Jury members

Competition Jury

Paula Vaccaro

Bio

Paula is an award-winning producer and screenwriter with a career spanning over two decades. Born in Buenos Aires and based in London, she is the founder of Pinball London, a production company which worked with acclaimed directors such as Sally Potter, Luca Guadagnino, Jim Jarmusch, Guillermo Arriaga and Emir Kusturica. Her films have won over 100 international awards, including three Venice Lions, and have premiered at the world's biggest film festivals. A strong advocate for diversity and mentorship, she has led pioneering industry initiatives, including the first EPC-Netflix training program for women producers. Her latest production, Giovanni Tortorici's first feature Nineteen, premiered at Venice 2024, winning the Youth Jury Dragon Award at this year’s Göteborg film festival.

Ciro Guerra

Bio

Hailing from Colombia, Ciro enjoyed attention from his first features The Wandering Shadows (2004) and The Wind Journeys (2009), were selected at festivals such as Cannes, Toronto and San Sebastian, receiving more than 40 international awards. His third feature, Embrace of the Serpent (2015), which can be seen at TIFF 2025, won the top prize at the Director´s Fortnight in Cannes 2015 and became the first Colombian production to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. In 2018, his Birds of Passage opened the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, while his latest film, Waiting for the Barbarians (2019), starring Academy Award Winner Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson, was nominated for the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival.

Fabrice du Welz

Bio

After starting Theatre Studies at the Liège Conservatoire, Fabrice Du Welz (1972) studied in the Production section of the INSAS in Brussels. Afterwards, he worked as a television presenter and actor in France and Belgium. He directed a number of short films, including Quand on est amoureux, c’est merveilleux, which won awards at several French and Belgian festivals in 1999. His first feature, Calvaire (2004), was selected for Cannes. Du Welz’s sixth feature, the France-Belgium co-production Adoration, premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival 2019 and screened in the Limelight section of IFFR 2019. His newest feature, Maldoror (2024), premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.

Agustina Chiarino

Bio

Agustina is a renowned Uruguayan producer with more than 15 Latin-American feature films that have premiered in some of the most prestigious film festivals worldwide, receiving more than 100 awards. Since 2007, she has been an executive producer at Control Z Films, where she produced feature films directed by Adrián Biniez, Pablo Stoll, Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge. In 2011, she set up Mutante Cine with Fernando Epstein, producing The Waves from Adrián Biniez, History of Fear from Benjamin Nahistat, and Monos from Alejandro Landes, among many others. She is a tutor at the Biennale College. She is part of the selection committee at San Sebastián’s Co-Production Forum and has been project advisor for Sundance Film Institute, Doha Film Institute, Torino Film Lab, and Ventana Sur.

Bogdan Mureșanu

Bio

Bogdan spent almost a decade in advertising, during which time he launched one of the most successful campaigns of the 2000s, "Afacereza" for The Money Channel. At the same time, he published the short story collection “Erata” (2006), one of the stories being the basis of the animated film The Magician, which had its world premiere at Annecy 2025 and can also be seen at TIFF. The first screenplay, The Living Torch, won the Best Short Film Screenplay award at the HBO competition at TIFF 2008. The short film The Christmas Gift (2018) won the Best Short Film Award at the European Film Academy Awards and was shortlisted for the 2020 Academy Awards. His feature debut The New Year That Never Came took the top prize of the Horizons competition at Venice 2024 and is now competing in the Romanian Days at TIFF 2025.

What's Up Doc Jury

Christine Camdessus

Bio

Christine launched her production company, Alegria, in 2001. Among more than 60 creative documentaries she produced there are Five Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, winner of a Best Directing Award at Sundance in 2012 and nominated for an Academy Award the next year, The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev and Forman versus Forman, the latter being selected in Cannes Classics in 2019. Christine is the chairwoman of the jury of Berlinale’s Nipkow program. In 2013, Alegria received was designated the best production company of documentaries in France. In 2018, Christine became managing and artistic director of FIPADOC, a documentary film festival which takes place in Biarritz, France, the last week of January.

