Jury
Focus Competition
Christine Vachon (Jury President)
Christine Vachon is an Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award winner who co-founded indie powerhouse Killer Films with partner Pamela Koffler in 1995. Over the past two decades, they have produced over 100 films, including some of the most celebrated American indie features: CAROL, FAR FROM HEAVEN, STILL ALICE, BOYS DON'T CRY, KIDS, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, VELVET GOLDMINE, SAFE, I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, and I'M NOT THERE. In television, Vachon executive-produced the Emmy and Golden Globe-awarded miniseries MILDRED PIERCE for HBO as well as Z: THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING for Amazon Studios. Recent releases include Janicza Bravo's ZOLA, distributed by A24, PRIDE, six-part documentary series produced with Refinery 29 for FX, the limited series HALSTON for Netflix, and Billy Porter's ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE for Orion Pictures.
Fred Baillif
Fred Baillif is a self-taught filmmaker from Geneva. After a career as a professional basketball player, he studied social work. In New York he made his first documentary film, SIDEMAN. His next film, GEISENDORF, was awarded Best Swiss documentary at «Visions du Réel» in 2006. As a documentary filmmaker, Baillif directed films such as LE FOND ET LA FORME, LA VIE EN DEUX, BELIEVERS for Canal + and AS LONG AS IT RAINS IN AMERICA. In 2010, he made his first feature film, TAPIS ROUGE, and developed his own directing technique for non-professional actors. After EDELWEISS REVOLUTION (2017), he Directed the drama LA MIF in collaboration with a teens care home in Geneva. In addition to more than 20 international awards, the film won the Generation 14+ Berlinale Grand Prix and the Golden Eye in the Focus Competition at ZFF 2021.
Katharina Mückstein
The Austrian director and screenwriter Katharina Mückstein first studied philosophy and gender studies and then transferred to the Vienna Film Academy to study directing. In 2014, she founded the production company La Banda Film with fellow students. In 2018, she succeeded with her second feature-length film L'ANIMALE, which premiered at the Berlinale and was represented in the Focus Competition of the ZFF. After some TV work, her new feature film FEMINISM WTF will now be released in early 2023. Katharina Mückstein is a university lecturer and political activist for anti-discrimination agendas in the film industry.
Maria Fantastica Valmori
Maria Fantastica Valmori works as fiction film, television, documentary and video-art editor. She has recently worked on BELLISSIM∃, a documentary series on Italian fashion. She has also worked as co-editor at the documentary series SARAH, LA RAGAZZA DI AVETRANA (2021). She has edited CAMORRA by Francesco Patierno (Venice Film Festival, 2018); THE LAST BEAT OF ALLEN GINSBERG by Fabio Paleari (shown at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome in 2018); COEUROPE by Giovanni Troilo (Idfa 2016); and LUCE PROPRIA by Marco Danieli (Rome Film Festival 2017). She has been awarded the European Editing 2020 Award for ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH (2020), a documentary by Federico Ferrone and Michele Manzolini.
Roger Schawinski
Roger Schawinski is a Swiss journalist and entrepreneur. From 2003 to 2006 he was the managing director of the German private television station Sat1. He founded the most successful programme on Swiss television to date, the consumer magazine «Kassensturz», the first private radio station Radio 24, the first regional television Tele Züri and the first national private television Tele 24. He hosted television programmes, edited newspapers and magazines and wrote 13 books. With the outbreak of the Corona crisis in Spring 2020, he installed a daily «talk radio» on Radio 1, where he discusses the difficult situation with experts and listeners. On Swiss television, he hosted his talk show «Schawinski» from 2011 to 2020, which has been broadcasted on the Blue Zoom channel since 2022.
Feature Film Competition
Asghar Farhadi (Jury President)
Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He received his Bachelors in Theater from the School of Dramatic Arts in Tehran University in 1998 and his Masters in Stage Direction. In 2003 he made his directorial debut, DANCING IN THE DUST. His fourth film, ABOUT ELLY (2009) won the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlinale. His next film, A SEPARATION (2011), became a sensation. It won the Academy Award for «the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year», making Farhadi the first Iranian filmmaker ever to win an Oscar. This was followed by the multiple award-winning THE PAST (2013), THE SALESMAN (2016), for which Farhadi received his second Oscar, and the Spanish-language thriller TODOS LO SABEN (2018). Farhadi's Cannes-winning film A HERO (2021) marked his fourth appearance in the ZFF program.
Clio Barnard
British director Clio Barnard presented her first feature-length documentary in 2010 with THE ARBOR. The film about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar received huge critical success and numerous awards including The Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival and Best Cinema Documentary at the Grierson Awards. This was followed by the feature films THE SELFISH GIANT (2013), which premiered as part of Cannes Director’s Fortnight, and DARK RIVER (2017). Clio Barnard has most recently completed her fourth feature, ALI & AVA, which screened as a gala premiere at the 17th ZFF. The film won two BIFA Awards and was BAFTA nominated 2022.
