Jury & Awards
International Jury for Hungarian Documentary Competition
For the first time in Verzió's history, the Hungarian Competition will be sponsored by the City of Budapest. The winning film will be decided upon by an international jury. The director of the winning film will receive a prize of gross 350,000 HUF.
Hungarian Competition Jury
Victoria Leshchenko
Victoria Leshchenko is a dreamer, maker and connector. She has 11 years of experience in project and team management, creating and managing cultural events. She studied at Kyiv-Mohyla, Department of Cultural Studies, and got her start in film festivals with "Molodist", where she worked from 2007 to 2011, as editor-in-chief, production manager, and coordinator of film programs. In 2010, she joined the team of Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, where she was promoted to program director in 2019. Her current areas of interest are documentaries, psychology and psychotherapy, online education, sports, delicious food and growing cactuses.
Anita Libor
Anita Libor is a Hungarian journalist and editor. She has worked as a journalist for almost 20 years, beginning her career as a film industry specialist at the Hungarian-film focused Filmhu, and for Hungarian Film Week for 10 years. She has lead the cultural section at Index.hu, the biggest Hungarian media outlet. She has worked with the Friss Hús International Short Film Festival since the event’s inception, and is currently helping the Budapest Municipality organize its 150th anniversary celebrations.
Nebojša Slijepčević
Nebojša Slijepčević has directed numerous creative documentaries (Srbenka, Gangster of Love, Something about Life, Real Man’s Film, In 4 Years, Of Cows and People). His films have been awarded at many international festivals, including four awards from the Sarajevo Film Festival. His latest documentary feature, Srbenka, was shortlisted for the European Film Awards. In 2019, Nebojsa won the Vladimir Nazor Award, an annual award given by the Croatian Ministry of Culture for the highest achievements in film. Nebojsa is a lecturer at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, in Zagreb.
International Jury for Student/Debut Documentary Competition
An international jury will award the best film in the Student/Debut Film Competition based on professional excellence and creative approach. The director of the winning film will receive a prize of gross 350,000 HUF to support their further professional development.
International Student/Debut Competition Jury
Hajnal Molnár-Szakács
Hajnal Molnár-Szakács is the Director of Institute Granting at the Sundance Institute, where she heads up development of a comprehensive funding strategy across the Institute’s Artist Programs and oversees nearly $4M in yearly grants. Hajnal serves as industry advisor for international film festivals, pitch forums and funds, and is an active industry panelist, lecturer and juror. Hajnal holds a MSc in Public Management from SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy, and a Bachelor of International Business and German from Carleton University in Canada. Prior to this role, as the Film Fund Director at the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program she supported over 200 films, including Minding the Gap (Dir: Bing Liu), The Mole Agent (Maite Alberdi), Crip Camp (Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham) and Writing With Fire ( Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh). Prior to joining the Sundance Institute, Hajnal worked for the European Union and the Government of Canada. Hajnal also works with community and arts-based non-profits in LA, and is conversational in Hungarian.
Julie Nederkoorn
Julie Nederkoorn started working for the Movies that Matter (MtM) Foundation in 2015. She currently coordinates the International Support program. Based on the belief that the film camera is a powerful weapon against social indifference, MtM organizes film screenings in the Netherlands and promotes film screenings worldwide. As program coordinator, Julie manages the grant program and gives training and advice on setting up human rights film festivals or related events in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. For five years she coordinated Activist (one of the main competition programs about human rights defenders) at the annual MtM Festival in the Hague. She obtained a BSc in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen, and a MA degree in Conflict Studies & Human Rights at Utrecht University.
Mihály Schwechtje
Mihály Schwechtje is a Hungarian film director who made several award-winning short films before making his first feature-length film. His play, The Legacy, was awarded the Contemporary Hungarian Drama Award (Kortárs Magyar Dráma-díj) in 2020. His recent projects reflect his interest in current social problems. His first feature film, Hope You’ll Die Next Time :), talks about young victims of cyberbullying. The film was professionally and critically acclaimed, gained national and international awards, and was a great success with audiences. In 2020, his feature documentary Give Me Shelter was awarded the Best Hungarian Documentary Film at Verzió. He is a former university lecturer at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, having obtained a degree of Doctor of Liberal Arts. He is currently working on several feature film projects, is in pre-production for his next documentary. He teaches film directing at the Eötvös Loránd University; and he is also the head teacher of the film director Master's program at freeszfe. He is currently developing a TV series with Canal+ Poland.
Student Competition for the Best Human Rights Film
The Student Jury is selected on a competitive basis and is comprised of five university students who demonstrate a commitment to human rights and an interest in documentary cinema. Together, they will decide which film will receive the The Best Human Rights Film Award from this year’s International Competition. The director of the winning film will receive a gross 350,000 HUF prize.
Student Jury for International Competition
Péter Horányi
Péter Horányi graduated in film studies from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, and is currently enrolled in the Doctoral School of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. His field of research is the current state of Hungarian contemporary documentaries. Alongside his enjoyment of arts, jogging and being outdoors, he writes film reviews and recaps for the online literature portal Prae.hu.
Nuruzzaman Khan
Nuruzzaman Khan is a Bangladeshi filmmaker and DLA student in Film at the University of Fine Arts. His first documentary film, Chicken Fox (2016), was an official selection in Doclisboa’16. His next film, Men with No Name (2017), about migrant workers from Bangladesh living in Lisbon, was selected for several film festivals, including the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, and was also screened on Taiwanese Public Television. He finished his DocNomads Master’s studies in Documentary Film Directing with a full Erasmus Mundus scholarship.
Marcell Sebők
Marcell Sebők lives in Nyíregyháza, Hungary. He is a student of the Faculty of Law at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, where he previously studied political science. He is greatly interested in public topics and human rights, both at the national and international level. He’s also an enthusiastic fan of the arts, be it music, literature or films.
Sára Szabó
Sára Szabó is an MA student of Sociology at the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences. Her interests include gender inequalities, art-based and participatory research methods, and critical pedagogy. She is intrigued by the connection between documentary film and social sciences, and considers documentary film an excellent tool for publicly thematizing overlooked social problems.
Benjámin Szikszay
Benjámin Szikszay is a third-year student at the Communication and Media Studies Department of Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences. He is specialized in journalism, but feeling drawn to visual communication, has taken on a minor in Film Studies. He has made several short films, including documentaries, which he feels can bring us closer to events and stories that we might not otherwise encounter.
Audience Award
After the screenings, members of the audience can rate the films using voting slips collected by the volunteers. The film with the best audience rating will be awarded. Verzió will announce the Audience Award winner on November 15.
The prize is gross 350,000 HUF.
The winners will be announced on 13 November, at 7.30 pm during the Award Ceremony in Toldi Cinema.