Jury 2019

Tahar Houchi holds a BA French and Linguistics (University of Algiers), a Diploma in Development Studies (University of Geneva) and a postgraduate degree in language, literature and civilization French (University of Lyon II). Journalist and film critic, he is a member of the Swiss Association journalists (ASJS) and the Swiss Association of Film Journalists (ASJC). Founder and Artistic Director of the International Eastern Film Festival, Geneva, he has made two movies: “Yidir” (first part of a trilogy about childhood) which has been selected in more than 15 festivals and “Kousayla” (second part of the
trilogy), followed by “Dihya” which will close the trilogy. He has recently finished a documentary about Kabyles in Palestine. He is also Founder and Artistic Director of the International Amazigh film festival in Montreal.

Journalist, screenwriter and film director with more than 30 years of experience in the film industry, Petrizzelli has written and directed fiction and documentary films. Among his most important productions are: “Embrujo” (1983), “Falsas Historias” (1992), “Carrao” (1998), “El Rey del Galerón” (2006) and the feature films: “María Lionza”, “Aliento de Orquídeas”, “Er Relajo der Loro”, “El Santo Salvaje”, “Ti@s” and “Bárbara” produced between 2007 and 2017. His films have been awarded international prizes. He created and directs the film festival Ciclo de Cine de la Diversidad. He has also written the narrative books “Negro Lógico” (1978) and “Historias para las Posibilidades del Músculo” (2016).

Karlos Alastruey is a Basque and Bahá’í filmmaker from Bilbao, based in Navarre. He started making films in 2003. He has created critically-acclaimed films that have been screened worldwide at more than 100 international film festivals and earned 20 awards. His work deals with the human identity, the condition of woman and the teenage viewpoint (in his words, “the most sincere age in a human life”). He creates films with surreal, fantasy and experimental elements.

Aurora Marion is a Belgian, Greek and Rwandan actress. She started her career with the last fiction of Chantal Akerman « La folie Almayer » premiered in Venice Film Festival. She was nominated as most promising actress at the « Magritte du cinéma » for this first female leading role. Since then, she worked in theatre, performances, short and feature films in many countries. She was recently awarded as best actress in a second role in the film « A wedding (Noces) » directed by Stephan Streker.

She is a Greek, Syrian, English theater maker, site-specific performance artist, actress and a children’s rights activist. She has presented her work nationally and internationally, investigating the notions of nationality, belonging and citizenship and post-colonialism tactics, using media techniques. As a film director, Rafika has directed short films that have been screened in various film festivals. In 2014, Chawishe was selected at the Locarno Film Festival in the Young Filmmakers Academy. Recently she won the Ibsen scholarship Award by the Ibsen Awards for her political adaptation of Ibsen’s Little Eyolf. She is a receipient of the Grant NEON.She has been awarded for her performance by the the Queer Theater Awards. She is a member of the Lincoln Theater Directors Lab 2018