Jury
Sejad Ademaj
Born in 1991 in present-day Montenegro as the son of a Roma family, Sejad lived in Germany from 1991 to 2008 under a temporary suspension of deportation. In 2020, Sejad began studying screenwriting at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
His films include Fifteen Minutes, which premiered at the Hof International Film Festival in 2022, as well as German Language, Difficult Language and Let’s Call It Love. Alongside his studies, Sejad has collaborated with Detlev Buck and Constantin Lieb on the feature film Philomena which is in development and works as a creator on a series for Beta Berlin.
Ömer Alkin
Ömer Alkin is a scholar in media and cultural studies based in the Ruhr Area and in Cologne. His main research interests are aesthetics, migration, media, audiovisual culture and digital education. He believes in the productive force of transdisciplinary approaches. Topical research projects include: cultural education, digital learning, racism, migration and audiovisual culture, global identity politics i.e. occidentalism.
Timea Junghaus
Timea Junghaus is an art historian and contemporary art curator whose work has been central to establishing Sinti and Roma contemporary visual art as a critical field of European cultural production and art-historical inquiry.
She was the founding director of Gallery8 – Roma Contemporary Art Space and the European Roma Cultural Foundation (ERCF) in Budapest, and the founding Director of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) in Berlin.
Benjamin Menekshe
Benjamin Menekshe is a Roma filmmaker, journalist, actor, and cultural practitioner from Prizren, Kosovo, whose work focuses on documentary storytelling, cultural memory, and the preservation of Romani heritage. His film work includes directing Bajrako through DokuFest’s Future Is Here program and writing and directing the documentary Horo Ano Boro, which explores Roma traditions, identity, and community memory.
He currently serves as Artistic and Marketing Director at NGO Durmish Asllano, contributing to cultural, media, and heritage initiatives that strengthen the visibility of Roma voices in Kosovo.