21 – 29 April 2023
Rialto Theatre, Limassol – Zena Palace, Nicosia

Prominent personalities from the international film community make up the five-member jury of this 21st Cyprus Film Days International Festival 2023. Their prestigious presence affirms the festival’s increasing recognition and visibility at a global level.

The five members of the international jury will be in Cyprus during the Festival days. After watching the eight films participating in the Glocal Images competition section, they will reveal the list of winners on Saturday, 29 April, during the Closing Ceremony, which will take place at the Rialto Theatre. The films are competing for the following awards: 

Glocal Images Best Film Award (€6000)
Glocal Images Special Jury Award (€3000)
Glocal Images Best Director Award (€1000)
Authorwave Award (post-production services worth of €4000)
and honorary distinctions (non-accompanied by a monetary prize)

This year’s jury will be headed by internationally acclaimed French film director Julie Bertuccelli as the jury president, accompanied by Georg Georgi Talent Agent, Sebastian Markt head of Berlinale’s Generation, Sophie Cavoulacos Associate Curator of Film at MoMA (USA), and Yianna Americanou award-winning Cypriot filmmaker.

All the films that will be screened as part of the official Glocal Images international competition section, as well as three more fiction films (‘Cyprus Collaborates’ and one ‘Special Screening’), will be competing for the Audience Award, as voted by the spectators. The latter is accompanied by the monetary prize of €500, sponsored by Limassol Municipality.

* The awards conferred by the Jury to the films competing in the Glocal Images have the form of a Neolithic human figure. These are replicas of a stone idol found in the Neolithic settlement of Chirokitia (circa 7000-6000 B.C), a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Information about the jury members

Julie Bertuccelli (1968) began her career serving as assistant to Krzysztof Kieślowski, Otar Iosseliani, Bertrand Tavernier, Rithy Panh, Emmanuel Finkiel, Pierre Étaix, Christian de Chalonge, René Féret, Jean-Louis Bertuccelli and others. She initially studied Philosophy then embarked on documentary-making studies at Ateliers Varan in 1993, where she shot her first documentary Un métier comme un autre, Her first full-length feature film Since Otar Left (2002), which was shot in Georgia, revealed her to the general public and received some twenty awards in France and abroad. The Tree, her second full-length feature film, was shot in Australia with Charlotte Gainsbourg; part of the official selection at Cannes Film Festival. Two more of her films came to French cinemas, School of Babel (2014) and Last news from Cosmos (2016), both nominated for Best Documentary at the César Awards. She then directed her third full-length feature film, Claire Darling with Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni, and, finally, Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman, her last full-length documentary, in official selection (Cannes Classic) at Cannes Festival 2022. Julie Bertuccelli co-directs the Direction Department at the Cinéma School La Fémis and also heads the freshly-inaugurated La Cinémathèque du Documentaire, which she initiated when she presided LaScam, the French-speaking society of documentary authors. She also created the ‘Golden Eye’, the Best Documentary Prize at Cannes Film Festival with LaScam.

Georg Georgi is a talent agent with more than 28 years of experience in the field, who represents over 200 diverse international key talents from more than 30 countries (including Cannes Best Actress winner, lead actors/actress in Golden Bear at Berlinale and European Film awarded films, as well as more than 10 former ‘Shooting Stars’ at Berlinale). He also represents three directors and screenwriters from Germany, Austria and South Africa. Besides his talent agency, he also develops and packages international co-production film and series projects. His first developed project Zonenpunk written and directed by Paul Poet will be shot in Spring 2024 in the east of Germany. He is a programmer at Black Nights Festival Tallinn, and is currently developing an artist residency project and a special festival in the south of Portugal. He has dedicated his life to art and believes in the surprise of experiences and improvisation as a tool of surviving.

Sebastian Markt has been head of the Generation section of Berlinale since September 2022. He studied history in Vienna and Berlin, and has spent time working in arthouse cinemas. He joined the Generation team in 2013 and has been jointly responsible for coordinating the section’s programme since the 2015 festival, most recently as head of programming for the Generation feature-length film selection. As a curator and festival programmer, Sebastian Markt is also actively involved in the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg and junges dokfest in Kassel. In addition, he has been a film critic since 2012 for publications including Sissy, Perlentaucher and Die Zeit. He is a founding member of the Hauptverband Cinephilie (cinephilia association) where he works chiefly in cultural film education. 

Sophie Cavoulacos is an Associate Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where she organizes moving image projects across the museum’s theaters and galleries. Since joining MoMA’s Department of Film in 2012, she has been a programmer for the Doc Fortnight and New Directors/New Films festivals, and leads Modern Mondays, the museum’s artist cinema series. Recent programming also include Currents: Re-Viewing Cineprobe, 1968–2002, and monographic surveys and special projects around the work of Ken Okiishi, Moyra Davey, and Pierre Clémenti.  She is active in the museum’s collection development and the presentation of film and media in the museum’s galleries, most recently organizing displays of work by Sky Hopinka and Sandra Mujinga and the expanded cinema installation Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver’s Cinematic Illumination.

Yianna Amerikanou studied film in the US and the UK. Her short films premiered at Rotterdam IFF, Oberhausen ISFF and many other festivals, receiving prestigious awards. Her short film titled Lullaby received the Tonia Marketaki award for Best Directing in Drama (DISFF) while it was taken by STOP International in Geneva and anti-human trafficking οrganisations in order to promote anti-trafficking legislation. Yianna’s debut feature film .dog has secured International Distribution from the French distribution company URBAN INTERNATIONAL. The film premiered at the Official Competition Section “Meet the Neighbours” of the 62nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and won Special Youth Award. It also won Best Cypriot Film, Best Director and Honorary Distinction for the Actor Dimitris Kitsos at the 20th Cyprus Film Days International Film Festival. Yianna is currently working on the development of her second feature My Name is Lily, which has been developed during the MIDPOINT FEATURE LAUNCH 2022 and presented at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival ‘Eastern Promises’ Pitching Forum. Yianna is on the Board of the Directors Guild of Cyprus and a member of FERA. 

* The Festival’s detailed programme is available at www.cyprusfilmdays.com.

Additional information:

Subtitles:
All films will be screened in their original language with Greek and English subtitles.

Tickets:

• €5 per film
• €30 festival pass (for all screenings)
• Free entrance for students upon display of student card 
• Free entrance for PwD cardholders
• Free entrance for children to the films screened under the Children and Youth section
• All screenings, except those scheduled in the Children and Youth section, are suitable only for persons aged 18+.

Organisers:

Under the auspices: Municipality of Limassol & Municipality of Nicosia

Sponsor: CIPA Film in CyprusHospitality sponsor: Mediterranean Hotel
Media sponsors: Check in City, Cytavision, CyBC
Technical partner: Event Pro
Award sponsor: Authorwave
Official Festival Car: Char.Pilakoutas Group – Nissan
Official Coffee Partner: Caffe Nero

Supporters: Goethe Institute, Bank of Cyprus, University of Cyprus (Graduates’ Office), Cyprus University of Technology, Frederick University, Thinker Maker Space, CYENS Center of Excellence, Xenia Tsolaki Metaxa Private Institute, Directors Guild of Cyprus, Friends of Cinema Society, Limassol Cine Club, Larnaca-Famagusta Cinema Society, Animafest Cyprus, EMEL buses, Cyprus Public Transportation, Pizza Hut, Efimerida Lemesos, Limassol Today, Lemesos Blog, Vestnik Kipra, Limassol Tourism Board, Media What.