Jury

A journalist, director, writer and photographer, he is the creator of ‘Passe-moi les Jumelles’, the flagship programme of RTS (Swiss Radio and Television), which he produced for 26 years and which is still broadcast today: over 30 years of prime time! Benoît Aymon has received numerous awards at mountain film festivals. His film about the mountaineer Erhard Loretan, Respirer l'odeur du ciel was particularly successful, winning eleven international awards. In 2019, he was appointed artistic director of FIFAD, the International Alpine Film Festival in Les Diablerets, Switzerland, a founding member of the IAMF (International Alliance for Mountain Films), together with Trento Film Festival. After Trento, it is the oldest mountain film festival in the world. This year it celebrates its 57th edition.

Giada Colagrande is an Italian director, screenwriter and video artist. She began her career working in video art and on documentaries about contemporary art. In 2002, she made her feature film debut with APRIMI IL CUORE at Venice Film Festival, where she has since presented all her works, including Before It Had a Name, A Woman, Padre, Bob Wilson’s Life & Death of Marina Abramovic and The Abramovic Method. She has worked with Willem Dafoe, Franco Battiato, Marina Abramović and Robert Wilson. As an actor, she has worked with leading directors, including Abel Ferrara and Wes Anderson. In 2016, Giada made her debut as a singer-songwriter and composer with the band The Magic Door. In 2023, she began her solo musical journey as AGADEZ, combining her voice and ritual sound with cooperative projects alongside musicians such as Glen Velez, Loire Cotler, Angelique Kidjo and above all Antonio Forcione. Passionate about the Sacred Feminine, archaeomythology and shamanism, her artistic career has combined spirituality and art for many years.

Angela Benavides is a Spanish sports journalist specialized in mountaineering and adventure. A graduate of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, she is one of the most recognized voices in high-altitude mountaineering journalism. Most of her career has unfolded at the US-based platform ExplorersWeb.com, where she has reported for more than fifteen years and now serves as Senior Mountain Editor. Angela is frequently invited to contribute analysis and commentary to international media outlets such as The Times, The i Paper, BBC, and Spain’s El Confidencial. In 2024, she was named one of the 50 most influential people in the mountain world by montagna.tv, which described her as “the most authoritative mountain voice in the world.” Alongside her journalism, Benavides has also worked behind the scenes of major expeditions as a press manager. She is the author of Cumbre! Los 14 ochomiles de Edurne Pasaban (Summit! Edurne Pasaban’s 14 8,000ers), which tells the story of the first woman to climb all fourteen of the world’s highest mountains.

The youngest Korean to complete the Seven Summits and the first in the world to summit AmphuI (6,840m), Kim Youngmi is a South Korean mountaineer and explorer. In her twenties, she focused on Himalayan climbing, including Lhotse, and the Korean Route on Everest’s Southwest Face. A 2013 rescue mission on Gasherbrum II became a turning point, shifting her focus from vertical climbing to horizontal exploration. Kim then spent more than a decade pursuing a three-stage project to cross Antarctica. Starting with the 724km traverse of Lake Baikal in 2017, In 2023, she reached the South Pole, and in 2025, she skied 1,786 km across Antarctica in 70 days. Kim Youngmi’s expedition marks the fourth solo crossing of the Antarctic continent and the first by an Asian, completed entirely by human power without snow kites or wind assistance. A design major by training, she is a member of The North Face Korea Athlete Team. She writes a newspaper column and is currently authoring a book on her polar expeditions. Alone in Antarctica is the second documentary film chronicling her historic solo journey.

Emanuele Crialese, born in Rome in 1965, studied film directing at New York University, where he graduated in 1995. After directing several short films, in 1997 he made his feature film debut with Once We Were Strangers, selected for the Sundance Film Festival. In 2002, his second film, RESPIRO, won the Critics' Week at Cannes and was nominated for both the César Award and the European Film Award: one of the best-selling Italian films of the decade, it achieved great success worldwide. In 2006 he directed NUOVOMONDO, which won the Silver Lion for a New Director at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival. Winner of numerous international awards and again nominated for the EFA, the film was presented in the United States by Martin Scorsese and was selected by Italy as its submission for the Academy Awards. In 2011 he returned to Venice with TERRAFERMA, which received the Special Jury Prize and the Pasinetti Award. In 2014 he was awarded the National Prize for a Culture of Peace. Terraferma was also nominated to represent Italy at the Oscars. In 2022, his fifth feature film, L'IMMENSITÀ, starring Penélope Cruz, was presented in competition at Venice.