Professional Jury Feature Film International
Daniela Adomat
Leipzig, Germany
Daniela Adomat worked for twenty years in various positions of the German television industry and was jointly responsible for formats such as “tagesschau“, “MDR Aktuell“, and “Brisant“ as a reporter, planner and editorial manager. Today, she is head of Licensing, Film and Series departments at MDR Fernsehen as well as the contact for all kinds of questions about short films.
Katrin Kleeberg
Leipzig, Germany
Katrin Kleeberg studied journalism at the Leipzig School of Journalism. She then worked, among other positions, in corporate communications and at the ddp news agency in the Dresden regional office as a correspondent and Chief on Duty. Since 1998, she has been working as a freelance journalist, book author and public relations consultant. From July 2023, she is vice president of the SLM (Saxon State Authority for Private Broadcasting and New Media).
Egmont Elschner
Chemnitz, Germany
Egmont Elschner is a media psychologist and specialist for Media Didactics. He worked in different functions at several German theatres, amongst them as assistant director, director, actor, dramatic adviser and theatre manager. From 1999 to 2010, he was Head of the Studio of the Saxon Broadcast Channel for Education in Chemnitz (SAEK). He also worked as a guest lecturer for several educational institutions.
Felix Vanginderhuysen
Brussels, Belgium
Felix Vanginderhuysen graduated with a Masterʼs degree in Social Sciences from the University of Louvain, Belgium. He was the managing director of Jekino-Films. In 1988, he founded the European Childrenʼs Film Association (ECFA) and has served as its Secretary General ever since. In 1989, he founded the European Youth Film Festival Flanders in Antwerp. In 2007, he received the Flemish Culture Prize from the Ministry of Culture.
Silke Haverkamp
Erfurt, Germany
Silke Haverkamp studied Pedagogy (Diploma) with a focus on intercultural communication and counseling. She was involved in various cinema and television film productions as production manager and realized numerous fictional and non-fictional formats as editor and producer. She is currently an editor in the fiction department of the ARD and ZDF childrenʼs channel.
Professional Jury Feature Film National
Katharina Andraschke
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Katharina Andraschke has worked as a freelance translator in Ljubljana for 25 years now and teaches German as a foreign language. As a long-time supervisor of the Slovenian side of the European Childrenʼs Jury, she is a regular part of the SCHLiNGEL festival. She was active for many years on the board of the Association for the Promotion of the German Mother Tongue, which is responsible for organising German courses as well as cultural and media projects with a German connection.
Mirko Wiermann
DEFA Foundation, Berlin, Germany
Mirko Wiermann worked after his Medical Studies from 1999 to 2004, first as an assistant doctor. After he graduated in Theatre and Film Studies from the FU Berlin, he worked as a research assistant in the Zeughauskino, in the inventory database project of the Deutsche Kinemathek and for the Retrospective of the Berlin International Film Festival. Since 2016, he has been a member of the DEFA foundation and the DEFA film distribution within the Deutsche Kinemathek. He has been a member of the DEFA Foundation team since March 2016 and is responsible for the DEFA film distribution within the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Klara Arpa
Prague, Czech Republic
Klara Arpa completed a Masterʼs degree in Cultural Management at the Technical University of Dresden with an Erasmus semester at the University of Naples Federico II. In 2003, she began working as a programme officer for film, music and art at the Goethe-Institute in Prague. In 2006, she cofounded the festival of German-language films DAS FILMFEST in Prague and Brno and has been working there as a dramaturge ever since.
Maren Willkomm
Maren Willkomm studied American Cultural History and Communication Studies. Since 2003, she has held various positions at different film festivals and art house cinemas, including DOK.fest Munich and Children’s Cinema Munich e.V. In 2015, she shifted to the film department of the Goethe-Institute. There she is involved in the selection of films for the institutes abroad and is responsible for the license management.
Etelka Kobuß
Chemnitz, Germany
Etelka Kobuß is a certified primary-school pedagogue (college) and a certified social pedagogue (university). Since 2009, the Hungarian by birth is Chemnitz’ commissioner for migration. One of her responsibilities is the organisation of both the annual intercultural weeks as well as the intercultural film week. She is member of the Day of Peace committee and of the jury of Chemnitz’ Peace-Award.
