International Competition
Carlo Sironi | Italy
Carlo Sironi start to work on movie sets in the cinematography unit.
His short films have been in competition in various festivals as Venice Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival and many others. He has attended development labs as Residence of the Cannes Cinefondation, Sundance Lab, Torino Film Lab, Script Station Berlinale. His first feature film Sole has been in competition in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival, at the Toronto International Film Festival, nominated as Best First Feature at the David di Donatello award and won the European Discovery at the Europen Film Awards, plus he has been recognized by Variety amongst the 10 European to watch 2020. His second feature, My summer wih Irène, is been in competition at the Berlinale in the section Generation.
Galina Tagamlitzka | Bulgaria
She has been working in the field of culture and art, cultural management, and non-formal education for more than 10 years. Festival Manager of the IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival. She has a portfolio of organizing and structuring number of panels and programs for representation of the Bulgarian Short Film Industry and promotion campaigns of the European cinema. Curator of audiovisual content, presenter and panellist at many film markets and festivals. She has experience in project management and implementation in the field of contemporary culture and arts.
Arbri Malile | Albania
Arbri Malile is a visual artist, curator, and artistic director active in the fields of digital art and contemporary culture. He is the founder and director of GADK – Digital Art Gallery Korçë and the company Immersive MA, where he develops pioneering projects in immersive art and creative technologies. With experience as Artistic Director of Dardan Fest – Inter-
national Film Festival (II Edition) and the Gjon Mili International Video Art Festival (Editions I & II), he has built platforms that connect art, digital media, and the public. He currently serves as a lecturer at the Department of Art and Design (FAD) at Polis University, where he is engaged in shaping the new generation of creators and professionals in digital culture.
Student Competition
Umut Can Türkmen | Türkiye
Umut Can Türkmen is a Board Member of the Izmir Cinema Culture and Education Association. He has been serving for many years as the International Coordinator and Lead Programmer of the Oscar-Qualifying Izmir International Short Film Festival, Turkey’s largest and most prestigious short film festival. In this role, he has built strong connections with cinema professionals, particularly within European cinema. As a programmer, he has collaborated on and curated special selections for the Institut Français’ Francophone Film Festival in Turkey, was invited as a special guest of the IVP programme, to the 70th International Oberhausen Short Film Festival, and has served as a jury member at renowned festivals such as the In The Palace Film Festival.
Jakov Poposki | North Macedonia
Jakov Poposki (b. 1988, Struga) is an award-winning screenwriter and founder of the Drim Short Film Festival. With a background in electrical engineering, he later pursued his passion for film through studies in Screenwriting and Dramaturgy at the Ohrid Film Academy, and continued postgraduate studies in Film and TV Screenwriting at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje. His films have screened internationally, including Only Devil Hates Water (Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Porto, Nikšić) and A Ton of Ice-Cream (winner of Best Short Film at First Frame, Zvornik, and Best Pitch at Sarajevo Film Festival). Several of his short scripts are now in production or post-production, including Displaced (dir. Flaka Kokoli), Certificate of Life (dir. Sandra Gjorgieva), etc. He is currently developing the feature project Russia of the Mind with Pierre Hodgson and Florian Hoffmeister, and remains active as a mentor, producer, and festival curator, dedicated to fostering new voices in cinema.
Blerim Gjinovci | Kosova
Blerim Gjinovci is a cinematographer and university professor at the Faculty of Arts, University of Prishtina, where he has over seven years of teaching experience. He specializes in cinematography, photography, and light design, and has developed didactic methods for students that connect visual structure with dramatic structure, helping them understand how composition, lighting, and shooting style shape narrative. In addition to his academic career, Gjinovci has several years of professional experience in the film industry, having worked on various documentary and artistic projects. He is also engaged in international collaborations with professors from Portugal and Spain, including projects on special effects in film. As a lecturer, Gjinovci enriches his teaching by analyzing scenes from well-known films and encouraging students to develop their own original projects. Through his work as both an artist and educator, Gjinovci strives to remain up to date with the latest developments in cinematography, while contributing to the growth of a new generation of filmmakers in Kosovo and beyond.