Juries

Antoine Thirion is a Paris-based writer and programmer. He currently works at Cinéma du Réel and advises the New York Film Festival. He has also worked at the Berlinale and the Locarno Film Festival, curated monographic retrospectives in France, conceived performances with Raya Martin, written for publications such as Cahiers du Cinéma and Cinema Scope, and edited the book Homes – Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Éditions de l’Œil, 2024).

Daniela Persico (Treviso, 1981) is a film critic, programmer and curator based in Milan, working between Italy and Switzerland. Having held various positions at the Locarno Film Festival since 2013, she is now a member of the selection committee and head of the Locarno Academy & Residency. Since 2022, she has been the artistic director of the Bellaria Film Festival, a historic Italian independent film festival.

Internationally acclaimed Greek avant-garde theatre director, choreographer and visual artist. The first artist invited by the Tanztheater Wuppertal to create an original work after the death of Pina Bausch, and the first Greek artist to have received the European Theatre Prize. His also won two Emmy Award nominations and two Olivier Award nominations. His latest works have traveled four continents to more than 30 countries and over 50 cities.

Multidisciplinary visual artist and filmmaker whose practice spans photography, video, installation and sculpture, and is part of major international collections, including Tate Modern, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Art Jameel. She co-founded the Contemporary Image Collective (Cairo) in 2004 and established the Fotomasr archive of photographs from Egypt in 2014. Her second feature film, Sharq 12, premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2024.

Graduated with a degree in social communication in 1988, completing a year-long internship at the Cinemateca Portuguesa the following year. Attended the Lisbon Theatre and Film School between 1991 and 1994. Then worked as a script supervisor for directors such as Fernando Lopes, Teresa Villaverde, João César Monteiro and Miguel Gomes. Directed four feature films and fifteen short films, which have been screened at national and international film festivals.

Ellie Ga is a New York-born, Lisbon-based artist and writer. Her films and performances combine everyday conversations, poetic sidesteps and obsessive research to address pressing social issues, often in unexpected contexts. Her films have been included in the Whitney Biennial of American Art, FID Marseille and the New York Film Festival. She is a Guggenheim Fellow in Film and Video and a founding editor of Ugly Duckling Presse in Brooklyn.

Jesse Cumming is a curator, writer and researcher. He is an associate curator for the Wavelengths section at the Toronto International Film Festival, and has worked as a programmer with the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, and as a consultant with the Berlinale Forum and the Open City Documentary Festival.

He was born in the central highlands of Vietnam and often finds inspiration in this region. His films have been shown in numerous film festivals such as Berlinale, New York, Locarno, Rotterdam, Busan and Viennale. In 2024, his film Trong lòng đất was selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes. His latest film, co-directed with Nicolas Graux, Tóc, Giấy và Nước…, won the Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition at Locarno in 2025.

Film critic and distributor. Co-founded the pan-African film criticism magazine Awotele in 2015, and has been the CEO of the pan-African film distribution company Sudu Connexion since 2016. Has been a programme advisor for the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival since 2016 and was on the official selection committee for the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight (2018-2022). Was also a programmer at large for the Lincoln Center (2022-2024).

After graduating in directing from the Lisbon Theatre and Film School, he shot his first feature film, Verão Danado, which premiered in Locarno (Special Mention from the Jury), and was then selected for other international film festivals. His latest short film, By Flávio, premiered at Berlinale Shorts 2022 and won a Sophia Award from the Portuguese Academy of Cinema. His second feature film, Entroncamento, was selected for ACID Cannes 2025.

Thomas Bauer is a filmmaker. From 2008 onwards, under the generic title Capitaine par exemple, he produced and directed a film, a radio programme, and an architectural project in collaboration with Laurent Charpin and Raphaëlle Perron. He also works on the sound and editing of projects by artists interested in creating a different kind of cinema. He teaches art and cinema at the School of Fine Arts of Angers, France.

Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History at NOVA FCSH. Holds a PhD in post-colonialisms and global citizenship from the University of Coimbra and a master’s degree in visual and media anthropology from the Free University of Berlin. Directed the film Pabia di Aos (2013) and co-directed the films Enxertia (2020) and Fogo no Lodo (2023). Her research and artistic practice intersect anthropology, cinema and the visual arts.

He is a cultural strategist with experience in EU policy, governance and funding. He is currently the EU affairs, policies development and programme implementation manager at the Occupational Health and Safety Authority in Malta, and serves as Malta’s focal point for the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. His work focuses on building effective collaboration between public institutions, community groups and international networks.

Writer, screenwriter and playwright. Co-created, with director Tiago Guedes, A Herdade (Golden Lion nominee, Venice 2019). Wrote the script for director João Canijo’s diptych Viver Mal/Mal Viver (Silver Bear winner, Berlinale 2023). Won the Portuguese Writers Association Grand Prize for Novels and Novellas twice. Co-wrote the award-winning series Sul, Causa Própria and Matilha. Teaches literature and cinema at university.

Filmmaker and director of the master’s in creative documentary at Pompeu Fabra University. Her film Penélope, supported by Eurimages, was praised by critics as her confirmation as one of the greatest filmmakers in Spain. Her most recent work, Syntony, produced by Araki Films, concludes her Barcelona trilogy, which began with B-side (2010), premiered in Rotterdam, and Bajarí (2013), premiered at IDFA. She is a member of the Catalan Film Academy.

Inês Lima is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker who explores the moving image for film and installations, soundscapes, writing and film programming.

His work has been shown at national and international film festivals, such as Cannes (France), Nouveau Cinema (Canada), Ann Harbour (USA) and Berwick (United Kingdom).

Beatriz Rações (Design)
Daniel Janeiro (Cinema)
Elias Marreiros (Sound)
Guilherme Mártires (Cinema)
Mariana Macedo (Cinema)