director, he made several short and medium-length documentaries before The Parallel Currents, his first feature-length documentary, shot over a period of 7 years (2016-2022). In this film, he explores issues close to his heart: social and environmental justice.
-
Vangelis Pyrpylis
Director (μicro Competition Section)
Vangelis Pyrpylis is a filmmaker and graphic designer with a Master of Arts in visual communication & interactive media.
-
Shuibo Wang
Main Competition Jury
Shuibo Wang, a Chinese born visual artist, Oscar nominated filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow. He studied bande dessinée at the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts. He’s been associated with the National Film Board of Canada, after worked for the world-renowned French-Canadian animator and Oscar winner Frederic Back. He’s also a professor and founding director of the Film & Media Art department at Central Academy of Fine Arts. His films received numerous awards including an Academy Nomination. He also had solo art exhibitions in Montréal, Toronto, Beijing, Shanghai.
-
Min Bae
Director (Main Competition Section)
Min Bae is a distinguished professor of film production at the University of Windsor and the visionary founder of Cactus Pictures®. With over three decades of experience, he has made significant contributions to cinematography and filmmaking since 1990. Min Bae’s expertise in film production, cinematography and visual arts is informed by his extensive education in Montreal, France and Korea. His diverse skills and global perspective enrich every project he undertakes.
-
Peter Kremski
FIPRESCI Jury
Peter Kremski is a German film critic and TV documentarian who contributes to various print and online magazines. He is also the director and author of numerous television documentaries with a thematic focus on cinema, including many portraits of internationally renowned filmmakers. He is a member of the German Film Critics Association and represents the association as the FIPRESCI representative. Mr. Kremski has served on FIPRESCI juries in Cannes, Locarno, Venice, Karlovy Vary, and Leipzig, among other locations, as well as on juries at film and media art festivals in Germany. He is based in the Cologne/Bonn region.
-
Taliya Finkel
Director (Main Competition Section)
Taliya Finkel is an award-winning independent filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist.
Her films have won international awards and been screened at dozens of festivals in Israel and abroad. They have also been broadcast on many different television channels. Most notably, her films have been integrated into the curricula of several high schools and universities in Israel and Germany.
Finkel believes that art is a powerful tool for social change, and in her work, she strives to bring to light important issues that touch on history, diversity and sustainability.
-
Marina Kostova
FIPRESCI Jury
Marina Kostova is an award-winning journalist, one of the leading film critics and reporters in the Republic of North Macedonia. She is a founding member and deputy editor-in-chief of the digital newsroom www.sdk.mk.
She was a founding member and deputy editor-in-chief of Vest Daily, the largest newspaper in the country at the time.
She is the president of the Macedonian section of the International Federation of Film Critics – FIPRESCI.
She edited the books “Manchevski Monograph” and “Rain – The World About Milcho Manchevski’s Before the Rain”, as well as the CD-ROM “Macedonia in the New York Times Archives”, and published a hybrid collection of short stories “Language is a Strange Beast”. She has also worked on film research.
She is a member of the team of authors of the first Media Literacy Dictionary in North Macedonia (online platform).
She participated in the FIPRESCI critics’ juries at a number of film festivals (Venice, Sarajevo, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Viennale, Oberhausen, Chemnitz, Mannheim, Cluj-Napoca, Luxembourg and others).
-
Karina Będkowska
Director (Main Competition Section)
She graduated with honours in documentary filmmaking from Goldsmith University in London and in photography from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. She participated in the international film workshops Film Spring Open in Krakow and INTERDOC in Serbia, as well as Doc Development and DOC LAB Poland.Her short film Tutka was screened at the international festivals Benicia FF in California and Short to the Point in Romania in 2017. Her debut documentary My Place Ozerna premiered at the 62nd Krakow Film Festival and the Canadian Hot Docs Film Festival. She has had photo exhibitions in England, Denmark and Poland. Her solo photography exhibition took place at the opening of the 62nd Krakow Film Festival. She was a member of the jury at the 8th Ukraina Film Festival! in Warsaw.
-
George Papadimitriou
FIPRESCI Jury
He studied law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and obtained a Master’s degree in translation from the University of Strasbourg. Since 2010 he works as a film critic for the daily newspaper Typos of Thessaloniki.
