The INFF places great emphasis on a balanced judging of the submitted films. Therefore, the team of INFF-jurors is mixed from professionals in the field of cinema, environmental film productions and the environmental sciences.
Jury
Christian Berger
Screenwriter, film producer, cameraman, director and emeritus professor of the Vienna Film Academy.
Christian Berger started his career in 1968 as a permanent freelancer of the ORF [Austrian Broadcasting Association]. In the 1970s he founded his own production company; intensively worked on documentaries and photojournalism and also cooperated in TV productions as director, producer, and co-author. Since the 80s he has been focusing on his own, frequently award-winning feature film projects. Starting in the 1990s, he has taught at important film schools, e.g. in France, Germany, Italy, Cuba, Israel and Switzerland.
Together with Bartenbach LichtLabor he developed the new film lighting method, the “Cine Reflect Lighting System”, which he has used in all of his work since 2011.
In addition to numerous international awards for this work, a highlight of his career was the 2010 American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for “The White Ribbon”. And, of course, there is the 2010 Oscar Nomination for “Best Cinematography”.
Annie Dissaux
Annie Dissaux began her artistic career as a musician and illustrator where she deepened the research on animated sculptures and drawings at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the class of Christian Boltanski.
After an introduction to the world of the feature film in “Hotel de France” by Patrice Chéreau and then as an assistant to Jean Douchet and Alain Bergala, she integrated computer work into the world of film animation. So in the mid 80ies she found herself in a manageable group of 20 pioneers of computerized animated film.
At this time she is a member of the group “Type 3000”, digital artists of the first hour and created numerous TV animations in 2D, short films, jingles, advertising spots as an independent director. During this period she also won the coveted FIPA d’Or for the best international short film production. Since 2003, Annie Dissaux devotes a form of animated Land Art in her cinematic work, that follows a concept called Vegetal Style. Among her recent works falls “Terre-Eau”, a scenography which is inspired from a short work of the writer Jean-Loup Trassard and by imagining a watercourse.
For 15 years, Annie Dissaux excited her students, both at the EMCA (L’Ecole des Métiers du Cinéma d’Animation) in Angoulême, but also in the Fondation Lagardère and the Art Gallery of Siggraph in USA.
Janick Entremont
In 2014, Janick won a prize for his film “EINSICHT” in the category Youngsters at the Innsbruck Nature Film Festival, which helped launching his career as a filmmaker. Further participations at film festivals and making contact with people of the line of business followed. So far, he has taken part in numerous festivals and contests – as a competitor and even as a juror. Furthermore, he has already realized several film projects, from music clips to corporate videos, while his photos can regularly be found in renowned magazines.
Apart from music clips, corporate videos and short films, he dedicates himself to various photographic projects. Constantly driving for trying and discovering something new, Entremont experiments not only with different genres and techniques but is also always out and about with his film or photo camera. After his graduation, he plans on working in the business of visual media with a view to turning his hobby into a career. All information on Janick Entremont and his projects can be found here: janick-entremont.at.
Oliver Goetzl
From 1990 to 2000, he studied biology at the University of Hamburg. Goetzls main focus was Zoology at the Zoological Institute and Museum of the University of Hamburg, further Geology/Palaeontology at the Geology and Palaeontology Institute and Museum of the University of Hamburg and Hydrobiology/Fisheries Science at the Institute of Hydrobiology and Fisheries Science, University of Hamburg. In 2000 he made his degree as a biologist.
He later became known as a nature filmmaker together with the cameraman, photographer and filmmaker Ivo Nörenberg, with whom he founded Gulo Film Productions in 2004. Oliver Goetzl filmed previously in Africa (Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa), Canada, USA, India, Sri Lanka, Italy, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Russia, Germany and in the high Arctic (Ellesmere Iceland, Spitsbergen).
Johannes Kostenzer
has a degree in biology. In 2001 he founded Innsbruck Nature Film Days, held annually since then. 2013, the event was renamed in Innsbruck Nature Film Festival. Since then, the international competition for movies with nature and the environment is growing and has developed into an international event in the capital of the Alps.
After completing his studies Johannes Kostenzer worked in France, Corsica and Marseille. After a few years as a self-employed he started to work as an expert of Natural History for the State of Tyrol. After a training in public relations, he built up the publicity for Nature Conservation of the State of Tyrol. This period also saw the beginning of the Innsbruck Nature Film Days. From 2005, he planned and coordinated the development of care and placement of Tyrolean sanctuaries. Since 2008 he is the Tyrolean Environmental Ombudsman with the aim to sensitize people for the careful handling of nature and the environment.
Katja Trippel
born in Sindelfingen, Katja studied geography in Münster, Aix-en-Provence and Berlin and then worked as an urban planner in a Potsdamer plate area. Jump to Hamburg at the Henri Nannen School of Journalism. After a stopover in the science section of the “Stern” magazine, she since 2005 is editor at the magazine GEO and represents the magazine in the Editorial Board of the TV-documentary series “360 ° GEO-report” on french-german public TV channel arte; a series that has succesfully been broadcasted for more than 20 years. Since 2014 she is also selecting the documentaries of the new pay-TV channel GEO-TELEVISION .
In 2008 she won a trio with two GEO colleagues the Henri Nannen Prize for the GEO Report on overfishing of the oceans. Furthermore she wrote two books: One on cormorants and “Stadtlust – Joghurt ist uns Landliebe genug”.
Sonia M. Tiquia-Arashiro (soil-jury)
Dr. Sonia Tiquia-Arashiro is a Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus (UM-Dearborn). She joined the University in 2003 and has been working as an Environmental Microbiologist for over 20 years.
In recent years Dr. Tiquia-Arashiro’s research focus has largely dealt with the biotechnological applications of microorganisms. Her publication record has included over 90 articles in peer reviewed journals and published three books. The first book, Molecular Biological Technologies for Ocean Sensing draws on the work of many great scientists on the application of ecogenomic sensors on autonomous platforms in the ocean. The second book, Thermophilic Carboxydotrophs and Their Applications in Biotechnology, presents an elaborate overview of thermophilic carboxydotrophs and their possible benefits to biotechnology and sustainable agriculture and production. The third book, Extremophiles: Applications in Nanotechnology, provides an extensive overview of the current research worldwide on the use of extremophiles in the biosynthesis.
She is currently on sabbatical and a Visiting Professor in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Heribert Insam of the Institute of Microbiology, University of Innsbruck.
Thomas Peham (soil-jury)
Grown up on a farm in Zelking (Lower Austria), he passed a vocational ecological year at Arche Noah (Schiltern) and his conscientious objection service with Jugend Eine Welt at a Vocational Training Centre in Ghana (West Africa). Later he studied agriculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), focusing on soil science – his master thesis dealed with soil microorganisms. Moving to Innsbruck he worked at the Institute of Ecology of the University of Innsbruck and started his PhD on soil fauna. During that time he specialized on earthworms and nematodes. Since 2013, he is working as soil expert for the State of Tyrol. His duties include the establishment of soil functional maps, the remediation of soil compactions or assessments in official procedures. Next to this, he is engaged in various national (AustroPOPs) and international projects (Links4Soils, EUSALP).