Polish-born producer Marek Rozenbaum, now active in Israel and a member of the European Film Academy, will be joined by Croatian actress and European Film Promotion Shooting Star Tihana Lazović and Serbian actress and debuting director Mirjana Karanović. Ukrainian actress Kate Molchanova and German writer Elisabeth Herrmann will round out the jury.

The special sections at this year’s festival include a focus on the refugee crisis, with a programme looking at the situation in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, consisting of 13 feature, documentary and animated films. Four films will be screened also in the Polish neighbouring city of Zielona Góra during the festival.

The festival will also have a focus section devoted to Cuba. "With a new Focus series, which this year focuses on Cuba, we turn our attention to a range of issues that will lead us to countries that over the course of the 20th century have been much influenced by Soviet-style socialism,” programme director Bernd Buder said.

"Especially in our time, it is of enormous importance to build bridges with all available means. Here, we do this predominantly with the medium of film,” managing director Andreas Stein added.