JURY

Kamen Kalev

Director

His debut feature film Eastern Plays (2009) was selected at the 41st Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes and brought Kalev the Best Film and Best Director prise at the 22nd Tokyo International Film Festival, as well as the Grand Prix du Jury of the 22nd Angers Festival, among many other international awards.

His second film The Island (2011 – starring Thure Lindhardt and Laetitia Casta) again premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight and established Kalev as a daring young filmmaker pushing his own boundaries to the point of no return.

His My Dear Night (2014) became the opening short of The Bridges of Sarajevo omnibus (Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, 2014) and was among 12 other European films directed by Jean-Luc Godard, Sergei Loznitsa, Ursula Meier, Cristi Puiu, etc.

Kalev’s third feature film Face Down (2015) is his most socially engaged project reflecting on Bulgaria’s protracted transition from totalitarian regime to democracy.

His last film February was part of the Cannes Festival, 2020.

Kaloyan Bozhilov

Cinematographer

Kaloyan Bozhilov is a Bulgarian filmmaker, born in February 1984 in Sofia. He graduated Cinematography from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA) in Sofia. He has been awarded for best DOP with GOLDEN ROSE (Best Cinematography) for “ALIENATION” in 2014, GOLDEN ROSE (Best Cinematography) for ÀGA in 2018, Best Technical Contribution on “International Film Festival & Awards Macao” for ÀGA in 2018 and Golden Arch on “East & West International Film Festival” for ÀGA in 2019

Martina Apostolova

Actress

Martina Apostolova is both theatre and cinema actress. She has been part of various independent projects, documentary and impro theatre since her graduation from New Bulgarian University. She spent two years in Nikolay Vaptsarov state theatre in Blagoevgrad but afterwards came back to Sofia underground scene. She has already been part of over 30 theatre and dance performances. Her debut in cinema was the role of Irina after the eponymous movie (Director Nadezhda Koseva) which role brought her different international awards as the recognition for European rising star at Berlinale 2020. Martina also takes part in the movies “Marriage” ??? (Director Slava Doycheva), “Bread” ??? (Director Dimitar Kutmanov), “10 seconds” (Director Evgeniya Taneva) as in 2022 we are about to see her in the long-expected full-length debut of Theodor Ushev – Phi 1.618

Deben Van Dam

Director

Deben Van Dam is a Belgian director and actor. He graduated magna cum laude in 2013 from RITCS School of Arts, where he obtained a master’s degree in Audiovisual Arts. In 2011 he directed his first short film ‘Frontman’ and in 2012 he created his second short film ‘Strip. In the same year, he also directed the first two episodes of the KETNET series ‘Helden’.

Van Dam made his breakthrough with the short film ‘De weg van alle vlees’ (2013). This short film received many awards, such as the ‘Jury and Audience Award’, the ‘Humo Award’, ‘the Public Choice Award’ for Belgian Student Short at Ghent International Film Festival. He also won the Grand Prix at Brussels Short Film Festival 2014 and an Award at Short Film Festival in Louvain. Not only did he win national awards, but the short film also went international. Van Dam won ‘Best Student Film’ in Tel Aviv, Israel, ‘Best Short Fiction Film’ in Aubagne, France and ‘Best short film’ at the UK Film Festival. Thanks to the short film ‘De weg van alle vlees’ he received a VAF-wildcard which he used in 2017 to direct the short film ‘Remise’. With this short film, he won the ‘Special Mention from the Jury’-Award at the Short Film Festival in Louvain.

In 2014 Van Dam was co-screenwriter for the second season of the series ‘Conny & Clyde’. In 2015 he was voice-director of the series ‘Bevergem’ and in 2016 he directed a video clip for the Belgian singer Arno. In the same year, he was a co-screenwriter for the feature film ‘Zillion’, directed by Robin Pront. In 2018 and 2019 he directed ‘Over Water 2’, a fiction series for the production companiy Panenka.

In addition to directing fiction, he also directs commercials. Van Dam has directed commercials for the national lottery in Belgium, Euromillions, Triodos etc. For the commercial he directed for Telenet ‘Play More’ he received the ‘CCB Silver Award for best Direction’.

Currently, he is writing his first feature film: “Copydog” and working on the screenplay for a fiction series ‘Beats of Love’ for ‘De Wereldvrede’.

Reach

Atanas Tcholakov

Sound designer

Born in 1974. Graduated Piano from the State Academy of Music in Bulgaria and Sound for Film and Television from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria. Works as Location Sound Recordist, Sound Editor and Sound Designer. Founder of Studio Monoplus. Member of Filmton Austria. He has worked on over 40 film productions, including Macondo (Berlinale 2014), Joy (awarded at the Venice Film Festival, 2018), Brothers of the Night and others.