FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM JURY

Katalin Vajda was born in Budapest, Hungary. After receiving her diploma from the University of International Management and Business Studies, she began her career in the film industry. She has been working in the international film sector for many years, coordinating the participation of Hungarian films at major international film festivals such as Cannes, Toronto, Shanghai, Chicago, Sundance, Tribeca, Karlovy Vary, Goa, Cairo and Busan. Through her work she has represented Hungarian cinema abroad and has actively promoted Hungarian filmmaking at the international level, both among film professionals and within the wider global audience. Her continuous presence and professional activities at international festivals have contributed significantly to the global recognition and success of Hungarian films.

She has held numerous important positions within the Hungarian film industry. Since 2019 she has served as International Festival Manager at the National Film Institute Hungary. Prior to this position, she worked as Festival Manager at the Hungarian National Film Fund between 2011 and 2019. She also served as Managing Director of Hunnia Filmstudio during the periods 2012–2013 and 2015–2020. In 2011 she was appointed General Manager of Magyar Filmunió, where she had previously worked as Festival Manager from 1993 to 2010.

Earlier in her career she served as General Manager of Festivals Ltd between 1992 and 1993 and worked at Hungarofilm from 1978 to 1991. She has also served as Hungary’s delegate to European Film Promotion.

Fadik Sevin Atasoy is a Turkish theatre and film actress and writer, born in Ankara. Coming from a family of actors, she stepped onto the stage at the age of four in the State Theatres’ production of Teneke, for which she received an award at the Selçuk Theatre Festival. She began her career as a child actor and soon appeared in television productions.

Atasoy graduated from the Acting Department of the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at Bilkent University. She later completed her master’s degree with a thesis titled “The Importance of Diction and Phonetics in the Art of Acting.” She also studied screenwriting at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After graduation, she worked as a resident actress at the Turkish State Theatres for five years and appeared as a guest performer in the musical Carmen at the Bulgarian State Theatre.

In 2005, she made her feature film debut with O Şimdi Mahkûm, which earned her the Best Actress Award at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. She also received the Best Actress Award at the Ankara International Film Festival for her performance in Zeynep’s Eight Days. Atasoy has since continued her film career in both Turkey and the United States. She later received another Best Actress Award from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for her role in the American production Merhaba.

In 2008, together with her father, actor and writer Sönmez Atasoy, she founded the New York Art Community and performed on stage at Town Hall and on Broadway in productions such as Kanlı Nigar and Keşanlı Ali. In 2013, she moved to Los Angeles and founded the production company RedCase Entertainment.

Her English-language solo musical Muse 90401, which she wrote and performs herself, has been staged at festivals and toured across the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom. She is also the author of the magical-realist novel Fadik and the Red Suitcase, published by Alfa Publishing.

Atasoy has served as a jury member at several film festivals, including the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, the Los Angeles CATE Film Festival, and the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival. She has also appeared in numerous television series such as Dudaktan Kalbe and Kardeşlerim. Fadik Sevin Atasoy currently continues her career between the United States and Turkey.

Nedeljko Kovačić (1978, Belgrade) is a screenwriter and director. He graduated in Film and Television Directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade (1997–2001). He later completed the UNESCO Master’s program in Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Arts in Belgrade (2014–2015). He is currently preparing his doctoral dissertation within the interdisciplinary doctoral program in Theory of Arts and Media at the same university.

As a screenwriter and director, he has made the short fiction films eSnuff (2003), Crnokosa (2006), and Undergrad (2015), as well as the short documentary films Displaced Lives (2003), Kikindski Mamut (2006), and Legendary Sevastopol (2014). He is the creator of the docudrama television series Jovanka Broz and the Secret Services (10 episodes, RTS, 2021) and Comrade Marko (10 episodes, RTS, 2023). He also directed the feature fiction film Vera (2022) and the television drama series of the same title (10 episodes, RTS, 2023).

As a director, he has also worked on the television drama series Šta mi spremaš? (16 episodes, BKTV, 2004) and Jet Set (pilot episode, 2006), as well as on the docudrama television series Motiv (14 episodes, Kurir TV, 2020). As a screenwriter, he wrote the documentary film A Traveller Through Space and Centuries – Milutin Milanković (2007). His feature film project Heroes from the Underground (in development) received screenplay development support from the Film Center of Serbia in 2018. He is also the author of a radio drama series for Radio Belgrade 1.

Throughout his career, he has directed numerous television programs (RTS, B92, BKTV), commercials, music videos, as well as commissioned and promotional films. Over the years, he has also worked as a film and media critic for various print and online media outlets. He is currently completing the documentary film Žika Mitrović’s Partisan Western (in final editing), based on the monograph of the same title that he published in 2024, released by the Film Center of Serbia.

Silvia Panáková is a Slovak film producer and the founder of the production company ARINAFILM. She focuses on internationally oriented feature films, documentaries, and animated projects.

Her productions have been presented at major international festivals, including Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Jihlava, Busan, Berlinale, Fantaspoa, and Annecy. Her recent work includes Delivery Silent (2025), Fichtelberg (2025), The Ballad of Piargy (2022), the documentary Open (2025), and the animated film Diplodocus (2024).

She is currently producing several international co-productions, including the documentary The Consequences of Truth and the feature film CHICA CHECA. Silvia is a member of ACE Producers and the European Film Academy.

Jane Kortoshev is a Macedonian producer and film director with more than 25 years of experience in European cinema. As a producer at Banana Film, he has established himself as one of the leading production professionals in the region, recognized for his ability to manage complex international co-productions and for supporting strong auteur-driven projects.

In recent years, his work as a producer has been closely associated with the films of Milcho Manchevski. He produced the award-winning feature films Willow (2019) and Kaymak (2022), both widely screened at international festivals and distributed internationally. He is currently completing his third collaboration with Manchevski, the feature film Sister Brother Manhole Cover.

Alongside his producing career, Kortoshev is also a trained film and television director. He holds an MA in Film and TV Directing from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia. He has directed short films, a television feature film, episodes of television series, and numerous commercials, while also working extensively as a first assistant director on major European productions.

His career reflects a long-standing commitment to ambitious, director-driven cinema and a strong presence within the landscape of contemporary European co-productions.