Guests & Juries 2020

Milcho Manchevski wrote and directed the feature films Willow (2019), Bikini Moon (2017), Mothers (2010), Shadows (2007), Dust (2001), Before the Rain (1994) and over 50 short forms, including the awarded: The End of Time (2017), Thursday (2013), 1.73 (1984) and the music video Tennessee (1991) for Arrested Development (which The Rolling Stone placed on the list of the 100 best videos ever). He has also been a director on HBO’s The Wire (2002). So far, he had three solo exhibitions of photographs, published works of fiction, books of photographs and staged performance art.

Before the Rain won an Academy-Award nomination and thirty awards, including Golden Lion for Best Film in Venice. The New York Times included the film on its list of the best 1,000 films ever made. His films are part of the curricula at numerous universities worldwide, and have been discoursed at a number of conferences.

He taught and served as Head of Directing Studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Film program, also taught and lectured at a number of universities, cinematheques, art museums and art institutes around the world and holds an honorary doctorate from VGIK in Moscow, Russia. Manchevski’s work has screened at more than three hundred festivals, and has been distributed in more than 50 countries and he has served on festival juries in Venice, Shanghai, Warsaw, Locarno, Teheran, Vilnius, Pula, FEST (Belgrade) etc. After the special screeningс of Dust (PFF 2017) and The End of Time (PFF 2018), Manchevski was a member of the jury at the Philosophical Film Festival in 2019.

Perttu Saksa is a Finnish contemporary artist and photographer. He has graduated (MFA) in fine arts from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and from photography (BA) from the Lahti University of Applied Science and studied art in Icelandic Academy of Arts 1999. Perttu’s photography and video works have been exhibited in various galleries and museums around Europe, including Stadtgalerie Kiel, Felleshus Berlin and Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki City Art Museum and Kiasma – Contemporary Art Museum of Finland. His works can also be found in various public collections. Perttu Saksa lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.

Shady Srour is an actor, scriptwriter, director and producer for Cinema, Theatre and TV, and a lecturer at the Open University.

He has B.A degree from Tel-Aviv University in Theater acting and M.F.A in filmmaking from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Lately Shady was involved in the film 24 Hours Jerusalem (arte), which won the German TV Award for best documentary 2014. He was the Lead in the Oscarnominated short film Ave Maria. Holy Air is his feature debut as director.

Sophie Linnenbaum was born in Nuremberg and has a Diploma in Psychology. Her short films are screened on national and international Festivals, like the awarded [OUT OF FRA]ME or DUOLOGUE which had it's Premiere at the Berlinale and went to Cannes 2017. Her Shortfilm PIX was awarded with the German Short Film Award 2017. She studies directing at Film University Babelsberg.

Stefan Palitov is a filmmaker, media artist and researcher focusing on storytelling, extended realities and art & tech. His academic background includes BA studies in Philosophy on Ss. Cyril and Methodius - Skopje and filmmaking studies on FAMU in Prague, Czech Republic. Acquired Master of Arts in Media Arts Cultures Erasmus Mundus Excellence Program.

Along with creating fiction and documentary films, he has exhibited VR and media artworks. Notable exhibitions include Ars Electronica and exhibitions in Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Changsha... Former artist in residence on UNESCO supported residency in China and at ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe researching the history and design of 360-degree, VR and immersive artworks.

Stanisław Liguziński is a PhD fellow at the Institute of Audiovisual Arts of the Jagiellonian University, a video essayist, educator, XR and film programmer and a film critic. Being a graduate of academic programmes in media, film and critical theory but also an alumnus of the Nederlandse Film Academy, he combines both areas of expertise to develop practice-based research in and through cinema.

He wrote for major Polish media outlets, curated programs, screenings and XR experiences for international film festivals and cultural institutions. He is conducting research into videographic forms of thinking. Aside from the developing FilmArcades Project (workshops, VR, graphic novel, dissertation), he’s currently collaborating with the Essay LAB of the National Film School in Łódź.

Stefan Vidikov was born in 1994 in Kavadarci, Macedonia He finished primary and secondary school in his hometown. In 2018 he completed his undergraduate studies at the Institute of Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University - Skopje. In the same year he started postgraduate studies (Studies of Politics) at the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities in Skopje. In 2019 he started working as an ethics teacher at the Nevena Georgieva - Dunja and Kiril Pejcinovic, both primary schools in Skopje, and at the same time he is an assistant of film director Milcho Manchevski.

