April 12 – 20, 2024

 

International Jury

Phil Méheux

Jury President
Phil Méheux began his cinematography career working for the BBC Television’s Film Unit based at Ealing Film Studios, shooting documentaries and later all-filmed plays for television, several of which won awards. He became freelance with his first feature length motion picture, Black Joy, the official British entry into the Cannes Film Festival in 1977 and has been shooting many successful and award-winning feature and television films since, among them two James Bond films: GoldenΕye and Casino Royale for which won the British Society of Cinematographers Best Cinematography of 2006 and was nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award. Amongst his other credits are The Long Good Friday; The Mask Of Zorro; The Legend Of Zorro, Entrapment; Around The World In 80 Days; Edge Of Darkness; The Smurfs In 3d, etc. Phil is an elected member of The British Society of Cinematographers and became its longest running President from 2002 to 2006 and continues on the board of governors. He is also an elected member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, an honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society and in 2015 The American Society of Cinematographers awarded him with its International Award.

Massimo Lechi

Massimo Lechi (born 1986) is a film and theatre critic from Genoa, Italy. He studied Literature at the University of Genoa and worked as assistant director and production assistant for several years. After he received his diploma in Filmmaking, he directed two short films. Since 2006, he has intensively written reviews and festival reports for Italian websites and magazines such as FilmDOC, Il Ragazzo Selvaggio and Marla. In 2012 he published his first book (the essay L’eresia del dolore – Il Teatro di Antonio Tarantino) and became a freelance lecturer in film and theatre history. A member of the SNCCI, he served as president of the FIPRESCI Jury at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival in 2014 and at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in 2015. He has also been part of critics’ and international juries in Ankara, Drama, Chemnitz, Olympia, Dhaka, Pristina, Venice, Kolkata and Sofia.

Renārs Vimba

Renārs Vimba studied Film Directing and Cinematography at the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga and the Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School in Tallinn, Estonia. Later on, he acquired extensive training in a series of workshops by Vladimir Fenchenko, a legendary professor of Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors in Moscow. His debut feature Mellow Mud in 2016 won The Crystal Bear for Best Feature Film in Generation 14+’BERLINALE and Best feature film, Best script and Best actress prizes in the annual Lielais Kristaps National Film Festival, whereas he has won other prizes in international festivals around the globe. His work has been very well-received by film critics such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Daily, Cineuropa as well as Russian Guild of Film Critics. Mellow Mud has been selected for the prestigious Variety Critics Choice programme in Karlovy Vary IFF 2016.

Evangelia Andreadaki

Evangelia Andreadaki was born in Athens in 1960. She studied Forestry at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and, later on, Acting at the Drama School of the National Theatre of Northern Greece, with a scholarship granted by the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece. After graduating, she collaborated for four years with the National Theatre of Northern Greece. She returned to Athens, where she attended the Ancient Drama Workshop, led by director L. Voyiatzis and performed the lead role of Antigone (1992), the workshop’s final production. She has participated so far in various plays, staged by theatres such as the National Theatre, Theatro Technis, Amore Theatre among others. She collaborated with director D. Mavrikios on various plays such as: The Seventh Garment, Six characters in search of an author, True West, Monstrous Masterpiece, The Illusion, Suddenly last summer. From the very beginning of her career, she took part in feature and short films by P. Voulgaris, G. Panousopoulos, P. Choursoglou and Elias Demetriou. Evangelia was also awarded at Thessaloniki Film Festival and Rabat Festival (Morocco) for her performance in the film Eyes of Night by P. Choursoglou. In 2016, she received the Iris Award by the Hellenic Film Academy for her role in the feature film SMAC, directed by Elias Demetriou. She also received several awards for her performance in the short films: Anna’s smile by N. Gouli, Kimon and Lucy by E. Bountri, Pyramid by D. Papathanasi. She appeared in numerous TV series and films produced for the Greek television.

Kyriacos Tofarides

Kyriacos Tofarides studied Theatre Directing and Acting receiving a post-graduate degree in Film and Television Directing at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria. In Cyprus, he took part as an actor and director in a considerable number of theatre performances both staged by the Cyprus Theatre Organisation, as well as by other independent theatre groups. He worked as a television director at the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, directing entertainment programmes and drama productions. He is the producer of the awarded film The Last Homecoming (2008). In 2013, Kyriacos produced and directed his first feature film Block 12, which won the Special Jury Award in Cyprus Film Days 2013 and featured in the Official Selection of the European Film Awards in 2013. The film also received the Best Concept for Fiction Feature Award, Best Screenplay Award, Best Actress Award (Carmen Ruggeri) at the London Greek Film Festival in 2014, and the Special Jury Award in the 5th International Comedy Film Festival of Gabrovo, in 2014. He is a member of the European Film Academy (EFA).