Jury
National
Maria Sarasvati Herrera
Director of Photography - France,Mexico
Maria Sarasvati Herrera is a French-Mexican cinematographer born in Mexico City who has built a visually stimulating and impressive body of work.
Herrera recently lensed the main unit photography for episodes 5 and 6 of the Apple TV+ series Women in Blue (Las Azules), alongside shooting the second unit on the entire show. She is the sole female cinematographer for the show that follows four women who joined Mexico's first female police force in the seventies.
Next up, audiences worldwide will see her work on episodes 4, 5 and 6 of Netflix’s highly-anticipated eight-episode series, One Hundred Years of Solitude. The film is based on Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez’s best-selling and epic novel, widely considered as a Latin American literary classic.
Her past work in television includes Netflix’s The Most Beautiful Flower (2022) where she lensed all ten episodes of the award winning comedy series.
Herrera’s work has screened at film festivals globally, including the Guadalajara International Film Festival in 2024, where her film The Muleteer, received prices for best direction and best
cinematography.
In 2020, her second feature film, Summer White, premiered at
Sundance Film Festival and won the Best Film Award at the Málaga Film Festival.
Her earlier works have featured at: the Cine Latino Film Festival; Berlinale Talents Guadalajara (2014); and Berlinale Talents Berlin (2016). In 2010, her work on El vacío as part of the Student Etudes Competition was nominated for a Golden Tadpole at the prestigious Camerimage International Film Festival.
Justine Lévêque
Artistic Director of Champs-Élysées Film Festival - France
Copyright Aurelie Lamachere.
Following her studies of cinematographic theory and research, Justine Lévêque specialized in the dissemination of arts and knowledge through images. In addition to her work in international distribution, she is responsible for development and youth programming for an independent film festival, reviews a program on Radio Campus Paris and leads various festival missions. In 2015, she joined the management team of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival as Artistic Director. Based in Paris, Champs-Élysées Film Festival is a major international film festival where the best of French and American cinema is featured every year. Dedicated to the discovery of new talents, the festival aims to act as a bridge between French and American filmmaking and as a platform for young creation as well as independent cinema and music. Founded in 2012 by producer, distributor and movie theatre owner Sophie Dulac, the festival gathers thousands of spectators and industry professionals on the Champs-Élysées each year to celebrate the heart of contemporary film creation and to showcase bold, ambitious and unique movies offering an overview of the latest independent productions from the two countries. The 14th edition of Champs-Élysées Film Festival will take place from June 17th to June 24th.
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Vera Mijojlić
Cultural Producer - United States
Vera Mijojlić is a cultural producer who founded the South East European Film Festival, SEEfest (seefilmla.org) in Los Angeles in 2006. She has curated major film retrospectives for the UCLA Film Archive and Austin Film Society, and initiated a national tour of landmark short films with the Los Angeles Filmforum, which was presented at the Pacific Film Archive, Harvard Film Archive, National Gallery of Art, and MoMA. In addition to the 2023 Nonprofit & Corporate Citizenship Award nomination by the Los Angeles Business Journal and 2018 Women in Leadership Award from the City of West Hollywood, she has received multiple recognitions from the State of California, as well as the County and City of Los Angeles, and City of Beverly Hills. Among other industry affiliations, mentorship and support for independent films, Vera also proudly serves on the Advisory Council of the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades.
Vera began as a cultural reporter and film critic in Sarajevo, where she was also the location manager for the N.Y.-based Jalbert Productions documentary of the historic 1984 Winter Olympic Games. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Belgrade, and has a distinguished record in humanitarian work. She is a member of the European Film Academy.
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