Selection Committees

Emmanuel Chicon ist seit 2010 Mitglied der Auswahlkommission von Visions du Réel. Er hat als Journalist und Filmkritiker gearbeitet, insbesondere als Dokumentarfilmkritiker für L’Humanité, und führte bei gegen zwanzig Radiodokumentationen für France Culture, RFI und RTBF Regie. Er ist zudem punktuell für die Abteilung Cinéma/Cinéma du réel der HEAD (Genf) im Bereich Sound Writing tätig und engagiert sich im Filmemacher*innen- Kollektiv Sans Canal Fixe mit Sitz in Tours und in der La Fabrique documentaire von Paris.

Anne Delseth studierte Journalismus in Freiburg, wo sie sofort begann, sich für das FIFF zu engagieren: zuerst als Freiwillige, als Sekretärin sowie als Assistentin der Festivalleitung und danach als Programmgestalterin. Nach einem Abschluss in Kulturmanagement zog sie 2011 von der Schweiz nach Paris, wo sie von Édouard Waintrop eingeladen wurde, Teil des Programmgestaltungsteams der Quinzaine des Cinéastes der Internationalen Filmfestspiele von Cannes zu werden. In diesem Gremium war sie zehn Jahre lang tätig (2012-2022). Im Moment lebt Sie zwischen Paris und Lausanne und davor war auch für den Master en Cinéma an der ECAL (Lausanne) und an der HEAD (Genf) verantwortlich. Derzeit ist sie Programmverantwortliche für das Marrakech International Film Festival, künstlerische Leiterin des Ulaanbaatar International Film Festival in der Mongolei, Programmberaterin für das Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, Programmdelegierte bei dem Zurich Film Festival und Programmleiterin im Cinéma CityClub Pully. Sie ist gleichzeitig ein aktives Mitglied in zahlreichen schweizerischen Film- und Kulturoganisationen.

Sergio Fant is an Italian film programmer based in Germany. After graduating in film studies and working as a film archivist and researcher at the Cineteca di Bologna, he conceived and curated programmes for among others Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, the Pesaro Film Festival, the Rome Film Fest and the Mostra del Cinema in Venice, where he was in charge of the short film selection in 2010 and 2011. From 2012 to 2023 he was the Head of Program at the Trento Film Festival in Italy, and in the same year he joined the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, first as a short film programmer, then as a member of the selection committee from 2013 to 2018. In 2019, he is co-artistic director of the 18th DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival and becomes a member of the Berlinale selection committee, a position he holds until 2024. From 2022 he is the programmer of the ARCA International Film Festival on Visual Arts of Punta del Este, Uruguay, and in June 2024 he joins the selection committee of the BFI London Film Festival. He has served on several international festival juries and funding committees, and as an expert and tutor in various training and industry initiatives. He contributes a documentary column to the Italian weekly Internazionale and is the founder of the Italian documentary programming and distribution platform CineAgenzia.

After studying socio-anthropology and documentary film, Aurélien Marsais worked at the Cinéma du Réel festival in Paris as a programming assistant and participated in the creation of the professional platform ParisDoc in 2015. He then coordinated the États généraux du film documentaire in Lussas from 2014 to 2017, and has since contributed to its programming. Based in Geneva and Brussels, he was co-head of the programming office at Visions du Réel from 2017 to 2020, and subsequently joined its selection committee. He is also a programmer and member of the board for the cooperative platform Tënk.fr, an alumnus of the Eurodoc training program, and a producer in Switzerland with the collective structure Cavale Films.

Mourad-Anis Moussa joined the Visions du Réel team during his studies in Literature and History of Art, which were followed by an M.A. in Film studies (Filmwissenschaft) at the Freie Universität – Berlin. Over the years, he has held various positions at the Festival, including publications manager, programme coordinator and Member of the selection committee. He is currently Co-Head of the programming office and Member of the selection committee.
At the same time, Mourad-Anis Moussa has worked for a number of festivals, including the GIFF (Geneva International Film Festival) and the FIFF (Festival International de Films de Fribourg) as press officer, and the FdS (Festival artistique des affects, des genres et des sexualités – Lausanne) as film programmer.
He has also worked in the music industry, notably as a programmer for the live club La Gravière (Geneva) and organising show cases for RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse).

Documentary filmmaker Katy Lena Ndiaye lives between Dakar and Brussels. Her films put on screen a contemporary Africa, the relationship it has with history, memory and legacies. Her previous documentaries „Time is on our side“ (2019) Awaiting for men (2007) Traces women imprints (2003) have been screened in numerous festivals and museums IFFR, FESPACO, FIFA, (Montreal), States General of Documentary Film Lussas, Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage, NYAFF, INPUT, FIPA, TFF (Greece), ânûû-rû âboro (New Caledonia), DOCKANEMA (Mozambique), Pitcha (DRC), Filmer à tout prix (Brussels), Real Life festival (Accra), Luxor film festival…
Metropolitan Museum of New York, the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao, the Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal, the European, Museum of Photography of Paris, Haus der kulturen der Welt of Berlin. Since 2019, Lena has dedicated herself exclusively to IndigoMood films, a company founded in 2013 and based in Senegal. IndigoMood films is a new challenge and a continuation to Katy Léna pathway, accompanying new voices on cinema, exploring new narratives. Pushing also further her desire for cinema.

