JURY AND AWARDS 2026

INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION

This year, 29 films from 26 countries compete for the coveted prizes, the Cinedans Jury Award and the Cinedans Encouragement Award. Each award comes with a cash prize. € 5,000 for the Best Dance Short and € 2,000 for the Encouragement Awards.

INTERNATIONAL SHORT DOCS COMPETITION

For the first time, Cinedans presents the International Short Docs Competition. Addressing some of the most pressing matters of our times, 12 films from 11 countries compete for the newly established Cinedans Jury Award for Best Short Doc with a cash prize of €1,000.

AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT

Both Competition and all films will also have the chance to win the Audience Award! The invited juries will announce the winners during the Closing Ceremony on Sunday 29th of March at 21:15 in Cinema 2.

JURY SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Vajrasara (Ashavari Majumdar) is a cross-media artist who works with movement, image and text. A recipient of scholarships in both dance and academics in India and the US, her artistic background combines rigorous training in Indian and European aesthetics. Vajrasara’s work, both within and outside Kathak, has been critically acclaimed. She has collaborated with visual artists in a range of genres including video art, installations and award-winning short films. Vajrasara has been supported by various Indian and international arts bodies. She is the co-founder of the Manifest Dance-Film Festival, Pondicherry.

As a choreographer, Feri de Geus draws inspiration from his background in cultural anthropology. After creating a body of multidisciplinary performances in the Netherlands, his focus since 2000 has been on intercultural co-productions. With performances in the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East, he seeks expressive power in the connection between contemporary and traditional dance forms. In his work, deconstruction, sampling, and moral dilemmas intersect with rapidly developing cultures in which innovation collides with tradition. His practice is focused on social impact, and the use of ancient rituals and new forms offers the audience a foothold in the friction towards change. Feri has, among other roles, served as a programmer for the Dancing on the Edge Festival for contemporary art from the MENA region, and he has created video installations exploring the role of religion and spirituality among (migrant) artists in the Netherlands. As part of Cinedans, he made the short film Son du Serpent with a company from Benin in West Africa.

portrait  ©Noortje Bijvoets

Daphne Lucker (1994, Groningen) is a director and photographer based in Amsterdam. Through poetic and physical imagery, she explores themes such as loss, family, and identity, always aiming to capture raw, unspoken emotion. She studied at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam, where her graduation film SISTERS (2018) won multiple international awards. This was followed by the TV film Echo (NTR), the dance film Her Body, and her first feature film VLAM (NTR). In addition, she studied at the Academy of Photography in Amsterdam. Her photographic work, including contributions to Het Parool, offers intimate glimpses into people’s lives — insights that continue to shape her storytelling as a filmmaker.
portrait  ©Paul Vos

JURY SHORT DOCS COMPETITION

Nduka Mntambo is Head of the Master of Film in Artistic Research in and through Cinema at the Netherlands Film Academy (Amsterdam University of the Arts). His practice spans experimental film, installation, documentary, and production design, with work exhibited and presented at platforms including WSOA’s Point of Order Project Space, Videoex (Zurich), Wits Art Museum, and Michaelis Galleries. He convenes and contributes to international artistic research symposia and doctoral programmes, and has served as a jury member for film festivals including IDFA, IFFR, Sarajevo, and ASFF. He is an advisory board member of Sonic Acts, Amsterdam.

Laura Stek is an audio and filmmaker at the VPRO with a special interest in dance and movement. She made the short film 'Gioia' about the physical experience of psychosis, in collaboration with choreographer Liat Waysbort. She then directed ‘Vluchtval' ('Flight fall’) in collaboration with choreographer Jelena Kostic, a hybrid documentary about uprooting in poetry and parkour. Currently she is working on a film about theater maker Giovanni Brand, with a major role for flamenco. The films are narratively structured, but leave plenty of room for imagination and formal experimentation. The contrast between stillness and movement, the verbal and the physical, are recurring elements in her work.

portrait ©Paul Bellaart

Hadi Moussally is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and performer born in Lebanon in 1987. After moving to France at eighteen, he studied fiction cinema at Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée and later documentary and anthropological cinema in the Jean Rouch section at Université Paris X Nanterre. This dual formation informs a practice that moves fluidly between cinematic realism and stylised visual composition. Working across fiction, documentary, fashion and experimental film, Moussally develops hybrid forms that blur genre boundaries. In 2013, he co-founded the creative platform h7o7 with Olivier Pagny, dedicated to experimentation with still and moving images. Through his alter ego Salma Zahore — who often inhabits his films — he explores queer Arab identities, desire and self-representation, transforming the screen into a space of affirmation and reinvention.

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CINEDANS LAB PITCH

Five selected projects in which dance and movement play a central role, are pitched to a jury of industry professionals and compete for the Cinedans Pitch Award. The winner will receive a € 1,000 prize, along with advice for further developing their project.

The selected makers are:
Graham Clayton-Chance, Karel López, Amit Palgi, Camila Serrano and Minsu Kim. 

The jury includes: 
Carmen Cotofana - Artistic Director of Bucharest International Dance Film Festival
Cleo Xiong - Curator NOWNESS China