Main Jury
Click for Biography
Mujdat Gezen was born on October 29, 1943, in Istanbul, Turkey. He studied at Karagumruk Middle School, Vefa High School and the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory. In 1960, he started working at the Municipal Theaters (City Theaters) in Istanbul. He has published sixty books and has thirty plays that have been staged. He serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for Unicef. Mujdat opened a drama center in 1981 along with a Turkish author, Kandemir Konduk, under the name Güldürü Üretim Merkezi. He followed this by an Art Center (Mujdat Gezen Art Center) in 1991. In 2005, he opened his own theater in Kadiköy, Istanbul. He was awarded the Best Playwright for his plays Hamlet Efendi and Babam in the category of literature, and Eyvallah in the 2019/20 Season.
Click for Biography
After studying journalism in Istanbul University, Uğur Dündar started working at the Turkish Radio-Television, the government media organization, by taking and passing its examination for personnel selection. He started the first Investigative Journalism program in Turkey with his program entitled ARENA. Fort the first time, on behalf of Turkey, Uğur Dündar won international investigative journalism awards, at the New York Festivals and the International Concortium of Investigative Journalism. He has won many more awards for his successful work in journalism. Currently, he teaches in undergraduate and graduate courses in universities, writes regularly at Sözcü, and directs the program entitled “Demokrasi Arenası” (Democracy Arena) at TELE1, a progressive TV channel.
Click for Biography
She completed her undergraduate studies at Marmara University Faculty of Communication. Esen received her Ph.D. in 1990 with her thesis titled "Post 80's Turkish Cinema's Approach to Social Events". She offered cinema classes as a visiting lecturer at Galatasaray University, İstanbul University and İstanbul Commerce University. She worked as a lecturer in Radio, Television and Cinema Department at Marmara University Faculty of Communication between the years 1982 and 2021. Esen has numerous published papers and book chapters. She is among the board of editors of various scientific journals on communication. Her published books include, "80'ler Türkiyesi'nde Sinema" (2000), "Zeki Ökten: Yeşilçam'da Özgün Bir Yönetmen" (2014), "Sinemamızda Bir Auteur: Ömer Kavur" (2015) and "Türk Sineması'nın Kilometre Taşları" (2016).
Click for Biography
Hassan Solhjou, born in 1970, is an Iranian-British, who has been a successful filmmaker and senior producer at BBC for more than 20 years. He is the editor and presenter of a film showcase in BBC Persian TV. He studied cinema in Iran and UK and so far he has made more than 10 films, mainly documentaries in and out of Iran.
Some of these films have brought him some awards from National and international film festivals.
Click for Biography
Husson has been a nomad most of her adult life, living between France, the States, the UK, Spain and Puerto Rico. She’s trilingual and speaks French, Spanish and English. She went to drama school, then minored in philosophy, and majored in English literature at the Sorbonne University, where she got a Masters in English Literature (summa cum laude) and a BA in Spanish Literature. She then went on to pursue an MFA in Directing at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles in part thanks to the generous support of the Rotary Club and their Ambassador scholarship program. Husson’s shorts made the round of international festivals. In 2013, she made a 52 min comedy in English,Those For Whom It’s Always Complicated, which was released on French TV Arte, and in 2015 she made her first feature film Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story), which garnered a lot of international interest since its debut in competition at the Toronto Film Festival. In 2018, Eva was nominated for the Palme d’Or for her second feature film Girls of the Sun which premiered in Cannes, Main Competition. In television, Eva has directed the opening episodes of HANNA s2 for Amazon. In 2021, Eva was back in official selection in Cannes with her English debut Mothering Sunday, starring Odessa Young, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Olivia Colman and Sope Dirisu.
Click for Biography
Bachelor΄s Degree in Economics, Law School, University of Athens.
Graduate of E. Hatzikou Drama and Film School.
Theatre Studies at NYU and HB Studio in New York.
She has been acting on Stage and Television for more than 30 years.
She established “ELIART”, an independent theater in Athens.
Since 2000 she directs and produces documentaries mostly about human rights issues and received numerous international awards. She has filmed in “difficult” areas such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc.
Selected filmography:
“Qadir, an Afghan Ulysses “, “Playing with Fire”, “The Nymphs of Hindu Kush”, “After the Tsunami – Sumatra”, “Europe, the Dream”
Click for Biography
He is an academician and director, born on March 14, 1981 in Alanya. He graduated from Eastern Mediterranean University Radio, TV and Cinema Department. He made many short films and won awards. He is the producer and director of the documentary ‘Famagusta’. He worked as an assistant to Ülkü Erakalın, the veteran director of Yeşilçam Cinema, and he entered the cinema industry as an assistant director in the movie ‘A Love to Scream’. Later, he started to work with Producer-Director Derviş Zaim, who has many national and international awards. He is still continuing his doctorate program and giving lectures on cinema, short films, documentaries and photography at different universities. He continues short film and documentary projects. He has served as a jury member at national and international film festivals and has taken part in festival committees.