Hanka Kastelicová

Bio

Hanka is the Vice President and Executive Producer of Documentaries for Warner Bros. Discovery in Europe. She oversees the development and production of HBO Originals documentary films and series with a strong connection with the countries where MAX broadcasts in Europe. Hanka is passionate about nurturing European stories rooted in the rich local tradition of visual storytelling, resonating with global audiences. Hanka earned a Master of Arts degree from the Faculty of Film and TV Documentary Department at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She continued her professional career in Slovenia, where she worked for over 25 years as a documentary director and producer, with a portfolio of more than 100 documentaries. She joined HBO in 2012.

Ivan Bakrač

Bio

Ivan hails from Montenegro and he has written and directed films that participated in many international festivals and won awards. He participated in various programs such as Berlinale Talents, Talents Sarajevo, Zurich Film Festival Academy and Slano Film Days. His debut feature After the Winter premiered at the Karlovy Vary film festival in 2021. Apart from filmmaking, he also works as a festival programmer and he is a member of the European Film Academy.

Romanian Days Feature Jury

Fatima Djoumer

Bio

After an experience in festivals and film distribution, Fatima Djoumer joined Europa Cinemas in 1993 as Head of International Relations and Events and has been in charge of the development of the network, its membership and its joint activities and projects such the network conferences, audience development programmes and innovation labs. She is also in charge of Label Europa Cinemas award, which is given at several prestigious film festivals. She developed and set up the Collaborate to Innovate and Training Boot Camps schemes. She’s been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Europa Cinemas in 2023.

Lenka Tyrpáková

Bio

Lenka is a programmer, festival consultant, and the Artistic Director of the Finále Festival in Pilsen. From 2005 to 2023, she was part of the Karlovy Vary film festival as a member of the selection committee and a programmer in charge of films from Central and Eastern Europe. In 2023, she became the Artistic Director of Finále, the largest competitive showcase of national cinema in the Czech Republic. She is a curator of Short Riga Test Screenings for Riga IFF and consultant for Cottbus IFF.

Tomasz Żygo

Bio

Festival coordinator, programmer and distributor, Tomasz has started his professional career in film industry in 2009. He was part of the team organizing over 30 editions of the New Horizons festival and the American Film Festival, both ran by the New Horizons Association. He has released more than 100 arthouse titles in Polish cinemas as well as on online platforms and on TV. He has co-organized five editions of the Podlasie Slow Fest in Suprasl, a festival dedicated to art and nature. He is part of the team of Timeless Film Festival Warsaw, which presents classic films to Polish audiences.

Romanian Days Short Jury

Arnaud Chevallier

Bio

Arnaud is the founder of the sales agency B-Rated International, based in Paris and Madrid. He is a graduate of INSAS - Institut Supérieur des Arts in Bruxelles and former sales executive at Mediawan. He has recently handled titles like The Silent Run (dir. Marta Bergman) and Maria Callas – Monica Bellucci: An Encounter (dir. Yannis Dimolitsas). B-Rated is also active in co-producing documentaries and fiction features, supporting new voices in cinema.

Réka Lemhényi

Bio

Réka Lemhényi is a Hungarian film editor with a career spanning over two decades in cinema and television. She has worked with acclaimed directors including Oscar-winner István Szabó, Jerzy Skolimowski, György Pálfi, and Tudor Giurgiu, for whom she was in charge of the editing of Why Me? and Libertate.

Christoph Thoke

Bio

Christoph is a renowned German producer whose films have been selected at over 530 festivals and have won more than 120 awards. He has worked with major directors like Bruno Dumont and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His films Lorna’s Silence (dir. Jean-Luc & Pierre Dardenne) and Tropical Malady (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul) received awards at Cannes.

FIPRESCI Jury

Mihai Fulger

Bio

Mihai Fulger has been a film critic since 2002. He has been a member of FIPRESCI since 2008 and of the European Film Academy since 2018. He is currently a researcher at the Institute of Art History of the Romanian Academy. He served as a FIPRESCI Jury member at several major international film festivals, for example Berlin Karlovy Vary, and Stockholm. He has been an editor of the quarterly magazine “Film” since its first issue in 2013 and has been coordinating its online content since 2024. He collaborates with several Romanian and international print and online publications. He was awarded by the Film Critics’ Association the “George Littera” Prize for the Best film book of the year in 2007 and the “Ion Cantacuzino” Prize for his writings on film in 2020.

