Jury & Awards
The award ceremony of the 21st Verzio will take place on 10 November at 19:00 at the Művész cinema. A limited number of free tickets are available at the cinema box office.
The Audience Award winning film will be announced on 13 November before the Closing Film screening at 21:00 in Toldi.
Hungarian Competition Jury
Eva Križková graduated in Film Studies at the Film and Television Faculty at VŠMU in Bratislava. She co-founded the distribution company Filmtopia and the magazine Kinečko, where she served as editor-in-chief for 10 years. Currently, she works as the director of the One World IDFF Slovakia and she has recently finished and premiered her feature documentary debut Birdhill. She is a member of the Presidency of Association of Slovak documentary films.
Adam Kruk is a Polish film critic, journalist and programmer curating various festivals and cultural events, expert in film education and artivist involved in several projects counteracting cultural exclusion (Polish Cinema for Beginners, HUMcore, Brave Festival). His work has been published in numerous magazines (‘Kino’, ‘Film’, ‘Newsweek’, ‘Images’), as well as in books on film, art and culture. He is a member of European Film Academy, International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI, Federation of Film Societies FICC, Wrocław Film Foundation, and Dante Alighieri Society. Since 2023 voter for the Golden Globe Awards. Speaker and PhD candidate at University of Wrocław.
Tue Steen Müller has worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. He is the co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU, and EDN (European Documentary Network). From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). Since 2006, he has been a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays UA, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF, as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DocsBarcelona, Message2Man in St. Petersburg, and DOKLeipzig. He teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano, Italy, and writes reviews at www.filmkommentaren.dk. He received several awards for his contribution to European documentary culture.
Best Hungarian Film Award: 400,000 HUF
Sponsored by the City of Budapest.
Winner: Your Life Without Me
(Hungary, Sweden, d. Anna Rubi)
Special Mention: KIX
(Hungary, Croatia, France, d. Bálint Révész, Dávid Mikulán)
International Competition Jury
Massimo Benvegnù was born in Padova, Italy and majored in Film Studies at the University of Bologna. He has a long established reputation as a programmer and film critic. Massimo authored several books and essays and also worked for major festivals such as Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam and IDFA, and since 2022 has been the co-artistic director, with Chiara Liberti, of the Biografilm Festival in Bologna. He lives in Amsterdam, where he worked for ten years as a programmer for the Eye Filmmuseum.
Ana has worked for 20 years in the production of documentaries for television and cinema in Spain, in the USA and Switzerland. She has worked and collaborated with different international film festivals all along her career (i.e. DocsBarcelona, Miami International Film Festival, DOC NYC or Geneva International Film Festival, among others). Since 2019, she works at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights of Geneva (FIFDH), where she is currently the Head of their professional programme, the Impact Days, entirely dedicated to impact production and distribution. Ana is a member of EDN (Europe Documentary Network), DOCMA (Asociación española de cine documental), EWA (European Women's Audiovisual Network) and SWAN (Swiss Women's Audiovisual Network).
Alex Shiriaieff is a seasoned expert in the European non-scripted content film market, with almost 30 years of experience producing and directing documentary content that focuses on the post-Soviet region and Eastern Europe — his main areas of expertise. For the past 10 years, Alex served as the Head of Operations and CEO at B2B Doc - Baltic to Black Sea Documentary Network. During this time, he became proficient in navigating fragile and vulnerable territories, consistently achieving impactful results. Currently, Alex is the Chief Producer at EuroArctic Media Group, a Sweden-based production house with associates located in all Nordic and Baltic countries. It crafts creative documentaries for theatrical distribution, as well as factual content for global TV and streaming platforms. Alex leverages his unique ability to seamlessly bridge two worlds — the East and the West. This fusion enables him to deliver compelling, relevant, and topical film stories that resonate with a broad international audience. Under Alex's leadership, EuroArctic Media Group embodies Nordic production excellence while championing freedom of speech and democratic values in every frame.
Best Documentary Film Award: 1000€
Sponsored by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.
Winner: Tata
(Romania, d. Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc)
Special Mention: Silent Trees
(Poland, Germany, Denmark, d. Agnieszka Zwiefka)
Doc Future Competition Jury
Peter Cerovšek is the director of the FeKK Ljubljana Short Film Festival. He also established the festival of experimental AV practices V-F-X Ljubljana. He is the director of the Center for Contemporary Arts SCCA-Ljubljana. He directed several short films that received international recognition.
