Mateja Valentinčič is a journalist and a film critic from Slovenia. For the past twenty years she has been a journalist specializing in film at Slovenian Television and has written for diverse publications as a film critic for a decade. Yevhen Stepanenko is a film and theatre director from Ukraine, who has been working in media and creative industry for more than 20 years. He is currently working as a special correspondent for PBC UA and Channel 5 TV, as well as a television and radio host. Dragan Nikolić is a director, screenwriter and cinematographer of the documentary films from Serbia. His documentaries have been screened at over 100 international festivals, with 18 awards won. He is the editor of the film program of the Belgrade Youth Centre. 

The jury in this composition chooses the Grand Prix of the 23 MFF among the ten films in the competition.

Mate Valentinčič studied comparative literature and philosophy at the University of Ljubljana. For the past twenty years she has been a journalist specializing in film at Slovenian Television. She has written for diverse publications as a film critic for a decade and was a member of the editorial board of the Slovenian film magazine Ekran. She hosted the cultural news Kulturaon Slovenian Television for five years and hosted the broadcaster’s main cultural program Osmi danbetween 2013 and 2015. She prepared and hosted the weekly film program Kino fokus(2015-2019) and the monthly program Kinoteka(2015-2017) in which she interviewed film scholars, critics, sociologists, philosophers and others to introduce cycles of classic films broadcast on Slovenian Television.She has hosted the monthly film program Umetni rajsince 2020 and regularly reports from festivals such as the Trieste Film Festival, Far East Film Fest in Udine, Kino otok – Isola Cinema in Izola, Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, the Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival in Ljutomer, the Sarajevo Film Festival, the Motovun Film Festival, the Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, the Rome Film Festival, Liffe, etc.She was a member of the jury of the 11th Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož, of The European Broadcasting Festival, PRIX EUROPA, in Berlin and many others. 

Film and theatre director Yevhen Stepanenko was born on 5 August 1974 in Ukraine. Projects that he has been creating for more than 20 years in media and creative industry have been shown on TV channels such as Discovery, RTR, Channel 5, TV 100 – Sankt Petersburg, UA Kultura, ICTV, СТБ, NTN, Arte, Mezzo. He completed the documentary film course at the La Femis film school in Paris and the screenwriting and directing courses at Aleksei Germano and Svetlana Karmalita programme in St. Petersburg. As a special correspondent, TV presenter and director, he worked with Channel 5 Ukraine for more than 10 years. He is currently working as a special correspondent for PBC UA and Channel 5 TV, as well as a television and radio host.He is the author and presenter of a 10-episode documentary series On the Eastern Front, talk show War and Peacewith more than 300 broadcasts on radio and TV, the documentary play Voices(the play was included in the top-10 cultural events in Ukraine in 2019), documentary films Debaljceva, the plays Glasovi, Zračna luka, Kotao, The Liberation of Ševčenko, etc. 

Dragan Nikolić (1974) is the director, screenwriter and cinematographer of the documentary films The Undertaker(2013), The Caviar Connection(2008) and National Park(2006), all three premiered at IDFA, the most important documentary film festival in the world. In addition, these films were screened at over 100 other international festivals, with a total of 18 awards won. The film The Undertakerwas ranked in the TOP 10 best European TV documentaries according to the expert jury of the Prix Europa festival and the winner of the award for the best Serbian documentary film at Beldocs; while the film The Caviar Connectionis the winner of awards for the best documentary film at all major festivals in the region, among which stand out Sarajevo Film Festival, Zagrebdox and Trieste Film Festival. Nikolić is the screenwriter of the feature film Love Cuts, directed by Kosta Đorđević, and co-screenwriter of the films Made in Serbia, directed by Mladen Đorđević, and Run Rabbit, Run, directed by Pavel Vučković. In theatre circles, he is better known as the playwright of the plays Transylvaniaand I, the American. He is the editor of the film program of the Belgrade Youth Center. He graduated from the Department of Dramaturgy, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, and graduated from the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. He has a master's degree in film and TV directing at his home university and is currently a doctoral student in the theory of dramatic arts, media and culture.