The European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films is pleased to announce its 2026 jury, composed of seven full members and two alternates. Four of the seven members have been renewed from the 2025 jury, while three new professionals have joined this year.

The jury is responsible for evaluating applications for the Fund’s production support. The 19 contributors of the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films have allocated a total budget of €1.6 million for production support in 2026.

The jury is currently reviewing the applications submitted under the first 2026 call for production support, launched on May 16th and closed on June 26th. The selection committee will meet in Paris in October to discuss the submitted projects. The results of the jury’s deliberations will be announced shortly after the selection commitee.

The jury will meet again in February 2027 to assess applications submitted under the second and final 2026 call for production support.

Discover the complete list of our jury members below.

The 2026 European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films jury members are:

• Simone Baumann, producer, Germany,
• Anita Juka, producer, Croatia,
• Teona Mitevska, director, North Macedonia,
• Anthelme Vidaud, film studies academic, France
• John Archer, film producer, Scotland
• Simona Nobile, screenwriter, Italy
• Rodrigo Stoicheff, film editor, Norway

The two alternate members are:

• Timon Koulmasis, director, Greece
• Nino Kirtadze, director and scriptwriter, Georgia/France

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.

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. Teona’s latest film, Mother, opened the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival in 2025.

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.

John Archer

John Archer is a Scottish film producer and Managing Director of Hopscotch Films, specialising in feature documentaries and drama. He has notably produced Jono McLeod’s My Old School (Sundance 2022), Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film: A New Generation (Cannes 2021) and Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema, which received the European Film Academy’s inaugural Innovation in Storytelling Award. Before running Hopscotch Films, he was the founding Chief Executive of Scottish Screen, Head of Music and Arts at BBC Scotland and a BAFTA-winning television producer.

Simona Nobile

Simona Nobile is an Italian screenwriter, international script consultant and trainer. After beginning her career working for European institutions in Luxembourg and Frankfurt, she specialised in screenwriting and script editing, working as a Story Editor for international production companies in London, Italy and Los Angeles. She has been a Script Consultant for the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme since 2003 and for Eurimages since 2009, and regularly works with TorinoFilmLab, Fondation Gan and Groupe Ouest. She also teaches at Sapienza University of Rome and is a member of the EWA Network.

Rodrigo Stoicheff

Born in Chile, Rodrigo Stoicheff has lived in Norway since 1987. He holds a Master’s degree in Film and Television Directing and has worked as a director, producer, cinematographer, script consultant and editor, with credits including Lilyhammer, Norsemen, Home for Christmas and Magnus. From 2021 to 2025, he served as a film consultant at the Norwegian Film Institute, where he was responsible for fiction, short film and the Neo talent development programme, supporting the production of nearly 50 short films. He returned to the NFI as an acting film consultant in 2026.

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.

Nino Kirtadze

Born in Georgia, Nino Kirtadze chose to work and live in France since 1997 and has since built a filmography both intimate and political. Her film The Pipeline Next Door received the European Film Academy award and the Grand Prix from Visions du Réel; with Durakovo: Village of Fools, she was awarded Best Director at Sundance IFF. In addition to thse documentaries, she ventured into fiction with her dark comedy Don’t Breathe. From 2019 to 2023, she was a membe rof Eurimages’ Board of Management. Nino regularly steps in as a tutor or consultant for several training programs, and has worked with several emerging directors on their films, including Radiograph of a Family, No Other Land, Hollywoodgate, or Yalla Parcour.