He is the founder and editor-in-chief of the cinema website cinedogs.gr, and was also the editor-in-chief of the cinema section of the weekly cultural magazine Film Noir. He was the coordinator, content creator and main author of the anthology “John Cassavetes: Don’t Believe the Truth”, published by Kypseli editions, and has also contributed to numerous books published by the Greek Film Critics Association. He has translated books such as Zapata and Che, Zapatistas and the Bolivian Cocaleros (Akyvernites Polities editions, co-translation with Annita Chatzikou) and Nomadland (Kypseli editions).
He also works as a translator and contributor to the mataroa.gr platform of the Cultural Association of Entrepreneurs of Northern Greece. In the past, he has worked as a teacher of translation and legal terminology at the French Institute of Thessaloniki and at the University of Strasbourg, and has given seminars on cinema at the online platform Rebrandt and the Cat.
-
Dimitris Zahos
Director (Main Competition Section)
A graduate of the Film Department of AUTh with his graduation film “Penguins” being awarded in Greece and abroad. He has directed short films, fiction and documentaries, directed and designed video projections in theatrical performances and video art exhibitions. In 2020, his film “Vouta” stood out at the 43rd Drama Festival where it was awarded the Special Jury Award, the Screenplay Award and the Honorary Art Direction Award. “Loxy” is his first feature film.
-
Andre Singer
President of μicro Jury
André Singer holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Oxford and has pursued a dual career in anthropology and filmmaking. His career in documentary spans five decades as a researcher, producer, director, executive producer and commissioning editor. His experience ranges from series editor of Granada Television’s Disappearing World in the 1980s to head of the Independent Unit of the BBC Documentary Department in the 1990s, where he established the world-renowned Fine Cut series (now Storyville) and worked with international filmmakers such as Jean Rouch, Werner Herzog, D.B. Pennebaker, Mike Grigsby, Bob Drew and Fred Wiseman.
As a director, André specialised for many years in anthropological films, including Witchcraft Among the Azande, The Goddess and the Computer, The Kazakhs of China and Stranger’s Abroad. More recently, Andre’s award-winning Night Will Fall won the Royal Television Society Award, the Peabody Award and the Emmy for Best History Documentary. He also directed the acclaimed Where the Wind Blew, about nuclear weapons testing in Kazakhstan and North America, and co-directed with Werner Herzog the internationally successful Meeting Gorbachev. André’s latest film, Meeting Zelensky, co-directed with Hollywood actor and filmmaker Liev Schreiber, is scheduled for release in 2024.
André is President Emeritus of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London and Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California. In 2020, André will be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to documentary film and anthropology.
-
Thanasis Kafetzis
Director (Main Competition Section)
Born in Thessaloniki, Thanasis Kafetzis graduated in 2016 from the Film Studies Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He worked as a cinematographer and director’s assistant in the documentary “Next stop: Utopia” which premiered as an official selection at IDFA, and won multiple awards around the world. In May 2017 he represented Greece in the 18th European Young Artists Biennale. His second feature documentary “Loxy” (co-directed with Dimitris Zahos), premiered in March 2024. He currently lives and works in Athens.
-
Agapi Κefalogianni
μicro Jury
Agapi Kefalogianni holds a Master of Arts (MA) in Mass Communications & Media Studies from the University of Leicester. She is an experienced Program Manager with a proven track record in the telecommunications industry; she worked at MEGA channel as a post-production and promo producer in the entertainment sector and joined Nova, the first pay TV platform in Greece, right from its launch in the country.
Since then, she has been in charge of program selection and acquisitions for Novacinema’s premium channels and SVOD service. As Head of Cinema Channels, she works closely with Hollywood studios and European film companies on various content deals including movies, series, kids’ programs and entertainment formats. With her team, she evaluates local scenarios from Greek production companies and commissions co-productions on an annual basis.
She is currently head of the Novacinema channels of Nova Greece, a member of the United Group.