Professional Jury Short and Animated Film
Ines Wolter
Chemnitz, Germany
Ines Wolter has been working also at the Chemnitzer Filmwerkstatt for 20 years and has contributed to making it to one of the most important establishments when it comes to media pedagogical institutions in Saxony. The Filmwerkstatt could realize many short film productions and received the German short film awards with Olaf Held in 2013.
Lea Hoffahrth
Dresden, Germany
Lea Hoffahrth, who was born in Berlin, attended school in Finsterwalde. She studied at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden from 2017 to 2023 and graduated with a diploma. During her studies, she attended various special courses, including with the Hungarian media artist Vándor Csaba on “analog filmmaking”. With her own short film works, which are often created using traditional analogue material, she attempts to expand the boundaries of animated film and give it new dimensions through the use of all the senses and other art forms. She also worked with the German Institute for Animated Film (DIAF) to develop her creations.
Nora Fleischer
Dresden, Germany
Nora Fleischer studied Communication Studies, Political and Law Studies in Dresden and Paris. She worked in event management and contributed to the Leipzig off-theatre scene and central German film productions as a directorʼs and production assistant. She worked as a freelance copywriter and as film and programme coordinator at Kurzsuechtig – Central German Short Film Festival in Leipzig. For the past two years she has been the responsible editor of the journal “Auslöser” and a project coordinator of film.land.sachsen.
Vanessa Kuhfs
Leipzig, Germany
Vanessa Kuhfs completed a Media Design degree in Ravensburg and is currently studying Design Studies at the Burg Giebichenstein Academy of Art. Since then, she has been working at the interface between theory and practice in the media and film world as a production manager and producer for animated films and VFX as well as a lecturer and trainer. She is a member of the AG Animationsfilm as well as the German Society for Design Theory and Research.
Jury of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI)
Igor Angjelkov
Skopje, North Macedonia
Igor Angjelkov completed interdisciplinary studies in journalism and a master’s degree in media and communication at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. He writes as a critic in the field of film, music and literature for numerous magazines as well as for his own website “herojnaedenden.mk”. and works as a writer for television and radio. Since 2018, he has also been the programme director of the International Film Festival for Debut Films “KineNova”.
Jose Solís
Madrid, Spain
Jose Solís is a Honduran cultural critic based in Madrid. He is an active writer for numerous newspapers, including the New York Times. In 2020, he founded the BIPOC Critics Lab, which is designed to train and create work for emerging Black, Indigenous and People of Colour theatre journalists. He has been the director of the programme ever since. Furthermore he is the creator and host of the web series/podcast Token Theatre Friends, where he engages in conversation with theatre artists.
Holger Twele
Rogau, Germany
Holger Twele successfully completed his masters in literature and theater sciences as well as in psychology and philosophy in Erlangen. Since then, he has been a freelance journalist for multiple papers, journals, and websites. Until 2007, he worked in Nuremberg for municipal film works and was a lecturer on film for the German Federal Agency for Political Education. He led the online version of children and youth correspondence in the years 2008 to 2014 and has been working with the Federal Association of Youth and Film e.V. as well as the German Center for Childrenʼs and Youth Film in Remscheid.
Jury of the European Children’s Film Association (ECFA)
Andrey Hadjivasilev
Sofia, Bulgaria
Andrey Hadjivasilev studied at the National Professional High School of Polygraphy and Photography in Sofia, specialising in Photography. He then earned a bachelor’s degree in Directing and a master’s degree in Film Production. He also studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague. Since then he has been working as a director and producer, with a focus on childrenʼs films.
Marta Kraus
Rzeszów, Poland
Marta Kraus is a trained psychologist and art historian. Since 2014, she is the director of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth KINOLUB. She also initiates film education programmes in the Podkarpackie region (Subcarpathian region). Since 2016, she has been the director of the Podkarpackie Film Commission and the Podkarpackie Regional Film Fund, which aims to support film productions.
