The LUX Prize panel

Ms Aladag, director and producer of Die Fremde, began her film career as an actress. She acted in numerous films and she also maintained a career as a successful scriptwriter and film director, directing various spots for Amnesty International and writing scripts for the German television series Tatort.

Mr Baron is President of the Hungarian Film Critics’ Association (Hungarian Fipresci) and professor at the University of Drama and Film (Budapest). He is also author of several books, essays and studies as well as writer-editor of TV documentaries on film topics.

Marc Bordure is the executive producer of the 2011 winning LUX Prize film Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro by Robert Guédiguian. He seats in the Selection Panel ex officio.

In 2005, after studying Audiovisual Culture at The Latvian Academy of Culture, Ms Broka joined the team of the Riga International Centre of Cinema and has been working in the Program Department since that time. ICC is the organizer of four cinematic events – Riga International Film festival, Riga Children’s Film Festival “Berimor’s Cinema”, Riga Fantasy Film Festival and Riga Nordic Film Days.

Henk Cluytens acts both as Sales Manager at September Film and distributor at the Belgian company ABC films.

Ms Dalgaard has been in the European cinema industry for 25 years working on acquisitions, distribution, marketing, exhibitions and film festivals.

Mr Demopoulos, a film critic and festival organizer, was director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival from 1991 to 2004. He currently works as a programmer and executive consultant, Fiction, at the public television channel ET1.

“I am happy to be associated with the LUX Prize. This prize is a reward for filmmakers who are contributing to cultural diversity and film creation in Europe.”

Ms Döring, a former journalist, has been connected with the European Film Academy since it started in 1988. In 1996 she became the Academy's director. Since 2004, she also acts as producer for the European Film Awards and, since 2006, as managing director of EFA Productions GmbH, the company producing the Awards together with the European Film Academy.

“In a globalizing world, films can play an essential role in helping understand other cultures and mentalities. A camera can get extremely close to a human being, sometimes closer than a human eye and, at the same time, it is able to transmit what it sees to a large audience. Initiatives like the LUX Prize are important measures to bring our films to the attention of the people.”

Mr Drobny is one of the family founders of the film distribution company Continental Film, and is currently General Director. He has been involved in the establishment, creation and programming of the new cinema chain CINEMAX - members of Europa Cinemas chain. As of this year, he is councillor for the new Audiovisual fund in Slovakia as a representative of film distribution and exhibiton.

Per Ericsson is the head of the Swedish Federation of Film Societies that organises screenings and film discussions through more than 100 film clubs all over Sweden and oversees the publication of the organisation's own film magazine. He is a former film policy adviser and head of education at the Swedish Film Institute. He has worked as a film festival producer, film consultant and film critic. He is also a board member of ECFA (European Children Film Association). 

Through his company Archipel 35, Mr Freyd produces singular, ambitious feature films by young film-makers or such great seasoned directors as Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Abderrahmane Sissako, etc.

Charles Gillibert (born 14 September 1977) is a French film producer, known most notably for Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), and the winner of last year's LUX prize, Mustang (2015). In 1995, Gillibert co-founded the film production company NADA as well as the Kieslowski award. In 2002, NADA merged with the MK2 group and Gillibert launched MK2 Music. Since 2006, Gillibert has produced feature films for MK2 on an international scale. Between 2010 and 2013, he was a member of the MK2 management board. In January 2013, he created CG CINEMA, his own film production company. In 2013, Gillibert collaborated in the creation of the investment company Cinémaphore with Julie Gayet and François Pinault, before being called by Centre National de la Cinématographie to sit at the Commission for reflection on the new French film financing models. 

Mr Gutek founded the Warsaw Film Festival in 1985, and directed it until 1992. In the 1990s, he began to get involved in distribution, first with the Film Art Foundation and then with Gutek Film founded in 1994.

Mr Gutek is a member of the board of The Polish Film Institute and The European Film Academy.

Ms Hoffmann has worked for international media festivals since 1984. She is director of the PRIX EUROPA and Secretary General of INPUT.

Wendy Ide is a highly experienced film critic who has worked for some of the UK’s biggest film publications and news organisations. As a film critic and feature writer for The Times newspaper, where she worked for over 11 years, Ide was a regular presenter and contributor to The Times’ online arts programming. This was combined with contributions to Sight & Sound, the British Film Institute (BFI) magazine, and BBC Radio. Since 2015, Ide has been a freelance film journalist, critic and broadcaster, regularly contributing to Screen International, and writing for The Observer since 2016. Ide covers a number of international film festivals and has previously been a jury panel member for international film festivals in San Sebastian, the Czech Republic, Zanzibar and the London East Asia Film Festival. She also worked as a short film programmer from 2000-2004. 

Ivana Ivisic is a film industry professional from Croatia.

A graduate of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, Croatia, where she studied Italian and English language and literature, Ivana Ivisic began her professional career organising and producing film and music (jazz) festivals in Motovun, Sarajevo, Zagreb and Berlin.

She was the first project manager of the Sarajevo Talent Campus, which trains young film professionals from Southeastern Europe. In 2008 she started developing the Department of Promotion at the newly established Croatian Audiovisual Centre.

Last year, Ivana Ivisic became an independent consultant for the distribution and promotion of films touring the festival circuit.

