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MILJA MIKKOLA
Since 2005 Milja Mikkola has been part of Midnight Sun Film Festival in Finnish Lapland. She is also part of the programming collective guiding Orion arthouse cinema in Helsinki as well as the founder and co-director of Helsinki's Viva Erotica Film Festival which celebrates the history sex on the big screen. Fully trained as an analogue projectionist decades ago, her celluloid roots are embedded in the film world.
LUKA PEROŠ
Luka Peroš was born in Zagreb, 28th October 1976. He lived in Zagreb, Vienna, Abu Dhabi, Boston and Los Angeles. He is currently settled in Barcelona from where he is continuing his acting career in Spain and Europe. He graduated from Emerson College in 2000, with a BFA in Performing Arts, Major in Acting. He worked at the Croatian National Theatre in Rijeka and the Zagreb Puppet Theatre. Luka has a vast experience in voice-over work, as well as a puppeteer, performer, and functions host.
DANILO ŠERBEDŽIJA
Danilo Šerbedžija is the director of several documentaries and short films. His first feature film 72 Days won multiple awards. At the Pula Film Festival, it won the Audience Award and three Golden Arenas. He also directed the feature film The Liberation of Skopje, North Macedonia’s Oscar contender, and the feature film Tereza37, which won six Golden Arenas at the Pula Film Festival, including the Great Golden Arena for Best Film. The film was also Croatia’s contender for the Oscars.
YEŞIM USTAOĞLU
Yeşim Ustaoğlu is a Turkish filmmaker and screenwriter. She worked as an architect, then as a journalist and a film critic. Before she made her feature film debut The Trace (İz) in 1994, she had made several award-winning short films. Ustaoğlu received international recognition for her next film, Journey to the Sun (Güneşe Yolculuk), which told the story of a friendship between a Turk and a Kurd. Her fourth film Pandora’s Box (Pandora'nın Kutusu) won Best Film and Best Actress awards at the San Sebastián Film Festival.
ANNE GASCHÜTZ
Anne Gaschütz is a festival organiser and programmer. She joined FILMFEST DRESDEN - International Short Film Festival in 2013 as part of the International Selection Committee, and became the festival's co-director in July 2020. In 2021 she became a member of the Pardi di domani Selection Committee at Locarno Film Festival. She is also one of the initiators of Talking Shorts, an online platform focusing on short film criticism, and a member of the European Film Academy.
URŠA MENART
Urša Menart is a director and screenwriter based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She collaborated on screenplays for Damjan Kozole’s films Nightlife (2016) and Half-Sister (2019), which both premiered at Karlovy Vary. Her debut feature film My Last Year as a Loser (2018) won awards for best film and best screenplay at the Slovenian Film Festival. Her second feature film Everything That’s Wrong with You is in postproduction. She is currently serving on the board of the Directors Guild of Slovenia and is a member of the European Film Academy.
HAMED SOLEIMANZADEH
Hamed Soleimanzadeh is a film critic, filmmaker, and lecturer. He has served as a jury member for over twenty prestigious international film festivals and events, including the Golden Globe Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Berlinale and Karlovy Vary. He is the founder and director of the Abbas Kiarostami International Short Film Festival. Soleimanzadeh has directed seven short films and has published hundreds of articles and several books on cinema, theater, philosophy, and culture.
JOSIP GROZDANIĆ
Josip Grozdanić has been working as a film critic since 2003, as a contributor for the journal Croatian Film Chronicle, weekly magazines TV Story and Stars, monthly Total Film, biweekly Vijenac, as well as Croatian Radiotelevision’s show Perfect World, followed by Filmoskop on HR 3 and Face to Face on HR 1. He is the author of the show Filmomania on HR 3, as well as a contributor for the magazine Zapis of the Croatian Film Association (HFS), HFS’s Film Programmes, Dr. Ante Peterlić School of Media Culture, HRT’s Posebni dodaci, and HRT’s Briljanteen.
MIKE NAAFS
Mike Naafs is a member of the Dutch Film Critics’ Association. He wrote reviews and columns for the biggest Dutch film journal De Filmkrant and visited festivals for FIPRESCI in Kiev, Cannes, Moscow, Cluj-Napoca and St. Petersburg, amongst others. He is currently freelancing. He resides in Amsterdam where he works as a chef in a psychiatric hospital.
JAN STORØ
Jan Storø is a film critic for Khrono – a daily paper owned by nine universities throughout Norway. In addition, he writes for the film journals Cinema and Z. He is also a Professor Emeritus of Social Pedagogy at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Oslo Metropolitan University. He has authored ten books. His main interest is arthouse films and films from regions outside the dominating mainstream USA/Europe film scene.
MARKO BIČANIĆ
Marko Bičanić (Zagreb, 1999) has been a member of the Blank_Film Incubator since 2013, where he made his first films and where he currently mentors the high school group. He has worked on various projects as a director, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor and actor. He is one of the authors of the web series Videobox. He is currently doing an MFA in feature film directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb.
KATARINA ČUPIĆ
Katarina Čupić (Zagreb, 2001) is the winner of numerous international piano awards. She is a second-year student of Transmedia Dramaturgy at VERN' University and Music Production – Audio Engineering. She writes screenplays for films, TV series, video games and comics. She participated in the organisation of the event Tesla & Friends and is currently working on the book Dictionary of Film Jargon.
KLARA KOVAČIĆ
Klara Kovačić is currently a student of Acting and Media at the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka, having already graduated in Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Humanities in Zagreb. Although she had taken film studies courses before, she deepened her interest in film in her current study program.
