Darko Sinko
film director and screenwriter
Darko Sinko is a freelance filmmaker with a degree in Film Directing from the Ljubljana Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television. In addition to making several award-winning documentaries (e.g., Critical Generation, Little Houses) and fiction films (short film Schoolmates, feature film Inventory), he has worked as an assistant director, cinematographer, and editor, and produced a number of documentary films. He also engages in teaching the art of filmmaking, working as a professor of film at the Secondary Preschool Education, Grammar School and Performing Arts School Ljubljana.
Milovoj Miki Roš
actor and writer
Milivoj Miki Roš (1959, Maribor) has spent nearly his entire creative career between Prekmurje, Slovenia, and Porabje, a region in western Hungary that is home to a Slovenian minority. His first contact with puppets and theatre was thanks to his mother Joži, before working for the National TV introduced him to motion pictures. Documentary essays and youth series gradually led to films. Acting roles followed, small or otherwise: Eyes Full of Water (J. Baša), Dad (V. Škafar), and Brother (Oroslan, M. Ivanišin). The latter has also won him a Vesna Award for best actor in a supporting role. He still keeps himself creative and busy.
Ivana Kronja
film theorist and critic
Ivana Kronja, PhD, (1970) is a culture, media and film theorist, and film critic. She obtained a master’s degree and a PhD in film studies from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade. A Chevening Programme alumna for her PhD research in Oxford, UK. Since 2003 she has taught at the College of Fine and Applied Arts in Belgrade. The author of studies Smrtonosni sjaj: Masovna psihologija i estetika turbo-folka (2001), Estetika avangardnog i eksperimentalnog filma: Telo, rod i identitet (2020) and dozens of other papers focusing on culture, media, and film, published in Serbia and internationally. She wrote and directed short films Igra istine (1995) and Rat in the Kitchen (2004). A member of the Serbian Academy of Cinema and Science (AFUN), FIPRESCI, and an active film critic in Belgrade and the region. She was a critics jury and international jury member at different festivals (FAF, Infant, Cinema City, 25FPS Zagreb, Motovun, FEST, LIFFE).
Urša Menart
director and screenwriter
Urša Menart is a film and TV director with a degree from the Ljubljana Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television. After directing several short and documentary films, her fiction feature debut My Last Year as a Loser won the Vesna Awards for best Feature Film and Best Screenplay at the 21st Festival of Slovenian Film. As a so-screenwriter, she worked on Damjan Kozole’s Half-Sister, which premiered in the Official Competition at Karlovy Vary. In 2019 and 2020, Menart was the President of the Directors Guild of Slovenia. Since 2019, she has been a member of the European Film Academy.
Matevž Jerman
filmmaker and Artistic Director of FeKK short film festival
Matevž Jerman is a film director, film curator, and the Artistic Director of the Ljubljana short film festival FeKK. His preferred domains as a filmmaker include experimental cinema and music video. His works have been shown at international festivals and have received multiple awards including the Vesna Award for best experimental film at FSF 2021. Since 2009, Jerman has also worked for the Programme Department of the Slovenian Cinematheque, where he currently curates short film programmes and explores special avant-garde collections kept by the Cinematheque’s archive. As a programmer for short films, he also collaborates with the Kino Otok – Isola Cinema festival and LIFFe.
Miloš Tomić
director and animation filmmaker
Miloš Tomić has been trying to be a filmmaker for nearly 30 years.
He made countless efforts in directing, recording, editing, even acting. Running away from classical films, he hid into stop-motion animation where he hoped to find luck and recognition.
He tries to keep a facade of meaningful work by teaching: running traveling workshops in mish-mash style but with chaotic charm. Beside fantasies about filmmaking, he practices paper collaging, precious thrash collecting and playing unbearable music. Once, in a pub in Bratislava, someone paid him to stop playing. And he did. However, nobody has yet paid him enough to stop making films.
Jury for the Association of Slovenian Film Critics Award
Živa Emeršič is a long-time journalist, film critic and programme editor at the public broadcaster RTV Slovenia, where she was the editor and host of a radio programme on cinema, the host and author of programmes on culture and cinema, the editor of the Culture Desk, the editor of the Documentary Programmes Department, and the managing editor of the National TV’s Culture and Arts Programmes Department. Between 1999 and 2001, she was the Artistic Director of the Festival of Slovenian Film. She is a long-time member of Fipresci, where she served as the Vice President from 1992 to 1996, and has served on numerous international festival juries. From 2011 to 2013 she was a correspondent for RTV Slovenia. She is also a documentary filmmaker, and member of selection committees for RTVS and the Slovenian Film Centre’s public calls for audio-visual works.
Robert Kuret is a literary and film critic and essayist, contributing to Delo, Literatura, Ekran, KINO!, Dialogi, Vrabec Anarhist… He is one of the programmers of the Slovenian and international competition programme at the FeKK short film festival, and a tutor for film essay writing at Sharpening the Gaze workshops.
Ana Šturm has a BA in History and Sociology from the Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana, and a MA in Film and Television Studies from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film, and Television, Ljubljana. She has worked as a film critic and writer on film since 2007. Alumna of the Berlinale and Sarajevo Talent Campus for emerging film critics. President of the Association of Slovenian Film Critics, a member of Fipresci, since 2019. One of the makers behind FilmFlow, Slovenia’s first podcast on cinema and popular culture, since 2014. Šturm also works as a programme producer and curator at film festivals. Since May 2020, she has been the editor-in-chief of Ekran Magazine.
Jury for the Slovenian Art Cinema Association Award
Lučka Berlot (1989) graduated in art education and design before starting a freelance career, working mainly across design and film education and collaborating with various associations, festivals and cultural institutions (Zavod VIZO, Otok, FOŠ, Mestni kino Domžale, Kosovelov dom Sežana…). She currently works at the France Bernik Cultural Centre in Domžale.
Gregor Janežič has worked across the field of film culture for more than 10 years, starting as a freelance collaborator of Kino Vrhnika, now as an Events Coordinator and Film Programme Curator at the Cerknica Cultural Centre, which is part of the Notranjska Regional Park. His job involves running film education programmes and carefully curating the cinema’s regular programme. In his work, he aims to give Slovenian cinema the place in the programme and the recognition it deserves. Janežič is also an active member of the Slovenian Art Cinema Association.
Samo Seničar has worked across the field of film culture for more than 10 years, starting as a freelance collaborator of Kino Vrhnika, now as an Events Coordinator and Film Programme Curator at the Cerknica Cultural Centre, which is part of the Notranjska Regional Park. His job involves running film education programmes and carefully curating the cinema’s regular programme. In his work, he aims to give Slovenian cinema the place in the programme and the recognition it deserves. Janežič is also an active member of the Slovenian Art Cinema Association.