Jury | Go Short

27.03.2025

Go Short Jury introduction

The International Short Film Festival Nijmegen is proud to present this year’s jury members. This group of professionals, consisting of both experienced film critics and emerging talents, comes together to select the best short films across various competition categories.

For the Dutch Competition and the New Arrivals Competition, we have three outstanding jury members. The New Arrivals Competition is dedicated to film students from around the world, providing a platform for the newest generation of filmmakers. The European Competition will be judged by a five-member jury, carefully assessing the creativity and technical mastery of the filmmakers.

In addition, this year we have a special Youth Jury and Seniors Jury, each offering a fresh and distinct perspective on film. The Youth Jury brings a unique vision from the younger generation, while the Seniors Jury represents the rich experience and wisdom of the older generation.

With these diverse groups of jury members, the festival ensures a fair and multifaceted evaluation of the submitted films, amplifying both new and established voices within the film industry.

Norika Sefa

European Jury

Norika Sefa is a filmmaker from Kosovo. Norika is best known for her 2021 debut film Looking for Venera, which established her as an emerging talent with a very distinguished voice. The film won and was nominated for many prestigious awards. Norika is writer/director, who has also produced and edited her own work. Her earlier works include Desde Arriba, a short documentary filmed in the Peruvian jungle under the guidance of Werner Herzog. Her most recent short, Like a Sick Yellow, 2024 - is an avant-garde documentary that further explores her bold approach to storytelling and visual expression. Invitations brought Norika across different arts and cultural institutions, to talk about her distinctive cinematic approach and especially working in the small film industry, such as in Kosovo. Norika is a member of the European Film Academy.

Rubén Corral

European Jury

Rubén Corral is a film curator and the Head of Programming at ZINEBI – International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao. He has curated film series on Basque contemporary cinema for the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (Germany), Indiana University Cinema (USA), Festival de Cinéma de la Ville de Québec (Canada), Filmoteca de Navarra (Spain) and Azkuna Center’s Cinematheque (Spain). For ZINEBI he also curated retrospectives devoted to the short films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Wang Bing, Marco Bellocchio or Aki Kaurismäki, among others. He is a member of the European Film Academy and holds an MA in Multimedia Journalism, as well as a DAS in History of Spanish Cinema. He has been co-director of ZINEBI Networking and professor at the Basque Country Film School (ECPV).

Hoda Taheri

European Jury

Hoda Taheri is an Iranian filmmaker and artist based in Berlin. She earned her bachelor's degree in Visual Communication in Malaysia before moving to Germany in 2018 as a political refugee. There, she studied film directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB).

Her Mother Trilogy—Mother Prays All Day Long, As If Mother Cried That Night, and Mother Is a Natural Sinner—premiered at the Locarno Film Festival over three consecutive years and was later screened at numerous other festivals. She has been nominated twice for the German Short Film Award.

Hoda is currently developing her debut feature, I’ll Plant My Hands in the Garden.

Yassin Karmoudi

European Jury

Yassin Karmoudi grew up in Roosendaal and built a career in the film industry, with experience as an (impact) producer and storyteller at leading production houses in the Netherlands and Belgium. As Talent Coordinator for Documentary and Fiction at the Dutch Public Broadcaster (NPO), he oversees talent programs and trajectories designed to give emerging filmmakers the opportunity to develop their craft, gain industry experience, and build sustainable careers.

In addition to his work at the NPO, Yassin is one of the founders of the New Producers Academy (NPA), an award-winning initiative that nurtures the next generation of diverse producers. NPA provides training, mentorship, and direct connections to industry professionals, ensuring that emerging producers—especially those from underrepresented backgrounds—gain access to the networks and resources needed to thrive. At both the NPO and NPA, Yassin is committed to creating pathways for new voices, breaking barriers in the industry, and fostering an inclusive, sustainable future for audiovisual storytelling.

Anna Demianenko

Dutch & New Arrivals Jury

Anna Demianenko is the Head of Talent and Programs at CineSud, where she organizes various events, labs and programs for talent development. In addition to her work at CineSud, she has directed four short films that explore diverse narratives. Her latest short film, ROUNDS, is set to screen at Roze Filmdagen 2025. Currently, her short film AT HOME with Family Affair Films is in pre-production, and she is developing her first feature.

Morgane Frund

Dutch & New Arrivals Jury

Born in Lausanne, Switzerland. Studied Film Studies, English and German at UNIL. From 2019-22 they studied Video at the HSLU – Design Film Kunst. Their graduation film BEAR (2022) was screened in numerous festivals and won several prizes. Their video essay OUT OF THE BLUE (2023) premiered at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and was shortlisted at Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen for the European Film Award. Active in the fields of documentary film, video essay and performance.

Tena Trstenjak

Dutch & New Arrivals Jury

Tena Trstenjak was born in Croatia. After studying Comparative literature and German language and culture, she started working in the audiovisual field focusing on short films and alternative cinema. Since 2020 she works as one of the film programmers, selectors and producers within the Croatian non-profit organization, 25 FPS Association for Audio-Visual Research, whose main project is 25 FPS Festival, an international film festival showcasing experimental, innovative and artists’ film and video. She produced several short films and is continuously developing audiovisual projects, curating and organising workshops. She is a member of Kinoklub Zagreb.

Theo Panagopoulos

Dutch & New Arrivals Jury

Theo Panagopoulos is a Greek-Lebanese-Palestinian filmmaker and researcher based in Scotland. His work explores themes of collective memory, displacement, fragmented identities and archives. He has directed multiple short films that screened in reputable festivals and his most recent film called The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing has won the best short film award at IDFA 2024, Best Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2025 and was nominated for a BAFTA. He is currently completing his PhD research on colonial film archives connected to 1930s Palestine.