Jury European Competition
Dominique Choisy (France)
Born 1959 in France. He is a former student of the French cinema school l’IDHEC. After directing five short films he shot Modern Comfort, his first feature film, in 1999, which won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Mar del Plata Festival (Argentina) in 2001. Choisy teaches writing and directing at the Université Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV) in Amiens, where he lives. He is also a member of the French association l’ACID, which supports and promotes independent movies from all over the world. He is currently preparing his next feature film: My Life With James Dean.Films (selected): CONFORT MODERNE (Modern Comfort, 1999), LES FRAISES DES BOIS (Wild Strawberries, 2011; CE '12)
Sarlote Liduma (Latvia)
Sarlote Liduma used to work for the legendary Riga International Film Festival Arsenals, first as a programmer, then as program director and director of the festival. Arsenals was the first independent film festival in the former Soviet Union. Liduma is one of the founders of a new independent film festival launched in September 2012, entitled FF Riga. She also writes extensively about film and culture in various media and is a member of FIPRESCI.Pia Marais (Germany / South Africa)
Born 1971 in South Africa. Studied sculpture and photography, followed by film at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. Her feature debut The Unpolished won the European Competition at Crossing E urope in 2007, and four years later At Ellen's Age was also awarded in the same category. Her last feature film Layla Fourie had its world premiere in the 2013's Berlinale Competition, where it got a special mention, and will be one of this year's opening films at Crossing Europe.
Films (selected): DIE UNERZOGENEN (The Unpolished, 2007; CE '07), IM ALTER VON ELLEN (At Ellen's Age, 2010; CE '11), LAYLA FOURIE (2013)
Jury Fedeora Award
Ronald Bergan (Great Britain)
Ronald Bergan (Ph.D.), film historian, critic and lecturer, is a regular contributor to The Guardian. He lives in France and has lectured on film at the Sorbonne and the British Institute in Paris. He also taught Film History and Theory at Florida International University in Miami. He is President of the critics’ association FEDEORA and Artistic Director of MOFFEM (Montenegro Festival of Mediterranean Films). Among the many books he has written are biographies of Sergei Eisenstein and Jean Renoir, “The Eyewitness Guide To Film” and “Francois Truffaut Interviews”, which he edited.Wiltrud Hackl (Austria)
Has been living in Linz since 1997, before that in Vienna. Wiltrud Hackl is a freelance culture journalist and editor for television and print media as well as a creator of documentaries, author, moderator and voice talent. Studies, amongst others, at the University of Arts, Linz (Experimental Design), where she worked as a university assistant from 2007 to 2011.Yehuda Stav (Israel)
Born 1948 in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Yehuda Stav is a film critic at “Yedioth Aharonoth”, leading daily of Israel, since 1979. Wrote & presented 52 TV shows on the history of Israeli cinema. Teaches film history & aesthetics at Haifa University and at the academic faculty of cinema & communication at the Kibbutzim College of Arts in Tel-Aviv. Co-founder of the Film Studies Project for students at the Tel-Aviv Cinematheque.Jury Local Artists
Katharina Gruzei (Austria)
Born 1983 in Klagenfurt, Austria. Since 2004 she has been studying Experimental Art, and has graduated from the department for Cultural Studies at the University of Arts in Linz. Study stays at the Art Department of the University of California Santa Barbara and at the University of Fine Arts Berlin for Visual Cultural Studies, in the class of Katharina Sieverding. Katharina Gruzei works with photography, film, video, installations, media performances, sound and objects. Winner of the Crossing Europe Local Artist Award 2012.Filme (Auswahl) // Films (selected): FIRST DATE (2004, short), COLUMBO & COLUMBO (2005, short), L.A. WORK SHIFT – INTERSECTION OF LIVES AND HIGHWAYS (2007, doc), DIALOGE I-IV (2008, short), DIE ARBEITERINNEN VERLASSEN DIE FABRIK (2011/12, short; CE '12)
Remo Rauscher (Austria)
Born 1984 in Kufstein, Austria. Studied Digital Arts at the FH Upper Austria, since then freelancer in the field of animation and media. He is a member of the art and culture union BACKLAB, team member of the user-generated TV channel dorf tv, lecturer for analog animation (Media Technology and Design, Hagenberg), supervisor of the category Computer Animation at the Prix Ars E lectronica and musician for children's and youth theatre (Kompanie Freispiel, Vienna). Crossing Europe Local Artist Studio Award 2011.Filme (Auswahl) // Films (selected): EIN TISCH IST EIN TISCH (2009, short; CE '10), UHRSUPPE (2010, short), THE STREETS OF THE INVISIBLE (2011; CE '11), Crossing Europe Festival Trailer 2012, TREMOLO NON TROPPO (co-director with Lucyna Kolendo, 2012; CE '13)