-
Elke Sasse
Director (Main Competition Section)
Elke Sasse’s films focus on people from all walks of life. She has documented the daily lives of garlic farmers in China and dance hall pensioners in Berlin. She has accompanied homeless people on their journey through Germany, former slave workers from Eastern Europe waiting for justice, and searched the world for remnants of the Berlin Wall. She often finds the “big” in the “small” – her documentary “Babske Radio” is set on a bench in a Ukrainian village, where women discuss their lives and big politics. “Worldwide Berlin” documents a day in Berlin – a place with the same name in seven different places around the world. Her films often deal with global and socio-political issues, such as refugee journeys to Europe (#MyEscape), the situation of refugees torn between the search for security and the situation at home (The War on my Phone), the impact of international investment in the Global South (Oil Promises) or the relationship between trade policy and migration (Tomatoes and Greed). Elke has won several international awards, including the Prix Europa in 2016 for her film #MyEscape.
-
Marco Gastine
μicro Jury
Marco Gastine was born in Paris and he has been living and working in Greece since 1979.
He studied Architecture in Paris and Film in Athens.
In 2003, he founded the production company Minimal Films, which undertook the production of his documentary films and the ones of talented Greek filmmakers. Minimal Films has also undertaken international co-productions with ARTE, France Télévisions, CNC and more.
He is teaching documentary in Greek and international workshops (MFI, StoryDoc, French Institute). He is also teaching at the Athens Film School “Stavrakou”.
Founding member and former President of Greek Documentary Association “Hellas Doc”.
Most recent of his filmography are: «The deaf dog» (in progress, 2023), «As far as the sea» (2019), «24h EUROPE» documentary, 30’ episode of a 24hours documentary for ARTE (2018), ), «NIKOS BELOYANNIS», episode of the series UNSUNG HEROES for ARTE (2016), «Demokratia, The way of the cross» (2012) and many more.
-
Martyna Peszko
Director (μicro Competition Section)
Martyna Peszko is a documentary filmmaker, film, television and theatre actress. She is the author of several short documentaries. Her debut film Tell me more (2022) was screened at Krakow Film Festival, Warsaw Film Festival, New Horizons in Wroclaw, MiradasDoc, Tenerife and Hot Docs in Canada. Her second film Revolution 21 (2022) premiered at Dok Leipzig last year.
-
Mitzi Goldman
President of the Main Competition Jury
Mitzi Goldman has been working in the film industry for over 35 years as a documentary director, producer and editor. Alongside her production career she has worked in education at Murdoch University WA and as Co-Head of Documentary at AFTRS. Mitzi’s credits include: as Producer – KaChing! Pokie Nation; Night Parrot Stories; Memoirs of a Plague; End of the Rainbow. As Director – Jez: A Letter for life; A Common Purpose; Chinese Take Away; Hatred and as Executive Producer – Knowing the Score, How to Thrive, Incarceration Nation; Backtrack Boys; Undermined: Tales of the Kimberley; Leunig Fragments; Zach’s Ceremony; Constance on the Edge; I Am a Girl; Surgery Ship.
Goldman has a Phd in Cultural Studies. She co-founded and is CEO of Documentary Australia, developing a new paradigm for funding and outreach of social impact documentary films. Documentary Australia is a not for profit organization that connects philanthropy and filmmaking to inspire social change.
She served as a director of the Film and Television Institute in Western Australia and AIDC (where she served as co-chair for 3 years). She was Jury President at APSA in 2018 and participated on juries of film festivals in Australia, Iran and China.
-
Εlif Akcali
μicro Jury
Elif Akçalı holds a Ph.D. in Media Arts from Royal Holloway, University of London, and is a full-time faculty member at the Radio, Television and Cinema Department of Kadir Has University.
She has been teaching film editing practice, film theory, documentary making and other theoretical and practical courses in screen studies since 2004. Her interests include film style and aesthetics, documentary and essay film, gender and audiovisual production, and videographic film studies. Her video essays have appeared in [in]Transition, and she has written for a variety of journals, including Critical Arts, Journal of Film and Video, and CineAction. She recently co-authored a book on Mustang (Ergüven, 2015). She was the project director of the recently completed “Women on Screen and Behind the Camera: A Contemporary Outlook (2017-2021) to Representation and Labor of Women in Film and TV Industries in Turkey” funded by TÜBİTAK. She is also practicing VR filmmaking as a researcher in another TÜBİTAK-funded project “Positioning the Spectator in Cinematic Virtual Reality” and learning about EU film policies as a researcher in “Reviving, Boosting, Optimizing and Transforming European Film Competitiveness -REBOOT” conducted under the EU HORIZON fund.
