INTERNATIONAL JURY OF IFF “LOVE IS FOLLY”
Momchil Karamitev
President of the Jury
Bulgaria
Momchil Karamitev was born in Sofia. In Rome he graduated with honors in Film Directing. He participated as assistant director in numerous Italian and international television and film productions. When he finished his studies in Rome, he went to the USA where he specialized in Film Dramaturgy at New York University. In addition to writing the required course scripts, Momchil co-wrote numerous scripts for independent directors and producers which helped him complete his studies in the US. Karamitev then returned to Sofia and joined BNT as a director and co-writer with Dragan Tenev. Later he went to Los Angeles where he worked as an assistant director, writer and as a director with numerous artists. Some of the productions he has worked with are TV series such as “Carnival”, “The West Wing”, “X-Files”, “Gilmore Girls”, “Star Trek”, “Bones”, “Mad Men” and numerous feature films some of which are “The Aviator” directed by Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Million Dollar Baby,” George Clooney’s “The Good German” and a dozen independent films such as Michael Keaney’s “Gimme a Card (Hit Me),” among others.
Momchil Karamitev’s films in Bulgaria include the documentary “Apostol Karamitev” which won the annual award of the Bulgarian Film Academy for the best TV documentary in 2011 and numerous international awards in the USA, “In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors in Occitania”, “The Advertisement”, “Apostol – The Power of the Spirit” from the series “BNT Presents”. He continues to research undeveloped topics related to common human and historical issues, facts and events. Recently, he participated in the international jury of Sofia Film Fest”. Currently, Momchil is working on two short fiction projects based on Sergei Komitsky’s short stories and has recently finished his work in the NFC committee for distribution of Bulgarian and foreign films.
Ahmet Boyacioglu
Türkiye
Ahmet Boyacioglu (1953) is a Festival Programmer, Director, Scriptwriter, Producer and Editor. He graduated from Ankara University with a degree in medicine and worked 20 years as a general surgeon. He served as the programmer of the Ankara Film Festival from 1988 to 1995. Since 1995 he has been the artistic director of the Festival on Wheels, as well as chairing the Ankara Cinema Association. Festival on Wheels is a travelling film festival, visiting three – four cities in Turkey and abroad every year.
He took on the role of Turkey’s national representative for Eurimages from 2005 to 2007.
He is one of the founding members of Close Up, an annual training programme for documentary filmmakers from the Middle East and North Africa. He is involved in the creation of 50 films from all around the MENA, Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Dubai, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Turkey. He was also among the founders of Meetings on the Bridge and the Turkish – German Co Production Development Fund of the Istanbul Film Festival.
In 2009, he co-produced the feature film Tales from Kars, which premiered in Rotterdam. He wrote and directed his first feature Black and White in 2010, which won the Special Award of the Jury at the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, among other awards. He directed his second feature The Smell of Money in 2018.
He is the editor of Mold (directed by Ali Aydın, 2012), The Wedding Dance (directed by Çiğdem Sezgin, 2015), Rauf (directed by Barış Kaya and Soner Caner, 2016) and The Plane Tree (directed by Mustafa Karadeniz, 2017).
He organised Turkish film weeks in 25 countries (Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, South Korea and the USA) within the framework of various international film festivals.
He is a member of the European Film Academy. He was in charge of the Turkish Film Stands at the Berlin and Cannes Film Festivals from 2007 to 2017. He worked as the World Cinema Coordinator at Adana Film Festival from 2006 to 2016.
He served as a jury member at the Berlin-Forum, Karlovy Vary, Warsaw, Cork, Manila, Palic, Guanajuato, Brussels, Festroia, Varna, Prishtina, Fajr, Huesca, Valladolid, Dubrovnik, Sofia, Lucknow and Guadalajara film festivals.
He was the director of the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, between 2019- 2023.
