We’re particularly excited to have Ildikó Enyedi as the chair of the jury this year. Enyedi has long been a constant in international auteur cinema, as the Golden Bear she received at the Berlinale in 2017 for her drama ON BODY AND SOUL attests. As artful as it is beguilingly sophisticated, that film is a love story about two peculiar individuals who discover by chance that they both dream the same thing every night. By day, they’re co-workers in a location that’s not exactly synonymous with love and romance: a slaughterhouse. Hesitantly and little by little, the two approach each other through delicate gestures. The camera observes this every bit as carefully and cautiously as the protagonists’ tender advances.

this year's Jury president Ildikó Enyedi

Love is a central theme in Enyedi’s works, as in her latest film, THE STORY OF MY WIFE, which is based on the novel of the same title by Hungarian author Milán Füst. As Enyedi explained in an interview with Arte in 2021 on the occasion of the film’s world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, she sees the book as nothing less than a declaration of love for life, and at the same time a reminder of how fleeting life is. This was her first time working with an international cast, and one that includes such illustrious actors as Lea Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Josef Hader, and Ulrich Matthes. Set in the 1920s, this period film tells the story of a rather gruff ship captain who bets a friend that he will marry the first woman to walk through the door of the café they’re in. The gimmick of the whole thing is that the film is told exclusively from the perspective of the captain, who slowly but surely realizes that the patriarchal mentality he grew up with is no longer getting him anywhere.

Yana Sad

Enyedi’s career is without a doubt exceptional. Her debut feature film, MY 20TH CENTURY, earned the Golden Camera for best newcomer film in Cannes. The New York Times named it one of the ten best films of 1990. It was followed by three more films, MAGIC HUNTER, TAMAS AND JULI, and SIMON, THE MAGICIAN, after which a full 18 years passed before her to return to the big screen with ON BODY AND SOUL, which not only cleaned up at the Berlinale but was also nominated for an Oscar for best international film. In the meantime, she created the series IN TREATMENT for the US television channel HBO and taught courses as a professor at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. During her career, she has served on the juries of several prestigious film festivals, including the Berlinale, the Moscow Film Festival and the San Sebastián Film Festival.

Because of her inimitable style as a director and her extensive expertise in film, we are delighted to have her chair the jury at FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH. Since jury work is difficult to master alone, Ildikó Enyedi will be assisted by four other expert jury members.

Quentin Lichtblau

Yana Sad, one of the award-winners at last year’s Filmschoolfest, is returning to Munich for this. Her fascinating film REGIME CHANGE, which was her graduation project at the Moscow School of New Cinema, received the VFF Young Talent Award. This film portrays a relationship as intimate as it is conflicted between two brothers, one of whom is autistic and incapable of living on his own. In addition to studying film directing, Yana Sad also completed training in acting for theater and film at the Saint Petersburg State University of Film and Television in 2017.

Quentin Lichtblau will contribute a journalist’s perspective on the films. He was trained at the German School of Journalism and lives in Munich. As a journalist specializing in the arts, he covers the interplay of pop culture, politics and society for Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Mira Fornay

Mira Fornay is a Slovak director born in Bratislava in 1977. She studied directing at the FAMU film school in Prague and at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, UK. In 2005, she was selected to participate in a workshop by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. Fornay’s debut feature, FOXES, premiered in Venice in 2009. Her second feature, MY DOG KILLER, received the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival and the 2013 CineVision Award at FILMFEST MÜNCHEN. Her third feature film, COOK F**K KILL, had its German premiere at FILMFEST MÜNCHEN, where it received the CineRebels Award.

Özcan Vardar

Finally, Özcan Vardar will judge the films in the competition from the perspective of a film editor. He was born in Istanbul and studied mathematics and film at the Boğaziçi University there. He has been editing feature films and documentaries for more than 15 years. The films he has edited have been screened at the international film festivals in Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. Since 2012, he has taught university courses in cinematic style and film editing. Vardar lives in Hamburg and is a member of the Bundesverband Filmschnitt Editor (BFS), the German association of film editors.