Jury

A Polish mountaineer who has been involved in climbing for over than 20 years.  She took her first steps in the Polish Tatra Mountains. She has climbed in the Alps, Alaska, Tienshan, Himalayas and Karakoram. From 2003 to 2015, she conquered nine eight-thousanders, including Nanga Parbat, Annapurna and Gasherbrum II.  She was the first Polish woman to complete three of them (Dhaulagiri, Manaslu, Kanchenjunga). She climbed all eight-thousanders without using bottled oxygen. She combines experience gained from several expeditions to eight-thousanders with teaching work. Moreover, Kinga also works as a psychotherapist. Apart from climbing, she loves ski touring, music and good books.

Alex Bellini was born in Aprica (Sondrio, Italy) in 1978. He explored the most hostile environments on our planet. In 2002 and 2003, he walked through Alaska, pushing a sled for a total of 2,000 kilometers. In 2005 he rowed alone for 11,000 km across the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. In 2011 he ran 5300 km across the United States. In 2017 he crossed the Vatnajokull, the largest glacier in Europe (Iceland). Since 2019 he has been involved in the “10 Rivers 1 Ocean” project with the aim of navigating the ten most polluted rivers in the world. As a motivational speaker, he participated in 4 TEDx Conferences (in Italy and in England) and spoke in over 600 conferences for very important clients (Automotive, Finance, Tech and Pharma). Since 2014 he has been working with the psychology of maximum performance, supporting athletes from various sports including golf, tennis and sailing and other professionals in the mental management of maximum performance.

Jinna LEE is a programmer at Ulsan Ulju Mountain Film Festival (UMFF) since 2018. She finished the film studies PhD. Course at Hanyang University. Before joining UMFF, since 2005, she has worked at Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF), Jaechun International Music and Film Festival (JIMFF), DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs), Busan International Short Film Festival (BISFF) and International Intangible Heritage Film Festival (IIFF). She has been served jury works at film festivals in Indonesia, Argentina, Taiwan, and Korea. When she joined UMFF, she started to hike from Yeongnam Alps where is the mountain film festival place for UMFF.

Christophe Mercier is a London-based int’l film distribution and marketing consultant.  He contributes to the selections of festivals including Sitges Int’l Fantastic Film Festival in Catalonia and Biarritz Film Festival - Nouvelles Vagues besides other mandates like Dinard Festival of British Film, Gijon Int’l FF and more. He consults for film institutions such as Screen Ireland, planning worldwide festival strategy for filmmakers. He served as Edinburgh Int’l FF Guest Programmer in 2020-22.  Fest jury member participations in film festivals in Luxembourg and Spanish film fests.  He’s a Board Director at the UK Jewish Film org. behind the UK Jewish FF.  2006-19, Christophe worked at London-based 20th Century Fox International as Vice President, Fox Searchlight Europe.

Paola Piacenza, filmmaker and journalist, writes about film, foreign affairs and culture for the Corriere della Sera’s weekly supplement “Io Donna”, she also works with “La Lettura” and Rai Radio3. In 2009, with THE LAND OF JERRY CANS, filmed along the Iran-Iraq border, she began to investigate the subject of frontiers, also central in the subsequent works IN NESSUNA LINGUA AL MONDO (2011), filmed in Kosovo, Albania and the Kaliningrad enclave, and IN UNO STATO LIBERO (Special Mention in the Solinas Prize documentary category, 2012), on the border between Tunisia and Libya. She contributed to MILANO 55,1: CRONACA DI UNA SETTIMANA DI PASSIONI, a collective film about the municipal elections in Milan in 2011, coordinated by Luca Mosso and Bruno Oliviero. OMBRE DAL FONDO, with the war correspondent Domenico Quirico, was the closing film at the Giornate degli Autori festival in 2016 and she produced a book with the same name together with Domenico Quirico (Neri Pozza, 2017). IL FRONTE INTERNO – UN VIAGGIO IN ITALIA CON DOMENICO QUIRICO (IDFA – Amsterdam, Turin Film Festival) was made in 2021.