Jasmin started to work at Visions du Réel while studying Film History and Aesthetics at the Lausanne University, where she obtained a Master in Arts. Since then, she has also been collaborating as programmer and Industry consultant with several festivals: Ambulante Mexico, FIFDH Geneva, Animafest Zagreb, NIFFF Neuchâtel, Solothurn Film Festival, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and Fantoche, among others. She has also worked with the Cinemathèque of Tangier-Morocco, the Centre for the Image La Virreina Barcelona, the Croatian Audiovisual Center, the French Cinémathèque, the Centre Pompidou and the Forum des Images in Paris. Co-founder and board member of Pro Short, the Swiss association for short films. She was an appointed expert for the Swiss Federal Office of Culture and a board member of the Geneva Film Commission. In 2017, she also started to work on different documentaries as associate producer. Currently, she’s in charge of the Master in Film Studies joint program of the ECAL Lausanne/HEAD Geneva.

Violeta Bava (Argentinien) arbeitet erneut bei Visions du Réel Industry, wo sie seit 2018 tätig ist, und setzt ihre Zusammenarbeit mit dem Festival als neues Mitglied der Auswahlkommission fort. Als Produzentin mit 20 Jahren Erfahrung im Programming des Internationalen Filmfestivals von Buenos Aires (BAFICI) und Ko-Direktorin des Buenos Aires Lab (BAL) ist sie auch die Gründerin von Ruda Cine, der Firma, die Filme von Milagros Mumenthaler, Martín Rejtman, Dominga Sotomayor und Eduardo Williams produziert hat. Violeta Bava ist lateinamerikanische Beraterin für die Mostra von Venedig und den Markt von Venedig, Studienleiterin am Torino FeatureLab, Gastkuratorin beim New Zealand International Film Festival, Programmerin beim International Film Festival & Awards Macau und Programmberaterin für das New York Film Festival.

Since 2015, Pierre-Alexis Chevit runs Cannes Docs, the tailored industry program & networking platform for all creative documentary filmmakers and professionals at Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes. Over the years, Pierre-Alexis has also freelanced for various doc festivals, markets and organizations, both on the programming and organizational sides, including Ji.hlava, DOK Leipzig, Visions du Réel, Eurodoc, Cinéma du réel, Festival dei Popoli, Fipadoc… and more. He still regularly collaborates with a number of them, focusing primarily on industry activities. Formerly, he has also worked in the VOD/DVD field, dealing mainly with docs and shorts. Pierre-Alexis often serves as moderator, tutor, consultant, jury or expert on various international events.

Leo Chiang is a filmmaker based in Taipei & San Francisco. His short documentary, ISLAND IN BETWEEN, received an Oscar nomination in 2024. His previous feature doc, OUR TIME MACHINE, was nominated for an Emmy & a Gotham Award, and won awards at Tribeca, DocEdge, & 10 other international film festivals. He directed two episodes of the landmark 5-part PBS series, ASIAN AMERICANS, which won a Peabody Award in 2021. His other films include the Emmy-nominated A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES. Leo co-founded A-Doc, the Asian American Documentary Network, and is a documentary branch member of the Academy.

Yara Costa is a documentary filmmaker and storyteller from Mozambique. Yara’s work is deeply informed by local perfireric creative African narratives that due to everlasting colonial effects of intellectual racism, cultural genocide, and Eurocentric supremacy, have been persistently made invisible, limiting our hability to navigate our world.

Milton Guillén is a Nicaraguan visual artist, filmmaker, and the senior programmer for the Camden International Film Festival & the Points North Institute in Maine, USA. His practice explores the cinematic intersections of radical collaborative non-fictions and political dreamscapes, focusing on themes around displacement, and aesthetics. Milton’s films and installations have screened globally at the Venice Biennale, Locarno, CPH:DOX, Dok Leipzig, DMZ, True/False, Camden, and several dozens of festivals and venues around the world. He is an associate fellow at the Film Study Center at Harvard University and teaches film production at the University of Vermont since 2021. He holds an MFA from Northwestern University.

Madeline Robert is a documentary producer, programmer and fund manager based in France. She has been working in various capacities at Visions du Réel since 2014, as a member of the Selection Committee and special advisor to the Artistic Director and was Head of Industry in 2021-2022. Previously & among others, she takes part in founding the Doc Corner, within the Cannes Festival Film Market, she has been an active producer with her company Les Films de la caravane (FR), she is involved in the France-based SVOD platform Tënk since its creation and is a member of the CNC (French cinema institute) commission for the audiovisual support fund.

