Audience award
Bojan Vuletić graduated in film and TV directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. He received his doctorate at the same Faculty. His first feature film, a Serbian-German-French-Croatian-Hungarian co-production, "Practical Guide to Belgrade with Singing and Crying" premiered in the competition program "East of the West" at the festival in Karlovy Vary. His second feature film "Requiem for Mrs. J" had its world premiere at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama Special program. Both won multiple awards at domestic and international festivals. He is the creator of the popular TV series "The Family", which won three Hearts of Sarajevo in 2021. He is the screenwriter and director of the series "The Fall", and as a co-screenwriter he collaborated on the series "Children of Evil". As a co-screenwriter, he wrote the scripts for feature films: "Strahinja", "Irina", "Love and Other Crimes" and the omnibus "Lost-Found". He is a member of the Association of Film Directors of Serbia, the European Film Academy and is employed as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade.
Liana Ruokytė-Jonsson is the Cultural Attaché of the Republic of Lithuania in the Kingdom of Sweden, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Denmark, residing in Stockholm. Since 1994 she has been a culture promoter abroad, a translator, and an actress. She studied artistic management at the Faculty of Theatre of the Lithuanian Music Academy, and took post-educational trainings in the skills of acting and stage directing in Stockholm and Berlin. From 2012 to 2016 - the head of the Department of Film Promotion, Information and Heritage at the Lithuanian Film Centre. Member of the European Film Academy from 2016 and 2016-2018 – the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. From 2019 to 2021 director of “Lithuanian Design Block”, 2019-2020 director of the ecological design association EKODA, and president of the Vilnius Film Cluster. 2020-2023 board member of the audio-visual cluster Baltic Film & Creative Tech Cluster. Initiator and leader of the project FILM BOX-LT, the art-house cinema at the International Vilnius Airport for non-commercial promotion of the Lithuanian and European short films for the airport visitors and passengers. Initiator of various film promotion projects of a bigger scale: long-term collaboration between Poland and Lithuania and “Focus on Lithuania at international film festivals in Poland 2015”, “Lithuanian Month at Eurochannel 2015” and many other.
Bettina Brokemper is owner/producer of Heimatfilm. She has (co-)produced over 50 films, which premiered at the most prestigious festivals and earned more than 100 awards. European Film Promotion nominated her as Producer on the Move and she was awarded with the Prix Eurimages. She’s member of the German- and European Film Academy, where she’s also board member. In 2014 the Cologne Culture Council named her Cultural Manager of the Year. In 2020 Bettina was part of the Berlinale International Jury. Bettina’s producer credits — among many others — include Dogville and Antichrist by Lars von Trier, The Syrian Bride by Eran Riklis, the 2010 Berlinale Golden Bear winner Bal – Honey by Semih Kaplanoglu, Hannah Arendt by Margarethe von Trotta (German Film Award in Silver), Wild by Nicolette Krebitz (German Film Award in Bronze) and Germany. A Winter’s Tale by Jan Bonny (German Film Critics Award). Recently she co-produced La Syndicaliste with Isabelle Huppert, Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey Into The Desert by Margarethe von Trotta, Till The End Of The Night (Silver Bear 2023 for actress Thea Ehre), The Devil’s Bath (Berlinale competition 2024, Silver Bear for D.o.P. Martin Gschlacht, awarded with eight Austrian Film Awards) by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala and La Mort Viendra.
The jury of the main competition program, which consists of five excellent filmmakers, will evaluate the best films from the Official Selection program. The jury will award best films with the Golden Tower for the best film and the Palić Tower for the best director. The jury also assigns Special Prize.
Natalija Avramović was born in 1983 in Kruševac, Serbia. She graduated from the Academy of Arts in Belgrade, where she graduated as a film and television director. In 2021, she wrote the script and directed her first feature film "The Spring Poem", for which she received multiple awards. She is a director and screenwriter of feature-length and medium-length documentary films at the national institution "Yugoslav Newsreels".
David Castellanos studied Information Sciences at the University Complutense of Madrid and Master in Audiovisual Business Management (MEGA) at the Media Business School. He began as a production assistant at Morena films. In 2004 he joined Latido Films as a sales agent. In 2008 he founded Cinema Republic, an international sales company specialized in adaptation rights. Cinema Republic represents successful films as The Other Side of the Bed (2002), Pagafantas (2009), The Honest Candidate (2014), Ate que a sorte nos separate (2012), Benvenuto Presidente (2013) or My Sassy Girl (2001) and collaborates with top-level production companies worldwide.
Constantinos Nikiforou was born in 1976, in Nicosia, Cyprus. Having graduated from Film School, in 2001, he remained in London until 2010, and worked as a producer and was involved in the production of feature films. Between 2003 and 2005 he worked for the Italian Television as a documentary producer. He produced and directed documentaries, shorts and feature films. Upon his return to Cyprus in 2010 he collaborated with the BBC, SVT, Arte, ZDF, ARD and many more, in the production services of films and documentaries. He has a wide experience in Script Analysis, IP Acquisition, Packaging, Marketing & Target Audiences, Budget Accounting and Finance, Pre-Sales & Distribution, Tax Issues, Multi-Project Development, Development and Production Legal Issues. He is a member if the Directors Guild of Cyprus and his production company is under the name of “Caretta Films”.
Parallels and Encounters Jury, consisting of three film profesionals, will evaluate the best films from the competition selection Parallels and Encounters. This jury will award prize for the Best Film in Parallels and Encounters program.
Bettina Hirsch is a well-established freelance film and theatre critic, jury member at various national and international film festivals, as well as a radio editor and host. She writes regular reviews for “screenmagazin.com”, a German independent film and TV online magazine, and is chief editor of “MondayMovieTalk” at Alexradio, Berlin. As film advisor she consults schools across Berlin and is currently working on a new radio program on films for young audiences.
Pierre-Yves Roger is a French film critic. He grew up in Mâcon (Burgundy). Then, he came to Lyon to study politics and in Lille to study journalism. He began his career in Canada, where he worked for three local newspapers in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. He won a prize for an article about mixed marriages. Back in France, he worked as a reporter for several local newspapers (Ouest-France, L'Yonne républicaine, La Voix du Nord, La Nouvelle-République). Then, he came to Paris and worked for 17 years for the American news agency Associated Press. He was a journalist and a movie writer for this company. He covered the Cannes film festival and wrote many reviews about movies, Oscars, César... He interviewed many filmmakers and actors: Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), Costa-Gavras (Missing, Music Box), Michel Gondry (The Green Hornet), Michel Bouquet (Renoir)...
Stojan Sinadinov (1965, Skopje), graduated in World and Comparative Literature at the Philological faculty University St. Cyril and Methody, Skopje. Writing film criticism and film history and theory since the late 80s. Author of more than 3,000 articles on the topic of film, art and culture, published in national newspapers, magazines and journals, as well as specialized film magazines and publications in Macedonia and the region. Reporting experience from dozens of international festivals: Berlinale, Montreal, Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, FEST Belgrade, BLIFF Banja Luka (BH)... In Macedonia: IFFC „Manaki Brothers“ (Bitola), Skopje Film Festival, Cinedays (member of jury for 2023 edition). Author of the book „Antonio Mitrikeski: Chronicle of a Film Dream" and editor of the „Manual for Filmmakers".
The International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI (Federation Internationale de la Presse Cinematografique) was founded in 1930 in Paris. Today, FIPRESCI is the largest and most important association of film critics and journalists in the world. The FIPRESCI jury will evaluate films from the Official Selection program at the Palić European Film Festival.
