Mijke de Jong (Director/Writer, The Netherlands)
has shown great social engagement in her work over the past 25 years: starting with her co-authored feature film debut, LOVE HURTS (1992), which won the Special Jury Prize in Locarno, through to her latest film, LAYLA M. (2016). The much-lauded drama about the radicalisation of a young Muslim growing up in Amsterdam is this year’s Oscar entry from The Netherlands. De Jong’s international breakthrough came with the award-winning film, BLUEBIRD (NL 2004), which premiered in Toronto and won the Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival 2005. Her other outstanding works include JOY (NL 2010), which received the Best Feature Film Award in The Netherlands.

Ankica Juric Tilic (PRODUCER ON THE MOVE 2009, PRODUCERS LAB TORONTO 2010 from Croatia)
is a producer with more than 20 years of experience in the film industry. She founded her production company Kinorama in 2003 and has since produced – together with her two partners – more than 20 feature films, several TV series and a number of shorts. Her latest films include this year’s Croatian Oscar entry, the award-winning family drama QUIT STARING AT MY PLATE (2016). Prior to that, she also produced the Croatian candidate for the Oscar in 2015, THE HIGH SUN, which won more than 30 international and national awards, including the Jury Prize in Cannes. The Croatian producer is a graduate of EAVE and a member of ACE and the European Film Academy.

Nicole Schmied (casting director and ICDN member, Austria)
started her career as an assistant director for film and television in 1979. From 1999 onwards, she worked as a casting director and, in 2005, founded her own company, covering popular TV shows as well as feature films for cinema and television. Since then, Nicole Schmied has cast Austrian and international co-productions, including the latest film by the renowned Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky, the award-winning thriller COLD HELL (2017), and the similarly acclaimed THE PEOPLE VS. FRITZ BAUER (2015) by the German director Lars Kraume. Her portfolio also includes the mystery western DARK VALLEY (2014), starring Sam Riley, and the transgender drama ERIK. WELTMEISTERIN (2017) by Reinhold Bilgeri.

Eduardo Noriega (actor and EUROPEAN SHOOTING STAR 1999 from Spain)
first studied music and piano, followed by acting lessons in his home town of Santander in Northern Spain. In 1992, he moved to Madrid to attend The Royal Spanish School of Drama from which he graduated in 1996. It was whilst there that he first met such newcomer directors as Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil and started appearing in their short films. His career took off when he starred in Amenábar’s feature film debut, the surprise hit THESIS (1996), followed by OPEN YOUR EYES (1997) where he played alongside Penelope Cruz and received a Goya nomination for his performance. Since then, he has starred in films by Guillermo del Toro (DEVIL’S BACKBONE, 2001) and the Spanish blockbuster THE METHOD (2006). Following his GQ Award as “Actor of the Year”, he made two films in the USA: Brad Anderson’s TRANSSIBERIAN and the political thriller VANTAGE POINT. In subsequent years. Noriega has played alongside the likes of Sam Shepard, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stephen Rea. In 2017 he stars in Àlex de la Iglesia’s PERFECT STRANGERS and in the thriller LA BOYA shot in the Dominican Republic.

Mode Steinkjer (critic/editor, Norway)
works as a film critic as well as the Arts Editor for the renowned daily Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen. He had written about film, the arts and art since the mid-1980’s for several major newspapers in Norway, as well as running his own music show at the national radio NRK, before becoming a staff writer and Arts Editor at Dagsavisen. As a renowned film critic, Steinkjer has served on several juries, including the FIPRESCI Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 and twice at the Berlin International Film Festival’s FIPRESCI jury, in 2013 and 2015. Steinkjer is the chairman of The Norwegian Association of Film Critics and a member of the Norwegian Oscar Committee. He is also a voting member of the European Film Academy.