Elif is also the producer of a feature film in development, Saadet, written and to be directed by Ayça Çiftçi.
-
Kristin Ivanova
Director (μicro Competition Section)
Kristin Ivanova is currently in her third year of film and television directing at NATFA “Krastyo Sarafov”. Her interest in cinematography has been with her since childhood. It deepened during her high school years and later grew into the decision to apply and continue her studies at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts. Born and raised in Sofia, she grew up learning German from an early age. She aspires to continue her education and career abroad, where she can familiarise herself with different cultures and be a part of the women in the film and entertainment industry as a whole.
-
Valerie Kontakos
Main Competition Jury
Valerie Kontakos lives between Athens and New York. After graduating from New York University, she worked as a sound editor for the Maysles brothers, Deborah Dickson, Anita Thacher and others. In 1989 she directed her first feature documentary A Quality of Light. In 1994 she became the deputy director of the Hellenic Foundation in NYC, where she started the NYC Greek Film Festival. Her second feature, Who’s on First? (2006), aired in the US, Greece, Finland and South Korea. She founded production company Exile Films in Athens in 2007 and non-profit Exile Room, focusing on social outreach through documentary, in 2009. Queen of the Deuce is her fourth feature.
-
Penelope McDonald
μicro Jury
Penelope McDonald is an award-winning producer (Buckskin, SFF 2013; My Mother India, SFF 2002; My Bed Your Bed SFF 1992; Night Cries Cannes 1990) and director (Too Many Captain Cooks SFF 1989). Born in Newcastle, she moved to Sydney and then to Seoul, South Korea, where she grew up. She was editor of Honi Soit at the University of Sydney and began her career in writing. She later graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School and directed and produced several award-winning films. In 2004, she founded Screen Territory, the state’s film agency for the Northern Territory of Australia. Penelope is a distinguished creator with an academic background in education and storytelling, and has always had a strong interest in the human stories that make up each of our lives. Today, she holds two complementary roles as a storyteller for the screen and as a coach, encouraging people to express their inner magic. She also teaches, guides, supports, and provides advisory services on a regular basis to film and other industry professionals. Her latest film, “Audrey Napanagka” (2023), won the Best Social Documentary Award at the 8th Beyond Borders | Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival.
-
Maksim Avdeev
Director (μicro Competition Section)
Maksim Avdeev was born in the small Russian town of Agryz. Living in Saint Petersburg, Maksim graduated from acting school and after moving to Berlin due to the increasing danger for queer people to remain in their motherland, Maksim began a filmmaking career as a writer and director. Monument is Maksim’s debut film.
2023 Guests
-
Danae Elon
Documentary filmmaker
Danae Elon is instructor of the film workshop Beyond Storytelling, which is realized from 2023 onwards as part of the side cultural activities at Beyond Borders. She has been also member of the Jury at the Main Competition Section of the Festival.
She is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, producer and cinematographer. Her short film «Life of a Dog», was selected by CBC Gem as part of the Covid Relief fund for artists from over 4.000 submissions. «Life of A Dog» was a finalist for best documentary at Gala Quebec Iris awards. Her films «Another Road Home» 2004, «Partly Private» 2007, «P.S Jerusalem» 2015 and «The Patriarch’s Room» 2017(Best Documentary film Beyond Borders 2021, Best Documentary Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Orpheus Award LA Greek Film Festival) have been showcased at TIFF, Berlinale, Tribeca, IDFA, Hot Docs, Melbourne IFF, Human Rights watch FF, FIPA, Leipzig and many other international film festivals. She has programmed for The Cinema South Film Festival and is currently selecting films for the on-line VOD platform TENK. Danae is an adjunct lecturer at Queen’s University in the department of Film and Media.
-
Giuseppe Cederna
Giuseppe Cederna Actor, writer and traveler
Protagonist of the film “Mediterraneo” by G. Salvatores, Oscar 1992, in the cinema he has worked, among others, with Scola, Bellocchio, Comencini, Monicelli, the Taviani brothers, Soldini, Brizzi, Rob Marshall, Gianni Amelio.
