The jury for the festival’s anniversary edition has been finalized. Its five members are looking forward to the 40th FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH and to the films in the International Competition. The jury consists of international professionals from the fields of film directing and distribution, academia, and festival planning. The jury will screen the films in person during the week of the festival in Munich and will present a number of awards at its conclusion.

These are the members of this year’s jury:

Mara Wesenauer was born in Vienna. She studied sociology and political science at the Humboldt University in Berlin, from which she graduated in 2008. She then spent several years as an acting agent at die agenten GmbH in Berlin. In 2013 she returned to Vienna to work on various film and television productions. Since 2019 she has been in charge of project sponsorship and media planning at Stadtkino Filmverleih.

Loïc Hobi is a French-Swiss filmmaker who was born in 1997. He studied directing at Luc Besson’s École de la Cité in France. His graduation film, L’HOMME JETÉE, was screened at film festivals around the world, including in Winterthur, Berlin, and Busan. At FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH 2020, the film received the Panther Prize for the best production. His current film, THE LIFE UNDERGROUND, premiered at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival. He has just finished shooting his latest film, ALEXX196 & THE PINK SAND BEACH, which will premiere in 2022.

Greek documentary filmmaker Angélique Kourounis attended the Institut des hautes études internationales at the Sorbonne in Paris, where she earned a degree in history and political science. She is a foreign correspondent for various French media companies, covering Greece and the Balkans. Her documentaries deal mostly with issues in her home country, such as neo-Nazi movements (GOLDEN DAWN, A PERSONAL AFFAIR, 2016) and mounting domestic terrorism (GREECE: THE ISSUE OF DOMESTIC TERRORISM, 2011).

Roberto Cueto is on the programming team of the San Sebastián Film Festival. In addition to being a professor of media studies at the Carlos III University of Madrid, he teaches courses and holds seminars at other Spanish universities, such as the Madrid Film School (ECAM). A former film journalist, he also used to work for the Gijón and Sitges Film Festivals. He is the editor of several collaborative volumes that deal with various aspects of cinema.

Olga Caspers was born in 1976. She started out studying German and journalism at Rostov-on-Don State University, then earned a master’s degree in modern German literature and German linguistics from the Ruhr University in Bochum. She received her doctorate in Slavic philology, graduating summa cum laude. Alongside her studies, she taught German as a foreign language, Russian, and intercultural communication. In 2014/15 she was a visiting professor in Taipei and Kazakhstan. She is currently working on her postdoctoral project at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where she is also a research assistant.