Live Action Competition Jury
Rodney Llaverías (Dominican Republic/USA) holds a graduate degree in Screenwriting and directing from Columbia University. His short films have been showcased at various prestigious film festivals, including Rotterdam, San Sebastián, Locarno, etc. Rodney is also an alumnus of Berlinale Talents and was awarded the Newfest New Voices Filmmaker grant in partnership with Netflix in 2022 to support emerging LGBTQ+ filmmakers. Furthermore, he was selected to participate in the Locarno Filmmakers Academy in 2023.
Known for co-writing the lauded short film "Darling". Working on “La Canícula”, which will be his debut feature film as a director. Rodney was the New Talents Live-Action Competition winner of the 2022 PÖFF Shorts.
Live Action Competition Jury
Radka Weiserová (Czechia) After completing her studies at Charles University in Prague, Radka began collaborating with various cultural institutions, including the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where she continues to be actively involved. Over the years, she has been engaged in projects with the Institute of Documentary Film. For several years, she led the International Festival of First Features and Student Films, known as Fresh Film Fest, and also collaborated on program development with other institutions and festivals. Since its founding in 2005, she has served as the dramaturge for the Prague Shorts Film Festival and currently holds the position of its programmer and manager. At the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, she is currently working on the development of a program supporting young filmmakers called KVIFF TALENTS. In 2016, she co-founded the educational platform Cinergy Prague, which organizes workshops and seminars with prominent figures in contemporary world cinema.
Live Action Competition Jury
Kristofer Piir (Estonia) is an Estonian producer Audiovisual Media. After years of freelance location and production work, he joined Allfilm’s production team in 2019 as a Service Line-Producer for international features and scripted TV-dramas. In addition to production service work he produced director Eeva Mägi’s feature length hybrid documentary “Who am I Smiling For?”, which had its World Premiere at Giffoni Festivali and will be the opening film of this year’s Just Film and her latest short fiction “3RD OCTAVE F” (2022) which premiered at Switzerland’s Winterthur Kurzfilmtage and won an Oscar-qualifying Best National Short Film Award at PÖFF Shorts.
Animation Competition Jury
Aurelia Aasa (Estonia) started as a film journalist and has written hundreds of articles on film, including short animation. In 2019 she was named the Film Journalist of the Year by the Estonian Association of Film Journalists. With her production company AAA Creative she focuses on projects that are bold, fresh and lined with dark humor. In less than three years, AAA has emerged as one of the fastest-growing animation companies in Estonia. AAA's productions include dark animated comedy SIERRA (dir. Sander Joon, 2022) which traveled to more than 170 film festivals and was acquired by The Criterion Channel, ARTE, YLE etc. It was the first Estonian animation shortlisted at the Oscars. Currently, she's on the festival circuit with a trippy virtual cat adventure MIISUFY (dir. Liisi Grünberg, 2023). Her upcoming projects include an animated short YUMMY (dir. Martinus Klemet, 2024) that explores the depths of a tragic love story. She is also developing an animated feature comedy with multi-awarded animation director Sander Joon. Besides running her company, Aurelia Aasa is an animation production lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Animation Competition Jury
Sara Gunnarsdóttir (Iceland) is a director and artist who has created animation, music videos, and original artwork for film and television, she has also performed with the electro punk band Donna Mess.
She has created original artwork for Marielle Heller’s celebrated debut feature “The Diary of a Teenage Girl”, and HBO’s Emmy-nominated “The Case Against Adnan Sayed”. Her thesis animated documentary short, “The Pirate of Love”, was nominated for “Best Alternative” in The Academy’s Student Academy Awards. Her most recent animated comedy “My Year of Dicks”, created by Pamela Ribon (Moana, My Boyfriend is a Bear) has been highly lauded.
Animation Competition Jury
Filip Kozlowski (Poland), a philosopher by education, he has cooperated with the International Documentary Film Festival OFF CINEMA in Poznan, participated in filmmaking training courses in Berlin and a longtime member of the AWA Film Club in Poznan, in which he worked as a scriptwriter and director of several short films.
Filip has worked as jury and curator for many festivals and currently serves as Head of Festival Programme & Competition and also a member the Selection Committee for the Animated Series & Feature Film Competitions at ANIMATOR festival in Poznan. He also organizes educational animation screenings called ANIMUZA.
National Competition Jury
Flo Kasearu (Estonia) was born in the Soviet Union and grew up in Estonia. Over the past 10 years Flo has been living, working and hosting visitors in the Flo Kasearu House Museum in Tallinn, Estonia. She parasites in private and public spaces, living off various social processes, and using irony as her characteristic artistic tool.
National Competition Jury
Katie Bignell (UK) graduated from Bournemouth Media School with a degree in Scriptwriting for Film & TV and is also a graduate of the London Royal Court Young Writers’ and Invitation Only Groups. Katie has been providing strategy and submissions support to filmmakers worldwide, resulting in creating the consultancy brand Festival Formula in 2014.
As an active member of the Short Film Conference and the Film Festival Alliance, Katie is also a key spokesperson on festival issues with coverage in The Hollywood Reporter and Screen Daily regarding suspect and fraudulent film festivals. During the pandemic she co-created the Filmmaker Lounge in partnership with Film Festival Alliance – an online space for programmers and filmmakers to discuss their roles.
National Competition Jury
Aneta Zagórska (Poland) is a film producer from Krakow with 20 years of experience, working with feature fiction, documentary and animation films nationally and in international co-productions. Among other industry development initiatives, she created the Krakow Film Klaster – an independent film production house from Małopolska. She also initiated the Małopolska Debuts Studio - a programme supporting young filmmakers in their professional documentary or live action debut. In 2020, Aneta and Robert Sowa inaugurated the Animation Krakow Center – focused on the production of animated films.
She is a member of and the Polish Filmmakers Association, National Council of Audiovisual Producers and the European Producers Club, bringing together the most influential independent film producers in Europe.