Polish animations in the hands of the JURY OF THE POLISH CONTEST

Meet the 3 members of this year's Jury of the Polish Competition of the 17th IAFF Animator. Thecreator of the winning film will receive 12,000 PLN, thanks to the Polish Filmmakers Association.

The best animations will be selected by:

ALBA SOTORRA - is a director and an independent producer. Her films have won prestigious awards, including two Gaudí Awards and a Digital Broadcast Award. She has also been nominated for an EMMY and a Goya Award. A graduate of EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs), she founded AlbaSotorra in 2015, a Barcelona-based production company specializing in animation, real action and documentaries for cinema. 

Motivated by the need to address the lack of diverse perspectives in the film industry, Sotorra is dedicated to produce stories directed by non-hegemonic voices. Her films explore contemporary social and political issues with a strong commitment to these themes. 

With a portfolio that includes participation in internationally renowned festivals such as Berlinale, Tallinn Black Nights, SXSW, HotDocs, Shanghai, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, and Rotterdam, Sotorra's extensive experience also extends to collaborations in international co-productions with partners in Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and Greece.  

She is the producer of "Rock Bottom", a musical animation feature film for adults, premiered this year at Annecy Film Festival and opening film at Animator Film Festival. 

JON FRICKEY - was born 1979 in Stade, Germany to American parents. After being awarded his Diploma in Communications Design from the HAW Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, he worked as Art Director with Scholz und Friends Berlin. Since 2006, he is a freelance animation director. His short ­lm CAT DAYS/NEKO NO HI premiered at the 2018 Berlinale, was internationally acclaimed and quali­ed for the Academy Awards. His current short ­lm ZOOPTICON is a animated musical collaboration with ‑ies Mynther and Sandra Trostel. It has received numerous international awards and deals with almost every topic the ­lmmakers could think of. Jon Frickey also works for German televions networks. He writes and animates for the political satire show “extra3” and acts as showrunner for the WDR production “OhneTitel3000”. Jon lives in Hamburg, Germany.

2008 Bankenkrise / Financial Crisis 
2010 mr. iiuu & the Nasty Bird
2013 Michelles Opfer / Michelle's Sacrice 
2015 Giza Quasar 
2016 スペースシュヴァーベン 
2018 Neko no Hi / Cat Days 
2023 Zoopticon 

MONA SHEDED - Journalist/ Film Critic, Media consultant, Programmer and Program coordinator, passionate about cinema, history, and anthropology, Studied Egyptology at Cairo University, Folk Literature at the Egyptian Academy of Art, and Film Criticism at Ain Shams university. Currently working as Screen Daily Middle East correspondent, editor at Al-Ahram daily newspaper -one of the oldest journalism outlet in the Arab world-, Head of Department at Alaa Eldin Children Magazine, Media Consultant at Eazees International Women’s Theater Festival, and working with Cairo International Film Festival as a Managing Editor for its Daily Bulletin, a Q&A Moderator, and a Press officer responsible for the foreign press covering the festival. Writing as a freelance for several websites, Al-Ahram online, Rassef22, Fasllah, ida2at and Fenon culture magazine. She also contributed as a culture correspondent at many Egyptian and Arabic newspapers and magazines since 2006, such as Al-Ahram Al Massai, Al-Ahram Hebdo, Al-Badeel, Al-Mawkif Al-Arabi weekly magazine and newspaper, Masrahona weekly newspaper, Dar Al Khaleej newspaper, Al-Shrook Gulf Magazine. In 2016, she worked with Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater (CIFET) as a Managing Editor for its bulletin, as well as managing its Press Office, and a member of its selection committee. I was also a member of the selection committee at the 9th edition of the National Egyptian Theater Festival. She contributed to many festivals’ bulletins such as Cairo Cinema Days bulletin, which is held by Zawya Cinema, and the National Egyptian Theater Festival. In addition to covering local festivals in Egypt I also travel and cover major international film festivals, in Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Rotterdam as well as film and theater festivals in Arab countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and UAE.