The Juries 2009

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION JURY

Francine Brücher
born in France in 1943, Francine Brücher studied foreign languages at the University of Lyon. As an experienced sales and marketing expert, Francine Brücher joined SWISS Films in 1997 and promotes Swiss cinema at festivals and television markets. Brücher started her career in 1972 in Munich with Filmverlag der Autoren. From 1995 to 1998 she was a member of the selection committee for Production Funding at the Hamburg Film Fund. Since 2003 she has been a member of the Comité de Lecture of the Luxembourg Film Fund. She is a Member of the European Film Academy, in 2004 she was elected to be a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Since 2005 she has been a member of the Board of Directors of European Film Promotion.

Petra Felber
studied in Paris, Kiel and Munich and graduated with Contemporary German Literature, Political Sciences and Psychology in 1988. She taught and monitored projects in the documentary section of the Film - akademie Baden-Württemberg, She has also taught and monitored projects in documentary and fiction at the Munich Film School. Since 2002 she has been Commissioning Editor at the Bavarian Broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, responsible for documentaries and productions made by young talent.

Giona A. Nazzaro
born 1965 in Zurich, Giona A. Nazzaro studied German and English Literature at the Istituto Universitario Orientale of Naples, Italy and graduated in 1993. He has published books and studies of film criticism, e. g. on Abel Ferrara, Tsui Hark and Julio Bressane. He writes for some of the most well-known Italian film magazines such as “Filmcritica”, “Panoramiche / Panoramiques”, and “Film TV”. He has been the film critic for the Italian rock music magazine “Rumore” since its conception. He has also been Production Manager for DVDs and worked as a Programme Advisor at the TFF – Torino Film Festival from 2002 to 2006. He now is a Programmer at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence. His debut collection of short stories will be published in February 2010.

Veton Nurkollari
Born in 1962, Veton Nurkollari studied English Language and Literature at the University of Prishtina. In 2002 he co-founded Dokufest Prizren, the largest and most important film festival in Kosovo. Since 2004 he has been serving as the Artistic Director of the festival. He is also the curator of DokuPhoto, an annual showcase of documentary photography that runs alongside with the film festival. Veton has already participated as jury member at festivals such as Zagreb Film Festival, Hamburg Short Film Festival, Tirana International Film Festival, Forli Film Festival and many more. He also writes on film and music in Kosovo’s daily “Express” and weekly “Java”.

Rahul Roy
born in 1963 in Bhopal , Rahul Roy graduated in 1987 from the Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi with a Masters Degree in Film and TV production. Since then he has been making independent documentaries. His work has focused on communal violence, labour, gender and masculinities. Screened at most major international documentary film festivals, his films have won several awards. He is the coordinator of the newly instituted Delhi International Ethnographic Film Festival and is currently shooting his next film.

HORIZONS Jury

Mona Lehne was born in 1980 and grew up in the Netherlands. She has worked on various documentary, fiction and commercial projects since 1998. She started as a production assistant, and then worked as a producer, assistant director, casting director and production coordinator. She did voluntary work for the GTZ, the Society for Development Cooperation in Zambia and made a video documentary about “Youth Empowerment” in Africa. She developed the film competition “Do You See What I See?” with Raumwandler e.V., a non-profit association of artists, musicians and filmmakers.

Marina Ludemann
was born in 1958 in Bochum. She studied Literature and History in Tübingen and Hamburg and graduated with a M.A.. She worked as a journalist from 1985 to 1987. She has worked for the Goethe Institute since 1988 where her roles have included being Director of the Programme in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Director of the Guest Programme in Berlin. She is now responsible for the coordination of film programmes abroad.

Fatema Mian
was born in 1964 in London. She grew up in Libya, Pakistan and Germany. She studied German Literature and Orientalism in Freiburg. She was trained at the Deutsche Journalistenschule in Munich. Since then she has worked as a freelance journalist for television and radio, including as a writer and editor for programmes on entertainment, sciences, cultural, educational and social policy for ARD and Bayerischer Rundfunk. Since 2008 she has been Commissioning Editor of “Puzzle,” Bayerischer Rundfunk’s intercultural magazine programme.

DOCUMENTARY TALENT AWARD JURY, sponsored by FilmFernsehFonds Bayern

Dagmar Kusche
is Managing Director of EIKON Süd GmbH. Before joining the EIKON Media group of companies, Dagmar Kusche worked for many years in the fields of film sales and distribution, acquisition and coproduction, for companies such as Concorde Film, NIL Film and Helkon Media AG. Before starting a freelance career as media consultant, she was Managing Director of the cinema Forum am Deutschen Museum.

Maximilian Plettau
Born in 1973 in Freiburg, Maximilian Plettau began his career in the film industry after graduating from high school as a lighting engineer on productions such as “Night shapes” and “Frau Rettich, die Czerni und ich”. Between 1999 and 2007 he studied at the Munich Film School, HFF. “Comeback” is his graduation film. As a tutor, Maximilian Plettau remained faithful to his alma mater, HFF, and in 2007 he founded, together with Marten Schnier (MBA), the Production Company Nominal Film in Munich.

Joachim Schroeder
Born in 1964, Joachim Schroeder studied at the UCLA/MPTV Department and graduated with a M.A. from the Munich University. He established Preview Production GbR in 1999 and, since then, has produced over a hundred television reports and documentaries and feature-length documentaries, among them “Slippin’ – Ten Years with the Bloods” and “Eye to Eye – All About German Film.” Since 2006 Schroeder has been Producer of the docu series “Die Ludolfs – Vier Brüder auf’m Schrottplatz” for DMAX / Discovery Networks. In 2007 Preview founded a fiction department.