Juries 36th edition
Feature film competition
Sabine Gebetsroither
Born in Wels (Austria), she studied German Philology and Media/Film Studies at the University of Vienna and the University of Aarhus (Denmark). She has worked for renowned film festivals such as the FilmFestival Cottbus - Festival of Eastern European Film, the Reykjavík International Film Festival, and the Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz. Since November 2021, she has been the Co-Director of the Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz. She was also a member of the Film Commission of the Province of Upper Austria from 2015 to 2021.
Ilinca Manolache
Born in Bucharest into a family of actors, Ilinca Manolache studied Acting at the National University of Theatre and Film. She has performed on major stages in Bucharest, working with directors such as Andrei Șerban and Alexandru Darie. Notable roles include The Vanished Year. 1989 by Peca Ștefan (UNITER Best Supporting Actress), and Itinéraires. Un jour le monde changera by Yann Verburgh. In cinema, she collaborated mostly with Radu Jude on I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (2018, Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary) and Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn (2021, Golden Bear at the Berlinale). Her first leading role was in Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023, Special Jury Prize at Locarno), presented also at the Trieste FF.
Paolo Moretti
Currently the director of the Film Department at the University of the Arts in Lausanne (ECAL), cinema curator at the Fondazione Prada in Milan, director of the Cinémas du Grütli in Geneva, and consultant for Visions du Réel, Paolo Moretti was the General Delegate of the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at the Cannes Film Festival from 2018 to 2022. Between 2001 and 2008, he worked for numerous film festivals and film institutions across Europe, including the Centre Pompidou and Cinéma du Réel in Paris, the Filmoteca Española in Madrid and the Cinemateca Portuguesa in Lisbon. From 2008 to 2011, he was a programming consultant and assistant to the director of the Venice Film Festival. Between 2014 and 2019, he directed the La Roche-sur-Yon Film Festival.
Documentary competition
Chiara Liberti
Chiara Liberti works as curator, creative producer and consultant for documentary films. She has collaborated with the Italian distribution company I Wonder Pictures since its foundation in 2013 and with Final Cut for Real, an Oscar-nominated production company. Chiara has worked in Italy, UK, Ireland, Germany and Denmark, from festival management to production, critical writing and film lecturing. She holds degrees in Film Studies, Visual Arts Curation and Audiovisual Management. Since 2022 she is the co-Artistic Director at Biografilm Festival Bologna and has recently co-produced the feature-length film London Boys, selected for IDFA Docs for Sale 2024.
Simon Popek
Simon Popek was born in 1970. After graduating from the University of Ljubljana with a degree in cultural studies and art history, he began writing about cinema in 1992, first for Radio Student, and later for the Slovenian national newspaper Delo, for Kinotečnik and the Slovenian film magazine Ekran, becoming its chief editor from 1996 to 2006. From 1997 to 2006 he was President of the Slovenian Film Critics Association. Between 2000 and 2007 he was part of the film acquisition department at RTV Slovenia. In 2007 he was appointed by Ljubljana’s Cankarjev Dom to film programming manager, which includes managing the Ljubljana IFF and Documentary FF. He is the author of a monograph on Kubrick (2006) and co-author of several volumes on cinema.
Annina Wettstein
Annina Wettstein is a Zurich and Berlin-based programmer, curator and consultant on festival strategies and project development. Since 2018, she has served on the selection committee for DOK Leipzig, and, as of 2024, the main programmer of the European FF Scanorama in Vilnius. She worked as head of program at Solothurn FF. She was a programmer for the Rotterdam IFF, a delegate for the San Sebastián IFF and a pre-selection advisor for the 24th Jeonju IFF. She has a Master’s in Social Anthropology, French Literature and Management from Zurich University, is a member of both the European and Swiss Film Academies and a member of the Executive Board of the Fantoche Int. Animation FF.
