Jury 2017 / 2018

Born on March 31, 1939 in Wiesbaden, Volker Schlöndorff is arguably one of the most important and internationally successful German directors. He is possessed with a pronounced fondness for bringing German and international literary classics to the screen. He enthusiastically attends to works that have been considered “unfilmable” and makes them accessible and comprehensible to larger audiences. His repertoire also includes socio-critical works. All of his films are ambitious, but also aim to entertain.

The film-version of Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum became Schlöndorff’s biggest success to date. The film earned him a Palm D’Or in Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, opening him doors for international productions.

Nora Hamadi is a journalist at Public Sénat, the television channel of the French Senate. In charge of monitoring European affairs and directing major reports and documentaries, she is also the editor in chief of several magazines and is in charge of presenting debates.

After her studies in political sciences, Nora Hamadi turned to teaching sociology. She discovered journalism through her experience as an editorial assistant at the Le Parisien – Aujourd’hui en France newspaper. After several collaborations in print press, she joined the iTELE editorial board where she reported on international and political news.

In 2009, she joined the editorial board of the parliamentary channel Public Sénat. Since 2015, she is in charge for the co-writing in chief with Raphal Yem of Fumigène for literature de rue (street literature) which is a magazine dedicated to the actuality and coexistence as it is seen by people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Nora Hamadi is also vice-president of the Association of Europeans Journalists and member of the Europresse team. She is also jury member of the Louise Weiss Prize for European Journalism and jury member of the Young Europeans Award.

Basil Kerski, born on November 19, 1969 in Gdansk, is a German-Polish cultural manager, museum director, publicist and political expert.

He studied political science and Slavonic studies in Berlin. Since 2011, he is the director of the European Solidarność-Center in Gdansk, which was rewarded with the museum award of the Council of Europe in 2016.

Mr. Kerski is editor-in-chief of the bilingual German-Polish journal “DIALOG” since 1998. Moreover, he wrote and edited around 40 books, which were published in German, English, Polish and Ukrainian. He lives in Berlin and in Gdansk.

Thomas Lucien Harding, born on 31 August 1968 in London, is a British journalist and writer.

He studied Anthropology and political sciences at the University of Cambridge. His articles were published in prestigious Newspapers such as The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent and The Financial Times. Thanks to his international Bestseller Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Commandant of Auschwitz (Heinemann, London 2013), he won the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize which rewards writers focusing on Jewish cultural concerns. His book The House By The Lake (Sommerhaus am See) was published in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Cost Biography Award. He is a chairman of the Alexander-Haus eV in Potsdam, Germany.