BRUCE BUCKLIN (Chairman of the jury)
From 2001 until 2005, Bruce was a member of the International Jury for Ekotopfilm. In 2006 he was appointed the Chairman of the jury. His formal educational includes following degrees: Master of Philosophy in Experimental Psychology from George Washington University, Master of Arts in Psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the State University of New York. From 1965 to 1999 he worked various elements of the US Government. From 1999 until June 2007 he was the Director Competitions for the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Film & Video Competition. He managed the planning and conduct of two film and video competitions with a total of 800 to 1000 films every year.
BETSY WALTERS
Betsy was the Executive Director of CINE, an organization focused on honoring and championing the best in professional, independent and student media. She began her career at CINE while still a student at The George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs in Washington, DC, graduating with honors in 2004 with a degree in Electronic Media. She succeeded Bruce Bucklin as CINE Director of Competitions in 2007, managing CINE’s signature Golden Eagle Awards program. She assumed the role of Executive Director in 2016, overseeing CINE’s staff, operations, programming and events, including the Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest and CINE PitchFest and Master Class series. She has served on the jury of the HollyShorts Film Festival, Santa Fe International Film Festival, ScriptDC and as a panelist for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ fellowship program for media artists.
HALIM HOSNY
Studied at Johannes-Gutenberg-University, where he got his Master degree in Political Science. In 1986 Halim started working as a reporter in ZDF-Studio Hesse, later as a reporter and editor of the prime time ZDF news-magazine “heute journal”, then in ZDF-Reporterpool, mainly as special correspondent in war-and crisis zones such as Bosnia, Albania, Lebanon and Iraq. In 2007 he became the director in the ZDF foreign studio Istanbul, covering Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Since May 2012 he works as a reporter in ZDFzoom. Besides his journalism work he’s also author of numerous TV- documentaries, i.e. “Im Reich der Tausend Prinzen”,” Nur weg hier”, „Das wird schon klappen“, “Massaker im Wüstensand“„ Verrückt nach Istanbul“, „Der Fluchhafen Berlin“, „Eingeschweißt und abgepackt“, „Gewinn ist King““, „Schmutzige Schifffahrt“, „Dreckiges Gold“, Die Neue Rechte“.
JOANNA JEDRUSIK
Born in 1957 in Katowice, Poland. Graduated from School of Art and Education, University of Silesia, majoring in painting, member of The Polish Artists’ Union. She works as a painter, book designer, worked as an assistant at the University of Silesia, Department of Aesthetics Studies, Poland; teacher of art courses at the Edmonton Art Gallery (Alberta Art Center) Canada. 13 solo exhibitions in Poland, Germany, Australia, the Czech Repuplic; worked on feature film Ripples on the Water.
ĽUDO HIČÁR
Ľudo Hičár is a Slovak cameraman. He says with a camera his dream came true. He is the author of several documentaries, some of them have been presented and awarded at the IFF Ekotopfilm – Envirofilm. For 15 years he worked for the Czech TV, took part in projects for world-renowned TV stations and currently works for Slovak TV JOJ. Filming nature always belongs to his “top” experiences. The documentaries he cooperated on rank from retreating glaciers in the Alps through avalanche prevention in Austria to beauties of South Africa and great white shark, too. Each film he has worked on is considered to be a record of the state of our Planet at that particular period of time.