Paweł is a film, television and theatre actor, but also a producer and director.He graduated the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Cracow. He already has over 100 films and series on his account! He began his career with the best possible debut – in the award-winning film by Steven Spielberg – “Schindler’s List”. After the film “Quo vadis”, in which he played the main role, he got chances in European and American productions. Since then, he has played in Czech, French and American films, but he especially favoured the Russian cinema.He gained enormous popularity in this country thanks to his role in the war miniseries “In June of 1941”by Alexander Franskevich-Laie. He also successfully performs at the theatres in Warsaw, Cracow, Kielce and Białystok, where he cooperated with, among others, Krystian Lupa and Krystyna Janda. Paweł is counted as one of the most popular actors of the new generation in Poland. Not without a reason, because he is one of the most talented artists as well!

Sarsacreated compositions for the films like Voltaby Juliusz Machulski and PM 2.5by Piotr Biedroń – an image about the problem of air pollution. The song “Dust”(PM 2.5) was awarded at festivals around the world, e.g.: Best Original Song (American Tracks Music Awards), Best Singer Voice (European Cinematography Awards), The Best Soundtrack (Barcelona Planet Film Festival).Sarsa is not only an excellent artist, but also a propagator of “green values”! During the first edition of CGFF was a member of the Jury and patronised the competition for the youngest filmmakers – Filmology Ecology.

Piotr is a director, screenwriter and producer of independent films. He created his first short film during his studies. In 2000, he founded a production company that successfully operates and has a number of promotional and advertising films for major companies and music videos for famous artists’ songs. In addition, he lectured at the Krakow Film School, at the Directing Department, and has been cooperating for years with the largest radio station in Poland – RMF FM. Piotr is the originator and co-founder of CGFF. In 2017,he created the short film „PM 2.5”, with a role of the actorPaweł Deląg and the music written by SARSA (song „Dust”). It has raised the topic of smog, dangerous air-pollution, which is a serious problem in Poland. The film resonated in the whole country and fueled the discussion about need of fighting for clean air.  It has been recognized at many festivals around the world, winning a number of awards, including: Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, International Green Culture Festival „Green Fest” in Belgrade (Best Short), Great Message International Film Festival in India (Best Short), American Filmatic Arts Awards, USA, (Best Short), Barcelona Planet Film Festival (Best Song), Los Angeles CineFest and others.

Niels is talented Danish filmmaker. 28 years old, living in Aarhus, Denmark with his wife and his daughter. Niels has a Master of Arts in Philosophy and Film & Media from Aarhus University. He works as a videographer and produces documentaries in his spare time. His documentaries have been screened at various festivals around the globe and won several awards. Niels likes to tell stories of quiet lives, portraying the basic of human living in his documentaries, making the audience ponder on the essentials of being human.

In 2018 Niels won the Grand Prix at the first edition of Cracow Green Film Festival for his documentary The Grind Message. This short documentary deals with pilot whale hunting in the Faroe Islands, touching on matters as human tradition, animal ethics, pollution and ecology. This film touched both the audience and the jury – and rightly won the most important award of our festiwal!

Who could be a better candidate for this honourable group if not the creators of the best films of the first CGFF edition? This year, therefore, we made up our mind to additionally invite the winners of each category to our Jury – who will judge the films in their groups. We are very pleased to present Rakel and Agusta, who won in October the statuette for the best documentary film – for Useless!

Rakel Garðarsdóttir has been the MD and producer for the award winning and critically claimed Vesturportsince 2003 (http://www.vesturport.com). She has produced a vast range of films, documentaries and TV-episodes. Rakel is the the founder of Vakandi, which name translates to Awakening, but the initial purpose of Vakandi was being a movement to increase awareness of food waste. She did that successfully and is now well-known in Iceland for fighting food waste (and we hope to cause her popularity in Poland as well!).

Béla is a Hungarian director, screenwriter and producer of animations– repeatedly awarded around the world! He took part in projects nominated for the Oscarsand awarded, among others, at festivals in Berlin (the Golden Bear)and Annecy!During the first edition of Cracow Green Film Festival, he won the Best Animated Film Award(Boxi: In the nature) – and thus joined the group of this year’s Jury!

In 1999 he graduated from the Animation Schoolof the Hungarian University of Applied Arts. In the same year, he founded the KGB Visual Workshop, which three years later turned into a film studio. In addition to films, he produces commercials and television headlines there. Béla worked on animations and visual effects for internationally recognized images, such as “On Body and Soul” by Ildikó Enyedi (the Gold Bear for the Best Film, the Oscar nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film), “Maestro” (the Oscar nomination) and „Nyócker”(the Best Feature Film at the Annecy Festival). As a director, screenwriter and producer, he created “The Ambassadors of the Cosmos” in 2017 and is currently working on the series “Boxi and Hunor”and the short animated film – “Remake”.

Alexander is the Award Winning Film Director and Screenwriter, specialized in designing and directing Commercials, Music Videos and Feature Films. After graduating from Master School of Film Directing(Warsaw, Poland), he furthered his education working under the tutelage of Academy Award-winning director – Andrzej Wajda. Film directing allows Alexander to realize his greatest passion – telling stories that have the potential to touch hearts and awaken the vision to change the way we see things. He is a member of the Polish Filmmakers Association (PFA).For more information please refer to Alexander’s personal page: www.alexander-denysenko.com.