Selection Committees 2025

A member of the Visions du Réel selection committee since 2010, Emmanuel Chicon began his career as a journalist-reporter for the international section and film critic for the daily newspaper L’Humanité. Between 2003 and 2009, he produced and directed around twenty radio documentaries for France Culture, Radio France International and the programme “Par Ouïe Dire”, broadcast on French-speaking Belgian public radio (RTBF). He worked on sound writing for the Cinéma/Cinéma du réel department at HEAD-Geneva (2011-2017), and was also active in the Sans Canal Fixe film-makers’ collective based in Tours (2009-2021) and La Fabrique documentaire (Paris), before recently taking part as a reader of fiction and documentary projects submitted to Visions Sud Est Swiss fund and the Doha Film Institute.

Anne Delseth studied journalism in Fribourg, where she quickly became involved with the FIFF: first as a volunteer, then secretary, executive assistant, and finally programmer. After a degree in cultural management, she moved to Paris, where she was quickly scouted by Édouard Waintrop and invited to join the programming team of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, on which she spent ten years (2012-2022). Sharing her time between Paris and Lausanne, she was also head of the Masters in Cinema at the ECAL (Lausanne) and the HEAD (Geneva). She now works as programmer for the Marrakech International Film Festival, artistic director of the Ulaanbaatar International Film Festival, consultant for the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, programming delegate for the Zürich Film Festival, and manages the CityClub cinema in Pully. She is also an active member of numerous Swiss cultural and cinema organisations.

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.

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 and Co-Head of the programming office. He is currently Member of the selection committee for a sixth year.

At the same time, Mourad-Anis Moussa has worked for a number of institutions, including the GIFF (Geneva International Film Festival) and the FIFF (Festival International de Films de Fribourg) as press officer, the FdS (Festival artistique des affects, des genres et des sexualités – Lausanne) as film programmer, Cinémas du Grütli – Geneva as programme advisor and Sundance as film reviewer.

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).

Katy Lena Ndiaye is a filmmaker and producer.
In 2013, she founded IndigoMood Films, a Senegal-based production company conceived as a space for reflection and exploration on cinematic practice, that supports mostly first and second features. For over a decade, IndigoMood Films has been collaborating with artists and filmmakers from diverse routes, with singular grammars, bringing together new narratives. Over the years, Katy Lena has built up a catalog of titles selected or awarded at prestigious international festivals.
As a filmmaker, Katy Lena’s work as well have been awarded and reached audiences around the world, recognized for the distinctiveness of her approach. Her films focus on contemporary Africa and its relationship to history and memory.
Alongside her career in cinema, Katy Lena worked for television, collaborating on over a hundred docs and TV interviews.

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 has worked at Visions du Réel’s Industry division since 2018 and continues her collaboration with the festival as a new member of the Selection Committee. The Argentinian producer worked at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival (BAFICI) for 20 years, both as a programmer and as Co-Director of the Buenos Aires Lab (BAL). She has been Guest Curator at the New Zealand International Film Festival, Programmer of International Film Festival & Awards Macao and is founder of Ruda Cine, which has produced films by Milagros Mumenthaler, Martín Rejtman, Dominga Sotomayor, and Eduardo Williams. 
Violeta Bava is the Latin American Consultant for the Venice International Film Festival and the Venice Market; currently she is also Head of Studies at the Torino FeatureLab and programme advisor at 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 (b. 1991, Nicaragua) is a visual artist, filmmaker, and senior programmer for the Camden International Film Festival/Points North Institute. Their work explores collaborative non/fictions and political dreamscapes. Milton’s works in performance, film, and installation have screened at the Venice Biennale, Locarno, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, DOK Leipzig, True/False, and other festivals worldwide. They have received grants from Harvard’s Film Study Center, Tribeca Film Institute, ITVS, and Chicken & Egg, and fellowships from Points North, the Flaherty, and Firelight.

Madeline Robert is a French documentary producer and programmer. She has been part of Visions du Réel since 2014, where she has served on the Selection Committee, as a special advisor to the Artistic Director, and as Head of Industry (2021–2022). From 2023 to 2026, she managed the Swiss film fund Visions Sud Est. Previously, and among others, she took part in founding the space dedicated in documentary films (Cannes Docs) within the Cannes Festival Film Market and has been involved-with the SVOD platform Tënk since its creation. She produces documentary films through her France based company, Les Films de la Caravane and regularly works as a tutor and serves on funding committees and international festival juries.

Shaunak Sen is an Academy award nominated filmmaker and writer based in Delhi.
His film ‘All That Breathes’, received nominations at the 2023 Academy and BAFTA awards. The film won awards at Cannes, Sundance, BFI London, IDA and Cinema Eye, and 24 other film festivals.
Cities of Sleep (2016), his first feature-length documentary, was shown at various major international film festivals and won 6 international awards.
Shaunak has received grants from Sundance, Tribeca, IDFA – Amsterdam amongst others. He has received the Pro Helvetia residency in Switzerland, the Sarai-CSDS grant, the Charles Wallace grant as visiting scholar at Cambridge University. Shaunak holds a PhD and has published in journals including Bioscope and Widescreen.

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 is the Senior Director of Programming at MUBI, the global streaming service, production company and film distributor. Marañón joined MUBI over thirteen years ago and spearheads MUBI’s global platform acquisitions and programming, with a focus on Europe, supporting partnerships and overseeing content for MUBI GO in the region. She holds a BA in Cinema Studies and two MAs from the International Film & TV School in Cuba and the University of Westminster. Marañón has served as a jury member at international film festivals including Berlinale, Visions du Reel, Mar del Plata or Jeonju, and curated programmes for FICCI in Cartagena and Tabakalera Centre for Contemporary Art in San Sebastián. She has written, directed and produced several short films and currently has a feature film, Elena Gave Birth to a Beautiful Child, in development.

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. 

Orwa Nyrabia is a festival director and an award-winning film producer. He is the outgoing Artistic Director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the world’s largest documentary film and new media festival. During his tenure at IDFA, Nyrabia successfully led the organization’s efforts towards wider international representation and gender parity, and his restructuring of the organization’s offer inspired many other festivals and organizations around the world. In addition to that, he is one half of a filmmaking duo with partner Diana El Jeiroudi. The duo founded Syria’s first independent film festival, DOX BOX, in 2008, and produced films that include Republic of Silence (D. El Jeiroudi, Venice 2021), Notturno (GF. Rosi, Venice 2020), Silvered Water (O. Mohammad and W. Bedirxan, Cannes 2014), Return to Homs (T. Derki, IDFA 2013) and Dolls, A Woman from Damascus (D. El Jeiroudi, IDFA 2007) a.o.  The work of El Jeiroudi and Nyrabia was recognized by international awards such as the European Documentary Network Award, the Katrin Cartlidge Award, the Polk Award, the HRW Award for Courage in Filmmaking, among others. An actor by training (Gate of the Sun, Y. Nassrallah, Cannes 2004), he started his film career as 1st assistant of Ossama Mohammad (Sacrifices, Cannes 2002) and worked as a journalist at the same time until he co-founded his first company in Damascus 2002, then followed up as he moved to Cairo and then to Berlin where he, together with El Jeiroudi, co-founded No Nation Films in 2014. He is a member of AMPAS, the German Film Academy, and the Dutch Film Academy. He is the chair of the boards of the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk and The Festival Academy and a board member for the International Documentary Association and DOX BOX Association.

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.