22 Professionals from the Global Film Industry to Judge the 22nd Edition of IN THE PALACE

“As part of its upcoming 22nd edition, the IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival will host a jury of 22 established professionals from different areas of the global film industry. Divided into categories, the experts will evaluate and select the films that will represent IN THE PALACE in the race for the 98th Academy Awards,” shares Tsanko Vasilev, Director of the Festival.

The jury for fiction films includes:

Boyana Bachvarova (Bulgaria) – a film production designer with over 15 years of professional experience in film, television, and stage productions. She works as a designer and art director on a range of Bulgarian and international projects. She is a member of the Production Designers Collective and the Production Designers Research and Education Network. Boyana holds a PhD in digital scenography and is an Assistant Professor in Film and Television Design at NATFA.

Mick Hannigan (Ireland) – founder and director of the prestigious IndieCork Film Festival. Previously, he served as director of the Cork Film Festival for 24 years. He also established and directed the cinemas at the Irish Film Center, and in 1996 founded Kino Art House Cinema. He has served on the boards of Irish Screen, the Irish Film Institute, and the Federation of Irish Film Societies.

Sandy Lieberson (UK) – one of the most iconic figures in the global film industry and a long-standing ambassador of the IN THE PALACE Festival. He was an agent for Sergio Leone, Peter Sellers, Richard Harris, Lindsay Anderson, and The Rolling Stones. From 1977, he held the position of Vice President of Production and Marketing, and later President of 20th Century Fox, overseeing international markets and the early Star Wars films. He supervised the development and production of films by W. Herzog, N. Roeg, B. Bertolucci, F. Zinnemann, A. Kurosawa, and R. Scott. Lieberson is the founder and chairman of Film London, co-founder of The Berlin Talent Campus, creator of the producer training at NFTS, and a contributor to numerous initiatives and organizations supporting talent and skills development in the film and media industries.

Nikola Vukčević (Montenegro) – leading Montenegrin film and theatre director and university professor of film directing. He holds a PhD and heads the Department of Film and Media at the University of Montenegro. A participant in the prestigious Fulbright Program of the U.S. Department of State, he is also a national delegate in the Assembly of the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA). He has directed two feature films, which have won numerous international awards.

Philip Ilson (UK) – director and founder of the iconic London Short Film Festival, and for nearly 20 years, programmer at the prestigious BFI London Film Festival. He currently also programs the UK & Ireland Film Festival in France.

Per Fikse (Norway) – director of the Minimalen Short Film Festival in Trondheim, Norway. He has made several short films and written about cinema for both Norwegian and international publications, especially in the academic journal Short Film Studies from IntellectBooks. He holds a Master’s degree in Management from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and also works as a software development manager in the private sector.

The animation film jury includes:

Mario Radev (Bulgaria/UK) – a visual artist, animator, director, and educator based in London. His animated short [O] was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2018, and his latest work [S] won the Jean-Luc Xiberras Award at Annecy in 2024.

Matei Branea (Romania) – director of animated films, comic book artist, illustrator, and cartoonist. He is an associate professor at the Bucharest University of Theatre and Film, where he also served two years as Vice-Rector for International Relations. He is known for his animations in Marcă Înregistrată, collaborations with Planeta Moldova, visuals for the SoNoRo Festival and the NexT IFF in Bucharest (where he was artistic director for 11 years), as well as his illustrations, caricatures, street art, and animation books.

Prof. Radostina Neykova (Bulgaria) – director, animator, children's book illustrator, and academic. She heads the programs in the “Animation” Department and in the “Production and Postproduction” Faculty at NATFA. Her films are known for their use of unconventional, handcrafted techniques like embroidery and textile appliqué, which have earned her numerous awards at international festivals. She is a member of ASIFA, the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers, and various professional and academic organizations.

Katarzyna Surmacz (Poland) – director of the Etiuda&Anima International Film Festival in Kraków. She has experience as a curator and organizer of numerous film projects and events. For the past two years, she has also been a programmer for the CREATIVE LAB E&A project dedicated to animation and virtual reality.

Momchil Grozdanov (Bulgaria) – a well-known Bulgarian animator, who has worked on many recent Bulgarian animated films and has been a long-time collaborator of the World Festival of Animated Film in Varna.

Darko Masnek (Croatia) – animator and academic, based in both Zagreb and Bristol, with a rich portfolio of animated films, video games, installations, and conceptual art. He is an associate professor at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts and a member of the Animafest Festival Council.

The documentary film jury includes:

Vítězslav Hovanec (Czech Republic) – head of the Documentary and Short Film Department at the Czech National Film Center. Since 2010, he has worked for several film festivals, including Karlovy Vary and Jihlava. As a journalist, he has contributed to various Czech outlets and currently writes for Cinepur magazine. He is part of the programming team at the One World Human Rights Film Festival in Prague. At the Film Center, he is responsible for promoting Czech documentary and short films abroad and developing festival strategies for upcoming films.

Laurence Boyce (UK) – began his career at the Leeds International Film Festival in 1999. Since 2010, he has been based in Tallinn, where he works for the Black Nights Film Festival and heads the PÖFF Shorts section. An award-winning film journalist, he writes for outlets including Screen International, Talking Shorts, Sight and Sound, and Cineuropa. He is a member of FIPRESCI, the London Critics’ Circle, the European Film Academy, and BAFTA. He is also Chair of the Short Film Conference, the world’s largest network for short film professionals.

Mark Brennan (UK) – short film director since 2014. Following the success of his debut short Tea For Two, he co-founded the Exit 6 Film Festival, which is BIFA-qualifying and listed among the top 100 festivals on FilmFreeway. He currently works as a strategist and festival distribution coordinator at Festival Formula.

Alessandro Giorgio (Italy) – holds a PhD in Film History from the University of Turin. He was the General Secretary of the Torino Short Film Market from its launch in 2016 until 2021. He is currently Program Director of the Italian Short Film Center, ShorTO Film Market, and is responsible for film selection at the Cinemambiente Festival. For the past decade, he has also worked as a distributor and executive producer at Withstand – an independent production company based in Milan.

Léonor Mercier (France) – director, composer, and sound artist. As an electroacoustic composer, she creates music for experimental films, including Baptême - 360°, a sound work commissioned by Radio France that offers a sensory journey from the sky to the ocean. She also directs music videos. Her latest film, Sauvage, was selected for the César Awards and won multiple festival prizes, including Best Documentary at IN THE PALACE in 2024.

Peter Zemek (Slovakia/Ireland) – film curator and distributor originally from Slovakia. He holds degrees in Art History and Philosophy and has lived and worked in Ireland for nearly 20 years. He is a curator at the IndieCork festival and co-founder and director of the Visegrad Film Festival since 2016. He is also co-director and manager of Green Ray Film Agency, which specializes in short film distribution.

Soňa Morgenthalová (Czech Republic) – will serve as Chair of the jury for the short film production support competition, part of the FILMER FORGE professional development program at IN THE PALACE. She is a cultural manager and expert in film theory. Since 2017, she has led training programs at the MIDPOINT Institute, focused on the development of short and feature-length films.

The 22nd edition of the IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival will take place from June 27 to July 1, 2025, at the Palace of Culture in Pernik. It is organized by the IN THE PALACE Foundation and the Municipal Culture Foundation – Pernik, with the support of the Municipality of Pernik, the National Film Center, the National Culture Fund, and the MEDIA sub-programme of the European Commission.