NEW SIGNS JURY
Cyril Schäublin (*1984) grew up in Zurich and studied cinema in Beijing and in Berlin. His films premiered at festivals such as Berlinale, Locarno, Toronto, Rotterdam, Viennale or at the New York Film Festival and were presented at Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York or at Kunsthaus Zürich.
HELENA WITTMANN
Helena Wittmann is an artist and filmmaker based in Hamburg, Germany. After studying Spanish and Media Studies in Erlangen and Hamburg, she graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg (HFBK) in 2014. Her latest feature film HUMAN FLOWERS OF FLESH was premiered 2023 at Locarno Film Festival. Her debut feature DRIFT(2017) and several short films, including ADA KALEH (2018), 21,3°C (2014) or WILDNIS (2013), were shown internationally at various film festivals and in exhibitions. Helena Wittmann works often in collaborations, as with the musician and artist Nika Son, or as DoP for other filmmakers. She has worked as artistic research assistant at HFBK Hamburg until 2018 and was mentoring at Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola in Donostia, Spain.
RAMAN DJAFARI
Raman Djafari is an illustrator, animator and filmmaker working in both 2D and 3D, currently living in Berlin, Germany. Through colorful imagery and fragmented narratives they hope to reach into a realm of honest emotionality and willful fragility, creating surreal worlds and characters that oscillate between the familiar and the fantastical.
Raman has directed music videos for artists from across the globe, like Elton John, Dua Lipa and Ashnikko, as well as having worked with other clients like Adult Swim, Medium and The New Yorker. Currently they are represented as a director by the London based animation studio BlinkInk.