After graduating in film & production studies in University of the Arts – London, Mateo Ybarra started working since 2019 for Visions du Réel. He has been working first as coordinator and now as manager for VdR–Industry, for which he also serves on the project selection committee. In addition to this, he also works as an independent filmmaker and producer for L’ARTIFICE in Geneva. His films have been shown and awarded in several festivals, including Locarno, Rotterdam, Thessaloniki, and Jihlava.

Mark Cousins is an Irish-Scottish filmmaker and author. His films – including The Story of Film: An Odyssey, The First Movie, The Eyes of Orson Welles, and Women Make Film – have won the Prix Italia, a Peabody, the Stanley Kubrick Award and the European Film Academy award for Innovative Storytelling. They have premiered at the world’s major film festivals. Their themes are looking, cities, cinema, childhood, and recovery.His books include Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary, and The Story of Looking. He has walked across Los Angeles, Moscow, Beijing, and Mexico City.

Chiara Marañón ist Senior Director of Programming bei der Streaming-Plattform MUBI. Vom Londoner MUBI-Hauptsitz aus leitet Chiara, die vor über zehn Jahren als eine der Ersten zum Unternehmen stiess, die globale Programmgestaltung von MUBI mit Schwerpunkt auf europäischen Gebieten und ist für die Inhalte von MUBI GO im Vereinigten Königreich verantwortlich. Als regelmässige Kommentatorin und Diskussionsteilnehmerin war Chiara Jurymitglied bei verschiedenen internationalen Filmfestivals, darunter die Berlinale, Mar del Plata und Jeonju, und kuratierte spezielle Programme für das Cartagena Film Festival (FICCI) sowie das Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture in San Sebastián. Als Filmemacherin hat sie mit dem iranischen Regisseur Abbas Kiarostami an The Girl in The Lemon Factory (2013) gearbeitet. Chiara hat einen Bachelor in Filmwissenschaften von der Universität Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, einen Master von der International Film and Television School in Kuba (EICTV) und einen Master von der University of Westminster in London.

Rasha Salti is a researcher, writer and curator of art and film, living in Marseille. She co-curated several film programs including Saving Bruce Lee: African and Arab Cinema in the Era of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy with Koyo Kouoh at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2018).
Salti has also co-curated with Kristine Khouri the documentary and archival exhibition Past Disquiet at the MACBA (2015), at the HKW in Berlin (2016), the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende in Santiago de Chile (2018), the Sursock Museum in Beirut (2018), the Zeitz MoCAA in Cape Town (2023), and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2024). In 2022, Salti was one of the co-curators of the 8th Triennial of Photography in Hamburg, and part of the curatorial of the 12th edition of the Berlin Biennial.

Eva Sangiorgi is a writer and programmer based in Vienna. She collaborated with different festivals in Latin America and founded FICUNAM in Mexico City, festival she headed until 2018. She also worked in film distribution, production and television broadcast. In Mexico she coordinated some publications on contemporary cinema for the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM and she has maintained interest in that field. From 2021-2024, she was the coordinator of the Film Curating Studies Department at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE) film school in San Sebastián, Spain. She is part of Notebook Magazine Editorial Board and Member of the Advisory Board of the Eye Art & Film Prize. She is currently the artistic director of the Viennale, the Vienna International Film Festival were and co-editor of the TEXTUR series published by the same festival.

Dominic Asmall Willsdon joined the International Documentary Association (IDA) as executive director in 2024. Based in Los Angeles, IDA has members in more than eighty countries and provides support and services for documentary makers. Previously, Dominic was executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Art and professor of art education at Virginia Commonwealth University, a curator at Tate Modern and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and launched film programming at those museums. He has also been a co-curator of the Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2013) and the Liverpool Biennial, UK (2016).  His projects and publications include Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa (2014), Public Servants: Art and the Crisis of the Common Good (2016), Visual Activism (2016), and Public Knowledge (2015-19). He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Visual Culture. 

Gudula Meinzolt has been working in film areas such as programming, promotion, festivals, distribution, exhibition and production. She was manager of the Mannheim Meetings and Head of Industry at Visions du Réel. For 20 years she has been working as producer in Germany with Autentika Films and recently also in Switzerland, now specializing in audience development and outreach/impact strategies. She offers training for pitches, project development, production and audience design and is asked for consultancy and as jury member worldwide. With Ciné-Doc she organizes the annual documentary month all over Switzerland Let’s Doc!. As “Green Consultant” she commits to a sustainable film production and distribution in Europe and is co-founder of AGF Green Film action, a network for a sustainable film and culture scene in Switzerland.