The festival jury will choose the winners in three competition programmes: DOCU/WORLD, DOCU/SHORT and DOCU/UKRAINE. They will also award a special prize to one of the films nominated for the RIGHTS NOW! Award.
The jury of the DOCU/WORLD international competition of feature-length and medium-length documentaries are: Elwira Niewiera, Polish-German filmmaker and writer; Eva Križková, Executive Director of the One World Slovakia International Documentary Film Festival; and Bohdan Zhuk, programer for the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival and co-founder and director of the SUNNY BUNNY queer film festival.
Bohdan Zhuk
Bohdan is a programmer for the Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist, Ukraine’s biggest film event (51st edition took place in December 2022). With education in linguistics and professional background as translator, journalist and radio host, he joined the Molodist team in 2014 as a press attaché (till 2015) and programmer. He programs competition and non-competition sections of Molodist and curates its LGBTQ+ program SUNNY BUNNY, Ukraine’s oldest regular queer-themed event (since 2001). In 2023 Sunny Bunny becomes a queer film festival, Ukraine’s first, to take place in June this year, with Zhuk as its co-founder and director. He also works in the selection team of the BEAST International Film Festival (Porto), in communications (British Council Ukraine) and translates films for national releases and festival screenings. Jury member at Teddy Awards (Berlinale), BEAST IFF (Porto), image+nation (Montreal), TLVFest (Tel-Aviv), Crime & Punishment IFF (Istanbul), Mezipatra QFF (Prague).
The winners in the DOCU/UKRAINE and the DOCU/SHORT competitions, which will be national this year, will be chosen by: Marko Grba Singh, filmmaker and Art Director of the BELDOCS International Documentary Film Festival in Belgrad; Gediminas Andriukaitis, founder and director of Inconvenient Films; and Olena Honcharuk, head of the Dovzhenko Centre Film Museum and winner of the competition for the position of the CEO of Dovzhenko Centre.
Since 2018 he serves as the Artistic Director of BELDOCS, Belgrade International Documentary Film Festival. His first feature film “Rampart” (2021) premiered at Locarno Film Festival.
Olena Honcharuk
Olena is a cultural manager, cultural critic, museologist, and copywriter. She was born in Kremenchuk, grew up in Kryvyi Rih, and is based in Kyiv now. She gained her master's degree in cultural studies from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Currently, she is the director of the Film Museum at Dovzhenko Center in Kyiv and the competition winner for the Dovzhenko Center's director general position. She has worked at Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre and the State Fund of Ukrainian Films since 2016. Together with the Dovzhenko Center team, she contributed to the opening of the Film Museum, and the creation of the exhibitions VUFKU. Lost & Found and Flights in Dreams and Reality, and the festival of silent films and contemporary music Mute Nights, as well as the social resistance movement against the so-called "reorganisation" of Dovzhenko Center.
The special RIGHTS NOW! prize is an award given to creative documentaries which explore and analyse the modern world and make a significant contribution to the discussion around human dignity, freedom, and equality. Up to ten films from all festival programmes are nominated for it. Please welcome the jury: Masi-Mustafa Nayyem, Ukrainian lawyer serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, public figure and human rights advocate; Dagmar Ostřanská, cultural manager and founder of the Sofia DocuMental International Human Rights Film Festival; and Kujtim Çashku, filmmaker, Executive Director of the International Human Rights Film Festival in Albania, and Head of the Assembly of the Albanian Helsinki Union.
Mustafa-Masi Nayyem
Mustafa-Masi is a Ukrainian lawyer, founder of Miller Law Firm, a member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a public figure, and a human rights advocate. In 2007, he graduated from the Faculty of Law at International Solomon University. He is a graduate of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies. In 2018, he studied at the Aspen Institute Kyiv.
Masi Nayyem is known for his participation in many high-profile court cases. He defended witnesses in the murder of Ukrainian activist Kateryna Handziuk. He was a lawyer for the participants of the "Who murdered Katyia Handziuk" action on 9 February 2019, who were subjected to criminal proceedings. He defended the Closer art club in court in the case of searches on its territory conducted by the National Police.
Provides legal assistance to veterans of the Russia-Ukraine war.
He was awarded with the medal For Military Valor (2022), Wound Medal (2022), and the Firearms Award of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (2022).In 2009, she was the executive and marketing director of Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2011-2014, she was a member of the diplomatic mission of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ukraine as the director of the Czech Center in Kyiv.
In 2015-2017, she was the director of audiovisual collections at the National Film Archive in Prague. In 2018-2023, she was the director of the Czech Center in Sofia, where she founded the Sofia DocuMental International Human Rights Film Festival together with the Bulgarian organisation Balkan Documentary Center. She currently lives and works in Prague.
Kujtim Çashku
Kujtim is a film director, scriptwriter, producer and human rights activist. He is the head of the Marubi Film & Multimedia Academy, and Executive Director of the International Human Rights Film Festival Albania. He is the Chairman of Assembly of the Albanian Helsinki Committee.
Не graduated from the Higher Institute of Art of Albania, Institute of Theatre and Film, in Bucharest, and post-graduated from Columbia University CSHR, New York.
In 1990 he was one of the founders of the Albanian Helsinki Committee; in 2004 he founded the first film school in Albania, the Marubi Academy of Film and Multimedia, and in 2006 he created the International Human Rights Film Festival in Albania.
He is a member of the European Film Academy, the Albanian Academy of Arts and Science, and the European-Balkan Academy of Art and Science.
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The 20th anniversary of Docudays UA is held with support from the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, US Embassy in Ukraine, the Embassy of Ireland in Ukraine, the Embassy of Denmark in Ukraine, the Embassy of Brazil in Ukraine, the Polish Institute in Kyiv and the Czech centre Kyiv. The opinions, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of the governments or organisations of these countries. Responsibility for the content of the publication lies exclusively on the authors and editors of the publication.
