Jury for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature

Gianluca Matarrese is an Italian filmmaker based in Paris. Trained in cinema and at the Jacques Lecoq International School of Theatre, he began his career in French television before moving into feature filmmaking. With ten films directed since 2019, he has emerged as a prolific and distinctive voice, moving freely between documentary, fiction and theatre. Drawing on close observation and dramaturgical construction, his films transform intimate encounters into stories about family, gender, labor, desire and the social forces shaping private lives. His cinema is marked by a tragicomic sensibility and an interest in the boundary between lived experience and performance. His films include Everything Must Go (2019), The Last Chapter (2021), Fashion Babylon (2022), A Steady Job (2022), The Zola Experience (2023) and GEN_ (2025). Presented at Venice, Sundance, IDFA, CPH:DOX, Visions du Réel, Hot Docs, Thessaloniki, Karlovy Vary, Viennale, DMZ, among many others, his work has received a Queer Lion in Venice and a Torino Film Festival Award for Best Italian Documentary. GEN_ premiered in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition and screened at over one hundred festivals. His latest feature, I Want Her Dead (2025), premiered at the Venice Film Festival in Giornate degli Autori and marked Matarrese’s third selection at IDFA.

Gugi Gumilang is Programme Director of In-Docs, where he leads Docs by the Sea, an international documentary industry platform supporting Asian filmmakers and strengthening connections between Asian documentary communities and the global industry. Through Docs by the Sea, he works with filmmakers across Asia on project development, mentorship, international positioning, and access to global networks, while building relationships with festivals, funds, markets, and industry partners worldwide. Working across producing, programming, and industry development, Gumilang is committed to creating more international opportunities for Asian documentary voices. As a producer and executive producer, his films have screened and received awards at CPH:DOX, IDFA, Busan, DOK Leipzig, Hot Doc, and others. His recent credits include Always (2025), 10’s Across the Borders (2025), and My Therapist Said I Am Full of Sadness (2024). Gumilang is also an International Programmer for Hot Docs and Associate Programmer at the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF). He serves on the Executive Board of the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE) and contributes to international juries, funds, forums, and selection committees, including Sundance Documentary Fund, IDFA Bertha Fund, Chicken & Egg, Cannes Docs, and CPH:DOX.

Ketevan Kipiani studied Sociology before earning a master's degree in Cultural Studies. She has been part of Tbilisi-based Sakdoc Film since 2012, working across various positions. Her latest film, The Kartli Kingdom, which she produced, premiered in the International Competition at IDFA 2025, winning the IDFA Award for Best Directing. Her directorial debut, the short It Will Be Better Before, premiered at Visions du Réel in 2024 and has since screened at festivals worldwide. Beyond her hands-on work in filmmaking Ketevan serves as executive director of the Documentary Film Association (DOCA), where she helps build a sustainable community for Georgian documentary professionals.