JSFF Jury Line Up - Feature selection and Short selection

The JSFF | Japanese - Serbian Film Festival proudly presents its international jury lineup for the 2023 edition, featuring esteemed professionals from diverse backgrounds in the film industry. With members hailing from Japan, Serbia, and the United Kingdom, this inclusive and culturally diverse panel is set to bring a wealth of expertise and knowledge to the table. Notably, the panel comprises former JSFF winners, further adding depth to their critical perspectives.

FEATURE SELECTION

PETER WEBBER
Director

A self-confessed cinephile, Peter Webber made his first short film, The Zebra Man, straight out of film school. He then worked as a film editor, beginning his association with Girl with a Pearl Earring producers Andy Paterson and Anand Tucker on Tucker's drama debut, Saint-Ex, starring Miranda Richardson and Bruno Ganz.

As an award-winning documentary director his subjects ranged from Wagner to crash test dummies via a series on the creatures of the deep oceans and The Curse of the Phantom Limb. Moving back into drama he directed Simon Russell Beale as Schubert and explored the counter-culture of tunnel-dwelling road protesters in Underground, before creating huge controversy with the Channel Four mini-series, Men Only, charting the decline into crime and debauchery of the formerly respectable members of a five-a-side soccer team. In the interests of fair play, his next drama The Stretford Wives, for the BBC, starred Fay Ripley in a tale of women's revenge on men.

Girl with a Pearl Earring, starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth, marked Webber's feature film debut in a most impressive way. The film has received numerous accolades including 3 Academy Award Nominations, 2 Golden Globe Nominations, 10 BAFTA Award Nominations and many others. Certainly an impressive debut.

Webber was then tapped by Dino de Laurentis to direct Young Hannibal: Behind the Mask. Based on Thomas Harris' upcoming new book of the same name, and starring Gaspard Ulliel, Li Gong, Rhys Ifans and Anthony Hopkins (voice), this prequel shows a young Hannibal Lechter in three different phases of his life from his tragic childhood in Lithuania during World War II to his ten years in France up to his time in America before his capture by FBI agent Will Graham in Red Dragon. The movie is currently shooting in Prague.

MASAKAZU KANEKO
Director

Masakazu Kaneko was born in Tokyo in 1978. He graduated from the School of International Politics, Economics and Communication at Aoyama Gakuin University. During his university years, he studied Slavic and Russian art, culture and film.

After graduation, he studied under Director Takahisa Zeze at the Film School of Tokyo. He went on to direct six short films while working in the fields of corporate video packages, films and TV commercials.

In 2016, his first feature film, "The Albino's Trees", was officially screened in the Forward Future Section of the 6th Beijing International Film Festival, China. The film was released nationwide at Theatre Shinjuku and other cinemas. It won 20 awards at international film festivals worldwide including the Best Film award at the JSFF 2020.

In 2021, Kaneko completed his second feature film, "Ring Wandering." It had its world premiere at the 37th Warsaw International Film Festival and received the Ecumenical Jury Award, Special Mention. It had its Japanese premiere at the 22nd TOKYO FILMeX. "Ring Wandering" won the Golden Peacock Award (Best Feature Film) at the 52nd International Film Festival of India which is one of the largest film festivals in Asia and the Best Screenplay Award at the 43rd Durban International Film Festival in South Africa. In 2022, the film was theatrically released in Taiwan and Singapore, and for more than half a year, as a long-running show in Japan.

Simultaneously with the release of "Ring Wandering", Kaneko has been working on the project of his fourth feature film, "The Water Sprite." Its pilot film was produced at Shochiku Kyoto Studio and had its world premiere at the 34th Tokyo International Film Festival.

In 2021, the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Government of Japan, selected Kaneko as one of the three directors to promote and facilitate Japanese filmmaking internationally, and also as one of the four emerging directors to take part in the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival and the European Film Market on the recommendation of UNIJAPAN.

Kaneko is currently editing his third feature film.

MONIKA ROMIC
Actress

Born in Bosnia, living in Belgrade, Serbia and working across the whole Balkan region, in the theatre, TV shows and movies. She studied at the Academy of Art in Novi Sad, after which she moved to Belgrade to pursue further acting career. In the movies, a portrayal of differing Balkan accents can be seen, on top of which she also speaks English and Russian. In her free time she is also a yoga instructor.

Monika is recognized for numerous roles in Movies and TV series such as: Felix (2021), Black wedding (2020), Mayhem (2016), Crazy, Confused, Normal (2015), Women from Dedinje (2011), Love and hate (2007) among many others.

OGNJEN PETKOVIC
Director

Ognjen Petković was born in Vukovar, Croatia in 1986. He graduated acting at Academy of Arts, Novi Sad, Serbia in 2008. He finished his PhD in Audiovisual Arts, artistic field - film directing, at Novi Sad Academy in 2021. He made several short fiction, experimental and documentary movies, such as: Three points (2011), Qatar (2014), Hands (2016), Love(2017), Crocodile (Post-production), Hide and seek (2018), Autumn Waltz (2019), Life after death (2022). With his movies he entered many international festivals such as: Palm Springs, Slamdance, Leuven, Tampere, GoShort, Odense, Florida film festival, Film court de Brest, Cottbus, Nancy, St. Louis, GoDebut, Villeurbanne, Athens-Ohio, Kustendorf, FIC Montterey, Manhhatn international film festival, Regensburg, West Tokio film festival, Kinosmena...

He won 21 international and national awards for his movies. At the moment he is working on feature documentary Sounds of Silence and he is developing his first feature film Katar.

SHORT SELECTION

The JSFF | Japanese - Serbian Film Festival proudly presents its international jury lineup for the 2023 edition, featuring esteemed professionals from diverse backgrounds in the film industry.

FLORIAN HÖHR

Film educator and one of our jury members for the short film selection. After his FSJ culture at the German Child Protection Association and film studies, Florian was able to apply the skills he had acquired-cultural educational work with children and young people, as well as knowledge of film history and analysis - in museum education at the DFF, where he’s been leading guided tours and workshops since 2016.

TAKESHI SONE

Filmmaker who studied script-writing in Japan and has worked as not only director, but cinematographer and editor. Recent years he has made feature films in the U.S., South-Korea, Europe, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Within many achievements we underline his work as cinematographer in Japanese blockbuster with one of most memorable plot twists directed by Chinichiro Ueda: ONE CUT OF THE DEAD.

MASA SAROVIC

Born in 1993 in Subotica, is an accomplished filmmaker with Master’s degree from the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade. Her notable works include The City (2016) and Hottest Summer Days (2018), both premiered at prominent international film festivals. She also directed a segment of the omnibus In Your Hands, showcased at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs during the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. Currently, she is focusing on the development of her first feature film, Embryo, and serving as a selector at the Palić Film Festival since 2023.

IGOR STANOJEVIC

Igor Stanojević is a Serbian director and film curator. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film Directing from the Academy of Arts in Belgrade. His films such as The Man from Bagombo (2010) and The Pocket-Watch (2004) have been screened and awarded at many international film festivals. His most recent work is Earth 2.0 (2017), which was shown at TiSFF and many other festivals. He mentors the MiniDoc documentary filmmaking workshop. He has been working as the Director of Programming of the Days of Slovenian Film festival since 2016. He is currently the Curator of Beldocs IDFF.