Members of the jury of the laboratory-competition Civil Pitch 2.0: Roman Bondarchuk (Ukraine), filmmaker, Maciej Nowicki (Poland), co-founder of WATCH DOCS, Zane Balčus (Latvia), the head of the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries, Kateryna Serhatskova (Ukraine), editor-in-chief of the online media Zaborona, and a representative of the Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement (USAID/ENGAGE) Darya Kumeda (Ukraine).
You can apply until 18 February.
During the 19th Docudays UA, they will choose the four winners of the film ideas pitching, who will receive:
More about jury members:
Maciej Nowicki is thePresident of the Board of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland), one of Europe’s leading human rights NGOs. Co-founder and Director of the International Film Festival WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film in Warsaw, established in 2001. Author of the concept behind the FUTURE DOCS international platform for creative encounters between human rights defenders and documentary filmmakers.
Roman Bondarchuk is a Ukrainian feature and documentary filmmaker. He is the art director of the Docudays UA festival. In 2016, his documentary Ukrainian Sheriffs was nominated for the Oscar from Ukraine. In 2019, he won the Shevchenko National Prize in the Cinema Art category. His previous film, Volcano, premiered at Karlovy Vary IFF and was shown at over 50 festivals all over the world, where it won more than a dozen awards.
Just like during the last edition of Civil Pitch in 2018, Roman Bondarchuk will also be one of the mentors for the competition’s winners, helping the teams to create their films for a year. The mentors accompany Civil Pitch films at all stages of production, from shooting to editing, and provide expert support to the winning filmmakers.
Zane Balčus is the head of the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries (Riga, Latvia), researcher, curator and film critic. In 2014–2019, she was the managing director of the Riga Film Museum; in 2000–2005, she worked as a programmer at IFF Arsenals in Riga. She co-authored several books on Latvian cinema and worked with various film publications (such as Film New Europe, Kino Raksti). She was a FIPRESCI jury member at IDFA (2019), ZagrebDox (2020), the International Competition of goEast (2020), the documentary jury of Best Nordic at Nordisk Panorama (2021) and others.
Daria Kumeda is the programme manager of the Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement (USAID/ENGAGE), an Inclusivity Specialist who works with marginalized groups, youth, and people with disabilities. She has conducted training sessions and workshops for different categories of people with disabilities and youth.
Kateryna Serhatskovais the editor-in-chief of the online media Zaborona, which is the main information partner of Civil Pitch 2.0, the author of the documentary book Goodbye, Islamic State: Only the Future Remains, and the creator and co-producer of the documentary essay series Light It Up!.
Read more about Civil Pitch 2.0 here.
