Joanna Łapińska - Head of the International Jury
Member of the European Film Academy. Artistic Director of the Polish Feature Film Festival (FPFF) in Gdynia
Poland
Joanna Lapinska is a member of the European Film Academy and the Artistic Director of the Polish Feature Film Festival (FPFF) in Gdynia. A graduate of the psychology department at the University of Warsaw, she is a cultural manager with many years of experience.
From 2002 to 2016, she was associated with the New Horizons International Film Festival, serving as its artistic director since 2007. She launched the New Horizons Studio and invented Polish Days. From 2016 to 2020, she served as Program Director of the Transatlantyk Festival. She also launched the industry event Icebreaker (Lodołamacz).
Before taking the position of Artistic Director of the festival in Gdynia, she served as head of Gdynia Industry. She is an expert for the Polish Film Institute (PISF), the Łódź Film Commission, and the Mazovian and Warsaw Film Funds.
Luca Chikovani
Songwriter. Actor
Georgia, Italy
Luca Chikovani was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Due to the post-war and civil war situation in Georgia, Luca and his mother decided to emigrate to Rome, Italy.
He first rose to fame as one of Italy’s pioneering YouTubers, gaining millions of views for his song covers before signing with Universal Music and releasing his successful debut EP ‘Start’, which ranked among Italy’s top three albums. Later, he was discovered by director Alice Rohrwacher and made his breakthrough film debut in LAZZARO FELICE, earning widespread acclaim and numerous international awards.
In recent years, Luca has been deeply involved in humanitarian relief efforts in conflict zones. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, he has organized aid missions — first independently, and later in collaboration with major organizations such as Hope Ukraine, the International Red Cross, and the Chamber of Commerce.
The worsening situation in his home country of Georgia has led him to turn his focus toward activism. He is now pursuing a semi-political path dedicated to supporting the next generations in Georgia and across Europe.
Valeria Sochyvets
Film producer and director. Co-founder of the collective and production Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema (CUC). Member of the European Film Academy and Member of Board of the Ukrainian Film Academy.
Ukraine
Valeria Sochyvets is a Ukrainian film producer, director, and co-founder of the collective and production Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema (CUC). Her films have been presented at international festivals in Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand, Sarajevo, Vilnius, San Sebastián, Torino, Palm Springs, and have received over 30 awards. Among her key works are LA PALISIADA (Ukraine’s official submission for the 2024 Oscars), NEW JERUSALEM, THE GLASS HOUSE, and BLINDFOLD.
Valeria is a graduate of the Karpenko-Kary University of Theatre, Cinema and Television, a participant of Berlinale Talents and Sarajevo Talents, and a member of both the Ukrainian and European Film Academies. She actively supports emerging voices in Ukrainian cinema and develops international co-productions. As a director, she is currently working on her feature debut Curtain.
Lyuba Yakimchuk
Award-winning screenwriter, poet, and playwright
Ukraine
She is the screenwriter of SLOVO HOUSE. UNFINISHED NOVEL and the documentary SLOVO HOUSE (with film director Taras Tomenko). Yakimchuk is the author of the poetry collections “Apricots of Donbas” and “Like Fashion”, the play “Wall” for the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater in Kyiv, and the short play “Schrödinger’s Cat” for Vienna’s Volkstheater.
Lyuba has taken part in numerous poetry and music projects across Ukraine, the EU, the USA, and India. Her work has been featured by The New York Times, BBC, CBC, and CNN. In 2025, she received the Ukrainian Film Academy Award for Best Screenplay (Golden Dzyga), along with multiple other honors in cinema and literature.
Tor Fosse
Film festival director and programmer
Norway
He is best known as the festival director and head of programming for the Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF). After leading the festival since its founding in 2000, he stepped down from the role after 24 years of dedicated service.
He was also involved in the establishment and running of the distribution company ‘Arthaus’ and the Tromsø International Film Festival, and was a key figure in Norway's film society movement.
In 2019, Tor Fosse received the prestigious Film Club Award from the Norwegian Federation of Film Societies for his lifelong dedication to film culture and his outstanding contribution to its promotion.
Volodymyr Mula
Honored Art Worker of Ukraine, Emmy Award-winning Ukrainian director and producer
Ukraine
Volodymyr Mula is a Ukrainian director and producer from the Ivano-Frankivsk region, founder of the production company TeleProstir Studio. He gained popularity as a sports reporter covering the FIFA World Cup (2014), the Olympic Games (2016, 2018), and UEFA Euro 2016 for leading Ukrainian and international media outlets (BBC News Ukrainian, “1+1” TV channel, ICTV, Hromadske TV).
Since 2015, he has focused on documentary filmmaking. He is the director of the films AMERICAN DREAM (2016) and AMERICAN DREAM. IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH (2017). His film UKE (2020), about Ukrainian NHL Stanley Cup winners, became the highest-grossing documentary in Ukraine. He also directed the film FOOTBALL NATION (2021) for the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's National Football Team.
In 2022, he became a director and field producer for the international documentary project FOOTBALL MUST GO ON, which won an Emmy Award in 2024.
Yolande Zauberman
Film director and screenwriter
France
Born in Paris, Yolande Zauberman was introduced to cinema by director Amos Gitaï. In 1987, she made her first documentary, CLASSIFIED PEOPLE, about apartheid in South Africa, which won numerous awards, including the Grand Prix at the Paris Film Festival. In 1993, she directed her first fiction film in Yiddish, ME IVAN, YOU ABRAHAM, which won several international awards, including the Youth Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Her documentary THE BELLE FROM GAZA was featured in the Panorama section of the 2025 Sunny Bunny Queer Film Festival in Kyiv, Ukraine
Giuseppe Garau
Film writer. Director
Italy
Giuseppe Garau is an Italian filmmaker obsessed with film grammar. Influenced by the raw energy of the hardcore punk scene, his work reflects a bold and uncompromising vision. His debut feature, L’INCIDENTE (THE ACCIDENT), premiered internationally at the Molodist Film Festival in 2023 and earned the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance 2024, marking him as a distinctive new voice in independent cinema.
J. D. Fernández Molero
Director. Writer. Editor. Producer
Peru
Born in 1987, Juan Daniel Fernández Molero is a Peruvian director, producer, and editor known for the experimental doc REMINISCENCES (2010), screened at FIDMarseille and MoMA’s Modern Mondays prestigious avant-garde film program, and the post-internet feature VIDEOPHILIA (AND OTHER VIRAL SYNDROMES) (2015), which won the Tiger Award for Best Film at the 44th Rotterdam International Film Festival and was Peru’s submission for the 89th Academy Awards.
His second feature is the hybrid fiction PUNKU (2025), which had its world premiere in the Forum section of the 75th Berlinale and won the Grand Prix at the 25th New Horizons IFF and Best Feature Film at the 15th Bucharest Experimental IFF.
Molero has worked as editor on ALBA (2016), THE LOST PUSSY OF THE INCAS (2019), and HUAQUERO (2024), for which he won the Artistic Achievement award for Best Editing at the 19th International Film Festival — Belo Horizonte.
Gala Koziutynska
Director and editor
Ukraine
Gala's debut documentary film, STORKS ALWAYS COME HOME, won the main awards at the Ukrainian film festivals Molodist and Wiz-Art and was screened at many international film festivals, including the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, Brussels Short Film Festival, Interfilm ISFF Berlin, and others.
She is the Creative Director of “What If Creative Studio” and the founder of “Horyshche” (“Attic”) art residency, named after Victor Petrov. She lives in Lviv.
