Announcing our 2023 Jury!

We could not be happier, prouder and more honored, to have three young, exceptional filmmakers on our Jury this year: Sofia Afonasina, Jakob Gehrmann, and Tea Vatsadze!

Sofia Afonasina is a director and editor based in Vienna. She grew up in the U.S., Austria and Russia, and studied International Relations before turning her attention towards film-making. In her work, she aims to explore female-centric stories revolving around generational divides, coming of age, migration and ghosts of the past and future. Her latest film The Lion Blanket has been screened at many European film festivals. 
Born in Münster (Westphalia) in 1991, Jakob Gehrmann has been active in film since 2011. After working as an assistant on documentaries and feature films, he studied film from 2015-2018 with a focus on camera at the ifs International Film School in Cologne and has been a freelance Director of Photography since then. His first feature film Qazi has been screened at 17 festivals in 12 countries and has won several awards.
Born in Tbilisi, Alumna of the Film and TV faculty of Shota Rustaveli Theater and Film University with a major in Animation Directing. International relation manager of Tbilisi International Student Film Festival “AMIRANI”, her latest film “45” was in the competition of several film festivals all over the world and was nominated at Oniros Film Awards. In 2020-2021 she participated in Sarajevo Talents Script Station. She teaches film production in Bona Fide Academia and works as an editor.

Announcing our 2022 Jury Members!

We could not be happier, prouder and more honored, to have three young, exceptional filmmakers on our Jury this year: Sofia Afonasina, Jakob Gehrmann, and Lukas Ladner!

Sofia Afonasina is a director and editor based in Vienna. She grew up in the U.S., Austria and Russia, and studied International Relations before turning her attention towards film-making. In her work, she aims to explore female-centric stories revolving around generational divides, coming of age, migration and ghosts of the past and future. Her latest film The Lion Blanket has been screened at many European film festivals. 
Jakob Gehrmann, geboren 1991 in Münster (Westf.) ist seit 2011 beim Film aktiv. Nach ersten Assistenzen für Dokumentar- und Spielfilme studierte er von 2015-2018 Film mit Schwerpunkt Kamera an der ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln und ist seitdem freiberuflich als Lichtsetzender Kameramann unterwegs. Sein erster Langspielfilm Qazi lief bisher auf 17 Festivals in 12 Ländern und wurde mehrfach ausgezeichnet.
Born in Münster (Westphalia) in 1991, Jakob Gehrmann has been active in film since 2011. After working as an assistant on documentaries and feature films, he studied film from 2015-2018 with a focus on camera at the ifs International Film School in Cologne and has been a freelance Director of Photography since then. His first feature film Qazi has been screened at 17 festivals in 12 countries and has won several awards.
Lukas Ladner wurde 1991 in Innsbruck geboren. Von 2013 bis 2017 studierte er Film- und Fernsehregie an der Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf und hat diese mit dem Kurzfilm „Treibgut“ abgeschlossen. Sein erster Lang- Dokumentarfilm "Eva-Maria" feierte seine Weltpremiere auf dem DOK.fest München und gewann auf der Diagonale'21 den Preis für den besten Nachwuchsfilm. Aktuell arbeitet er von Innsbruck aus an der Schnittstelle zwischen Film und Videokunst und recherchiert für seinen zweiten Langdokumentarfilm
Lukas Ladner was born 1991 in Innsbruck. From 2013 to 2017, he studied film and TV directing at the film university Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and graduated there with the short film Treibgut. He works in the sections of scriptwriting, directing and video arts. His first feature documentary Eva- Maria had its world premiere at DOK.fest Munich and won several prices. His focus is on character studies with occasional tendencies towards experimental film or a hybrid of both. Apart from his own work, he created several festival trailers as well as music videos and experimental theatre plays.