Jury
Antonia Kovacheva – Chair of the International Jury
Bulgaria
Nuray Kayacan Sünbül
Turkey
Giorgi Kharebava
Georgia
Jaime Noguera
Spain
Marco Simon Puccioni
Italy
A celebration awaits us, a film feast, five days of the magic of cinema. Few people realize how much work goes into selecting festival films that are both talentedly made, different from each other, involving viewers with all tastes and expectations in their stories. And almost no viewer, experiencing the screen stories in the dark hall, has any idea of the years of painstaking patience and work invested by their authors. In its entirety, European cinema resembles a mosaic of popular children’s kaleidoscopes – hundreds of pieces of film glass from different corners of our continent create the picture of our shared joys, anxieties, hopes and dreams.
Let us wish that the cinematic mosaic of the upcoming Golden Linden Festival will be exciting, beautiful and charged with the energy of new artistic searches, that the festival halls will be full, that the jury’s work will be a pleasure, and that the selection of the laureates will be difficult, as always happens with serious competition.
Antonia Kovacheva – Chair of the International Jury
Antonia Kovacheva is the Director of the Bulgarian National Film Archive and a prominent film expert and critic with a long-standing contribution to the preservation and promotion of cinematic art. She graduated in Film Studies from VITIZ (now NATFIZ) in 1980. Her professional career is deeply intertwined with the National Film Archive, where she has served as Director since 2013. Previously, she held the roles of editor-in-chief of the Cinema and Time almanac and head of international relations for the institution.
As one of Bulgaria’s leading film analysts, she has authored numerous publications in outlets such as Kultura newspaper, Kino magazine, Capital Light, and the international platform fipresci.org. Antonia Kovacheva is an active member of FIPRESCI (The International Federation of Film Critics) and has served on prestigious international juries at festivals in Rotterdam (as President), Karlovy Vary, Oberhausen, Leipzig, and Sofia. Between 2007 and 2012, she chaired the Critics’ Guild of the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers.
Her work has been recognized with the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers’ Award for Film Criticism. In 2023, she was honoured with the “Golden Age – Star,” the Ministry of Culture’s highest distinction, for her extraordinary contributions to the development and promotion of Bulgarian culture and art.
Nuray Kayacan Sünbül
Nuray Kayacan Sünbül was born in Istanbul and graduated from the Department of Sociology at Uludağ University. She began her career in documentary cinema, quickly establishing herself with films exploring human nature, the search for identity, and the existential struggle for meaning. Her film The Left Behind (2018) received multiple awards, including Best Documentary in Serbia and the Ahmet Uluçay Honor Award in Turkey.
Her subsequent documentaries, such as The Bishwa Ijtema (2021), Mercy – Journey to Despair (2021), and Node (2022), have garnered international recognition at festivals in Germany, Italy, Australia, and Bulgaria (Sofia MENAR). In 2023, her debut feature fiction project Heva/Desire received production support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and was selected for Transilvania Pitch Stop 2025. She currently works as a director and producer at TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation). Her work has been screened and awarded at major festivals across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Giorgi Kharebava
Giorgi Kharebava is a distinguished Georgian film director, editor, and educator with a significant contribution to contemporary cinema. Holding a PhD focused on the transformation of editing techniques, he possesses a profound grasp of the cinematographic art form. His creative journey ranges from helming diverse feature projects and popular TV shows to assuming leadership roles at “Georgian Film” – the nation’s oldest and most venerable film studio.
Kharebava is celebrated for award-winning works such as “To the Moon by Bicycle” and “Uznadze Effect,” which showcase his finesse in storytelling and mastery of editing. Beyond his creative output, he is a pivotal figure in film education. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University in Tbilisi. His expertise is internationally recognised through his service on international juries in Rome, New York, and Sofia. In 2024, he was awarded the Grand Prix at the “Golden Eye” International Festival of Cameramen.
Jaime Noguera
Jaime Noguera from Spain is a renowned film critic, festival director and cultural manager with extensive international expertise. His academic background includes studies in Málaga and Barcelona, focusing on audiovisual communications, documentary filmmaking, and cultural project management. Since 1998, he has served as the director of the Benalmádena International Film Festival (FICCAB) in Spain, a role through which he has actively promoted and developed contemporary cinema.
Beyond his work behind the scenes, Noguera has a notable on-screen presence, with roles in Spanish feature films and popular TV series, as well as appearances in significant documentaries for the national broadcaster RTVE. Jaime Noguera is a highly respected member of the international film community, having served on juries at festivals worldwide – from Colombia and Cuba to Madagascar and Egypt. He is a familiar face to Bulgarian audiences, having been a jury member at prestigious forums such as the Sofia International Film Festival and Love is Folly in Varna. As an ambassador of Andalusian culture, he frequently curates selections of short films from Málaga and special FICCAB programs for international film stages.
Marco Simon Puccioni
Marco Simon Puccioni is a renowned Italian director, screenwriter, and educator, who stands out in the landscape of auteur cinema for his deep interest in social issues and innovative cinematic language. A Fulbright scholar, he graduated in Architecture in Rome and in Film Directing from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Los Angeles. Currently, Puccioni teaches film directing at the prestigious Gian Maria Volontè Film School in Rome.
His work has received global critical acclaim since his debut film, “What You’re Looking For” (Quello che cerchi), which earned a David di Donatello nomination. His international breakthrough came with his second feature, “Shelter Me” (Riparo), which premiered at the 57th Berlinale. The film toured over 90 international festivals and won prestigious awards, including the Italian Golden Globe, the David di Donatello, and the Nastro d’Argento. Puccioni is also known for his documentary features, several of which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. His most recent work, the Netflix original “The Invisible Thread” (Il filo invisibile, 2022), further cements his reputation as a master of exploring human relationships and contemporary social dynamics.