Joanna Hogg appointed president of the Giornate degli Autori jury

In the 1980s, in Soho, a young woman in love with the silver screen could be seen filming videos in Super8, encouraged by Derek Jarman. It was Joanna Hogg, and halfway through the same decade, she would get a film degree with a thesis film, a short, starring a then unknown Tilda Swinton (Caprice, 1986).  A Londoner by birth and by calling, the director of international hits like The Souvenir, The Souvenir Part II (2019 and 2021), and The Eternal Daughter (in competition at Venice in 2022), Hogg will serve as jury president for the 21st edition of Giornate degli Autori.

With Joanna Hogg, who succeeds to the Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodríguez in the role, Giornate joins Europa Cinemas and Cineuropa to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the GdA Director’s Award, the official award of Giornate degli Autori that goes to one of the ten films in competition. Joanna Hogg will head a jury that this year consists of ten former participants in the 27 Times Cinema program inaugurated by the European Parliament in 2010. The president and her ten-strong “team” will choose the winner of the GdA Director’s Award, which carries a cash prize of €20,000, to be split equally between the director and the international distributor, who commits to using the sum received to promote the film. As is tradition, the jury sessions will be coordinated by Karel Och, Artistic Director of the Karlovy Vary Festival.

The members of the jury, selected from among the 388 young cinephiles that 27 Times Cinema has brought to Venice over the years, represent the full range of cultures and professions that make up the European filmmaking community.

“What could be more fun and stimulating than watching films and sharing ideas with a jury of young film professionals who are above all cinephiles” observed Joanna Hogg, “I thank the Giornate degli Autori for inviting me to what I anticipate will be days of joyful and inspiring discussions about cinema and its possibilities.”

“We are utterly delighted to welcome Joanna Hogg as president of our jury,” says Gaia Furrer, Artistic Director of Giornate. “Over the course of her film career, Hogg has probed the human soul, family dynamics, and romantic attachments with great psychological depth, accuracy and a rare authenticity. Her cinema is implosive – the very word used by Martin Scorsese, who produced Hogg’s last three films, to describe the way her films often bring inconvenient and even unspeakable truths to light. I am proud to have her with us on the Venice Lido and know she’ll be an excellent guide for our young jurors.”

“The president’s own story, and the passion she will inject into our tenth anniversary jury,” declares General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti, “goes hand in hand with the enthusiasm of the ten other jurors, eager to return to Giornate degli Autori. Their first time around, they were budding cinephiles, many of whom had never even been to a major festival. They return in 2024 as rising young professionals in a variety of areas that make up the ‘film machine’: programmers, critics, producers, sales agents, and more. I am confident that, with Joanna Hogg at their side, they will be able to appraise the films vying for the GdA Director’s Award with all the competence and freshness that make this original formula for a film jury unique and much appreciated by filmmakers, for its transparency and professionalism.”

Considered one of the UK’s leading auteurs, Joanna Hogg practised photography and was a director in television before making her first film Unrelated (2008), which starred a young Tom Hiddleston and won many awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize at The London Film Festival. She went on to make Archipelago (2010) and then Exhibition (2013). Her next film, The Souvenir (2019), for Element, BBC and A24, had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Award. Hogg’s follow-up, The Souvenir Part II (2021), again for Element, BBC and A24, premiered in the Quinzaine at the Festival de Cannes. She followed this up with The Eternal Daughter (2022), starring frequent collaborator Tilda Swinton and executive-produced by Martin Scorsese, which premiered in competition at the 79th Venice Film Festival. She is currently working on her next feature film set in Los Angeles.

THE TEN JURORS
David Bakum (Germany) was a member of the 2022 jury. He is a curator and organizer of the program for the XPOSED Queer Film Festival in Berlin. He is also a co-founder of a Jewish-Muslim film collective based in Berlin.
Victor Courgeon (France) was a member of the 2019 jury. He works for the Cinéma Le Méliès in Montreuil as head of public relations and communications.
Maarja Hinoalla (Estonia) was a member of the 2015 jury. She is a freelance journalist and film critic. She works for the National Film Archives of Estonia, for the first seven years as curator and programmer, and since 2022, head of acquisitions.
Dimosthenis Kontes (Greece) was a member of the 2018 jury. He is head of sales and materials coordinator for Pluto Film.
Amalia Mititelu (Romania) was a member of the 2020 jury. She works as an assistant or else directly as set designer and art director of short films, commercials, and TV series filmed in Romania by Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.
Saulė Savanevičiūtė (Lithuania) was a member of the 2022 jury. She coordinates the programs of the European Film Forum Scanorama. She also contributes articles to the leading national media organizations.
Esmée van Loon (the Netherlands) was a member of the 2017 jury. She works for the arthouse cinema LantarenVenster in Rotterdam. She screens and selects films and curates film showcases and special events.
Gregor Valentovic (Slovakia) was a member of the 2015 jury. He is a filmmaker.
Isabella Weber (Italy) was a member of 27 Times Cinema 2010 program. She is a development executive at Kino Produzioni and a freelance story editor. She collaborates with the Torino Film Lab.
Chris Zahariev (Bulgaria) was a member of the 2020 jury. He is a screenwriter and director at his own production company, Razkaz. He is working on his first film.