Documentary Competition

From ages 17-26, Eugene Corr was a factory worker, warehouse man, forklift driver, crane operator, auto, steel, and cannery worker. He started his career in film in 1973 as a member of Cine Manifest, a radical San Francisco film group in the 1970s. A restored print of his first feature, Over-Under, Sideways-Down, screened recently at the Film Anthology Center in NYC. Eugene Corr has broad experience in both fiction and non-fiction filmmaking. He wrote and directed the feature documentary Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey (with Robert Hillmann), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award (1991). He also wrote and directed the dramatic feature film, Desert Bloom (with Jon Voight, AnnaBeth Gish, Sélection Officielle, Cannes IFF, 1986). Corr has worked as a second unit director on major motion pictures (Bull Durham, Cobb), written or co-written dramatic features (Prefontaine, Never Cry Wolf, Wildrose), and written for TV. He has also directed episodic television. His current documentary, Ghost Town to Havana (2015) has been on the festival circuit, winning the Sebastopol Documentary FF Audience Award and the Syracuse IFF Bassel Shehade Award For Social Justice.

Filmmaker Tom Fassaert (born 1979) grew up in the Netherlands and partly in South Africa. These extreme differences already opened his eyes at a young age. But it was his dad's obsession with making home movies that undoubtedly planted the first seeds that ultimately grew into Fassaert's passion for film. Tom Fassaert debuted with his feature length documentary An Angel in Doel about a small Belgian village threatened with demolition. It premiered at the Berlinale, screened at +50 festivals worldwide and won several international awards. Fassaert's second feature length documentary is A family affair. A film that explores the delicate terrain along the fault lines of his own family. It was the Opening Film of IDFA 2015 where Fassaert also received the prestigious Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds Documentary Award for his works. After winning the Special Jury Award at IDFA, the film started its journey to many international festivals and received numerous awards. It recently won the Gouden Kalf (Dutch Academy Award) for best long documentary and is acquired by Netflix to be broadcasted globally. Variety recently named Fassaert ‘One of the Ten Docu-makers to Watch'. Parallel to his passion for filmmaking Tom Fassaert also teaches at international film schools.

Born 1962 in Ischia, Italy. Location manager since 1996 Michelangelo Messina supports and cooperates with several Italian and international film productions. In 2001, he instituted the project Cinema and Territory which aim is to create a commercial dialogue between audiovisual productions and the territory. Since 2003, Messina is the producer and artistic director of the Ischia FF. In 2005, he expanded the project creating the International Exchange of Location and Movie Tourism, the first international appointment for discussion and exchange experience on movie tourism, collaborating with different Italian and international film commissions. In partnership with the BIT (Italian Tourism Exchange) in 2006, Messina commissioned the first Italian study of choosing Italy thought films by the foreign tourists. In 2009, he founded and currently is the Senior President of the permanent scientific observatory on Movie tourism. With the studies and the research collected over the years he collaborates with several Italian Universities on territorial marketing and the impact of audiovisual works on the territory. Since 2005, Messina contributes sharing those experiences and data at the international conferences on the phenomenon of World Movie Induced Tourism. Since 2007, he is a member of the Italian Board of Film Festivals and part of Jury of IFFs.

Mimi Gjorgoska-Ilievska MA (born 1972) has been involved in the film industry for more than 20 years previously holding the position of a Director of the Cinematheque of Macedonia. She is a national representative of Macedonia in Eurimages (Council of Europe’s European Cinema Support Fund) and was also an active member of the Executive Committee of FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives) and ACE (Association of European Film Archives and Cinematheques). In 2015, Mimi Gjorgoska-Ilievska, was elected as a Director of the Macedonian Film Agency. In 2013, she was re-elected member of the EC of FIAF for a second mandate, and in 2014, she was re-elected for a forth mandate in the EC of ACE. Also, since 2013, she has been focused on developing the Macedonian cinematography, protecting the national film heritage and the strengthening of international relations. As a Director of the Cinematheque, she was focused on the implementation of a new digitization programme aimed at preserving and restoring a range of Macedonian films by prominent film authors. Over the past two decades, Mimi Gjorgoska-Iliveska has been active as a researcher of the audiovisual heritage, as an Eureka Audiovisual expert on the relations of Western Balkan states and the South Eastern Cinema Network member countries. She is the author of numerous publications and articles on film history and theory, film and literature relations and protection of audiovisual heritage. She has been elected Associate professor of Audiovisual Archiving at FDU (Faculty for Dramatic Art) in Skopje, two years ago.

Director. Born in Yerevan in 1950. In 1975 entered Kh. Abovian Pedagogical Institute, Cinema Faculty, Directing Division (workshop of G. Melik-Avagyan). In 1980 graduated from the Institute and left for Meghri where worked as a director at the local theatre. In 1981-1984 was the director at Yerevan TV Films Studio. In 1987 joined Hayfilm Studio, later worked at Hayk Studio as director of documentary films. In 1988 his film, Theatre Square participated at Sverdlovsk IFF of Non-Feature Films and won the Jury Prize. In 1989 the same film received the Grand Prix at Kiev IFF. In 1990 Harutyunyan was invited to Kiev IFF as a jury member. His works have won several prizes at international film festivals. Has directed over 20 films.