The jury composed by Cristina Grosan, Gentian Koçi and Eliza Petkova will evaluate the feature films taking part in the competition. This is one of the most important categories, where candidates claim the “Golden Owl” award.

Cristina Grosan, Hungarian-Romanian, is a young filmmaker who debuted a year ago with her feature film “Things Worth Weeping For”, which premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The film is already on Netflix Hungary and is touring international festivals around the world. A few days ago, Cristina Grosan was awarded the best director under 40 years old for the film “Ordinary Failures” at the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival.

Meanwhile, the only Albanian in the jury of the feature film is Gentian Koçi, a talented director, who only a few days ago got the green light to try for the Oscars. The National Center of Cinematography, voted for Gentian Koçi’s film, “A cup of coffee and new shoes on” as the official candidacy of Albania, for the category “Best Foreign Film”, in the 95th edition of OSCARS. This film will have its world premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, in Estonia, being part of the official competition for the “Best Artistic Film” award. Koçi is a co-producer in several international productions and has made several short films and successful documentaries.

Eliza Petkova is originally from Bulgaria, but lives and works in Berlin. She studied philosophy and then film production at the Film and Television Academy in Berlin. She has made 3 feature films, of long length, as well as many documentary films. Her films have been screened at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. She has been a jury member in many other international festivals.

The International Film Festival in Tirana will take place from September 24-30, with films to be played mainly at the Millennium Cinema. For the first time, in its 20th edition, the Albanian Telegraphic Agency is the “Official Partner” of TIFF. /j.p/p.s./