Konstantin Shishkin

Writer & Director
Juror for Short Fiction, Medium-Feature, & Animated Film

Konstantin Shishkin was born and raised in Zurich. He holds a degree in film studies, has hitchhiked to Kyrgyzstan, and has spent countless hours watching films.

Since 2023, he has been working as an independent writer and director in both Russia and Switzerland.

Diane Schüssele

Writer & Production
Juror for Short Fiction, Medium-Feature, & Animated Film
Diane was telling stories before she could even speak. She gathered stories during extended stays in New Zealand, Mexico, the USA, and Finland. While studying media and film in Offenburg and at the University of Texas in Austin, she created award-winning short films. She then pursued screenwriting studies at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, where she completed her studies with projects such as the children’s series HULDUFÓLK. Her first feature film, VERDANDI, is currently in production in the Faroe Islands.

Alejandro Mathe

Director
Juror for Short Fiction, Medium-Feature, & Animated Film

Born and raised in Ibiza, the son of a German mother and an Andalusian father. In 2023, he graduated in directing from the ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln. His films have been showcased at numerous festivals, including BIFFF and Camerimage. His graduation film, EL MÁRTIR, shot in southern Spain, received two nominations for the 2023 First Steps Award of the German Film Academy, won the Grand Prix du Jury at the Poitiers Film Festival, and was among the winners of the latest SHORTS. He is currently working on his debut feature film, supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.

Kevin Biele

Writer & Director
Juror for Short Fiction, Medium-Feature, & Animated Film

Born in Leverkusen, Germany. He holds a B.A. in Intermedia with a focus on media art from the University of Cologne and a B.A. in Directing from the ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln.

His short film Mona & Parviz (2021) was screened at more than 30 national and international film festivals and received multiple awards. His short documentary Bis morgen (2022) was nominated for the 2024 Grimme Award. With his graduation film Lange nicht gesehen (2023), he was invited to the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, PÖFF Shorts Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, and Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival, among others. He is currently writing his debut feature film Verbrecher, which he developed as part of the Torino Script Lab 2024.

Brigitte Schmidle

Filmeditor
Juror for Documentary film

Brigitte Maria Schmidle is an experienced film editor specializing in documentary and feature films. After studying at Hochschule Offenburg, her career took her to Berlin and London before she joined the production company Accentus Music in Leipzig. There, she contributed to several significant documentary films, including In Between: Isang Yun in North and South Korea.

She deepened her passion for film editing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts in 2022. In 2023, she worked as the editor of the documentary Baldiga: Entsichertes Herz, which won the Mariposa Award at the Mix México Festival.

Her other notable works include Mary Bauermeister – Eins und Eins ist Drei and Silvia is my Name (2019), which was awarded Best Documentary at the Filmfest Mainz FILMZ in 2020. In addition to her work as a freelance editor, Brigitte Maria Schmidle is also actively involved as a tutor in film editing.

Dr. Gudrun Hanke-El Ghomri

Juror for Documentary film
Dr. Gudrun Hanke-El Ghomri studied Romance languages, history, and comparative literature in Mainz and Orléans, France. After earning her doctorate, she first worked at ZDF before joining Südwestrundfunk (formerly Südwestfunk) in 1992. For many years, she headed the documentary film department and served as Deputy Arte Program Coordinator for SWR. Since January 2013, she has been the Arte Representative for Südwestrundfunk (SWR). Numerous films from her editorial department have received international awards and have been successfully presented at international festivals. Three films she supervised editorially were nominated for the Academy Awards (“Oscars”): Last Men in Aleppo (2018) and The Cave (2020) by Feras Fayyad, as well as Of Fathers and Sons (2019) by Talal Derki.

Carolin Schmitz

Filmeditor
Juror for Documentary film
Carolin Schmitz studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Her short films have been screened at national and international festivals. In 2006, she received the German Short Film Award for Benidorm. Portraits of German Alcoholics premiered at the Berlinale and received an Honorable Mention. For her film Beauty, she was awarded the Gerd Ruge Project Grant. The film premiered at the Leipzig Documentary Film Festival. Mother, starring Anke Engelke, premiered at the Munich Film Festival. She lives and works as an independent filmmaker in Cologne.

Leonard küßner

Komponist
Juror for Sound
Leonard Küßner is an award-winning composer who works for film, dance, theater and the concert stage. In 2023, he was honored by the International Documentary Association in Los Angeles with the IDA Award “Best Original Music Score” for his music for Wim Wenders’ film “Anselm”. Küßner studied film music at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and has since celebrated premieres and successes with national and international projects, e.g. several times at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Maximilian Schlichter

Musician, producer, popular music representative
Juror for Sound

Maximilian Schlichter (born 1988) has been a prominent figure in the German music scene for over two decades. As the guitarist and founding member of the band Killerpilze, he has played over 1,000 concerts across Europe, including performances at renowned festivals such as Rock am Ring, Nova Rock, and the Taubertal Festival. The band was awarded a Gold Record and, in 2018, produced the award-winning documentary film Immer noch jung – 15 Jahre Killerpilze, which was honored at the Munich Film Festival.

In addition to his career as an active musician, Maximilian Schlichter is passionately committed to supporting the pop music scene. Since 2021, he has served as the Commissioner for Popular Music for the district of Swabia and as the spokesperson for Bavaria’s Popular Music Commissioners. In this role, he develops new funding programs, strengthens the independent music scene, and acts as a bridge between pop culture and cultural policy. He advocates for the interests of musicians and creatives in cultural committees and actively works to improve conditions and increase the visibility of pop music in Bavaria.

As a composer and producer, Schlichter has contributed to over 400 published works, including soundtracks for successful feature films such as Meet the Robinsons, The Crocodiles, and Lissi and the Wild Emperor. His work is characterized by a deep passion for musical diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities—values that he consistently upholds in all his projects.