Short film competition
Valentina Bronzini
Valentina Bronzini, originally from Trieste, studied Visual and Performing Arts at IUAV in Venice. After graduating, she relocated to Berlin, joining Picture Tree International as a Festival coordinator, where she worked until 2017. During this time, she contributed to the international journey of films like Mammal (2016) by Rebecca Daly and We Used to Be Cool (2016) by Marie Kreutzer. Following a period in Australia – where she worked with distributor Potential Films – Valentina returned to Berlin to become Festival Manager at The Match Factory. In this role, she has been guiding the festival journeys of many films such as La Chimera (2023) by Alice Rohrwacher, Drive my Car (2021) by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Ema (2019) by Pablo Larraín and Memoria (2021) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Lia Furxhi
After graduating in History and Criticism of Cinema at the University of Turin, Lia Furxhi served as a production manager for several independent films, including those by Davide Ferrario, Daniele Gaglianone, Gianluca Tavarelli, Guido Chiesa, Daniele Segre. She participated in the organization of film festivals (International Sports FF, FilmBreve, Sottodiciotto FF, where she served as director from 2012 to 2014, CinemAmbiente, which she has been directing since 2024) and worked on the establishing of the National Short Film Center. She has edited several publications, including Le forme del corto (2007), Corti&Autori (2006) and In Breve (2009). Since 2013, she has been president of AIACE Nazionale - Italian Association of Friends of Arthouse Cinema.
Damian Kocur
Born in Katowice in 1983, Damian Kocur is a Polish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. A graduate of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice, he is currently pursuing his PhD at the Łódź Film School. He is also a member of the European Film Academy. His short film Beyond is the Day (2020) won several awards, including Best Short Film at the Trieste FF. His feature debut, Bread and Salt (2022), premiered in the “Orizzonti” section of the Venice IFF, where it was awarded the Special Jury Prize. His short film As It Was (2023), was selected at Cannes and was nominated for the EFA. The Trieste FF presented all his previous work, including his latest film (see page 58), Under the Volcano (2024), which premiered at the Toronto IFF.
Premio Corso Salani 2025
Luca Mosso
Born in Bormio in 1962, Luca Mosso is an Italian film critic, university lecturer, programmer, film producer and author. He lives in Milan where he is active as a curator, journalist, lecturer and event organizer. He has been the director of the Filmmaker Festival since 2011 and since 2014 has coordinated In Progress, a film development workshop for young filmmakers from the Milano Film Network. He collaborates with Italian newspapers Il manifesto and Il Sole 24 Ore. In Milan he teaches at the Accademia di Brera, the Scuola Civica di Cinema Luchino Visconti and Università Cattolica. He has contributed to the writing, directing, and production of documentaries. His publications include monographs on filmmakers such as Ross McElwee, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Errol Morris, and Frederick Wiseman.
Barbara Sorrentini
A graduate in Philosophy, Italian Barbara Sorrentini works as a journalist, presenter and content-creator at Radio Popolare. Since 2002, she has been the curator and host of Chassis – a programme dedicated to cinema – and for several years, she produced “Vogliamo anche le rose”, dedicated to documentaries. At Radio Popolare, she has hosted various cultural programmes and continues to contribute reports and interviews for a range of broadcasts and news bulletins. She was the artistic director of the 7 editions of the Festival dei beni confiscati alle mafie (Festival of Assets Seized from the Mafia). She has collaborated with La Repubblica, E-Il Mensile, Pagina 99 and has been a blogger for Cinecittà News and 8 ½. She coedited the book Entretiens - Nanni Moretti, published by Cahiers du Cinéma..
Paolo Vidali
Born in Udine, where he studied before moving to Rome in 1970, Paolo Vidali first worked as a screenwriter and later as an assistant director on a dozen films before becoming involved in writing film dialogues and working as a dubbing director. From the early ‘90s until 2006 he was involved in documentary filmmaking, as screenwriter and producer. He served as a consultant in drafting the regional law regulating film production in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, that established the Audiovisual Fund, which he managed until April 2024. Since July 2023, he has been the President of the Fondazione Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine.
Cineuropa Award
Viktor Tóth
Hungarian, but born and educated in Friuli, following his three-year degree in Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Trieste, he has established himself as a young film critic specialising in Central and Eastern European cinema. He has collaborated for several years with East Journal, ODG Magazine and recently with Cineuropa, covering major international festivals, such as Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Karlovy Vary. He also participated through a directing internship in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia filming of Campo di Battaglia by Gianni Amelio.
