Head of the Jury, actress
Denmark
Trine Dyrholm is one of Denmark's most famous and successful actresses as well as an accomplished singer-songwriter and director. In 1998, Dyrholm landed a breakout role as a hotel maid in the chaotic family drama “The Celebration”, the first film created under the Dogme 95 rules. Up to now, she has around 70 roles in films and TV series under her belt with tens of awards and nominations both in Denmark and abroad. In 2016 Dyrholm won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin film festival in Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Commune”. She combined her acting and singing skills in the international success “Nico, 1988” (2017). The critically acclaimed “Queen of Hearts”, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and brought recognition from the audience and juries both to the leading actress and the director May el-Toukhy. Recently Estonian audience has seen her at the cinemas in the titular roles of historic dramas “Erna at War” and “Margrethe – Queen of the North”. At PÖFF 2023, Dyrholm presents “Birthday Girl”, directed by Michael Noer.
Composer, conductor
United Kingdom
John Altman is a film composer, arranger, conductor, and saxophonist. His many awards include an Emmy, BAFTA as well as Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe acknowledgements and four Lifetime Achievement Awards – with a body of work encompassing over 50 film scores and many arrangements, including being responsible for three classic film sequences in “Life of Brian”, “Titanic” and the James Bond film “Goldeneye”. He has arranged for 19 Platinum Albums for artists such as George Michael, Tina Turner, Barry White, Rod Stewart, Björk, Diana Ross, Simple Minds, Tom Jones, and The Pretenders. He has written and produced music for over 4,000 TV commercials worldwide, and as a saxophonist played with Prince, Van Morrison, Sting, Little Richard, Fleetwood Mac, Nick Drake, Muddy Waters, Bob Marley, Chet Baker and many more. His autobiography “Hidden Man” was published in 2022.
Director, Professor
China
Xie Fei graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1965. Turning into a teacher, he was a professor in the same school from 1965 to 2012 and vice-president in 1980-88. His directing and screenwriting works have received international awards like the Golden Bear (“The Women from the Lake of Scented Souls”, 1993) and Silver Bear (“Black Snow”, 1990) awards at the Berlin International Film Festival and Best Director award (“A Mongolian Tale”, 1995) at the Montreal World Film Festival. He has taught a lot of excellent Chinese film directors like Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Zhang Yimou, Jia Zhangke etc. Now he is still teaching and working as an art consultant for young filmmakers.
Director, screenwriter
Iceland
Hilmar Oddsson, the Icelandic film director and screenwriter, studied filmmaking at HFF – The Academy of Film and Television in Munich, Germany from 1980–1985. He was the Rector of The Icelandic Film School in 2012–2017. Among his full-length fiction films are “Tears of Stone” (1995, PÖFF 1997), “Cold Light” (2003), “December” (2009) and “Driving Mum” (2022) for which he won The Grand Prix at the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival last year. Oddsson has also made several TV dramas, shorts, and documentaries (“Dieter Roth Puzzle”, 2008).
Director
Armenia
For over fifteen years, Inna Sahakyan has directed and produced feature-length documentaries, documentary series, and shorts that have been broadcast internationally. She focuses on uncovering untold and forgotten stories while exploring the nature of humanity through intimate and innovative filmmaking. Her feature-length debut was the award-winning “The Last Tightrope Dancer in Armenia”' in 2010. Recently, she completed “Mel”, a story about a transgender weightlifter from Armenia. In 2022, her animated documentary about Armenian Genocide survivor and early Hollywood star Aurora Mardiganyan, “Aurora’s Sunrise”, screened at over 50 international festivals and won numerous awards. The film was screened at PÖFF in the Baltic Film Competition and received the award for the Best Baltic Producer for Co-production. At present, Inna is working on a new feature-length documentary titled “Shakespeare Goes Armenian” (co-directed with Lilit Movsisyan).
