Jury

Annika Haupts works as co-curator and program coordinator of the Berlinale Retrospective, Classics and Hommage at the Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin. She studied theater, film, and television studies at the University of Cologne. Annika Haupts worked at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn and afterwards went to Berlin to join the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen. There she was part of the exhibition team before taking over the program coordination of the Retrospective in 2020.

Mateo Sancho Cardiel (Zaragoza, Spain, 1983) is a journalist, writer and doctor in Sociology. He currently teaches film theory classes at Fordham University and introductory film courses at the City University of New York (CUNY). As a journalist, he was in charge of the film department at Agencia Efe between 2010 and 2013, before moving to New York as a correspondent. He has collaborated with different media such as El País, ICON, Fotogramas, VOGUE and Vanity Fair. In 2012 he was a finalist for the Anagrama award for his essay “The Asexual Revolution”, and in 2016 h e co-wrote the book “Ceremonias de lo False”, a reflection on cinema and lies. In 2019, his first novel, “New York at a stroke,” was published.

Freelance journalist. Irene Crespo have been covering the film industry for 15 years. She attends the main international film festivals every year (Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, San Sebastián…). She writes reviews and interviews film and TV actors/directors for CINEMANIA, El País, ICON, SModa, GQ, Mujer Hoy, Condé Nast Traveler, Gentleman… She was culture correspondent from New York for four years and now is back home in Spain.

Director-Producer Mona Nicoară is a human rights activist, a filmmaker, and a writer. Born in Communist Romania, she dedicated her early years to becoming a poet in a small, largely underground community of young writers who did not abide by the creative conventions of the Ceaușescu era.After taking part in the 1989 Romanian Revolution, she continued to work as an activist for LGBTQIA+ and Roma right groups in Eastern Europe, as well as for international organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.  She started working in social issue documentaries in 1997 as an Associate Producer for Children Underground, which received the Special Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Her directorial debut, Our School, premiered in the US at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, went on to over 70 festivals worldwide, was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best US Feature at AFI SilverDocs. Her 2018 film The Distance between Me and Me, received the audience award at Films de Cannes à Bucarest, screened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Trieste, and screened in Romanian cinemas for 18 weeks. Nicoară also works as a festival curator and has been teaching film, writing, and literature at Columbia University, the Cooper Union, New York University, and Rutgers University. Her writings have been published in The Guardian, Decât o revistă, Dilema, and Scena 9, among others.

SUSAN SENK has worked in entertainment public relations and marketing for her entire career. Susan has been involved in over 400 public relations  campaigns for films released in the United States. Prior to launching Susan Senk PR , based in New York City, she was Vice President of International Publicity and Promotion for Columbia TriStar International Film Distributors (Sony), based in Los Angeles. Susan has also held the positions of Vice President Publicity and Promotion for Vestron Pictures, of which she was a founding member and Vice President Creative Services for Vestron International, working out of its European offices to direct the launch of overseas operations and international marketing for video product. She began her career in the music industry where she worked with international licensees. For the past decade she has been International Festival Consultant for Sony Pictures International Releasing. Susan is a long-standing member of Academy of Arts and Sciences and a former member of The Recording Academy.

Current Artistic Director of FICUNAM. He has more than 15 years of experience as a curator and programmer for festivals such as FICCO, FICCALI, Guadalajara FF and Riviera Maya FF. In 2010 he co-founded the Interior XIII label —with offices in Mexico and Colombia— with activities in the fields of distribution, production and programming, activities that have allowed him to weave an extensive network of allies in the film and art industry. He has credits as executive producer in films by Julio Hernández Cordón, Camila José Donoso, Yulene Olaizola and Nicolás Pereda. Since 2015 he has been the curator of the MAMM film program in Medellín, consolidating the museum as one of the most important alternative exhibition spaces in Colombia. He has been a jury at festivals such as FIDMarseille, Mar del Plata FF, Miami FF and FICValdivia. He has written extensively on film and is an editor for various publications.