Each year at IFFNY we invite key influencers in the entertainment and film industry to serve on our Jury Panel. Select films are eligible for Jury Awards, Festival Awards and Audience Awards which are announced at the Awards Ceremony.
This year we welcome the following Jurors to IFFNY 2017: Fatrin Krajka, Jamal Hodge, Lulzim Guhelli, Diar Xani and Amina Zhaman. Lulzim Guhelli led the festival jury as the Jury President.
Fatrin Krajka is an award winning composer and classical pianist based in New York City. The latest film he scored “Nocturne in Black” won the Gold Medal in at the Student Academy Awards 2016 and was shortlisted for the 2017 Oscars in the Live Action Short category .
Fatrin also won “Best Score in a Feature” at the Southampton Film Festival in England for “Anatomy of the Tide” in 2015. His early accomplishments arose from his exploration of widely varying musical genres, including classical, jazz, electronic and world ethnic. His most rewarding endeavors have been his numerous and acclaimed partnerships with American and international filmmakers, luxury fashion houses and art directors.
These collaborations developed a curated musical palette ranging from classical symphony orchestra to modern hybrid sound designs. His film scoring experience extends from drama to comedy, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, and thriller. It is his unique compositional approach seeking to convey a lasting emotional trace, that makes him a highly sought after emerging composer. In addition to composition, Fatrin has established himself as a classical pianist. Amongst many others he studied with celebrated teachers such as Leon Fleisher, Marc Silverman and Jeffrey Cohen. His critically acclaimed interpretational skills both a soloist and chamber musician have been showcased on numerous international concert stages including Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall.
Originally from Albania, Fatrin was raised in a celebrated family of musicians. His father, with whom he originally studied composition and orchestration, is a renowned composer and songwriter. His mother is a former violist with the Albanian National Orchestra of Opera and Ballet. In 1992, Fatrin moved to New York, and was subsequently accepted to La Guardia High School for Music and Performing Arts, where he studied viola and pursued his education in piano. His talent rapidly flourished, and led him to hone his pianistic skills at the very prestigious Manhattan School of Music.
Jamal Hodge is a filmmaker who believes that the tribulations of his childhood have formed a deep understanding of pain, identity, and the importance of compassion. In his films Hodge strives to use darkness to show light in order to expand the audience’s awareness of their own humanity.
His short urban crime drama “Knockout Game” is an official selection of the Cannes Short Film Corner in 2017. Also, his horror film “The Kind Ones” has screened at the Cannes Short Film Corner, the Big Apple Film Festival, and won the Audience Choice award at the New York City Horror Film Festival and the Gold Award at the Spotlight horror awards all in 2016. Additionally, his short film “ The Jump” won the audience award for best Narrative Short Film at the Black Star Film Festival and the Baltimore International Film Festival. The Jump has also been an official selection in festivals such as the Urban World Film Festival and Hollywood Black Film Festival.
Outside of the film festival circuit, Hodge has done local and international commercials. Worked on HBO and Discovery content as an editor, and on the Emmy award winning ‘Bullets in the hood’ as a cinematographer. An avid believer in education and an advocate for paying it forward, Hodge has also taught filmmaking to literally hundreds of kids from various walks of life, such as Japan’s Keio Academy, Big Brothers-Big Sisters, The Pro-TV Program, TRUCE, The COVE, and Mythic Bridge. Despite his humble beginnings, Hodge has risen to become one of film’s most promising and dynamic new visionaries. His history of mentoring youth in underprivileged communities speaks to his depth of character and his work abroad sheds light on his ability to cross barriers and explore issues that have long remained undiscovered. As a director, writer, and producer, Jamal Hodge has only just begun to carve out his place in film history.
Lulzim Guhelli is an award-winning professional actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He has been in an array of iconic films, theater performances and TV projects.
Born in Prizren, Kosovo Lulzim graduated in 1995 from the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Arts with an Acting degree. Since then he has been involved in acting and film production.
For his outstanding work, Lulzim Guhelli has won several awards. He was awarded as Best Male Actor in the National Theatre Festival in Kosovo; Best Male Actor in The Film Festival in Basel – Switzerland. The popular short film “Perqafimi – The Hug” written and directed by Lulzim Guhelli, was awarded with the Audience Award in International Short and Documentary Festival “DOKUFEST” and also Audience Award in “SWIKOS” – Switzerland.
Since 2015, Lulzim Guhelli has been serving as the Head of UFAK (Union of Film Artists of Kosovo) which is the oldest Film Artists Union in Kosovo. Now Lulzim Guhelli is beginning his acting career in USA.
Diar Xani as actor, director and producer has worked in different states such as: Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Switzerland, Germany and Turkey. He performed, in German language, in shows with renowned actors from Germany and Switzerland in various theaters: “Schlachthaus Theater”- Bern,”Rampe” – Stuttgart, “Winkelwiese”- Zurich and “Berliner Festpiele” – Berlin. As a director, he has won many awards during his career. In the International student’s festival for movie and theater “Skena UP” in Pristina, Kosovo, he won the price “Best Kosovar Film” for movie KULETA. A movie which Diar had written and directed.
He also took five awards as a director in “The National Theater festival” in Ferizaj, with theater show “Bald Singer”. In “Albanian comedy days” festival held in Presevo, Serbia, he won the “Special Award” price. Diar produced and directed “Albanian successful women in Turkey” and “Women” documentaries. He also did presentations of Albanian art and culture in Rotten Rathau Berlin, Yildiz Teknik University and Kosovo Cultural Center in Istanbul. He was amongst 52 producers, directors, actors who participated in “tt internationals forum 2009” workshop in Berlin and the only one representative from Balkans (Kosovo). Currently Diar Xani is a PhD candidate for Radio Tv and Cinema in Istanbul University.
Amina Zhaman is a NY-based Circassian filmmaker, musician, theatre director, critic and scientist. Winner of Golden Apricot 2013 (Armenia, “Contribution in a Debut Film” Award), Loutraki International Film Festival 2013 (Greece, “Brightest Debut”), International Rights Film Festival “STEPS” 2013 (Ukraine, “Best Script”, “Best Actress”, “Best Music Video Against War”), Albanian Film Week International Festival in New York 2013 (USA, “Audience Award for Best Feature Film” – “Right to Love”), International Festival of Circassian Culture 2014 and 2016 (Russia), International Film & TV Festival Slavic Fairy Tale 2016 (Bulgaria, “Best Short Film”).
Screenwriter of an internationally acclaimed hit feature “Right to Love” (dir. by Paul Kurti, USA, 2012). Amina Zhaman directed and starred in the first ever screen versions of American classical plays “Before Breakfast” (USA, 2014) and “The Movie Man” (USA, 2016) written by Eugene O’Neill.
In 2017 Zhaman premiered her debut stage production “7 Days. 7 Nights”. Currently she is working on her second theatre show and gives master-classes on filmmaking, film management, American drama, journalism in entertainment industry and importance of English language in international career at the best academies around the world.
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