Dear audience,

We are pleased to introduce the jury members who will select the winners in most of the competition categories of the film programme at the 17th edition of the ECHO Mountain Film Festival - including the Grand Prix, Best feature film and Best short film. 

Igor Hristov is a film director and screenwriter. He graduated in film directing from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA) in Bulgaria. He is the director of several short and documentary films, including "Stop the Car", "Dandelion", and "This Is Her Story". His films have been screened at international festivals in Sarajevo, Küstendorf, Sofia, Monterrey, and Oldenburg;

Fabio Gianotti was born in Turin, Italy

He is a filmmaker and the creator of innovative cultural projects. He has long collaborated with Silvia Bongiovanni, with whom he founded Kosmoki in 2007. Between 2006 and 2018, he produced six documentaries that were screened at numerous national and international festivals and won significant awards. He works with various advertising agencies, producing corporate and institutional commercials. Since 2021, he has managed official video communications for the Regional Council of Piedmont. He collaborates with RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, producing news segments for national news programs and documentaries for programs such as *Leonardo*, *Mediterraneo*, Tg2 Dossier, Tg2 Storie. He is the founder and director of the Nuovi Mondi Festival (his main life project) — the world's smallest mountain film festival (www.nuovimondifestival.it);

 Sara Gill is a key member of the Coupe Icare Board of Directors; she has also been a member of the Film Commission since 2012 and serves on the festival’s selection committee, for which she also translates the films in competition. A paraglider pilot for 35 years, she is the Chair of the Finance Commission of the French Free Flight Federation (FFVL). Sara has always been passionate about the mountains and loves to share this passion through film.