Jury
DOT Jury Members 2024
Cécile Tollu-Polonowski studied German Studies and Culture Management in Paris, Berlin, and Saarbrücken. From 2007 onwards, she worked as an organisation manager for the Berlinale Forum and, from 2011 to 2020, as a programme consultant. From 2011 until 2016, she studied Film Producing at the German Film and Television Academy, Berlin. Her graduation film, the feature-length film Zhaleika by Eliza Petkova, celebrated its world premiere in 2016 at Berlinale and won the Grand Prix at Sofia FF. Since 2015, she has been working closely with Match Factory Productions as an executive producer, where she was lucky to work on films by Alice Rohrwacher, Karim Aïnouz, Pietro Marcello, et al. She is a member of the editorial team of the German Magazine Revolver, Zeitschrift für Film, and programme advisor for the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg. In January 2022, she joined exclusively The Match Factory as producer and head of development.
Yorgos Tsourgiannis is an independent film producer and the founder and managing director of the Athens-based production label Horsefly Films. He has worked with directors such as Emin Alper (2022, Burning Days, 2019, A Tale of Three Sisters), Michalis Konstantatos (2020, All the Pretty Little Horses, 2013, Luton), Yiannis Veslemes, (2014, Norway) and Yorgos Lanthimos (2009, Dogtooth). He is currently working on a slate of feature-length projects by established and emerging authors including Efthimis Kosemund Sanidis, Emin Alper, Athanasios Karanikolas, and Nikola Ljuca, among others. He has been a member of the ACE Producers Network since 2010 and a member of the Hellenic and European Film Academies.
Anita Elsani has been working in feature film production since 1995. In 2003, she founded her own company, Elsani Film in Cologne. Since then, Elsani has developed and produced a wide range of films, e.g. 55 Steps, a feature film by Bille August starring Hilary Swank and Helena Bonham Carter, co-produced by Sony and released worldwide in 2018. In collaboration with Splendid Entertainment and Dirk Schweitzer, Elsani produced the feature film Operation Napoleon, a co-production with Iceland and ZDF, and celebrated its cinema release in March 2023. The Albanian Virgin was also released in German cinemas in 2023 and was a co-production with ZDF / ARTE between Germany, Belgium, Albania, and Kosovo*. Furthermore, Elsani has successfully produced TV films for ARD/ WDR primetime and is currently in development of several high-end series. *This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ opinion on Kosovo Declaration of Independence.<br />