Jury

Bogdan Ficeac

Bogdan Ficeac (b. 1958, Pitești, Romania) is a reputed journalist and political analyst. Holder of a Doctorate in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Bucharest since 2010, having previously specialized with residencies and scholarships in California, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan and China. Since 1989, he works as editor of România liberă, becoming its editor-in-chief since 1998 until 2007. At the same time, he hosted several talk-show programmes on channels such as Prima TV and Realitatea TV, while also appearing as analyst and guest commentator on other stations. He was the director of Flux TV between 2004 and 2007. In recent years he is getting closer to cinema, having a rich activity as a screenwriter (“Manipulation techniques” – TVR, “The Witnesses” – directed by Dan Pița, “The Magnate” – directed by Șerban Marinescu, “The Red Will” – directed by Andrei Blaier) and participating as a member of the jury for the Gopo Awards, starting with 2008, and for the Documentary and Television Film Festival in Gura Humorului (2009). His most recent book, Captive Romania, was published in 2011.

Effi & Amir

Effi & Amir (Effi Weiss, born in Ramat-Gan in 1971; Amir Borenstein, born in Haifa in 1969) are an artist duo living and working together since 1999, keeping their art in a close dialogue with their life. In 1999 they both graduated cum laude from the Fine Arts department in Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem, where they met. After their studies they co-initiated a TV programme, Artattack, which made them fall in love with video-making. In 2002 they left their homeland (Israel) for Europe. After spending six months in Paris (Cité International des Arts residency), two years in Amsterdam (MFA at the Sandberg Institute) another six months in Bern (PROGR residency), they are currently living in Brussels, exploring the joys and miseries of ex-patria. They work mainly as video makers but often involve performance and participatory strategies in their projects. Besides their own artistic practice they work as editors, cameramen and effect designers, they teach and give video workshops to various audiences. Recently they made SAME RIVER TWICE, a feature length documentary, and they are currently working on their next film HOUSE WARMING, to be shot in Albania in August 2014.

Antonio Casciaro

Antonio Casciaro (b. Italy) is an expert in Visual Sociology and Aesthetics of New Media, working on the design of interventions that link media and visual processes at social transformation. He founded and then directed the magazine The Social City, a periodical of Arts, Culture and Social Communication. He worked as a teacher of Sociology at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Catania, and was Head of Scientific Studies on Multiculturalism on behalf of the National Research Centre of Rome. He has designed, coordinated and monitored cultural projects in multi-actor contexts on topics of multimedia, photography and videography. He founded, along with Tamas Gabeli (Budapest), the international circuit Animatters Film Network (AFN), which manages a network of cultural organizations from various countries around the world that produce animated films. Member of the jury in several international competitions in cinema, he is currently the director of ARES – International Film & Media Festival of Syracuse (Italy).