Filmography
2000 Funeral (short)
2000 3×8=24 (short)
2010 Black and White (feature)
2013 Tuncel Kurtiz, a Trusted Travel Companion of the Festival on Wheels (documentary)
2018 The Smell of Money (feature)
Madarász Isti
Hungary
Born in 1976 in Miskolc, Hungary. He never went to film school, but started to make films as a self-taught filmmaker. His early short films won several awards in Hungary, his breakout time-traveling short film SOONER OR LATER (2007) was shown all over the world and won multiple awards at festivals.
In 2007, he was selected as a participant in the Berlinale Talent Campus, which brings together the most talented young filmmakers in Europe, and a year later in the same program in Sarajevo.
In the next decade, while editing promos and trailers for production companies and directing dozens of commercials, music videos, TV series episodes and 4 feature-length TV films, he wrote and directed his first feature film, the time-travel thriller LOOP (2016), which won the Silver Méliès Award in 2017 and many more prestigious awards around the world. His second feature film HALFWAY HOME (2022), a romantic fantasy film, won the Silver Méliès Award again, which is unprecedented in Europe.
His latest work, the big budget, 8 episode historical drama series FAIRYLAND (2023) was premiered on Hungarian Television with great success. The story of the Transylvanian princes in the 17th century, based on a famous Hungarian novel, gathered a huge fan base in Hungary and in the surrounding countries. All episodes were directed by Isti.
Isti is well known for his overflowing enthusiasm for filmmaking, the light hearted but focused atmosphere on his sets, his sometimes twisted but deeply emotional stories, complex and tricky shots and his fond of using practical, creative on-set visual effects.
*In Hungarian, first and last names are written in reverse order
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY WITH FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
2022 – HALFWAY HOME / ÁTJÁRÓHÁZ (feature film)
Brussels International Film Festival – Main prize, Mélies d’argent Award Varna Film Festival – Jury prize
Sitges IFFFC – Jury Special Mention in Novas Visions section
Porto Allegre Fantaspoa – in competition
Dracula International Film Festival, Brasov – in competition
Lund Fantastic Film Festival – in competition
Imagine – Amsterdam Film Festival – in competition
The Galactic Imaginarium Sci-fi and Fantasy Film Festival – in competition
2017 – LOOP / HUROK (feature film)
Triest Science+Fiction Festival – Main prize, Mélies d’argent Award Amsterdam Imagine Festival – in competition
Brussels International Festival of Fantasy & Science-Fiction Film – in competition Fantasporto Film Festival – in competition
Alter-native Filmfesztivál, Marosvásárhely – in competition
Filmtettfeszt, Kolozsvár – in competition
Cairo International Filmfestival – in competition
2015 – TETEMRE HÍVÁS (short film)
Moscow Detective Film Festival – in competition
2010 – HUNGARY – World of Potentials (commercial)
FilmART & Touristic Film Festival, Warsaw – Grand Prix
International Tourfilm, Riga – Grand Prix
International Tourfilm, Riga – Best Cultural Touristfilm
ART&TUR Film Festival, Portugalia – 2nd prize for Best Destination Tourism film SILA Fest, Serbia – Best Original Score
2009 – SUPERDIGITAL (short film)
AXN Television Film Festival – Grand prize
Huesca Film Festival – in competition
Manchester Kinofilm – in competition
Targu-Mures AlterNative – in competition
2007 – SOONER OR LATER / ELŐBB-UTÓBB (short film)
Hungarian Filmweek – Best short film from the special jury
Valladolid International Film Festival – Golden Spike award for best short film Huston WorldFest – Platina Remi Award
Mediawave – special prize of Kodak
Sarajevo International Film Festival – in competition
Aubagne International Film Festival – in competition
Tokyo ShortShorts Festival – in competition
Aubagne International Film Festival – in competition
Calgary International Film Festival – in competition
Drama International Short Film Festival – in competition
La Ciotat “Best of Short Films” Festival – in competition
Saint-Petersburg Message to Man – in competition
Trieste Maremetraggio – in competition