Head of the Jury, producer
Mexico
Nicolás Celis founded the Mexico City based Pimienta Films in 2008 as an independent production company. Pimienta Films is one of the most prestigious production companies in Latin America with attention to fiction and documentary feature films that portray their authors’ perspectives in an artistic and creative way. Over the years, the company’s main objective has been to build solid partnerships with production companies in Mexico, the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Pimienta’s projects have been acclaimed by critics and welcomed by national and international audiences thanks to their artistic quality and unique vision. The company has worked with renowned directors such as Alfonso Cuarón, Amat Escalante, Tatiana Huezo, Andrés Clariond, Jonás Cuarón, Jacques Audiard, James Franco, Ciro Guerra etc.
Curator
Germany
Diana Iljine graduated from universities in Munich and Berlin and her career continued in public television, as a journalist and in various other capacities, including television drama. She spent a number of years at television networks as an acquisition manager, buying the rights to feature films, documentaries and series. She then received a scholarship for an MBA at the renowned Steinbeis SMI University Berlin, which she completed in 2011. From 2011 until October 2023, Diana was the director of Filmfest München and Filmschoolfest Munich. She was also on the board of the Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, a film funding organization, from 2011-2017. Over the years, she has received various awards, including the Bavarian Order of Merit in October 2023.
Director, Artist
China
Ran Huang is a Chinese film director, screenwriter, and acclaimed artist. He has a BFA degree from Birmingham Institute of Art and Design and a MFA degree from Goldsmiths College, England. Huang made his debut with “The Administration of Glory”, which premiered in the Short Film Competition at Cannes in 2014. His first feature, “What Remains”, a story inspired by a true event, premiered at the Warsaw Film Festival in 2022 and will be screened at PÖFF this year.
Actress
India
Radhika Madan is an Indian film and TV actress who primarily works in Hindi films. She made her film debut with Vishal Bhardwaj’s drama “Pataakha” in 2018, for which she won the Screen Award for Best Female Debut from the panel of judges in the Bollywood film industry.
Films with Radhika Madan, “Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota” (2018) and “Kacchey Limbu” (2022), have premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Refusing to be coloured in stereotypes, Radhika has presented unique and interesting characters giving a refreshing performance with every film. Recently the young actress delivered a power-packed role in Disney+ Hotstar’s series “Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo”. She played the titular character in Sudhanshu Saria’s “Sanaa” which premiered at PÖFF last year.
Film Critic
Israel
Ron Fogel is a senior film critic on Israeli radio and TV. He is a member of the board of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television and a member of the Israeli Ministry of Culture Committee for Excellence in Cinema. Fogel teaches in the MA programme for culture and cinema at Haifa University. He has founded the Korean film festival in Israel in 2011. In 2021 he was the chairman of the FIPRESCI jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Since 2022 he has been an international voter for the Golden Globe Awards.
Head of the Jury, producer
USA
Eleonora Granata Jenkinson has a doctor’s degree in International Law from Milan University. She has worked as Vice President and head of the film co-productions and acquisitions division at Turner Pictures (then Time Warner Turner). Jenkinson has served as Senior Vice President at Pandora Films and for seven years as the USA representative and programme advisor for the Venice Film Festival. She was also the senior programmer of world dramatic features for the Miami International Film Festival, as well as the USA representative for the Locarno International Film Festival. For three years she worked as an advisor to the President of the Tribeca Film Festival and headed the Kyiv International Film Festival in Ukraine and in 2019 she directed the Eurasia Film Festival in Kazakhstan. In 2021, Jenkinson was the creative producer of the Oscar entry for Kazakhstan “The Crying Steppe” by Marina Kunarova. Eleonora has produced “Monica”, by Andrea Pallaoro which premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and she was the executive producer of “What Remains” (PÖFF 2023) by Ran Huang.
Director
Israel
Born in the USSR, raised in Israel and based in Paris, an alumnus of Tel Aviv University, Leon Prudovsky has written and directed series, shorts, and full-length feature films in Israel, France, Poland, and Ukraine. His films were nominated and awarded in Student Academy Awards, Venice, Locarno, Toronto, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beijing Film Academy, Seoul Drama Awards and more. His last feature “My Neighbor Adolf” premiered in Locarno Piazza Grande, opened PÖFF in Tallinn in 2022 and was sold to more than 20 territories.