In the theater he interpreted classic and modern texts: from “Amadeus” to the “Cherry Garden”, from Brecht to the First World War, from “Mozart: the dream of a Clown” to the Mediterranean migrations by Gianmaria Testa in “On this side of the sea”, up to Homer’s Odyssey.
Without forgetting his poetic and transhumant passions, he has traveled from the Himalayas to Valtellina, from Tibet to the Aegean islands via Leopardi, Kavafis, John Berger, Wislawa Szimborska and Walt Whitman.
He has written and published “Il Grande Viaggio” (“The Great Journey”, Feltrinelli) a Himalayan pilgrimage to the sources of the Ganges; “Piano Americano” (“Close Medium Shot”, Feltrinelli); “Ticino, le voci del Fiume” (“Ticino, the voices of the river”, Excelsior 1881).
-
Matteo Campagnolo
After studying history and science of Antiquity in Venice, Naples and Athens (then continued in Geneva and Paris), Matteo Campagnolo was part of the team of scientific editors of the Registers of the Company of Pastors of Geneva , under the direction of prof. Louis Binz and Alain Dufour. He received his PhD from the University of Genevaand he also taught classical languages.
From 1995 to 2017, he was the curator of the Geneva Numismatic Cabinet and responsible for numismatic finds in the Canton.
Since 2005, he has been lecturer at the University of Geneva (Faculty of Letters, Department of Antiquity Sciences), he has given an introductory course to ancient numismatics, in connection with the teaching of classical archeology and that of ancient history.
-
Marianna Economou
Marianna Economou is a documentary film maker based in Athens, Greece. She studied anthropology, photojournalism and film production in London. She directs documentary series for the Greek TV and creative documentaries produced by Greeks and co-produced by European broadcasters such as the BBC, ARTE and YLE. Her films have participated in many international festivals. She has received awards for the following documentaries: “The School”, “My Place in the Dance”, “Please Listen to Me”, “Bells”, “Threads And Miracles”, “Twelve Neighbours”, “Food for Love” and “The Longest Run”, which was also nominated for the European Film Academy Awards in 2016. Her latest documentary, “When tomatoes met Wagner”, premiered in Berlinale and has been officially selected by more than 80 festivals worldwide (Visions du Reel, Sydney, DocBarcelona, Docaviv, Sarajevo, etc). Moreover, it was Greece’s selection for the Oscars 2020 in the foreign film category. She is a member of the European Film Academy and she has been president of the Greek Documentary Association
-
Georgianna Dalara
Brown University Honors (BA Theater and Literature) and RADA graduate (MA Text and Performance) and certified Yoga teacher, Georgianna Dallara has been working professionally as an actress since 2009 and as a visual artist and Yoga teacher since 2020. She teaches private and small classes groups in homes and outdoors.
-
Stavros Psillakis
Born in Chania, Crete, 1954. He is a graduate of the National Technical University of Athens. He studied film at the Hadjikou Film School (Athens) and he continued his studies in anthropological documentary filmmaking at the VARAN School (Paris). He lives and works in Athens. He has been the creator of many films, such as The inside light, Distinction (9th Greek Documentary Festival Halkida & 2nd Ierapetra International Documentary Festival 2015) Olympia, Audience Award (17th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2015), Short Stories Roma (2014) and many others.
-
Nancy Guerin
Nancy Guerin has built a career by tackling difficult subjects.
For the past three years, she co-wrote and created the four-part documentary series titled Lac Megantic: This is Not an Accident with academy-award nominated director Philippe Falardeau. The film premiered at Cannes Series and won the Audience Choice Award at the 2023 Hot Docs film festival. Prior to that, she produced and co-wrote Left Behind America (PBS Frontline), A Sisters Song (IDFA) and Pink Ribbons inc. (Toronto Film Festival).
She has worked as a producer, show runner, writer, story editor, and investigative researcher on every type of project. Her work has appeared at festivals around the world and has been broadcast internationally by networks, including Arte, Bravo, CBC, Discovery, The Documentary Channel, History, NHK, and PBS.