Natalie Chkhartishvili is a film professional from Georgia with an academic background in Social Sciences. She currently works at Chai Khana, an online media platform in the South Caucasus known for producing creative documentaries that explore diverse perspectives and social issues. With over five years of experience in the field, Natalie manages film and media content distribution and strategic fundraising efforts. For the past two years, she has also developed and coordinated KineDok Georgia, an alternative distribution platform for creative documentaries from Eastern Europe, led by the Institute of Documentary Film and operated by Chai Khana in Georgia. Natalie is an alumna of the Berlinale Talents 2024 Market Studio for audience designers and a fellow in the Getting Real program run by the International Documentary Association.
Kamila Dolotina began her career as a programmer for Czech Television in 2010 before switching her focus to work as a freelance consultant at film festivals such as Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. She has been the curator of Eastern Promises section at Summer Film School for last seven years. Currently she is the programmer at One World, which is the largest human rights film festival in the world.
Doc Future Award: 1000€
Sponsored by the Blinken OSA Archivum.
Winner: Songs of Slow Burning Earth
(Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden, France, d. Olha Zhurba)
Special Mention: Balomania
(Spain, Denmark, d. Sissel Morell Dargis)
We Are Here Queer Competition Jury
Krisztián Marton was born in 1989 in Hungary. After graduating from drama school, he continued his studies at the University of Theatre and Film in Budapest, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Television Production. As a screenwriter, he has worked on several Hungarian series, and his first novel, Bőgőmasina (Crybaby) was published in 2023.
Gergő Somogyvári is a Budapest-based cinematographer and documentary director with a deep-rooted background in photography and journalism. Graduating in 2008 from the University of Film and Drama (SZFE) as a cinematographer, he has since dedicated 14 years to both fiction and documentary filmmaking. As a director of photography, his work spans a wide array of projects, and he has directed five documentaries that have been screened internationally across TV platforms and film festivals. His first feature-length documentary, Fairy Garden, premiered at the Sarajevo International Film Festival in 2023, explores a trans person's struggle within contemporary Hungarian society. The film went on to win both the Best Hungarian Documentary Award and the Audience Award at the 20th Verzió Film Festival.
Petrula Veljanovska was born and lives in Skopje. After graduating from the Faculty of Classical Studies in Skopje, she has been working on and off as a freelance translator in English and Serbo-Croatian at many film festivals. Veljanovska has been a part of MakeDox since its beginning in 2009. Her roles in the MakeDox team are Program coordinator and Programmer of festival sections such as Country in Focus, Short Docs, Kids and Youth Program. She is also the MakeDox PR representative, caring for the festival’s image and the good relations between the festival and its audience. As a passionate docu-lover, she believes that documentaries are important for the personal and social development of every human being, especially for young people and children, who learn through images how to express themselves and engage in discussions about life.
Best Queer Documentary Film Award: 1000€
Sponsored by Háttér Society and We Are Open.
Winner: Queendom
(USA, France, d. Agniia Galdanova)
Special Mention: Grand Prize
(Croatia, d. Anja Koprivšek)
Young Jury
My name is Veronika Csík. After high school I studied photography, photography gives me a unique view of the world, it is my artistic expression. I applied for a degree in sociology as a result of my sociophotography internship. As a sociologist I would like to work in the field of Sociology of Youth and Education. Because of my interest in film, I would like to continue my studies as a documentary film director. In my free time, I like to listen to music, read, be in nature with animals and friends, and do sports: I play tennis and do climbing.
My name is Dorka Mrena, I'm 20, my hometown is a small city, Törökszentmiklós, and my zodiac sign is Aquarious. It is my second year at ELTE film and television directing BA. My close relationship with film started during the admission process, and this relationship - along with its ups and downs - has been growing stronger. I'm curious, very responsible, determined and most of the time decisive, although I prefer someone telling me where we should go to have dinner.
I am Richárd Sasvári, a master's student in screenwriting at Budapest Metropolitan University. I am attracted to stories in which we see the depths of human relationships and understand a little more about ourselves and how the world works. I mostly like to write in the absurd genre, my short script Ketriäm is one of them, which was featured in many festivals. I currently work at the General Press Publishing House and was the organizer of the first Budapest International Screenplay Festival.
I'm Liliom Szabó, a recent graduate in cultural community management. My favorite qualities are my curiosity and sensitivity. I am currently writing articles on visual arts for the magazine Országút. Alongside this I am involved in environmental activism. In the future I would like to pursue documentary filmmaking. I am currently working on my first short film, which explores the place of women in art through the eyes of Violete, a French artist living in Budapest.
My name is Vida Kamilla, I graduated last year in Miskolc. I am currently studying at ELTE, majoring in film theory and film history with a theatre studies minor. I like to learn languages, I am a music and film fan. I have become interested in documentary film in the last two years while volunteering at Verzió.
Best Human Rights Film Award: 1000€
Sponsored by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.
Winner: No Other Land
(Palestine, Norway, d. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor)
Special Mention: Black Box Diaries
(Japan, USA, UK, d. Shiori Ito)