Annette Schimmelpfennig
Munich, Germany
Annette Schimmelpfennig works as a dramaturge. She studied Theatre Studies at the LMU Munich and was also involved in various television productions as a script/continuity and junior producer. Since 2015, she has been working, among others, for the global distributor The Playmaker Munich as well as Studiocanal. Her focus here is on family entertainment.
CIFEJ Jury
Ana Laura Calderón
Mexico
Ana Laura Calderón studied at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in San Antonio de los Baños. She has been working as a director, producer, screenwriter and editor. She is a member of the Asociación Mexicana de Editoras y Editores, the Mexican association of publishers and editors, and an honorary member of the Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici, the national association of filmmakers.
Jitendra Mishra
New Delhi, India
Jitendra Mishra is one of the few Indian film producers & promoters who have been able to create a benchmark in “Alternative methods of Film Production, Distribution & Promotion” at international level. He had designed & is the festival director of the “Smile International Film Festival for Children & Youth” (SIFFCY). Jitendra Mishra also has been elected president of CIFEJ and is a member of the Cannes Producers Network.
Elham Shirvani
Tehran, Iran
Elham Shirvani holds a Masterʼs degree in Education Management from Payam-e-Noor University in Tehran. Since November 2013, she has been the Executive Director of CIFEJ as well as the Managing Editor of CIFEJ Info Magazine. She is also a regular juror at numerous childrenʼs film festivals around the globe.
Ecumenical Jury
Rinke Dellebeke-van-Hell
Ritthem, Netherlands
Dr. Rinke Dellebeke-van-Hell graduated with a Masters degree in Culture and Arts from the University Tilburg in 2000 and finished her PhD in Practical Theology in 2016 at VU University Amsterdam & ETF Leuven. Until 2014, she worked as a film programmer and publicity worker for several (movie)theatres. She is also active as a free lance film critic for several Christian publications and as a teacher and researcher for several Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences and the Belgian university ETF Leuven. She currently holds a position as Programme Manager for a Primary School Teacherʼs Training Programme at HZ University of Applied Sciences in Vlissingen. Since 2016, she is a member of INTERFILM.
Martin Ostermann
Munich, Germany
Dr. Martin Ostermann studied Catholic theology, German language and literature and philosophy and wrote his doctoral thesis on “Stories of God – The search of God in Literature and Movies” in 2008. He is head of the media office in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising and a lecturer at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt with film seminars. He has also been working as a youth protection inspector for the FSF and is a member of the Catholic Film Commission in Bonn.
Anja Klinkott
Hannover, Germany
Anja Klinkott works as a media educator and scheduler for the Lutheran Church of Hannover. She advises honorary and full-time church officials as well as teachers in the use of media, gives training courses and writes film recommendations for periodicals as well as film reviews for the ecumenical series “Church and Cinema”. One focus of her work is the use of short films in the classroom and the didactic work related to them.
Olimpia Melinte
Bucharest, Romania
Olimpia Melinte is a theatre and film actress. She graduated from the University of Arts “George Enescu” in Iași with a Masterʼs degree in Dramatic Arts. She has participated in many theatre productions on the stage of the National Theatre in Iași and has also been a successful actress for numerous critically acclaimed films since 2010. Since 2022, she has been a member of SIGNIS.
Children's Jury
Emma
Nell
Felix
Rica
Lelia
Annika
Luna Belle
Junior jury
Alexander
Vincent
Anton
Hannah
Lara
Youth Jury
Amelie
Marie
Arianna
Nele
Jule
Nick
Leon
Fairplay Jury
Antonello
Henriette
Carlo
Justus
Fenja
Rafaël
Gustaw
Silvia
European Children's Jury
Cami
Germany
Emilia
Poland
Arnold
Hungary
Marlene
Slovenia
Eric
Germany
Laura
Poland
Annamaria
Hungary
David
Slovenia
Elba
Austria
Ella
Czech Republic
Gustav
Sweden
Wendelin
Austria
Frida
Czech Republic
Emma
Sweden