JURY MEMBERS

Lithuanian film producer Marija Razgutė established M-Films in 2008. She has produced internationally acclaimed talents such as Marija Kavtaradze: Slow (Best Director award at Sundance FF, Lithuanian contender for Oscars, 2023) and Summer Survivors (Toronto FF, 2018); Vytautas Katkus: Cherries (Cannes, 2022);  Karolis Kaupinis: Nova Lituania (Lithuanian contender for Oscars, 2019), Andrius Blaževičius: Runner (Shooting Stars, 2021) and The Saint (Busan, 2016). Marija is a member of ACE Producers Network as well as European Film Academy Board member for 2024-2025.

Ana Ularu is a Romanian born actor and director. She began acting at the age of 9 in French productions like ‘Meurtres par procuration’ and ‘Passion Mortelle’. Since graduating with a B.A. and M.F.A. in Acting from the National University of Theatre and Film ‘I.L.Caragiale’ (UNATC) in Bucharest, she has appeared in more than 50 short films, TV films, TV series and feature films.

Since being named a Shooting Star at the Berlinale International Film Festival in 2012, she has worked in international productions by Academy Award winners Francis Ford Coppola, Susanne Bier – Serena and Ron Howard – Inferno, along Keanu Reeves, Tom Hanks or Bradley Cooper. Ana played Katya, the female lead opposite Keanu Reeves in feature film Siberia, which premiered in the New York.

She starred in NBCs Emerald City, and on 1^st place Amazon Prime The Power, on Netflix Tribes of Europa, or on HBOs Berlinale selected Spy/Master, to only name a few.

In 2010, Ana received the ‘Boccalino d’Oro’ in Locarno and the ‘Best Actress’ award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival for her portrayal of Matilda in Outbound (2010). In 2017, she has starred  as The Wicked Witch of the West in Tarsem Singh’s TV series Emerald City  for NBC.

Ana has collaborated with Romanian New Wave directors such as Cristian Mungiu – “Turkey girl”, Radu Muntean – “The Paper will be Blue” and Cãlin Peter Netzer – “Maria”, but also with acclaimed directors like Stere Gulea – “I am a Communist Old Hag”, Dinu Tanase “Damen Tango” etc.

She has also starred in first-time directors’ Lorenzo Sportiello’s “Index Zero” and Balazs Juszt’s “The Man who was Thursday”, as well as UK indie maverick Justin Edgar’s “The Marker” or acclaimed genre-master Jaume Balaguero.

She still is an extremely active experienced theatre actress, winning awards for her performances. Be in Shakespeare, Brecht, Molnar or strong new voices such as Nick Payne or Mike Bartlett,  Ana divides her time in Romania, Berlin and Los Angeles between films, theatre plays, series and special young artist projects she is happy to always support.

Paul Cozighian is a French-Romanian independent film director and journalist. He studied film directing in Bucharest with Gheorghe Vitanidis and in Paris with Eric Rohmer. He then chose the to work as a journalist, “being obsessed – as he often states – with telling the truth through television reports”. Cozighian is currently a permanent correspondent in Bucharest for the daily newspaper Le Figaro, for France Info, France Inter, and France Culture radios, as well as for France Télévisions. At the end of the ’90s, Paul was a war correspondent in the former Yugoslavia where he produced numerous TV and radio reports for the French media as well as the documentary “Fin de Siècle à Belgrade” (End of Century in Belgrade). As a citizen involved in the Romanian Revolution of December 1989, Paul Cozighian filmed the most important sequences from the first hours of the popular uprising in Bucharest, bringing to the attention of the public opinion the only images of the Barricade in the center of Bucharest, and also of the subsequent confiscation of the Revolution by the former communist names. His documentary “We have no right to forget” was banned in Romania for ten years. He is available today on the channel: youtube.com/c/PaulCozighian. On the same YouTube channel, you can view all the images filmed by Cozighian during the Revolution, as well as an extensive interview with the writer Paul Goma, the most important opponent of communism in Romania.

“During all these years of presence in various theaters of domestic and international affairs, my love for cinema has never ceased me…” confesses Cozighian, an admirer of the cinema of Godard, Truffaut, Bergman, and Welles. “The cinema films should be watched in the cinema hall, on the big screen. Don’t neglect it. It will never disappoint you!” adds Cozighian, inviting the audience to experience the magic of the film at BIFF.