Jury lineups announced for IFFR 2026 competitions

We’ve announced the jury lineups across our three competition strands – the Tiger Competition, the Tiger Short Competition and the Big Screen Competition for the upcoming 55th edition of the festival. The internationally renowned jurors include filmmaker and actress Soheila Golestani; film director, screenwriter and visual artist Marcelo Gomes; actress and film director, Ariane Labed; BFI Festivals Director Kristy Matheson; and novelist and screenwriter Jurica Pavičić. 

Tiger Competition

IFFR’s Tiger Competition celebrates the innovative and adventurous spirit of up-and-coming filmmakers from all over the world. The competition was founded in 1995 to discover, raise the profile of, and reward up-and-coming international film talent. The Tiger Award is accompanied by a €40,000 cash prize, to be shared between the director and producer of the winning film. Two Special Jury Awards worth €10,000 will also be presented for exceptional artistic achievement within the competition.

For 2026, the Tiger Competition Jury includes:

• Soheila Golestani: Iranian filmmaker and actress recognised for her performance in Mohammad Rasoulof’s Academy Award nominated The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024). Her professional career began with acting in cinema and theatre, and she later transitioned into filmmaking, producing short films and television work.
• Marcelo Gomes: Brazilian film director, screenwriter and visual artist known for Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (2005), Portrait of a Certain Orient (IFFR 2024) and Dolores (2025, co-directed with Maria Clara Escobar).
• Ariane Labed: Greek-French actress and film director, she recently made her directorial debut with September Says (Cannes 2024). Labed is also known for starring in Attenberg (2010), alongside Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps (2011) and The Lobster (2015).
• Kristy Matheson: BFI Festivals Director since 2023, and formerly the Creative Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Director of Film at Australia’s national museum of screen culture ACMI.
• Jurica Pavičić: Croatian novelist, screenwriter, short story writer, journalist and film critic who has authored ten novels and two short story collections, including crime novel Red Water (2017).

Big Screen Competition

The Big Screen Competition is multifaceted and bridges popular, classic, and arthouse cinema, it is dedicated to supporting the distribution of nominated films in the Netherlands. For 2026, the jury represents a diverse cross-section of the Dutch film and creative industry, showcasing the competition’s ongoing commitment to celebrating exceptional cinema and fostering collaboration across the Dutch cultural sector.

The winning filmmaker(s) will be awarded the Big Screen Award along with €15,000 in prize money. Additionally, IFFR offers €15,000 to the Dutch distributor that acquires the film’s distribution rights, incentivising local distribution. The jury includes:

• Jan-Willem van Ewijk: Dutch film director and actor, who after studying and working in engineering, changed course to direct his award-winning first film Nu (2006), followed by Atlantic. (2014), Pacifica. (2024) and Alpha. (2024).
• Sara Ishaq: Yemeni-Scottish film director, screenwriter, and trainer who currently manages the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk – a non-profit organisation co-founded in 2021 by IDFA, IFFR and the European Film Academy.
• Loes Luca: Dutch actress, Rotterdam native, singer and comedian who has starred in successful films and television series, including Spetters, Het meisje met het rode haar, De Noorderlingen and Ja zuster, nee zuster.
• Chris Oosterom: the Director of Imagine Film Festival, whose wide-ranging expertise in film includes programming for festivals (Lowlands, Crossing Border), as well as cultural centres (Ekko, ’t Paard).
• Mila Schlingemann: Senior Programmer & Acquisitions at EYE, the national museum for film and the art of moving image in the Netherlands.

Tiger Short Competition

For the Tiger Short Competition, the jury hands out three equal awards worth €5,000 each year to the selected films.

For 2026, the Tiger Short Competition jury line-up is:

• Sammy Baloji: living and working between Lubumbashi and Brussels, Baloji explores the memory and history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He won the Special Jury Prize in the Tiger Competition IFFR 2025 for L’arbre de l’authenticité.
• Anka Gujabidze: visual artist from Tbilisi, Gujabidze’s first film Temo Re received the Tiger Short Award and KNF Award at IFFR 2025.
• Jukka-Pekka Laakso: festival director of Tampere Film Festival since 2002 who has previously been an expert at Berlinale Talents and the European Film Academy’s ‘A Sunday in the Country’. He is also executive director of Pirkanmaa Film Centre in Tampere.

The full competition lineup will be announced at our press conference on Tuesday 16 December.