Festival jury

Nataša Prosenc Stearns

Slovenian born visual artist and filmmaker Nataša Prosenc Stearns moved to Los Angeles on a Fulbright Grant for her MFA at CalArts.  She lives and works in Venice, California and in Ljubljana Slovenia.
Nataša’s work has been featured at the Venice Biennale, in Douloun Museum of Art in Shanghai, ARCO Fair in Madrid, Spazio Erasmus Brera in Milan, Museum of Modern Art in Slovenia, Lancaster Museum of Art, Tel Aviv Museum of Art and in numerous festivals. She is a recipient of the Durffee and Soros Grants among others. Her feature film Souvenir is available on Netflix and on Amazon. Most recently she completed a new body of work for a contemporary opera Code L.

Mark Steger

Mark Steger is an American actor, director and producer, best known for his roles in the movies I Am Legend (2007) and The Pact (2012). Stager won a SAG Award for his role in the drama series Stranger Things in 2017.

Michael Veritas

Michael Veritas is a writer and director who has worked on over 100 films. He currently works for Reactant Films, a Los Angeles based film production company.  He is a been sought as a script consultant for over ten years and he specializes in dark visceral subject matter.  He works exclusively in the independent film market and mentors numerous new filmmakers from all over the world.

Alan O’Silva

In 1994 Alan O’Silva said a joke to a girl in the city-centre of his small mountain home-town bordering Transylvania. The girl took his hand and presented him to the local youth theatre Ariel, ran by his future mentor Geny Migleczi. He was on stage in the same night on the theatre’s evening performance. One month later, he booked a lead part in a huge Greek tragedy called ‘The Danaides’ after Aeschylus, directed by the multi-awarded Silviu Purcarete. The show toured the world for three and a half years, collecting many awards at the biggest theatre festivals such as Edinburgh International Festival in UK or Lincoln Center Festival in New York. After that Alan did his Master of Drama degree at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where he got empowered with the old / timeless Shakespeare and the new BBC fields of expression such as Radio, Television and Film. His one-man-show ‘Fish On Dry Water’ that he wrote / directed / performed was awarded four out five stars in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He also played the main suspect in the reputable detective TV series ‘Taggart’. It was here when Alan discovered his passion for film and TV, and never let it go. Ever since, he played in dozens of movies, TV series and commercials. But he never forgot his first love, theatre, and from time to time came back to it, such as playing Casio in ‘Othello’ by Shakespeare directed by the multi-awarded Andriy Zholdak.

On set, Alan O’Silva played alongside actors such as: Nicolas Cage, Aaron Paul, David Hasselhoff, Sir Roger Moore, Michael Ironsinde, Franco Nero, Vera Farmiga, Mark Strong, Christoph Waltz, Ray Winstone, Dennis Hopper and many more.

Currently Alan lives in ‘Hollywood North’ – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – still auditioning for film and TV projects.

Adriana Irimescu

Adriana Irimescu has a PhD in Theater and a Bachelor Degree in The Art of Acting from Ion Luca Caragiale National University of Theater and Film, class of Ion Cojar and Gelu Colceag, faculty for which she was a lecturer until 2020.

She debuted in 1995 playing Hypermnestra-Amymone in Danaidele directed by Silviu Purcarete, play which was produced by Festwochen in Vienna, Avignon Festival, Lincoln Center Festival – New York and Amsterdam Festival in collaboration with Craiova National Theater and which has written history nationally and worldwide, being awarded with the Golden Globe Peter Brook Prize in 1995 for Best Director, The Critics’ Prize at the Dublin Theater Festival in 1996 and UNITER Gala’s prize for Best Play in 1997.

Another famous play in which Adriana played the lead female role is Hamlet by W. Shakespeare and directed by Liviu Ciulei, which was staged by Bulandra Theater in 2000.

Between 1999 and 2013 she hosted cultural, entertainment and morning TV shows for Romanian Television Society (TVR) and National TV. Moreover, she was a broadcasting producer and presenter for the Romanian Society of Broadcasting until 2020.

She played the female lead role in the first Romanian soap opera In Family on Prima TV, making an appearance in 192 episodes directed by Adrian Sitaru, Radu Jude and Iura Luncasu.

She also played in another soap opera At the ER directed by Andrei Zinca on TVR which won UCIN and APTR prizes for Best TV Show.

In 2007 she played in Youth without Youth directed by Francis Ford Copolla, in 2014 in Excursion directed by Adrian Sitaru and in 2020 she played the leading role in HBO’s TV Show Tuff Money.

She has appeared in many plays such as Huevos Congelados and FUCHSIADA directed by Anca Maria Colteanu, Close directed by Peter Kerek, The Man Who Understood Women and Everything About Women directed by Felix Crainicu and The Cherry Orchard directed by J Eungwoo Sun in which she plays Ranevskaya.

Currently, she is a dubbing director and actress, film selector and event organizer for Romanian Film Festival – Chicago and is the Cultural Center Director at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies.