Keyuri Shah

She is a known Bollywood actress based in Mumbai with around 2 dozen films to her credit. She started as a theater artiste and has done many short films, commercials, fashion modelling for many brands and print shoots. She has acted as a lead actress  in a number of regional language feature films in India.

Scott Blum (Chief of Jury / Judges)

Scott has a passion for enjoying films of all sorts in particular those with “a message that makes him ponder and think”. His involvement in the Hague Global Cinema Festival is as a film-goer and he is mightily impressed by the innovation and the sheer quality of all of the films that are submitted.

Scott has lived and worked overseas, he has travelled extensively, and now resides in the UK where he is enjoying life.

Sunita Rajvanshi

A Mathematician with a degree from IIT, Roorkee, India and a Mixed Media Artist. With a passion for art, she attained a diploma in Fine Arts from Raja Mansingh Tomar Music & Arts University, India and has participated in various art exhibitions across India, Middle East and Europe for charity purposes. She loves to watch all types of films and is a passionate critique. She also believes that movies shape our lives.

Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube : @SunRajArts

Marius Gruson

Marius was born in Germany and is a political science student. He has a lot of interest in exploring different cultures by watching foreign movies. Among his other interests are history, politics, anthropology and travelling.

Hanna Mitra

Hanna is a movie lover. During her working time in the early nineties, she got an exposure to  the art of filmmaking  as a  client of a  film project about HIV positive people living with AIDS. Later she had the opportunity to become a program maker for local television in The Hague. She  joined courses in television programs making in the national studios of the Netherlands, Hilversum where she graduated  in production and editorial. She was  noticed and was asked to do the editorial for a television program on suicide among Hindustani girls in The Netherlands. The program was a hit. She was also made a  program for local television on this subject.  After more then 10 years she got the opportunity to work in The Hague Global Cinema Festival and be one of the judges. “It is really nice to have seen so many people’s work and it was very difficult to select the best of it”, she says.

Safdar Zaidi

Safdar Zaidi is an author of 3 novels. He loves to write and travel. He is an ardent film watcher and critique. He lives in The Hague.

Marianna Giacomel (Project Manager)

She was born and lived in Italy where she studied foreign literature. In 2018 she moved to The Hague with her family. Lover of reading, visual arts and music, especially jazz. “Working for The Hague Global Cinema Festival and Alwar International Film Festival gives me the opportunity to combine my passion for films with being part of a team in an environment that highlights the multiculturalism, a characteristic of The Hague, the city where I chose to live and where I want to play an active role.”

Irfan Jaami

He is a Bollywood Director with around 15 years’ experience of directing over 100 projects of a variety of genres. Projects range from TV commercials , Tele-films , Tele-series , Video spots , Corporate Films, documentaries to independent short films. He has also penned down Lyrics for an international Album ‘ Colours of peace ‘ .

Kamalika (Festival Hostess)

A versatile internationally recognised singer, artist and anchor

She is a creative artist, singer, anchor, performer, actress, model for the last 20 years. Performed on stage and TV shows spanning across music, theatre, debate, quiz, dance, modelling and anchoring shows in various countries. She is a versatile vocal artist of Classical, Bollywood and Western genres of Blues, Jazz, Pop, Soul, Soft Rock. Trained in Indian classical music under Late Vidusi Srimati Shipra Bose, known as Bengal’s Begum Akhtar. Trained in Western vocal music under Teiron Jones. Kamalika has given stellar music performances at various prestigious clubs and events across Kolkata, Muscat, and Bangalore including at Hard Rock Cafe Bangalore with her Blues Jazz band Divergent Notes. She performed in Hindi, Bengali and English for various community cultural programmes in  different countries. Anchored shows for famous Bollywood music directors like Pritam, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Imran Khan Badshaah, and a number of high profile corporate events while in Oman, Muscat at prestigious venues. She has hosted and performed Bollywood music for international film festivals like Alwar International film festival and many others in Doha, Kolkata, Bangalore, Muscat. She has also written, directed and acted in plays in Bengali, and acted in several other English drama productions. She has also given contemporary dance performances abroad and in India at various cultural events. She also writes poetry and does recitation as part of her other interests as well.

Ed de Iongh

He is a member of the board of Rainbow Den Haag, a small voluntary organization whose purpose is to discuss sexual and gender diversity with migrant groups. More than half of the population of The Hague has a migrant background. Our motto is: ‘Everyone has the right to be themselves’.
He likes all kinds of movies and he is  a regular visitor of The International Filmfestival of Rotterdam.

Octávio Pereira

Was born and raised in Rotterdam. Moved to Portugal in the late 90’s to return to the Netherlands in 2011. Settled in The Hague in 2020. Like to watch films based on true story/documentary.

Avnish Rajvanshi

“An Oil/Gas Producer by Profession and A Filmmaker by Passion”

From the oil production fields of Middle East and Europe, Avnish Rajvanshi ventured into the field of filmmaking with his first film ‘The Kingmaker of the Mughal Empire’ which won international awards and accolades. With three more film production projects in the pipeline, he is also organising film festivals in The Netherlands, United States, Malaysia and India. As the Festival Director of this event, his vision is to encourage, identify and showcase talent from the crowd and to support production value over budget.

Additional Background: With a distinguished career behind with majors like Shell International, he holds a Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology IIT(ISM), India, with management certification from Queensland University of Technology, Australia; Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; Cranfield School of Management, United Kingdom; University of Texas at Austin, United States and Shell Project Academy, The Netherlands.

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