Ladislav Volko

Bio

Ladislav hails from Bratislava, Slovakia, and he is a film journalist, sociologist, former diplomat, university teacher, poet. He has authored many articles and books published in the field of cinema, sociology, culture, literature and media. For example, among others, "Problems of the Film Critic" (1979), "Greatest Film Personalities" (1986), "The Culture of the Film Audience in Slovakia" (1986), "Sociological Aspect of Media Culture" (2015).

Pierre Charpilloz

Bio

Pierre is a journalist and film critic. He works in France for the television channels Ciné+ (Canal+ Group) and Arte, as well as for the magazines So Film and Acumen. In parallel, he teaches film at Paris-8 University and the University of Strasbourg, and writes books on cinema.

Ecumenical Jury

Anca Berlogea-Boariu

Bio

Anca is a Romanian theatre and documentary film director, currently serving as a producer at the Romanian National Television, where she develops cultural documentaries. She holds PhDs in theatre and theology. Her career began as second assistant director on The Oak (1992) and she was also location manager for Aferim! (2015). In 2009, she was awarded the Romanian Filmmakers’ Association Best Documentary Award for Letters to My Brother in Exile. She has a strong focus on cinema and youth engagement, exemplified by projects like the Facing Children film festival. She is one of the founding members of SIGNIS Romania and she has served in several ecumenical or SIGNIS juries, in Cannes, Hong Kong, Monte Carlo and Venice.

Nicolae Cara

Bio

Nicolae studied at Polytechnic University. From 1975 to 1985 he worked for the Romanian Television as an editor and filmmaker, from 1996 to 201 at TVRM and from 2013 to 2024 as a cinematographer and editor at aarc.ro. He currently works for UCIN-FILM. Over the years, he has filmed at 100 film festivals ((TIFF, Mediaş, Astra, Râşnov Historical Film Festival). He is particularly interested in Romanian films. He served at ecumenical juries at festivals such as Cottbus, Mannheim-Heidelberg and Karlovy Vary.

Piero Loredan

Bio

After earning a degree in Management of Cultural Heritage, Piero worked in communication both in Italy and abroad (Spain, Australia, South Africa). In 2016, he entered the Jesuit religious order “Society of Jesus”. After studying Philosophy in Rome, he spent two years in Cluj-Napoca. Since June 2022, he has been studying theology in Paris, where he was ordained a deacon. He writes about cinema for the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica and he contributed to the Osservatore Romano, the Holy See's newspaper. He has served on several SIGNIS and ecumenical juries: CineFest Miskolc 2021 (Hungary), Cinélatino Festival 2023 (France), and the Trento Religion Today Film Festival 2023 (Italy).

Praxedis Bouwman

Bio

Praxedis has had a career in newsreporting and investigative journalism. She switched career into the ecumenical movement, with a basis in the Lutheran World Federation. She studied Religious Studies (interreligious dialogue) with the aim to be able to connect human beings in their core. Several ecumenical board memberships (among those: the LWF based Communication Committee of Lutheran 'minority' churches in Europe (KALME), World Association for Christian Communication WACC, Interfilm). For her, cinema is a wonderful means of expressing themes in societies, of touching people, of starting conversations, of lament, of protest, of addressing injustice, according to Praxedis. She served at ecumenical and interreligious juries at film festivals Miskolc, Nyon and Cannes.

SIGNIS Jury

Florin-Ioan Silaghi

Bio

In his early youth, Florin-Ioan got animated by christian spirituality and the religious life perspective and has been inspired by motion picture and photography’s effectiveness in communication and storytelling. During his Jesuit formation in Philosophy and Theology, he kept alive the passion for the visual arts and communication completing his professional formation earning a MFA in Film Production and a PhD in Cinema. He produced a number of documentaries and developed communication projects, mass-media and cinema educational programs. A SIGNIS member for more than a decade, he served as a juror in several SIGNIS and Ecumenical Juries around Europe.

Simona Nobile

Bio

Simona is a screenwriter, creative producer and international script consultant. Director of animation short film Château La Belle (with Gianmarco Serra, 2025). She combines screenwriting with development and production consulting. She has extensive experience in selecting for European development and co-production funds such as MEDIA/Creative Europe and Italian national or regional funds. A tutor for international training bodies such as EWA Network, EAVE, Torino Film Lab, Groupe Ouest, European Genre Forum, Circle Women Doc Accelerator, she is also a lecturer at the Università La Sapienza of Rome and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematograﬁa.

