Golden Key

Francesca Bertin was born in Italy and studied film at the Academy of Fine Art in Hamburg and Law at the University of Trento. She participated in the Werkleitz Professional Media Master Class in Halle (Saale). Francesca works as a film director and media artist; her films have been shown and awarded at various international festivals. She lives and works in Hamburg and is a fellow at the artist residency Vorwerk-Stift. In 2020 she won the Golden Key award for the best short film at the Kassel Dokfest with her work L`Artificio.

Jutta Brendemühl is the Program Curator at the Goethe-Institut Toronto, the founding curator of GOETHE FILMS @ TIFF Lightbox, and a board director of the EU Film Festival Toronto and the Toronto Arab Film Festival. Jutta creates engaging arts programs through a global lens and has worked with Bertolucci, Wenders, Rauschenberg, Bausch and others. She holds an M.A. in English Literature and is a fellow of the Toronto Cultural Leaders Lab. Her writing has appeared in POV, DIE ZEIT, German Film @ Canada et al.

Radu Ciorniciuc is a film director, cinematographer and investigative journalist. In 2012 he co-founded the first independent media organization in Romania - Casa Jurnalistului; a community of reporters specialized in in-depth, long-form, and multimedia reporting. Since then, Radu has been working as a long-form writer and undercover investigative reporter for most major international newspapers and televisions. His researches are focused on human rights, animal welfare, and environmental issues across the globe. His debut feature documentary film,"Acasă, My Home" won the Golden Key award at Kassel Dokfest 2020.

Heleen Gerritsen studied Slavonic languages and international economics in Amsterdam and St. Petersburg. In 2003 she moved to Berlin where, after a course in film production, she started working as a producer, scriptwriter and festival manager, mostly with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe. From 2014 to 2016 Heleen headed European documentary film festival dokumentART in Neubrandenburg. Since October 2017 Heleen is at the helm of goEast - Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, organized by DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum in Wiesbaden.

Jan Künemund is a media scholar, film journalist and curator (Berlin). He was born in Schwerte and studied Literature, Sociology and Linguistics in Bochum. 2006-2015 public relations work for the film distributor Edition Salzgeber in Berlin. Editor of the queer cinema mag SISSY. 2015-21 research and teaching at the University of Hildesheim. Film critic, co-author of the feature film „Lichtes Meer“ (2015), member of the selection committee of the Duisburger Filmwoche and consultant for the Berlinale Forum.

Erika Wackerbarth works for the Cultural Office of the City of Kassel, where her responsibilities include institutional funding and art in public spaces. She studied folklore, ethnology and German studies with a focus on the sociology of everyday life. After further training in the field of public relations, she previously worked for several years in press and internet editing.