JURY FEATURE FILMS
Saadet Isil Aksoy
Actress
Aksoy made her debut with Egg by Semih Kaplanoglu, which premiered in 2007 at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival, bringing her many acting awards at internationally acclaimed film festivals, such as Sarajevo Film Festival and Valdivia International Film Festival.
She kept gaining attention starring in films like Eastern Plays by Kamen Kalev, which also premiered at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival in 2009, and Love in Another Language by Ilksen Basarir. After taking parts in American productions, such as A Beautiful Life by Alejandro Chomski and The Rebound by Bart Freundlich, she received critical acclaim with her portrayal of Aska in Italian actor-director Sergio Castellitto’s film Twice Born, in which she co-starred with Penélope Cruz and Emile Hirsch.
Aksoy has also been a jury member in many film festivals such as Cairo Film Festival, Istanbul Film Festival, Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, and Sarajevo Film Festival.
Boris Despodov
Producer
Boris Despodov started filmmaking two decades ago, and his films have received recognition in some of the world’s most celebrated film festivals.
His debut documentary film ‘Corridor #8’ won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 58th Berlinale Film Festival, followed by Best Emerging Director at Hot Docs and Best Documentary Film at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
In 2015, he produced and directed Italian film icon Claudia Cardinale in his narrative feature Twice Upon a Time in the West, which marked her final leading role.
Since 2018 he has co-produced a range of acclaimed Middle Eastern films, including:
Give Up The Ghost by Zain Duraie, (Winner of the El Gouna Star for Best Arab Short);
May She Rest In Peace by Iranian director Nazgol Kashani, (Recipient of the ARTE Prize at Filmfest Dresden);
And, Towards Happy Alleys by Indian director Sreemoyee Singh, (Premiered in the Panorama section of the 73rd Berlinale);
The Last Miracle by Abdelwahab Shawky.
His latest documentary co-production, ‘Don’t Worry Sari!’ by Sara Haragonics, premiered in Thessaloniki in 2026 and won the Audience award at Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.
Despodov is a member of the Documentary Association of Europe and the European Film Academy.
Nikolay Mutafchiev
Producer
He co-produced Nina Roza, directed by Geneviève Dulude-De-Celles, which won the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Screenplay at the 2026 Berlinale, the Audience Award at the 2026 Sofia Film Fest, as well as the Urban Post First Look Award, the Jannuzzi Smith Award at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival.
His other production projects include: How Come It’s All Green Out Here? (2025) by Nikola Lezaic, Bauk (2024) directed by Goran Radovanović, The Platform (2024), which Mutafchiev directed himself, Dante’s Heaven (2021) by Dimitar Radev and other productions that have been selected and awarded at numerous national and international film festivals.
For five years he organized the DOC documentary film festival in Burgas.
In 2022, in partnership with Samsara, he organized the first workshop for professional actors with the Lee Strasberg Institute in the Balkans, and in 2023, he created a project, THE CHALLENGE, to train young audiences in film production, with the support of the National Film Center, the Sofia Municipality, and 13 other municipalities across Bulgaria, in which a team of film professionals travels the country conducting film workshops for children aged 12 to 18 who lack access to such education.
He is a member of ACE PRODUCERS, the Bulgarian Film Directors Association (SBFD), and PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE 2021
JURY SHORT FILMS
Ilina Perianova
Director
Ilina Perianova is a Bulgarian film and theatre director, screenwriter, and producer.
She holds an MA in Fiction Film Directing from the Baltic Film and Media School in Estonia. She completed her BA in theatre acting and directing in Bulgaria and France, and has further developed her practice through workshops across Europe and India.
Her work focuses on socially engaged storytelling, often driven by female perspectives.
Her short films have been screened at numerous international festivals, including Cairo International Film Festival, Tirana International Film Festival, Festival du Cinéma Européen de Brest, FEST – New Directors/New Films, Portugal, Sofia International Film Festival, In the Palace International Short Film Festival, and Stony Brook Film Festival, Burgas International Film Festival among others. She has been programming documentary films for Rhodope Film Festival since 2023.
She is a co-founder of the production company Uga Buga Art. In 2026, she directed “Nobody told me” at Theatre on the Square in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is currently in production on two short films, finalising a feature documentary, and developing her first feature film.
Gábor Holtai
Director
Gábor Holtai is a Hungarian film director, sound designer, and composer. His films are characterized by a heavy sense of mood and atmosphere, claustrophobic visual storytelling, and explorations of alienation, moral ambiguity, and power structures in contemporary society. His debut feature, Feels Like Home (2025), premiered at the Sitges Film Festival, receiving the Silver Méliès Award, and became the most successful thriller in Hungarian cinema history, earning both festival acclaim and exceptional box office success.
FILMS
Feels Like Home (Itt érzem magam otthon) (2025) // Feature
Second Round (Második kör) (2020) // Short
Papersoul (Papírlélek) (2019) // Short
Property (Válaszfal) (2018) // Short
Dimitris Georgiev
Director
Dimitris Georgiev is a Bulgarian director and screenwriter.
He was selected for the Directors Summit at Talents Sarajevo 2021: BRAVE, and became member of the European Film Academy in 2025.
Dimitris’s debut feature film “Dad” had its official premiere at the Sofia Film Festival as part of the New Bulgarian Cinema selection.
He is also the director of What Stays After (2025), The End of the Circle (2021), So Close Away (2020), A Summer In A Winter’s and Days (2020) and The Last 2 Days (2017).