Thomas Balmes
French director, screenwriter and producer Thomas Balmes, Russian director Ivan I. Tverdovsky, German director of photography Philipp Baben der Erde, Danish documentary expert Tue Steen Muller, Italian director Claudia Tosi and Russian film critic Nikita Kartsev will make up the International feature & short film Juries in 2019. They will award the prizes for the Best Feature Documentary, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Short Documentary.
FEATURE COMPETITION JURY
THOMAS BALMES
Thomas is an independent director and producer. He directed his first film Bosnia hotel in 1996. Since then his works have received a worldwide critical acclaim and a number of prestigious awards. One of his latest films, Babies (2010), follows the lives of four infants — from Mongolia to Namibia to San Francisco and Tokyo. The film was a major box office success grossing almost $10.000.000 worldwide. His next film Happiness (2014) is a story of a boy living in the last village in Bhutan to go through the process of globalization. The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and won The Documentary World Cinema Cinematography Award. Thomas also hosts filmmaking workshops in France and abroad.
PHILIPP BABEN DER ERDE
Philipp began his career as an advertising, fashion and design photographer in 1999. At the same time, he worked for the Babelsberg studios as a cinematographer specialized in the techniques of stop motion and effects. He currently works as a director and cinematographer for documentaries, advertising and feature films. His cinematographic works “Bonzenkarren”, “Weisst du eigentlich das ganz viele blumen blühen Im park” and “Die mit dem Bauch tanzen” were introduced at the International Film Festival Cannes and the Berlinale. In 2013 he won the German camera award for the movie “Black Enchantment”. It is the most prestigious award of the industry in german‐speaking countries.
NIKITA KARTSEV
Nikita is a film critic and cinema reviewer, permanent contributor to specialized Russian cinema magazines and different periodicals, as well as GQ, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety Russia, The Film New Europe, etc. The special correspondent for the film and television department of a famous Russian newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets. As a speaker, he often takes part in the film presentations and premieres, in popular public talks, TV and radio programs, and also participates in the work of the jury at various film festivals and gives lectures on fiction and documentary cinema. He is also currently working as an editor on the large Russian TV channel STS.
SHORT COMPETITION JURY
TUE STEEN MULLER
Tue has been working with short and documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board - as press secretary, head of distribution and information and as commissioning editor. He was awarded the Danish Roos Prize and EDN Award for his contribution to the documentary culture. He has given documentary courses and seminars in about 40 countries and for 6 years was the Head of Studies at the European training programme Ex Oriente. Tue also was a selector and consultant for a variety of doc-festivals. Currently he is the Head of Programming at DOCs Barcelona. Has his own website - together with Danish Allan Berg - where he posts documentary film news and reviews documentaries filmkommentaren.dk
IVAN I. TVERDOVSKY
Having graduated from the experimental directing workshop of Alexei Uchitel at the Russian Institute of Cinematography, Ivan I. Tverdovsky made the documentaries As if Waiting for a Bus (2009), Pianism (2012) and Space Dog (2013), which won a number of awards. His first fictional work, Corrections Class (2014), inspired by the novel of the same name by psychologist Ekaterina Murashova, received more than 35 awards worldwide, including Best Film in Karlovy Vary’s East is West section. His second feature Zoology (2016) also has earned honours at the festivals. His most recent feature film, Jumpman, was theatrically released in 2018 and screened internationally in competition sections of dozens of film festivals.
CLAUDIA TOSI
Claudia has been working as creative documentary director and producer since 2003. In 2004 she founded Movimenta, a production company focused on creative documentaries. She has attended EAVE in 2011, Eurodoc in 2012, IDFA Academy in 2014, Berlinale Talents in 2015, EWA’s MRSTP in 2015. Author of films Building the Winter Games (2006), Mostar United (2008), The Perfect Circle (2014), Verso Casa (2016), that won numerous prizes around the world, including the Audience Award at Trieste Film festival, Best Moral Approach at Makedox, Best documentaries at DOKMA-Maribor, at Genova Film festival, Mediterraneo Video Festival and others. In 2018 Claudia’s film I Had a Dream won three awards at DOK Leipzig, including the Golden Dove.