Brigitta Portier
Jury President
It’s been over 35 years since Brigitta Portier has been active in the film industry. It all started back in 1986 when she was in charge of the TV call at the Cannes Film Festival. Her main role was handling all the requests of International Publicist’s requiring interview spaces during the Festival. This lead to International Publicist Richard Lormand asking her to become his assistant. After two years working with Richard, Brigitta decided to create her own company ‘Alibi Communications’ and since then she has been the International Publicist for over 300 films at all the major film festivals around the world. Her gift for languages (fluent: Dutch, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish) along with her passion for cinema has played a significant part in her success. Her openness and knowledge have enabled her to create a good, friendly, honest relationships with Directors, Actors, Producers, Sales Agents as well as Local and International Journalists. With all her connections within the film industry she is always open to new challenges and loves promoting African and Arabic films.
Shin Kim
Before joining HKBU, Prof. Kim was a Professor at the Media School & the Director of the Institute for Convergence Culture, Hallym University, South Korea. Elected as the President of the Korean Association for Public Diplomacy for 2025, Prof. Kim is the Editor-in-Chief of the Korean Social Science Journal – the flagship academic journal of the Korean Social Science Council, KSSC – an association of fifteen national academic associations in social sciences and management studies. Prof. Kim’s area of research and teaching covers cinema and television, culture and creative industries, media policy and political economy, and global media. Prof. Kim recently managed a five-year national research project on modelling the Korea’s ICT developments and is currently working on the impact of narratives and narration in humanity.
Alessandro Masi
Alessandro Masi is a professional with 10+ years of experience working between Italy and the United States with a focus on international sales and distribution, as well as development and production. After his experience as head of content and business developer of the VOD platform OwnAir.it which was founded when Netflix was still distributing DVDs, he moved to Los Angeles where he primarily worked in international sales and distribution for companies such as Myriad Pictures, Fremantle US, Cohen Media, Sierra/Affinity, Electric Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, American Zoetrope, handling successful titles including Barney Thomson, American Gods, The Salesman, Captain Fantastic, Manchester by the Sea, Molly’s Game, Atomic Blonde, Say My Name, The Librarians, The Family Whistle, Adverse, A Father’s Will, Light Falls.
International distributor and independent producer with his brand FlexyMovies, he has always been a supporter of innovative film business strategies. He regularly attends the main film festivals and markets and has awarded movies with special prizes for their potential on the international markets. He achieved a BSc in business economics from University of Siena, an MSc in media management from Bocconi University, an MBA from Hult International Business School, a certificate in business of entertainment from UCLA. He has taught courses in film business for Centro Sperimentale, received the prestigious Heraclea Award
as a Lucanian who has distinguished himself abroad in his profession, has been a member of the European Film Academy since 2018.
Dubravka Lakić
Born in Belgrade, Dubravka graduated in journalism at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade in 1983, she started her career in 1982 on Radio Belgrade. From 1995 to 1997, she worked in RTV Politika where she was the creator of a film show called “In Media Res”, and from 2000 to 2004 another called “Kino-Klub”.
She is a member of the European Film Academy (EFA), a member of the Executive Board of the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean (FEDEORA), a member of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), a selector of the international program of the Cinema City IFF in Novi Sad, a member of the Board of the Belgrade documentary film festival Beldocs and a member of the Board of the Serbian Film Center.
Reinhold Jaretzky
Born in 1952, studied literature in Marburg and Hamburg. University lecturer at the University of Hamburg and at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” 1985-1991. Author of biographies. Television journalist since 1983 for ARD, ZDF, 3sat, arte. Founded in 1999 the film production “Magic Mountain Film Berlin” with focus on the cultural documentary. Author of numerous documentary films.
