IFFR Youth Jury: Guillermo looks back on 2025

Guillermo Murciano Jiménez was one of five members of the Youth Jury at IFFR 2025. Over the festival week, the jury of young people watched ten films and chose the winner of the IFFR Youth Jury Award. We asked him about the experience, and where it led him.

How did you find out about the Youth Jury, and how did you apply?

I don’t remember exactly when or how I found out about the possibility of participating as a member of the Youth Jury. I only remember applying through a video in which I talked about how eager I was to join the festival and how passionate I have always been about film.

When did you hear you’d been selected?

Months later, just a few weeks before the festival, when I had already assumed that IFFR was no longer considering me as a potential candidate, I received an email from the Education Team inviting me to join the Youth Jury.

What did the invitation mean to you?

This invitation was especially meaningful to me because, at the time, I was a second-year Business student, and IFFR would become my first, long-awaited encounter with the film industry, an industry I had always dreamed of being part of.

How did it all start?

My first day at the office was, I believe, the week before the festival. We had a meeting with the Education Team, as well as my fellow Youth Jury members: Morris, Maartje, Noni, and Wouter. From the beginning, our mission had an exciting premise: we would watch ten different films throughout the festival week, and by the end of it, we would have to select the winner of the IFFR Youth Jury Award. However, the experience ended up exceeding all my expectations.

What was festival week like?

I remember that first week of February with so much excitement. We had the chance to watch up to four films a day, moving from cinema to cinema, attending Q&As, meeting industry professionals (directors, actors, producers…), and discussing and sharing our thoughts with each other. At the end of the week, we ranked the films and selected our winner which was The Visual Feminist Manifesto by Farida Baqi. We even had the opportunity to meet and award the director and present the award to her during the award ceremony, which was an unforgettable way to conclude the experience.

What did you enjoy most about being on the jury?

One of the things I liked most was that we were completely free to decide which film we considered the “best”. The five of us were fully responsible for deciding which criteria we would use to make our final decision.

What are you doing now?

I am currently a Marketing Intern at IFFR, where I have once again been given the opportunity to expand my knowledge and gain more experience within the industry. I am not sure whether I would have ended up in this position if I had never been part of the Youth Jury. However, what I am certain of is that I am here now because I was there then!

What did you take away from the experience?

I am also very happy to say that my experience at IFFR went far beyond discovering how a film festival operates and meeting the many different people and professionals who make it happen. Most importantly, it allowed me to build friendships and create memories that I still cherish today.