Awards and Juries

Sabine Gebetsroither, born in 1977 in Wels (Upper Austria), studied German Philology and Media/Film Sciences at the University of Vienna and at the University of Aarhus (Denmark). She has worked for renowned film festivals such as FilmFestival Cottbus – Festival of Eastern European Film and Reykjavík Int. Film Festival and since 2004 for CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival Linz in various positions. Since November 2021 Co-Festival Director of the CROSSING EUROPE Filmfestival Linz. Furthermore member of the Film Commission of the Province of Upper Austria from 2015 to 2021.

Zvonimir Jurić was born in 1971 in Osijek. He graduated in film and TV directing in 1999 from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. He has directed several award-winning documentaries and four feature films based on his own screenplays (one fully-fledged with Goran Dević). He has also directed a short film, several television series and one part of an omnibus, for which he also wrote the screenplay. His short film Žuti mjesec (Yellow Moon) premiered at the Berlinale official competition, and his latest feature Kosac (The Reaper) at the Toronto International Film Festival, whilst his feature film Crnci (The Blacks (co-directed with Goran Dević)) was shown at more than a hundred festivals and was awarded several major awards. Based in Zagreb, Zvonimir teaches at the Academy of Dramatic Art.

Ana Lasić is a screenwriter and playwright. She graduated in dramaturgy in 1999 from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where she worked as a dramaturg and critic. Her first feature film, Ruševine (with director Janez Burger), won the Best Film Award at the 2004 Slovenian Film Festival. Other filmed screenplays include, among others, Skriti spomin Angele Vode (by Maja Weiss, 2009), Balkan Is Not Dead (by Aleksandar Popovski, 2013) and TV series Življenja Tomaža Kajzerja (by Peter Bratuša, 2013). She previously served as Assistant Professor of Screenwriting for Film and Television at the University of Ljubljana’s Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT). She continues to teach and mentor writers through international Intuitive Screenwriting workshops and masterclasses. Her book Intuitivna scenaristika was published by the Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities in 2022.

Barbara Borčić, an art historian, is active in contemporary art as a curator, writer and researcher, focusing on performance art, video and multimedia, as well as Ljubljana’s alternative art scene of the 1980s. She studied media studies and visual anthropology at ISH, the Graduate School of Humanities, known as Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis, in Ljubljana. In the early 1980s, she served as artistic director of the Škuc Gallery. Later, as director of SCCA-Ljubljana, she initiated and led research, documentation and exhibition projects in video and new media (Videodokument, Videospotting), which laid the terminological and theoretical foundations for further research and the establishment of the (online) Postaja DIVA archive.

Gabriel Fieger is a film festival director and curator based in Regensburg, Germany. He studied Comparative Cultural Studies and Spanish Philology and has been working in the field of film and cinema since 2010. His enthusiasm for (short) films grew through this work. He has worked at internationally renowned festivals such as Alcine – Festival de Alcalá de Henares in Spain (2017 - 2021), Hamburg Short Film Festival (since 2019), Internationale Hofer Filmtage (since 2023) and Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis in Saarbrücken (since 2026). Since 2019, he has been the organizational director of the International Short Film Week Regensburg, and joined as artistic director in spring 2022. His work as curator connects artistic programming with a strong interest in emerging forms of cinema, experimental filmmaking and the social and political dimensions of contemporary film culture.

Nebojša Slijepčević is a film director based in Zagreb, Croatia. His short fiction film The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (2024) won Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, along with the European Film Award and the César for Best Short Film. It was also nominated for an Academy Award. His most acclaimed documentary, Srbenka (2018), has received over twenty festival awards, including the Doc Alliance Selection Award, and was shortlisted for the European Film Awards. Nebojša’s debut feature documentary, the dramedy Gangster of Love (2013), premiered at Hot Docs in Toronto and was a hit with audiences in Croatian cinemas. Alongside directing, Nebojša works as a creative producer for documentary films at the Zagreb Film production company.