2024 Jury

The European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films is proud to announce the nomination of its 2024 jury, composed of a President and six full members and three alternate members.

This group of professionals of the film industry will be entrusted with the study and assessment of projects wishing to benefit from this unique European support scheme.

The first task ahead of them will be to evaluate the films submitted in response to the first two calls (development and finalisation) of 2024: they will first meet for the selection committee of finalisation projects at the beginning of May.

As a result of their deliberations, the beneficiaries for this round of finalisation support will be announced in Cannes.

Discover the complete list of our jury members below.

The 2024 European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films jury members are:

• Georges Goldenstern, President of the Jury, artistic director, France,
• Simone Baumann, producer, Germany,
• Javier Estrada, film critic, Spain,
• Līga Gaisa, producer, Latvia,
• Anita Juka, producer, Croatia,
• Teona Mitevska, director, North Macedonia,
• Anthelme Vidaud, film studies academic, France

The three alternate members are:

• Zane Balčus, academic, Latvia,
• Timon Koulmasis, director, Greece
• Lisa Marie Russo, producer, United Kingdom,

“I am honoured to contribute to the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films. This initiative enables filmmakers to continue to create, in spite of the horrors of war, and to bring their perspective on the situation they are enduring, as well as to highlight the richness of their characters and traditions”. Georges Goldenstern, President of the Jury

Learn more about our jury members below:

Georges Goldenstern, President of the Jury

Georges Goldenstern was the creator and general director of Arte France Cinema for more than 20 years, during which he co-produced over 250 films. Until 2022, he was the executive manager of Cinéfondation, created by Cannes film festival in 1998 to support the new generations of filmmakers. He also used to work as the artistic director of Meditalent.

Simone Baumann

 Simone Baumann is a German producer and an expert on international co-productions. She started her career as a producer in the 1990s. From 1997, as a managing partner at LE Vision Film- und Fernsehproduktion, Simone Baumann was responsible for all documentary productions, which received prestigious awards. In 2003, she was appointed a member on the boards of AG DOK and MFFV (Mitteldeutscher Film- und Fernsehproduzentenverband) and became German Films’ representative for Eastern Europe in 2005. Since 2019, she is the Managing director of German Films.

Javier Estrada

Javier Estrada is a Spanish film critic. He is the head of programming of SEMINCI. Valladolid International Film Festival, FILMADRID (which he co-founded), and member of the selection committee for DocumentaMadrid. A member of the editorial board of the film magazine Caimán. Cuadernos de cine, Javier has contributed to many books and teaches in Madrid universities.

Līga Gaisa

Liga Gaisa is a Latvian producer, director and scriptwriter, co-founder of the company Air Productions. She has produced fiction, documentary and animation films and she’s a member documentary film expert panel at the National Film Centre of Latvia as well as the chairperson of the Scriptwriters’ Guild of Latvia.

Anita Juka

Anita Juka is a Croatian producer and ex board member of the European Film Academy. The films she produced were presented at Sundance, Cannes and Berlinale. She has been co-producing with many European countries and Canada and her films have been distributed in 190 countries. In 2021, she co-produced the Ukrainian film Butterfly Vision, by Maksym Nakonechnyi which was premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2022.

Teona Mitevska

Teona Strugar Mitevska is a Macedonian-born film director living between Skopje and Brussels. She began her career as a film director in 2001. Her 2017 film, God exists, her name is Petrunya, was awarded the 2019 LUX Prize by the European Parliament. Her 2022 film, The Happiest Man in the World, received several international awards. She is also the founder of a production company, SISTERS AND BROTHER MITEVSKI.

Anthelme Vidaud

Anthelme Vidaud has worked as an audiovisual attaché at the French Institute in Kyiv from 2011 to 2013 and then went on to join Odesa International Film Festival as Head of programming from 2015 to 2020. In 2023, he published Ciné-Ukraine, histoire(s) d’indépendance, a book providing a comprehensive analysis of Ukrainian Cinema since the Maidan Revolution of Dignity.

Zane Balčus

Zane Balčus, PhD, is a Latvian film academic, experienced in management and curatorial fields and specialized in documentary projects.Since 2019, she is the head of the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries, a co-production pitching event in Riga. Balčus has an extensive experience in management and curatorial fields in different organizations in the field of cinema, and has co-authored many books on the subject.

Timon Koulmasis

Timon Koulmasis is a Greek director. He was born in Germany and moved to Paris in 1983. He studied History and Philosophy. His films, both fiction and documentary, have been shown at numerous festivals (Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, etc.) and have won various awards.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Greek National Film Centre (2016-2017) and Greece’s National Representative to Eurimages (2017-2022). He also teaches cinema in France and Greece, regularly appearing at the Fémis, the École Nationale Supérieure Louis Lumière and other universities.

Lisa Marie Russo

Lisa Marie Russo is an America/British film producer. She has had a leading role in the BFI Doc Society Fund (2018 -22) and was on the BAFTA jury for best documentary prize and was involved in the Ukrainian film A Poem for Little People by Ivan Sautkin, supported by ESFUF in May 2023.