Vanja Kaludjercic, a festival programmer and project market manager, started out working at the Motovun Film Festival in Croatia and the Slovenian Cinematheque before organizing several festivals and festival sections in Zagreb like the Human Rights Film Festival, the ZagrebDox Pro workshop, and Animafest Zagreb. After moving to Paris, she was in charge of acquisitions at Coproduction Office from 2008 to 2010. She managed Paris Project for two years behind the Paris Cinema International Film Festival, while from 2012 till 2015 she was part of Les Arcs European Film Festival as Head of Industry. In 2014, with Les Arcs FF team she has established a new project market in the French capital called Paris Coproduction Village. From 2013 to 2015, Vanja worked for HAF – Film and Financing Market in Hong Kong as a matchmaking consultant. She was part of CPH: DOX festival for two years (2014/15), as programming and industry consultant, and subsequently as head of studies for the production workshop CPH: LAB. In 2014 she joined Slovenia-based distribution company Demiurg as head of acquisitions. 

For the 2016 edition of Cinéma du réel in Paris she was a member of selection committee and head of ParisDOC. Vanja has been programing for Sarajevo Film Festival for the past 9 years, for which she currently works as a short film programmer. In February 2016, Vanja was appointed as Head of Holland Film Meeting, a project market of Netherlands Film Festival. 

Panorama Programme Manager for the Berlin Film Festival since 2006 and member of the Selection Committee for Competition since 2007, she is also the delegate for Hispanic films and serves as an Expert for the European Film Academy since 2012.

She holds a Degree in Spanish Philology, English Philology and Sociology. She has been a member of the Spanish Film Commission (ICAA) for new directors and international coproductions, ICAU in Uruguay and worked as Acquisitions Consultant for The Match Factory. 

Prior to the curating festival experience, she was engaged in Film Production over the years with feature films such as Nómadas (Spain, 2000), Cosa de brujas (Spain, 2002), Sobre el Arcoiris (Spain, 2003), and the documentary Fallen Angel: Gram Parsons (Germany, 2004).

Born in Freiburg and a graduate of the University of Augsburg, Niombo Lomba is a policy offer for the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission. Prior to her current role, Niombo was Head of Staff of the State Counsellor for Civil Society and Civil Participation for the State Ministry Baden-Württemberg, as well as City Counsellor in Stuttgart. Prior to that, she was a public relations and public affairs consultant and a corporate external affairs manager for Celesio AG, a trading company and service provider for pharmaceuticals.

Honorary President of the LUX Prize Selection Panel 2012.

Radu Mihaileanu was born in Bucharest, in 1958, in a Yiddish-speaking Jewish family. In 1980, Radu Mihaileanu fled the country under the control of the dictator Ceaucescu and  reached France where he embarked a career as assistant director to Marco Ferreri, Fernando Trueba and others directors.

In 1992 he released his first film, Trahir, while in 1998 Train de vie won him international renown: Oscar nominations for best script and best actor, the Fipresci prize at Venice, the People’s Choice Award at Sundance and the David di Donatello for best foreign film. His third feature film, Va, vis et deviens about a Christian, Ethiopian boy pretending to be a Jew in order to immigrate to Israel for survival purposes, was an instant hit worldwide. The film sold 150,000 DVDs in France alone and won over 30 awards such as the César for Best Screenplay, Public Award at the Berlin Festival, Best Film and Best Screenplay at the Copenhagen Festival etc. In 2009, Mihaileanu released his fourth feature film entitled Le concert and last year in the Competition of the festival de Cannes La source des femmes.

In 2008, Mihaileanu was named European Ambassador of Intercultural Dialogue (by the European Commission) and in 2009, European Ambassador for Creativity and Innovation.

He's very active at the European political level, working for the promotion and protection of European cinema.

Mr Olla has worked for several years on the MEDIA Programme of the European Commission. Since 2008, he has become the director of the Council of Europe’s Eurimages fund.

“I am happy to be invited to take part to the selection of the LUX Prize as an observer and I am glad to the association done between the Fund Eurimages of the Council of Europe and this nice initiative of the European Parliament in favour of Cinema.”

Mr Pereira is the director of the Indilisboa Film Festival.

Iris is cinema exhibitors at Moviemento – a historic cinema in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. She took over management of the cinema in 2007 and focussed their programming in one direction: Young Audiences and a special programme that have been set up destined for schools -Schulkino Berlin- a catalogue of 70 films put together each year by the exhibitors at Moviemento. The films are classed by age category, and each screening is accompanied by specific pedagogical material. Iris is also very much committed in showing children films in the original version by providing a selection of works in English, French and Spanish. 

Mrs Ramaskiene is the director of the Kino Pavasaris Film Festival.

Critic and writer for Film Comment, Sight and Sound, The Observer, and lecturer at London College of Communication.

Éva Vezér has been working in the film profession for more than thirty years. During her professional carreer she was - among others - programming director of Duna Television, head of MEDIA Desk Hungray and in the past ten years she was managing director of Magyar Filmunió, the international promotion arm of the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary. For 3 years she was President of European Film Promotion, she is member of the Experts’Committee of Europa Cinemas and she is member of the European Film Academy.

"'Europe Loves Cinema' – this is the slogan of the MEDIA  Program. The creation of the LUX Prize is actually a proof that this slogan is taken seriously by the European Parliament. The LUX Prize selection process  focuses the attention of cinema goers to the best European films and talents. Cinema is part of our culture. The nominated films are coming from diverse European countries, so the selection reflects our culural diversity in the field of the seventh art."

LUX Film Prize 2015 - Selection Panel: Observer

Born in Genoa (Italy) in 1966, Matteo Zacchetti works at the European Commission since 1995.

He is Deputy Head of Unit " MEDIA Programme and media literacy"  in DG Education and Culture and he is responsible for the Media Literacy initiative. He spent almost all his professional life in the media or dealing with media related issues both in the private sector (NBC Super Channel ltd.) and at the European Commission where he has been working for more 15 years on different policy aspects of the audio-visual media. 

In 2012, he has been Visiting Professor in the School of International Relations of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He holds a degree in Economics of the University of Genoa.