Jury

Best Film Debut

Tomáš Baldýnský is a film publicist, journalist, actor, producer and screenwriter. He was the chairman of the Council of the Czech Fund for the Support and Development of Czech Cinema. He has written film reviews and features for Reflex, Novinky.cz and Lidové noviny. He was the head of the scriptwriting team of the Comeback series on TV Nova and is also the author of the series Cosmo and Love in the Time of the Crown. He is one of the creators of the comic strip Zelený Raoul and co-founder of the humor server Kompost.cz.

Kristina Hejduková and her production company Sirena Film are behind a number of mainly foreign film and series co-productions and have contributed to the success of Danish cinema in recent years. Sirena Film has produced, among others, the series Atlantic Crossing, The Little Drummer Girl, 1864, DNA and Spy City, while films of note include The Royal Affair, Milada, Borg and McEnroe, The Courier, Frankenstein’s Army, The Witch’s Daughter, Wounded Heart, The Courier and Blood Red Sky.

Martin Pomothy is the founder of the largest domestic film database ČSFD.cz. As a journalist and columnist he contributed to the creation of the film section of the web portal markiza.sk, contributed to the monthly magazine Cinema and other periodicals focused on cultural events. ČSFD.cz, which has been bringing together film fans from the Czech Republic and Slovakia for over 20 years, is a frequent media partner of various film events and festivals and cooperates closely with cinemas, DVD and VOD distributors. The company won 1st place in the Crystal Lupa competition in the category of interest websites, and 4th place in the All Star category, behind giants Google, Seznam.cz and iDnes.

Marta Bałaga is a film journalist, she has published in Variety, Cineuropa and regularly contributes to Finnish monthly magazine Episodi. She has collaborated with various festivals, including Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy (and its industry sidebar Finnish Film Affair) or Les Arcs Film Festival. Member of the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI and the European Film Academy, where she has joined the committee deciding the nominations for the European Discovery 2019, 2020 and 2021 – Prix FIPRESCI. She has served on many juries, including Venice International Film Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival.

Mike Ahern is an Irish director and writer. He is currently developing a science fiction project for Amazon called Sid. He opened the 28th European Film Days with his feature debut Extra Ordinary and won many awards for it. The off-kilter ghost comedy won Best Irish Feature Film at the Galway Film Fleadh, the 2019 Dublin Film Critics Society Awards, Best Comedy with Best Screenplay at the Toronto After Dark Festival and received three nominations at the 2019 IFTA Awards. She has also collected prizes at numerous genre science fiction festivals (Sitges – Catalan IFF 2019; Brussels International Fantasy Film Festival (BIFFF) 2019; Science+Fiction Festival Trieste 2019; Nocturno Nuove Visioni Award; Méliès d’argent Award; Neuchâtel Fantastic Film Festival 2019).

Best Film & Music Film

Jan P. Muchow is a musician, composer, producer and occasional actor, a member of the band Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, whose album Slowthinking (2002) was awarded the Andel Award for Album of the Year. He has composed music for more than ten Czech films. He has won four Czech Lion awards for best music in the films One Hand Does Not Clap, Grandhotel, In the Shadow and Krásno. He also received nominations for Václav and The Loners. He has also composed music for the series První krok, Men in Hope and Šeptej, where he also played one of the characters. He occasionally performs with his other band Umakart, with whom he wrote the song Půlnocční / Midnight for Václav Neckar. He also produces other artists such as Monika Načeva, Anna K, Tata Bojs, Priessnitz and Bára Poláková.

Veronika Donutková is a Slovak multi-creative documentary filmmaker and cinematographer who drew attention to herself with her feature film Displace about the music scene in Jamaica and the dancehall or rather dancehall lifestyle. As a former dancer, she is close to the dancehall community and music. She is also a sought-after music video director and visual stylist for such as Annet X and plans to pursue a career in classical film.

Pavel Turek is a cultural editor of the weekly Respekt, a music columnist, a passionate fan and a music connoisseur. He has a PhD in the theory of photographic and multimedia production. He has contributed to Živel magazine, published in Rock & Pop, Reflex and MF Dnes. He collaborated with Radio Wave. He co-founded the picture magazine Komfort. In 2007-2009 he worked for Aktuálně.