Jury
INTERFILM Festival
4 - 9 November 2025
4 - 9 November 2025
Jury
The director and screenwriter Tamara Denić was born in 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina and fled to Germany with her parents during the Bosnian war. After earning a BA in Fine Arts at LMU Munich, she studied Film Directing at Hamburg Media School on a Friedrich Ebert scholarship. Her short GET HOME SAFE won multiple awards. ISTINA (Truth) was a BAFTA finalist, won the Audience Award at Max Ophüls, and received a Student Oscar. She is developing her debut feature Anela & Silan with Weydemann Bros, funded by MOIN Film Fund.
Filipa Guimarães is a Portuguese production manager working at Curtas Vila do Conde IFF, where she is part of the programming for the Students Short Films Competition and most recently for selecting films at the Industry Screenings at Curtas Pro. Since 2022 she has been participating in several European Film Festivals: Clermont-Ferrand, Interfilm, Tampere, BSFF, Porto Post Doc, Nordisk Panorama and others. She previously studied Journalism at Porto University and latter Communication of Armed Conflicts at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and has a profound interest in international relations, migration and social issues. Since 2018, she's part of a local NGO - Verdim - working to promote a more environmental sustainable community.
Jason Ryle is a producer and programmer primarily based in Toronto, Canada. He is currently the International Programmer for the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand & Global Indigenous Cinema at the Toronto International Film Festival and a shorts programmer for Filmfest Dresden. His most recent projects include the animated feature ENDLESS COOKIE and the XR work WILFRED BUCK’S STAR STORIES.
Gabriel Bihina Arrahnio is a German-Cameroonian filmmaker based in Berlin, with a BA in Directing at the Film University Babelsberg, Gabriel has already made significant strides in his career, showcasing his dedication and versatility as a filmmaker. Starting as a commercial director as the first in-house director for Jung Von Matt and winning the Young directors awards for his commercial "Shame", Gabriel then Successfully switched to film school and expanded his portfolio. He has helmed a documentary series for RTL Plus (Family of Choice 2023), as well as a fictional series for ZDF-Neo (House of Bellevue 2025) demonstrating his ability to navigate both non-fictional and narrative storytelling. His short films have also earned widespread recognition, screening at acclaimed festivals such as BFI Flare, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, Interfilm Berlin and many others. Among his works, "I Was Never Really Here" stands out, having been nominated for the German Short Film Awards and winning multiple accolades during its run across international festivals.
Jalal is an animation filmmaker from Syria. He started his film career in 2010 with “Creatures of Inexistence”, which was his bachelor’s project at the University of Damascus. Upon graduating, he worked at the university as a Visual Arts lecturer. In 2013, his short film “Canvas on Mixed Media” was presented in Annecy and screened on ARTE. Soon after, he left Syria for Berlin, where he started working on his animadoc “Suleima”, which premiered at the DOK Leipzig 2014. Jalal premiered his film “Up Here, with the White Gods” at ITFS 2020. In the same year, he completed a master’s degree (with honors) at the Film University Babelsberg. His graduation film, “Have a Nice Dog!”, premiered at Filmfest Dresden and has screened at numerous festivals, winning multiple awards. Most notably, the film qualified for the Animation Short Film Oscar 2020 by winning the Grand Prix in Uppsala. In addition, Jalal also served as a jury member at the ITFS, Annecy, and other festivals.
A true short film ultra: She has been a member of the selection committee for the German Competition at the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg for over ten years, so she knows the German short film scene inside out. As an author, she regularly develops and produces shows for ARTE’s short film magazine Kurzschluss. While others go skiing, she prefers to travel with the artist collective A Wall is a Screen – projecting short films onto urban walls. For several years, she worked as a producer developing TV documentary formats for broadcasters such as ARD, ARTE, 3sat, and ZDF. Today, she works as a freelance film mediator, offering workshops in schools or welcoming student groups to the cinema – preferably for short film programs (though an occasional feature does sneak in). And when moving images simply become too much, she retreats to the analog photography lab.
Zorana Mušikić is a Berlin-based producer and filmmaker, and co-founder of Mayana Films. Her credits include James Benning’s “Ruhr” (2009) and Firas Khoury’s award-winning short “Maradona’s Legs” (2019). Most recently, she co-produced Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s “A Useful Ghost,” which premiered at the 2025 Semaine de la Critique and won the Grand Prix AMI, as well as Morad Mostafa’s “Aisha Can’t Fly Away,” which debuted in Un Certain Regard at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
Ben Voit studied Applied Media Sciences at TU Ilmenau, Photojournalism at LTU Melbourne and Directing at Film University Babelsberg. His first films NIGHT UPON KEPLER 452B and THE COMMON ORDER have received more than 10 awards and 40 nominations at prestigious festivals including Clermont-Ferrand, Busan, Tallinn, Gent and Berlin. He has created film and photo essays in over 30 countries and works as a writer-director based in Berlin.
Reem explores the documentary genre across film and visual media. Her works have shown at the Edinburgh Fringe, Young Vic, and DOK Leipzig. She has contributed to refugee-focused projects and studied at the Film University KONRAD WOLF. Her recent film Little Syria, co-directed with Madaliena Rosca, premiered at CPH:DOX 2025 and won the 2025 Lo Porto Award at the We World Festival.
Yun-hua Chen holds a PhD in Film Studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and is a film scholar, critic and curator. She is an associate editor at Film International. Her monograph, Mosaic Space and Mosaic Auteurs, was published by Neofelis Verlag in Berlin. Currently, she serves on the selection committees for Berlinale Shorts, the Berlinale Forum and DokuFest in Kosovo, and is an advisory board member of the German Film Critics Association. Previously, she was the festival director of dokumentART in Neubrandenburg, Germany.
Vic So Hee Alz is a Berlin-based screenwriter and dramaturg. A Serial Eyes alumna, she created and wrote #heuldoch – Therapie wie noch nie (ZDF/arte), was head writer for PARA – Wir sind King (S2), and currently leads new series projects. She develops original work, collaborates on a debut feature, and advocates for decolonial, collective storytelling in the German film and TV industry.
Laurent Crouzeix is on the Executive team of the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and Short Film Market. He is Coordinator of Euro Connection co-production forum that has seen over 140 projects to completion so far. He also designs industry meetings about the development, production, or distribution of short films. Laurent is a regular expert or consultant for international script & project development training programs. As sustainability officer, Laurent oversees the event’s social and environmental action plan. Laurent’s stop motion short Amerigo and the New World was released in 2019.