Juriul Tinerilor Francofoni

Anaïs-Zara Dragu

Bio

Anaïs are 19 ani și este pasionată de limbi străine, film și arte performative. Studiază ingineria mediului, dar și științele filmului și teatrului la Timișoara și Berlin, într-un parcurs care îmbină știința cu expresia artistică. A fost voluntară la Festivalul Internațional de Film Transilvania (TIFF) de două ori și participă la Ceau, Cinema! din Timișoara încă din copilărie — o experiență care i-a cultivat gustul pentru cinema și i-a deschis apetitul pentru perspective diverse. Pe lângă film, Anaïs este atrasă de fotografie, dans și teatru, pe care le explorează ca forme complementare de expresie personală.

Ioan Șteopoaie

Bio

Ioan Șteopoaie este un fost inginer devenit cinefil pasionat. A studiat la Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca și la Universidade do Minho, în Portugalia, înainte de a renunța la cariera în inginerie pentru a-și transpune emoțiile și frământările interioare în film. Este atras de cinematografia care explorează angoasa existențială, relația cu divinul, dragostea și sexualitatea, moralitatea — dar și de tot ce poate pune în cuvinte (sau în imagini) neliniștea umană. Are experiență ca jurat, fiind selecționat în Giornate degli Autori la Festivalul de Film de la Veneția și ambasador pentru LUX Audience Award.

Maria-Andrada Marina

Bio

Maria Marina are 21 de ani și este absolventă a programului de Cinematografie și Artele Spectacolului de la Universitatea Paris 8 Vincennes–Saint-Denis. A început să facă filme la doar 16 ani, alături de prietenii ei, și a continuat să exploreze limbajul cinematografic prin mai multe scurtmetraje realizate în limba franceză și română, în cadrul studiilor universitare. De-a lungul parcursului său, a avut ocazia să intervieveze cineaști precum Audrey Diwan și Gustave Kervern și să scrie cronici de film, inclusiv în contextul unei experiențe formative la Festivalul de Film de la Cannes. Pasionată de cinema, participă la festivaluri cu entuziasm și curiozitate, dorind să discute despre filme și să descopere noi voci ale cinematografiei francofone.

Radu-Mihai Aldea

Bio

Student în anul al doilea la Matematică și Informatică la Universitatea Grenoble Alpes, este pasionat de informatică și își dorește să își construiască o carieră solidă în acest domeniu. În paralel, are un interes profund pentru cinematografie și artă, pe care le consideră esențiale în înțelegerea lumii și în exprimarea sensibilității umane. Această dublă orientare — tehnică și artistică — îl motivează să caute puncte de întâlnire între logică și emoție, între rațional și intuitiv.

Katia Hiver

Bio

Katia Hiver este regizoare și curatoare româncă, cu diplomă în film de la Universitatea din Warwick. Creează scurtmetraje experimentale și organizează proiecții care explorează teme precum memoria, identitatea și conexiunile dintre intim și colectiv. Pasionată de cinematografia de limbă franceză — de la Un homme et une femme la La Jetée, de la Xavier Dolan și Leos Carax la frații Dardenne — își cultivă o curiozitate constantă pentru formele sensibile și inovatoare ale filmului.

Urmărește de ani buni Festivalul Internațional de Film Transilvania, pe care îl consideră un reper esențial pentru vocile emergente, dar și pentru retrospectivele dedicate marilor cineaști. Își împarte timpul între festivaluri, platouri de filmare și săli de proiecție, convinsă că cinema-ul are puterea de a traversa granițe, fie ele culturale sau emoționale. Plăcerea ei vinovată? Să revadă aceleași filme la nesfârșit, pierzându-se în ele de fiecare dată, în căutarea detaliilor pe care abia așteaptă să le descopere.

Daria Răduțiu

Bio

Daria Răduțiu are 26 de ani și este medic rezident psihiatru. A studiat medicina la Cluj-Napoca și a efectuat stagii de practică în Franța, unde a dezvoltat o legătură profundă cu limba și cultura francofonă. Pentru ea, arta — fie că e vorba de film, fotografie sau literatură — nu este un refugiu din fața realității, ci o formă de explorare a ei. Filmele le privește printr-o lentilă subiectivă, evaluându-le prin autenticitatea emoției pe care o transmit. Consideră că arta și știința nu sunt opuse, ci complementare: instrumente diferite prin care putem înțelege mai bine complexitatea psihicului uman.