Jury for the Envision Competition

Kumjana Novakova is a research-based filmmaker, working also as a curator and lecturer in cinema and audiovisual arts. Her formal education combines social sciences and research methodologies in Sofia, Sarajevo, Bologna and Amsterdam. As an author, she develops projects between cinema and contemporary art, exploring the relationships of war, power, collective memory and resistance. Her work has been presented at numerous festivals and exhibiting venues, including MoMA, Museum of the Moving Image, IDFA, Cinéma du Réel, Punto de Vista, HotDocs, MG+MSUM. As a curator, Novakova collaborates with several film festivals, cinema platforms and exhibition spaces. As resident curator she has led the film department of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Skopje, and acts as chief curator of the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo. She currently lectures at the Netherlands film academy NFTVA, after being a visiting lecturer at ESCAC, Barcelona. She has taught at the BA programme of Béla Tarr’s film.factory in Sarajevo.  

Sam Green is a New York-based documentary filmmaker, whose recent projects are “live documentaries” including his most recent film 32 Sounds, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and is a live cinema collaboration with the legendary electronic musician JD Samson. Green’s previous live cinema works include A Thousand Thoughts (2018), a collaboration with classical ensemble the Kronos Quartet, and The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller (2012) with the indie band Yo La Tengo. With all of these works, Green narrates the film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. Green’s 2004 documentary The Weather Underground was nominated for an Oscar, broadcast on PBS, and included in the Whitney Biennial. Green is also a prolific maker of short documentaries, including lot 63, grave c (2006), N-Judah 5:30 (2004), Pie Fight ’69 (directed with Christian Bruno, 2000), and The Rainbow Man/John 3:16 (1997).  

B. Ruby Rich is the former editor-in-chief of Film Quarterly (2013-2023) and professor emerita at University of California Santa Cruz, where she co-founded the Social Documentation graduate program. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Documentary Branch, and SAG-AFTRA, Rich has long been active in the world of film festivals, having served on the original Sundance selection committee, as a programmer for both Sundance and Toronto International Film Festival and as a juror for many others. She is the author of Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement (Duke University Press, 1998) and New Queer Cinema: The Director’s Cut (Duke University Press, 2013) and has written for the Village Voice, The Guardian, Sight and Sound, and many other journals, as well as providing radio and television commentary for US and Canadian pubic media. She lives in Paris and San Francisco. 

Wael Shawky is a contemporary artist working in a variety of media including drawing, painting, performance, and installation, with a focus on film. Reinterpreting existing historical narratives, he addresses concepts of identity based on extensive research and enquiry into history and mythology. His lyrical visual language serves to translate the history of the Arabs and the Middle East, which has become fixed through a Western perspective, into contemporary narratives intermingling fact and fiction. His recent solo exhibitions have been held at venues including Tate Modern, London (2022), Louvre Abu Dhabi (2020), Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2016), Fondazione Merz, Turin (2016), and MoMA PS1, New York (2015). Group exhibitions include the Venice Biennale (2024), Desert X AlUla (2020), the 14th Sharjah Biennial (2019), and the 13th documenta, Kassel (2012). Since 2015, Shawky has established MASS Alexandria, an educational program in his hometown to provide support for young local artists.  

Nduka Mntambo is a South African educator, researcher, and filmmaker. He is currently the Head of the Masters of Film program at the Netherlands Film Academy. Previously, he led the Film and Television program at the Wits School of Arts and commissioned content for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Nduka’s work spans experimental filmmaking, urban spatial practices, and pedagogy. He has led artistic research collaborations and moving image projects in cities like Accra, Johannesburg, Beijing, Nairobi, Cairo, Maputo, and São Paulo. His work has been featured at forums including the INEFF Festival (Salford, United Kingdom), the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum (Naples), Videoex (Zurich), and the Michaelis Galleries (Cape Town). As a jury member, Mntambo has served at festivals including the 51st International Film Festival Rotterdam, the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, and the inaugural 2023 Amsterdam Student Film Festival (ASFF). He is also an advisory board member of the Sonic Acts Organisation, Amsterdam.