JURY

DARYA NIKITINA
festival director / Beginning, St. Petersburg

Darya Nikitina

Born 27 January, 1984

Studied linguistics and culturology at St.Petersburg University of Culture and Arts.

Participated in organization of numerous film and music festivals.

Director of St.Petersburg International Festival of Debut and Student Films Beginning. Member of St.Petersburg Filmmaker’s Union.


HEINZ HERMANNS
festival director / CEO – interfilm Berlin – short film festival & distribution

Heinz Hermanns

Heinz Hermanns was born in 1958 in Duisburg, West Germany.

In 1981 he founded the cinema Eiszeit during the squaters movement in Berlin which he directed during 9 years. In 1986 he directed the International Documentary Film Festival Berlin. From its beginning in 1982 until now, he directs the international short film festival and distribution Berlin – interfilm. He co-directed the short film festival Pollicino in Catania, Italy/Sicily from 1990 to 1996.

He is the director and co-founder since 2001 of the super short film festival Going Underground held in the trains of the Berlin Subway - since 2011 also in the subway in Seoul, South Korea. He is also co-founder and curator of the Zebra poetry short film festival that since 2002 presents twice a year short films which interpret poems.


JENNI TOIVONIEMI
writer, director

Jenni Toivoniemi

Writer-director Jenni Toivoniemi did her BA in literature and theatre studies, worked as a journalist and on cultural section before entering film. She has studied screenwriting in several international workshops including Script & Pitch and Berlinale Talent Campus Script Station. She is currently finishing her MA studies in screenwriting and directing at ELO Film School Helsinki.

Toivoniemi’s latest film, The Date (2012) won a Jury Award in International Short Fiction in Sundance Film Festival, A Special Youth Jury Mention in Berlinale and has been selected to several other distinguished festivals.

Jenni Toivoniemi’s first feature script as screenwriter, Korso, together with Kirsikka Saari, is in production. She is also a co-founder of film production company Tuffi Films Ltd. Toivoniemi is currently working with several short and feature projects and her next film as a writer-director is a 25’ film Tigers.


JORDAN TODOROV
documentary filmmaker, journalist

Jordan_Todorov

In 2010 he made his writing and directing debut with the documentary Concrete Pharaohs - the first Bulgarian documentary commissioned by the international TV channel HBO. The film won The Best Debut Award at the Golden Rhyton Festival of Non-Feature Film (2010) and The Best Documentary Debut Award of the Bulgarian Film Academy (2011).

Dad Made Dirty Movies, Todorov's latest film, was shot in the US and tells the story of the legendary director of erotic films Stephen C. Apostolof. The film is a Bulgarian-German production of AGITPROP in collaboration with the ZDF/ARTE TV channels. The film won the Young Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 16th Sofia International Film Fest Film Fest (2012), as well as The Best TV Documentary Award of the Bulgarian Film Academy (2012).


RADOSTINA NEYKOVA
lecturer, animation director, illustrator

Radostina Neykova

Radostina Neykova was born in Varna, Bulgaria in 1974. She graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts “Kr. Sarafov” with an MFA in Film Studies and Animation Directing.

She is teaching „Animation Techniques” and „Technology of Animated Films” in the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts “Kr. Sarafov”. Radostina Neykova is Ass. Professor, PhD in the Institute of Arts Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Science.

She authored the book Contemporary Movie Screen Comics which was nominated in the Book of the Year category of the Annual Movie Awards of the National Film Academy, 2010.

She is a director of awards winning animated shorts. Radostina Neykova is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Film Makers, Animation Guild, the Union of Bulgarian Journalists, Film Section and “Academika 21”.


TOBIAS MUNTHE
producer, writer

Tobias Munthe

Tobias Munthe studied Literature at Oxford University and filmmaking at Columbia University's School of the Arts. His short film Music From A Farther Room, starring Harriet Walter, won the National Board of Review Award at the Columbia University Film Festival 2007. He sold his first feature script Sertao, (based on Sergio Bonelli's Italian comic book series, Mister No) to Buena Onda Films (London).

Tobias' producer credits include Either Way by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson which has played at over 50 festivals and won several prizes, and Prince Avalanche, an adaptation of Either Way (directed by David Gordon Green and starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch) which won the Silver Bear for Best Director as the Berlinale 2013. Tobias is also producing Sigurdsson's next films Cold Spring (shooting in June/July 2013) and Kanari (due to shoot Autumn 2014).