Producer
USA
Ari Tan (Tanoply Productions) is a producer and studio executive with 12+ years of entertainment experience. Most recently, he served as Head of Strategy, at International Studios at Paramount. In his role, Ari oversaw the strategic direction and expansion of the international production unit, a leading supplier of premium original content to major streamers, including Paramount+, Netflix, Amazon and HBO Max. Ari also served in senior roles throughout Paramount’s key business units, including the MTV Entertainment group, content distribution, themed entertainment and ad sales. Before his switch to entertainment, Ari worked in investment banking and private equity at various Wall Street institutions. Ari holds a Bachelor of Science with an Honours Degree from Cornell University and an MBA in Finance and Strategy from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Ari is a voting member of BAFTA and the Television Academy.
Head of the Jury
USA
Jim Stark’s first involvement with film came in 1983 when he helped Jim Jarmusch finance, produce, and sell the low-budget independent hit “Stranger Than Paradise” (winner of the Camera d’Or in Cannes). Following “Down by Law” (co-producer), “Mystery Train” (producer), “Night On Earth” (executive producer), as well as “Coffee And Cigarettes”. Stark’s other producing credits include such critically acclaimed and prize-winning films as Alexandre Rockwell’s “In the Soup” (starring Steve Buscemi and winner of the Grand Prix, Sundance Film Festival) and Gregg Araki’s “The Living End”, as well as three films he co-produced and co-wrote: Bent Hamer’s “Factotum”; Fridrik Thor Fridriksson’s “Cold Fever”; and Szabolcs Hajdu’s “Mirage”. In the last several years he has been involved in producing several Mexican fiction features and he is also producing documentaries. His most recent films include “Adam” written and directed by Maria Solrun, “Alma” (an Icelandic film directed by Kristin Johansdottir) and “Treasure City” (dir. Szabolcs Hajdu). In 2021 with Nicolas Celis, he produced “Prayers for the Stolen” by Tatiana Huezo (Cannes FF). This year the PÖFF audience has a chance to see Szalboccs Hajdu’s new film “Kalman’s Day”, co-produced by Stark.
Director
Lithuania
Andrius Blaževičius studied culture history and anthropology at Vilnius University. After a while, Andrius switched to film directing studies at Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy where he graduated with a master’s degree in 2011. His graduation film “Ten Reasons” (2011) won two Lithuanian Film Academy awards. Blaževičius’ debut feature film “The Saint” (2016) premiered at the Warsaw Film Festival, won six Lithuanian Film Academy awards, and became one of the most appreciated Lithuanian independent films. His sophomore film “Runner” (2021) premiered at Karlovy Vary FF and PÖFF. Blaževičius has been a member of the selection committee at Vilnius ISFF since 2010.
Artist
Iran
Mania Akbari is an Iranian filmmaker and artist, whose works explore women’s rights, marriage, sexual identity, disease, body and trauma, body image, body politic and histories of personal, social, and political trauma. Because of the taboo themes openly discussed in her films and her opposition to censorship, she is considered one of the most controversial filmmakers in Iran. After her debut film, a short documentary “Crystal”, she wrote, directed, and acted in her first feature-length film, “20 Fingers” in 2004, which won best film in the Venice Film Festival's Digital Cinema section. Akbari’s film “A Moon For My Father”, made in collaboration with British artist Douglas White, premiered at CPH:DOX where it won the NEW:VISION Award 2019, and FIPRESCI International Critics Award at the Flying Broom Festival, Ankara. Akbari's latest film “How Dare You Have Such a Rubbish Wish” was screened at PÖFF last year.
