Ji.hlava FF Announces Awards and Emerging Producers 2026

PRESS RELEASE
Sarajevo, August 19, 2025

DOCU TALENT AWARDS 2025 WENT TO A SONG WITHOUT HOME, FLYING COWS, AND LAND OF FIRE EMERGING PRODUCERS 2026 AND RECIPIENTS OF JI.HLAVA /JB FILMS SUPPORT WERE ANNOUNCED

Seven outstanding documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe, planned for theatrical release during the upcoming 12 months – the Docu Talents from the East 2025 – were presented last night as part of CineLink Industry Days at the Sarajevo Film Festival.  Projects from Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Georgia, Poland, and Ukraine made it to the final selection of Docu Talents from the East 2025.  The Docu Talent Award was granted to the most promising project. The international jury decided to give the award to A Song Without Home by Georgian director Rati Tsiteladze, produced by Olga Slusareva. 

The 25,000 EUR in-kind Avanpost Post-production Award was awarded to Armenian-Swiss co-production Flying Cows by directors Vahagn Khachatryan and Aren Malakyan, produced by Vahagn Khachatryan and Irene Muñoz Martin.

The 3,000 EUR in-kind DAFilms.com Distribution Award was awarded to Land of Fire by Czech director Nikola Klinger, produced by Kristina Husová. The award covers international VOD release on DAFilms.com (including Americas, Europe, Asia) for two years. 

Since 2005, Docu Talents curated by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, has been a launch pad for a number of documentaries by both renowned and emerging directors such as Laila Pakalniņa, Vladimir Mansky, Bartek Konopka, Piotr Stasik, Peter Kerekes, Dmitrii Kalashnikov and Helena Třeštíková.  Films presented at Docu Talents in the past had world and international premieres at major film festivals including in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam and Sundance.

EMERGING PRODUCERS 2026 WERE ANNOUNCED During the event, the representatives of the Ji.hlava IDFF also revealed the names of the Emerging Producers 2026. This unique programme aims at promoting talented European documentary film producers and provides them with a range of networking, educational, and promotional support throughout the year: Dominic Spitaler / Austria Maarten D’Hollander / Belgium Pavla Klimešová / Czech republic Julie Meigniez / France Evi Stamou / Greece Anna Tóth / Hungary Angelo Rocco Troiano / Italy Ringailė Leščinskienė / Lithuania Yann Tonnar / Luxembourg Ivana Shekutkoska / North Macedonia Anita Vedå / Norway Maria Krauss / Poland Bernardo Lopes / Portugal Tomáš Gič / Slovakia Caroline Drab / Sweden Azra Djurdjevic / Switzerland Eugene Rachkovsky / Ukraine Nahusenay Dereje / Guest country Ethiopia RECIPIENTS OF JI.HLAVA /JB FILMS SUPPORT 2025

The Jihlava IDFF and Czech entrepreneur Jan Barta continue to support outstanding auteur filmmaking from Central and Eastern Europe through the Ji.hlava / JB Films support scheme. Three outstanding projects were selected for support in 2025, each with 18,000 EUR: PlaytopiaCountries: Czech Republic, RomaniaDirector: Bára Jíchová TysonProducers: Alice Tabery, Kristina HusováCo-producers: Radu Stancu, Cristina HanesGenre: hybrid documentary Valley of the Night Countries: Czech Republic, USADirector: Lynne SiefertProducers: Matej Sotník (Somatic Films), Lynne Siefert (Mousehaus)Genre: hybrid documentary World of WallsCountryies: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Belgium, France, South AfricaDirector: Lucia KašováProducer: Matej Sotník (guča films)Co-producers: CLAW Films, Harald House BV, FACTSTORY, ARTE GEIE, Czech Television, The Audio RoomGenre: hybrid documentary
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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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