International Competition Jury at 11th Odesa International Film Festival Announced!

The International competition jury at the 11th OIFF will be headed by the Canadian composer Howard Shore, a former Academy Award, Grammy and Golden Globe nominee.

Howard Shore is a three-time Oscar and Golden Globe winning composer, whose credits include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Saturday Night Live, most films by David Cronenberg and several by Martin Scorsese (The Aviator, Gangs of New York), plus Seven, Ed Wood, That Thing You Do! and The Silence of the Lambs. He has been in the business for over 40 years and written the score for numerous Hollywood films. Shore was one of the founders of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” back in 1975. He directed some of the sketches and starred as an actor and musician. He wrote his first film score for “I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses” in 1978. He became a full-time film composer in 1980. Howard Shore used the score to create a symphony he then toured the world with.

He will be joined by: ⠀

The Icelandic actress and theatre director Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir started out as a saxophonist and singer for the Risaeðlan/Reptile pop band. At that point, she believed music would become her career. She later became involved in acting, as a means to tell stories reflecting people’s experience. She graduated from the Iceland Drama School in 1995 and has been the leading actress of the municipal theatre in Reykjavik. Apart from that, Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir also stars in film and on TV. She starred as the protagonist of “Woman at War”, the opening film of the 9th Odessa International Film Festival.

Armenian-born French actor and director Serge Avedikian studied at the Meudon Conservatoire (France), following which he created a theatre company. He started his career as a theatre, film, and TV actor in 1979, began shooting documentary films in 1982 and working on short films eight years later. He went on to establish his own film studio in 1988. Serge Avedikian received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 for the animated short film “Barking Island”. He starred as the protagonist of the 2013 biopic “Paradjanov”, a Ukrainian, French, Armenian and Georgian co-production. The film received the “Golden Duke” as the Best Ukrainian Film at the 4th Odessa International Film Festival. He is currently working on the feature film “Last Round in Istanbul”.

Joana Ribeiro is an emerging Portuguese film star. She came into worldwide fame after playing the part of Angelica in Terry Gilliam’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”. She began her career on Portuguese TV. Following a successful debut, the actress was nominated for the Portuguese “Golden Globe” for the role of Mariana in “Dancin’ Days”. She starred in the leading role in the 2015 series “At an Uncertain Time”. She then took up film projects, starring in Valeria Sarmiento’s “The Black Book” and Antoine Fuqua’s “Infinite”.

Larysa Rusnak is a Ukrainian theatre, film and voice actress, a leading actress of the Ivan Franko Kyiv National Academic Drama Theatre, Honoured Artist of Ukraine. She also collaborates with the “Actor” theatre, where she starred in W. Gibson’s “Two for the Seesaw” and A. Nikolai’s “A Toy for Mom”. She has starred in over 60 films and series. Larysa Rusnak has played in “The Father-in-Law”, “The Right to Protection”, “Ash of the Phoenix”, “Stolen Happiness”, “Bourgeouis’ Birthday”, “Love Only”, “Falling”. She was awarded the silver medal of the National Academy of Art of Ukraine for considerable achievements in culture and a significant contribution to national art.