Sarajevo Film Festival presented the European Short Film Jury, who will name the Sarajevo short film candidate for the European Film Academy (EFA) Best Film Award 2019. That same candidate will also qualify to compete for an Academy Award (Oscar) in the Best Short Film category.
Mahdi Fleifel, Director, Denmark
Born in Dubai, Mahdi Fleifel lives and works between Denmark, England and Greece. A graduate of the UK's National Film & Television School, he studied Fiction Directing under Stephen Frears and Pawel Pawlikowski. In 2010 he founded the London based production company Nakba FilmWorks with Irish producer Patrick Campbell.
Fleifel's critically acclaimed debut feature, A WORLD NOT OURS, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received over 30 awards, including the Berlinale Peace Film Prize, and the Edinburgh, Yamagata and DOC:NYC Grand Jury Prizes. He was named Best New Nordic Voice at Nordisk Panorama and received the New Talent Award at CPH:DOX in 2013.
In 2016 Fleifel won a Silver Bear for A MAN RETURNED. His follow up, A DROWNING MAN, was selected in the Official Competition at Cannes and was nominated for a BAFTA. His last film, I SIGNED THE PETITION, won Best Documentary Short at IDFA and was nominated for the 2018 European Film Awards.
Maike Mia Höhne, Artistic Director, Shortfilm Festival Hamburg, Germany
Maike Mia Höhne (b. 1971 in Hanover) studied visual communication at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Havana as well as the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in San Antonio de Los Baños, Cuba. After stays in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she completed her post-graduate studies at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg with a focus on film. She works as a curator and juror for several institutions and festivals worldwide and is involved in film funding on a regional and national level. From 2007 to 2019 she was head of Berlinale Shorts of the Berlin International Filmfestival. Höhne is a professor for film at the University of Applied Sciences Europe in Hamburg. She also teaches Filmtheorie and making at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. Since March 2019, she has been the artistic director of the Hamburg Short Film Festival.
Filmography 3/4 (2014), Warum wir waren was wir waren (2011), Eine einfache Liebe (2005), Von der Hingabe (2002), Fin de siglo (1998), Petit Voyage (1996).
Srđan Vuletić, Director and screenwriter, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Directed and scripted award-winning feature and short films: Summer in the Golden Valley (world premiere Toronto Film Festival, Tiger Award, Rotterdam Film Festival), It's Hard to Be Nice (Best Actor Award Sarajevo Film Festival, Mont Blanc Scriptwriting Prize Hamburg Film Festival) Hop, Skip & Jump (Berlin Film Festival Panorama Award), 10 Minutes (script – Best short film European Film Academy). Member of the European Film Academy.