Head of the Jury, historian
United Kingdom
Dina Iordanova is a British-Bulgarian film and film festival historian. She is Professor Emeritus of Global Cinema at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She is the creator of a series of books dedicated to the workings of the international film festival circuit as well as has published books and essays on the cinemas of Central Europe, the Balkan countries and the former Soviet Union. Dina Iordanova has served on numerous festival juries, at Busan IFF, IDFA, Yamagata, Thessaloniki, and others.
Director
Iran
Bahman Tavoosi is an Iranian-born screenwriter, filmmaker, and producer from Canada. He began his career as a film critic at a young age, before directing short and experimental films. He moved to Montreal where he directed the feature documentary “Dress Rehearsal for an Execution”. Reenacting the Pulitzer Prize winning photo of “Firing Squad in Iran”, the film received nominations and awards from film festivals such as Hot Docs and Hot Springs, among others. The “Names of the Flowers” (2019), Bahman’s fiction debut shot in Bolivia, was awarded the Special Jury Award at PÖFF and received further recognition and nominations from festivals such as Sao Paulo, Mill Valley, and Beijing. He has held numerous international film workshops in Africa, Asia, and South America.
Producer
Finland
Jani Pösö, the CEO of It’s Alive Films, is a producer and screenwriter. He has produced 7 feature films and 3 TV series, all of them internationally acclaimed. Pösö wrote and produced his first (and only) theatre play in 1996, first short film in 2006, and first feature in 2011 and first book in 2018. He is also behind It’s Alive Films’ multi-remade TV-format “Mental”. He has produced the feature film “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic” by Teemu Nikki (Audience Award at Venice Film Festival 2021), TV series “Mister 8” (Best Series, Cannes Series 2021) and short film “All Inclusive” (Cannes competition 2019). This year’s PÖFF will be screening even two Teemu Nikki’s films, produced by Jani Pösö – “Death is a Problem for the Living” in the main programme and “Snot and Splash” in Just Film programme.
Head of the Jury, producer
Iran
Mohammad Atebbai holds an MA in Film Studies and a BA in Stage Directing from Tehran University. He started his career at the Farabi Cinema Foundation in 1989 and was in charge of screening Iranian films in international film festivals and events for 8 years. In 1997 he established Iranian Independents for the promotion and marketing of Iranian independent films internationally. In the past 27 years, he has handled 225 feature and documentary films. Atebbai has been involved in the co-production of Iranian films like Jafar Panahi’s Golden Lion Winner, “The Circle” and Rakhshan Bani-Etemad’s “The May Lady”. He has been a journalist and writer in Iranian media since 1987 and is a member of the Iranian Society of Film Critics and Writers. He has been the official representative of the Venice Film Festival for Iranian cinema from 2012–2020, a programmer for PÖFF since 2016, and a Board member of NETPAC since 1992.
Director
Italy
Italo Spinelli was a founder and has been artistic director since 2000 of the Asiatica International Film Festival held in Rome. Between 2005 and 2021 he programmed and produced several retrospectives and focuses on Indian, Iranian, Turkish, Taiwanese, and Korean cinema. He was also the curator of a retrospective on Buddhist cinema. He has been an international consultant for Festa del Cinema di Roma and the Siena Documentary Film Festival. Spinelli has taught theatre and cinema at the University of Siena. In theatre, he has staged more than 25 plays in the most prestigious Italian theatres as well as conducted Master Classes and seminars in Italy and abroad on theatrical acting and organising cultural events.
Head of Programme
Estonia
Ra Ragnar Novod studied screenwriting at the Baltic Film and Media School (BFM). He has worked as a film journalist and critic, is making a weekly film podcast and is the programme manager of Artis, an art-house cinema in the heart of Tallinn. He has been watching and thinking about films all his life and has always had a passion for Asian cinema, especially Japanese and South Korean films.
Israel
"Time Out Tel Aviv" (online magazine)
"Tel Aviv Cinematheque" (monthly magazine)
Croatia
"Croatian Film Chronicles" (scientific journal, quarterly)
"www.filmovi.hr" (website)
Estonia
ERR (Estonian Public Broadcasting)