Daniel Dreifuss
Producer Daniel Dreifuss completed his Master's Degree in Producing at the American Film Institute. He began his career at the Motion Picture Association and at Paramount Pictures in worldwide strategy. Dreifuss' film career began with the Oscar nominated NO (2012), directed by Pablo Larrain. It was Chile’s first ever Academy Award nominated Film. Dreifuss also produced ÓRFÃOS DO ELDORADO (2015), based on the novel by famed author Milton Hatoum and NUNCA VAS A ESTAR SOLO (2016), a Teddy award winner at Berlinale 2016, and Spanish Civil War themed GUERNICA (2016). In 2020, he produced SERGIO for Netflix. He recently worked again for the streaming service as a producer of IM WESTEN NICHTS NEUES by director Edward Berger, which has just become the German entry to the 2023 Academy Awards. Daniel is currently shooting a yet untitled mini-series for Paramount+.
Petra Volpe
Petra Volpe’s feature film DIE GÖTTLICHE ORDNUNG (2017) was selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. The film had its international premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won three awards. Volpe also wrote the screenplay for HEIDI (2015), the most successful Swiss film of all time. Most recently, she was the creator and screenwriter for the series FRIEDEN (2020), and wrote the screenplay for the feature film DIE GOLDENEN JAHRE (2022) directed by Barbara Kulcsar. Volpe is currently in pre-production of her first US project FRANK & LOUIS. Laurence Fishburne and Clifton Collins Jr. are attached to star.
Piodor Gustafsson
Piodor Gustafsson has more than thirty years of experience within film, TV and advertising. Since September 2020 he is responsible for Scripted Content in the Nordic territory at TV4 Media. He has previously worked as CEO for Black Spark Film & TV, Head of Programming and Commissioning Editor at SVT and as a commissioning Feature Film Consultant at the Swedish Film Institute. Gustafsson recently produced THE WIFE (2017) featuring Glenn Close and Jonathan Price, directed by Björn Runge. 2018 he produced the feature film BORDER by Ali Abbassi. BORDER was selected for Cannes Film Festival, section Un Certain Regard and won the prestigious price as best film and was selected as Sweden’s contribution for the Oscars 2019.
Documentary Competition
Alexander Nanau (Jury President)
Alexander Nanau is an Oscar and BAFTA nominated and European Film Award winning filmmaker. His documentary film, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ION B. (2009) premiered in Nyon at Visions du Réel and was awarded an International Emmy Award in 2010. His feature documentary film TOTO AND HIS SISTERS (2014) premiered at the San Sebastian IFF and was a European Academy Award nominee in 2015. His latest feature length documentary COLLECTIVE (2019) premiered at the Venice IFF. It became the first Romanian film to ever be nominated for an Academy Award when it was nominated for two Oscars. His films TOTO AND HIS SISTERS and COLLECTIVE have both won the Golden Eye at the ZFF.
Atanas Georgiev
Atanas Georgiev is a Producer, Director and Editor. He is one of the owners of Trice Films and Film Trick from Macedonia, subsidiaries of FX3X. His directorial and producing debut CASH & MARRY (2009) has won many international awards and recognition. This was followed by AVEC L’AMOUR, a festival favorite in 2017 premiering at Hot Docs, and right after that by HONEYLAND in 2019, a triple winner at Sundance Film Festival and nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Documentary and Best International Feature for 2020.
Joëlle Bertossa
Joëlle Bertossa founded Geneva-based Close Up Films in 2012. Since then, she has produced around 30 features, among which ADVOCATE (2019), directed by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche, which premiered at Sundance and won a BAFTA; YALDA (2019) by Massoud Bakhshi, winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and Antoine Barraud’s MADELEINE COLLINS, which premiered at the Venice Official Selection in 2021. Before that, she coproduced Cesar documentary winner I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (2017) by Raoul Peck, and acclaimed animation film THE SWALLOWS OF KABUL (2019), by Zabou Breitman. Through Close Up Films, Joëlle Bertossa is also very much attached in following young swiss directors and won twice the prestigious Prix de Soleure.
Nina Numankadić
Nina Numankadić graduated in Film and Television Production from Prague's FAMU. She is a director of Doc Alliance, association of seven major European documentary festivals and VoD portal DAFilms.com. During her career she worked for Institute of Documentary Film in Prague, and Jihlava IDFF as a tutor of various film industry events organized for film professionals. Together with Slovak filmmaker Peter Kerekes, she leads the preparatory pitching workshop for film professionals, Emerging Producers, organised by Jihlava IDFF. She is the producer of Slovak awarded filmmaker Viera Čákanyová: FREM (Berlinale 2020), WHITE ON WHITE (IDFF Jihlava 2021).
Sushmit Ghosh
Sushmit Ghosh is an Academy Award nominated filmmaker and co-founder of Black Ticket Films, a production company invested in the power of storytelling. An IDA Courage Under Fire Honoree, Ghosh's films are recognised for their rigor of immersive, emotionally powerful storytelling. His film WRITING WITH FIRE (2021) is India's first feature documentary to be nominated for an Oscar. WRITING WITH FIRE has played at over 150 festivals, won 34 awards and earned IDA, PGA and Cinema Eye Honors nominations. Ghosh is also a mentor for labs and fellowships that focus on underrepresented communities and provide new narratives about the most pressing issues of our time.
