Head of Jury

Raimundas Banionis

Raimundas Banionis was born on 13 May 1957, in Panevezys, in actors' - Donatas Banionis and Ona Banioniene family. For the first time, he went on stage at the age of three, performing the episodic role of W. Shakespeare's "Makbete" (directed by J. Miltinis). He has played in various children's plays, participated in mass scenes many times. The main role in the theater was played in the play "Passenger without a Baggage" by J. Anouilh. He played key roles in the films: "The Five Followers" and "Fifteenth Spring" and an episodic role in "Solaris" by A. Tarkovsky. In 1980, he graduated from the Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow (VGIK). His course supervisors were: Lev Kulijanov and Tatyana Lioznova. Since 1980 he has worked as a director in the Lithuanian Film Studio. Since 1991 he has been working as a director of LITNEX. He also works in various theaters, television. Among his most memorable films are: "My Little Wife" (1985), "Children from the American Hotel" (1990) and "Jazz" (1992).

Nima Javidi

Nima Javidi is an Iranian screenwriter and director, born in 1980.
He Started filmmaking with a short film named "Marathon champion" (2000) when he was 18. His first feature "Melbourne" (2014) which was the opening film in critics' week in Venice film festival (2014) has attended more than 60 festivals around the world including Tokyo, Stockholm, Zurich, Cairo, Mar del Plata, Shanghai, Istanbul, Dublin, etc. He received 14 international awards for his first film namely, Best Film in Cairo Film Festival (2014), Best Script in Stockholm Film Festival (2014), Best Script in Asia Pacific Awards (2014), Best Director, Best script and Best young jury award in Gijon Film Festival (2014),etc.
Moreover, he is a member of Asia Pacific Academy Awards and was a member of jury in 54thGijon Film Festival (2016).
He is working on post production of his second feature film ‘The Warden' (2018), at the moment.

Céline Nusse 

After receiving a master's degree in history, Céline Nusse spent 10 years learning the ropes of film production at Roche Productions, where she had the opportunity to work with many renowned documentary filmmakers such as Nino Kirtadze, Pavel Lounguine, William Karel and Patrick Jeudy. In 2007 she joined Zadig Productions first as a production manager and then as a producer. Partner of the company, she was appointed CEO in 2014. Céline works closely with Paul Rozenberg, as a duo. And they have produced thirty films together, privileging an author's vision on geopolitical, historical and cultural issue. One of her last films "The neighbors" by Ruth Zylberman, is currently collecting many awards at festivals.

Kanako Hayashi

Former Festival Director of TOKYO FILMeX, and freelance at present.
From 1986 to 1998, as general coordinator of Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, shehelped to introduce many Japanese films to international F.F. and also supported cinematheques abroad for Japanese retrospectives.From 1998 to 2001, she lived in Hong Kong for 3 years as freelance and worked as Asian consultant of Venice F.F. (1999 to 2000) and also worked as the consultant of Forum section of Berlin F.F.
From 2001 to March 2018, she was festival director of TOKYO FILMeX.From 2010, she also became the chairperson of Talents Tokyo project which is the officialcollaboration event with Berlinale Talents of Berlin F.F..
She has served on jury of film festivals including Montreal, Torino, Hawaii, Berlin, Locarno, Hong Kong, Karlovy Vary,Taipei, Sakhalin, Sao Paulo, Venice and Busan IFF.
She was the recipient of the BIFF Korean Cinema Award in 2012 at Busan IFF.

Archil Kikodze 

Archil Kikodze was born on the 9th of July, 1972 in Tbilisi. He pursued a course in Oriental Studies at Tbilisi State University (1989-1992), studied Cinematography at Tbilisi State Theater and Film Institute (1992-1995) and Screenwriting (1995-1999) in the studio of Erlom Akhvlediani. He wrote his first story at the age of 21 and released a collection of stories titled "Bichebi" shortly after. He is the author of five collections of stories and one collection of essays. Kikodze has consistently received literary awards throughout the span of his career, including the Tbilisi Book Fair prize for best literary debut (story collection "Iremi da Limonati", 2002), literary award "Gala" (story collection "Mkudro", 2008), literary award "Saba" (story collection "Chitis da Kacis Ambavi", 2014), Award of Saguramo in prose (2016), literary award "Litera" for Novel of the Year, and Ilia State University award for best novel (novel "Samkhretuli Spilo", 2017). He is one of the screenwriters for the film "Tbilisi, I Love you" (novel "Kortsili", director: Levan Ghlonti), and co-authored the script for Dimitri Mamulaia's film "Uckho". In addition, he co-wrote the script for Ilo Ghlonti's film "Ratom Vart Ertad". As an actor, he portrays the role of Iva in Levan Koghuashvili's film "Shemtkhveviti Paemnebi" (2013) and the role of Tazo in Nino Zhvania's film "Aghlumi" (2018).

Jury of National Competition 

Eva Peydró

Film critic, philologist, cultural journalist and writer, member of FIPRESCI and FEDEORA. Weekly contributor (2003-2014) to the Spanish culture and entertainment magazine Cartelera Turia, as film critic and columnist ("Material sensible", on film news, and "Sola en la oscuridad", on film festivals reports around the world). She has translated and written pieces for art catalogues and magazines and has taken part as a juror in international film festivals (Cannes, San Sebastián, Venice, Karlovy Vary, among others). She has written two awarded children novels ("Saïda's Holiday" and "Saïda's Treasure").
Eva Peydró is Director and Founder of "El Hype", the culture and entertainment online magazine.

Erika Gregor

Studied German and English literature, History and Philosophy in Gottingen, London, Munich and Berlin. In 1963 co-founder and since then active member of the association "Friends of the German Cinematheque". Programmer and organizer for the Arsenal cinema since its foundation in 1970. From 1971 to 2004 member of selection committee of the International Forum of New Cinema of the Berlin Film Festival. Festival organizer and coordinator, member of festival juries and film funding commissions. Curating of retrospectives, national and thematic film programmes ("Stations of modernism", "Jewish Lifestyles", "Japan and Europe", "Moscow-Berlin", "German Images") in the Eighties and Nineties. Publication of books and catalogues and (together with Ulrich Gregor) of the ongoing series „Kinemathek".
Erika and Ulrich Gregors were awarded A Berlinale Camera at Berlin Film Festival in 2010 for the special contribution
to cinema.

Ulrich Gregor

A film historian and critic, Ulrich Gregor has a long-term friendship and cooperation with Tbilisi Film Festival. Professor of the history of film at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. Co-founder of institute for
Cinema and Video Art "Arsenal" and head of the organizational group. Director of the International Forum for New Cinema at the Berlin Film Festival until 2001. Since 1981, together with Moritz de Hadeln was the director of Berlin Film Festival. Ulrich Gregor is considered among the leading film critics.Together with his wife, Erika Gregor, he has significantly contributed to the development of the Cinema by curatorial work. Erika and Ulrich Gregors were awarded A Berlinale Camera at Berlin Film Festival in 2010 for the special contribution to cinema. Apart from the life-long experience in Television and radio, his articles are permanently published in the international film journals as well (Nuovo Cinema, Cinema 56).