Dejan Zdravkov, born in Veles, has graduated and finished his MA studies at the Department of Philosophy, University "Ss. Cyril and Methodius" in Skopje. He has also finished his PhD on the same Department in 2015 with a PhD thesis titled "Existence and intuition - Bergson's and Heidegger's notions of Man and Time", mentored by academic Ferid Muhić (published in 2019 as a book). He researches in the areas of philosophical anthropology and aesthetics. In his free time, he loves painting.

Atanas Chuposki is a writer and director, holding a PhD degree in Philological Sciences. He is working as a filmologist consultant at the Cinematheque of N. Macedonia, and he is a scriptwriter and director of seven documentaries and one short fiction film. He is the author of around twenty TV shows produced by the Macedonian Radio Television and around hundred radio shows produced by Kanal 103 and Radio Ravel. He is the author of four books and over a hundred literary and film studies, essays, poems, short stories and other texts. He is a professor of Film History, Film Theory and Literature, Film and Politics at two Macedonian private universities. He is a member of the Macedonian Writers Association, the Association of Comparative Literature of Macedonia and the Center for Culture and Cultural Studies.

Boshko Karadzov is a philosophy professor and researcher. He holds a master's degree and a doctorate from the Institute of Philosophy, University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” – Skopje, in the field of contemporary epistemology and sociology of knowledge. For more than ten years he has worked as a university assistant, assistant professor and a professor of Philosophy, Political Philosophy and Methodology and Epistemology of Scientific Research, but also as an educator in Philosophy of Art and Pop Culture (comics) in several international youth educational programs and schools. Karadzov is the author of numerous scientific studies and authorized lectures; he is a research associate in the field of graphic literature and intermedial genres at the Department of Linguistics and Literary Science at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Kiril Trajchev is a professor at the International Slavic University "G.R. Derzhavin". For a few years he has been teaching also at the Film Academy of the University "Goce Delchev" in Shtip. He is a participant of several alternative and amateur film and theater festivals and realized several short films and theater projects. His texts have been published in several journals and anthologies. He has participated also in many scientific symposiums and conferences. Since 2017 he takes the role of Selector of the Official Selection of Feature Films of the Philosophical Film Festival. He is also one of the organisers of the PFF Caravan in Eastern Macedonia, also organizing youth workshops for film and philosophy.

EMA POPIVODA is a pianist with a rich international career and an ambassador of Macedonian culture in the world. During her studies, she had the privilege of studying with renowned professors, including: Stela Slejanska, Aquiles Delle Vigne, William Howard, Boris Romanov, Arbo Valdma, Rita Kinka.

The concert career of Popivoda is very rich and diverse. Her repertoire includes performances of works from the classical repertoire, but also works by contemporary authors, Macedonian composers and new innovative music styles in which she herself appears as a composer and performer. Popivoda is the founder and artistic selector of the Festival of Contemporary Music Modoars, which features artists from the domestic scene and from all around the world. She is also a piano professor at the Music Academy at the University “Goce Delchev” – Stip.

ACOUSTIC ELECTRONICS is a unique musical performance in which some of the worlds most famous electronic hits, suitable for piano, are transformed into a classical music, and in some variations accompanied by contra-bass and a drum. On the repertoire there are original compositions on themes from electronic hits that are adapted in a “classical style” and performed on acoustic instruments. Electronic songs from different time periods are arranged in a kind of history of electronic music starting from Kraftwerk, New Order, Bronski beat, Frankie Knuckles, Orbital, all the way to David Morales, Moby, Future sound of London, DJ Rolando, Fatima Yamaha … The concert “Acoustic Electronics” was first time performed in Skopje, and than traveled with great success to Austria, the USA, Croatia and Montenegro.

· Anita Stojcevska (Agency of Film)

· Igor Ivanov (director, MFPA / Мanaki)

· Bistra Georgieva (МEDIA Desk MK)

· Vladimir Lj. Angelov (Cinematheque)

· Ruse Arsov (Youth Cultural Center / Cinedays)

· Sasha Stanishik (CutAway / Cinesquare)

· Stefan Palitov (director)

· Atanas Georgiev (director / producer)

· Tatjana Janevska (Skopje Film Festival) and

· Darko Nabakov (MakeDox)