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Jury 2022

Win Panorama Jury Members

AGIM ABDULA

Agim Abdula was born in 1978 in Tetovo, North Macedonia. He completed his postgraduate studies for BA and MA in Film Directing in Tehera. After graduation, he started his activity as a documentary producer and has made over 30 documentaries in the Balkan region. He is also director of three short fictions “Conversationon Life”, “The Beginning” and “Decision” which have been part of over 100 international film festivals with 10 Awards won. Agim Abdula so far has finished his first feature movie named “Koma” which is in post-production.

GJORCE STAVRESKI

Gjorce Stavreski is an award-winning screenwriter and director, born on December 28, 1978 in Skopje. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje, at the Department of Film and TV Directing. He is the author of short feature films, documentaries, a full-length feature film and over a hundred commercials. He writes, directs and produces his own films. He has won international awards for his work. As a child he was a talented mathematician and for his achievements he won the national award "November 13".
His debut feature film "Healer" began distribution in 2017 and was selected at over 60 festivals in 16 months, 3 of them from the prestigious "A" category in Tallinn, Goa and Shanghai. It won 19 international awards, including 5 for the best film at the festivals in Thessaloniki, Santa Barbara, Bergamo, Aubagne and Vienna. "Healer" is the first Macedonian film in the catalog of "HBO Europe", and the film received glowing reviews from the top world magazines "Hollywood Reporter", "Varaeti" and "Screen Daily". He was a Macedonian candidate for an Oscar in 2019.
The short feature film "Audition Material" won an award for best film at one of the biggest festivals in South America, "Bogoshorts" in Colombia. "At Sunrise" was his first short film outside of his studies and was selected in the official competition selection of the most prestigious festival specializing in short films, the French "Clermont-Ferrand".
He furthered his education as a participant of the talent development school "Berlinale Talent Campus" in Germany, was part of the film development seminar organized by the top production network "EAVE" and a participant of the prestigious idea development school "Less is More" .
After the great success of "Healer", he gave a series of lectures, at the "Engage" festival, at the Ministry of Finance, the Faculty of Informatics and the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. With the selector of the Berlin Festival, Bern Buder, he held a lecture at the "FIOFA" faculty in Ohrid. Together with the screenwriter Pierre Hodgson, he gave a lecture on script writing within the framework of the "Manaki Brothers" film festival in Bitola.

In addition to film, he is actively engaged in photography and is a fan of the logic game Sudoku, competing at an international level.

UJKAN HYSAJ

Award winning director and producer born in 1984 in Kosovo. He entered the world of Art by drawing cartoons and comic books, from where the transition to movie editor was really easy. As a film director and producer he has worked on a number of short and documentary films that have participated in A Category International Film Festivals like Melbourne Film Festival, Cinequest, Warsaw, Tampere, Cleveland, Cine de Huesca, Abu Dhabi etc.

His last short film “KOLONA” has been screened up to 60 International Film Festivals and received up 17 awards like: 37th Cleveland Film Festival 2013 -- Best Live Action Short (Oscar Qualifier for Nomination) and screened to Asiana Airline planes where he riches more than 150.000 views from passenger etc.

Participant in EFA - European Film Academy project “A Sunday in the Country” 2014.

In 2011 he established AJO PICTURES a production company for TV Advertisement and movie production.

Cine Balkan Panorama Jury Members

ARBEN BAJRAKTARAJ

Arben Bajraktaraj (born 29 January 1973) is a Kosovan-born French actor. Bajraktaraj has starred in numerous French films but also in roles in international movies, such as Eden Log and Sex Traffic. He has frequently portrayed crime syndicate operatives in films like Taken and Verso. He is also well-known for his role as the Death Eater Antonin Dolohov in the Harry Potter films and lately with the TV Series “BESA”. He has worked throughout his career with numerous film directors such as Gérard Pirès, Xavier Ruiz, Tony Gatlif and Pierre Morel.

BLERTA BASHOLLI

Blerta Basholli (born in 1983, Prishtina, Kosovo) is a Kosovan writer, director and producer. Basholli has previously lived in New York City for a time span of four years, allowing her to work on a number of projects as a student, among those being her short film “Lena and Me” which won awards in a number of international and Kosovo-based festivals. In 2008 she was awarded with the Deans Fellowship at the Film Graduate Program at Tisch School of the Artists, NYU. Most recently, her debut feature film “Hive” (2021) has achieved great success, breaking Sundance Records, and becoming the first Kosovo film to enter the Oscars shortlist nomination.

VLADIMIR BLAZEVSKI

Vladimir Blaževski (Macedonian: Владимир Блажевски; born 3 June 1955) is a Macedonian film director and screenwriter. Best known for his documentaries, Blaževski made several acclaimed feature films as well, including Hi-Fi, which won him the Golden Arena for Best Director at the Yugoslav Film Awards in 1987, and Punk's Not Dead which was selected as the Macedonian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards, without making the final shortlist.