The Official Jury of the San Sebastian Festival’s 66th edition, presided over by the North American filmmaker Alexander Payne, accompanied by the actors Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Rossy de Palma, the producer Agnes Johansen and the director of photography Bet Rourich, is now complete with the incorporation of Romanian filmmaker Constantin Popescu, who competed in the Official Selection last year with the film Pororoca, winner of the Silver Shell for Best Actor (Bodgan Dumitrache). Popescu replaces the Italian producer Francesca Cima, who will finally be unable to attend the Festival for personal reasons.

Moreover, the jury of the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award, for which the Professor of Audiovisual Communication Santos Zunzunegi – its president – and the writer and editor Filipa Ramos had already been confirmed, closes with the presence of Juliette Duret, Head of Cinema at the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels.

Constantin Popescu is a Romanian film director, writer and scriptwriter. After graduating in Foreign Languages at the Bucharest University, he took a Master in British Cultural Studies at the same University. He has worked as an assistant director and assistant producer for directors such as Bertrand Tavernier, Michael Haneke, Costa Gavras, Lucian Pintilie and Francis Ford Coppola. His first shorts, The Apartment (2004, Venice Film Festival), A Lineman’s Cabin (2006, Venice Film Festival) and The Yellow Smiley Face (2009, Locarno Film Festival), participated in more than 60 film festivals around the world. In 2009 he directed a segment for the anthology film Amintiri din epoca de aur (Tales from the Golden Age), produced by Cristian Mungiu, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, in the Un Certain Regard section. His first feature, Portretul luptatorului la tinerete (Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man), debuted at the Berlin Film Festival in 2010 and was awarded Best Director at the Bratislava Film Festival. His second feature, Principii de viata (Principles of Life, 2010), debuted at the San Sebastian Festival in the Zabaltegi-New Directors competition. His third feature, Pororoca (2017) was awarded the Silver Shell for Best Actor for Bogdan Dumitrache in San Sebastian. He has also directed TV series for the main Romanian Broadcaster, ProTV (Las Fierbinti, 2011), as well as for HBO Romania (In Treatment, 2012; Shall We Kiss?, 2013). He was a member of the Torino Official Competition Jury in 2012.

Having completed her degree in Economics at the Université libre de Bruxelles in 1989 (ULB), she started developing her desire to work in cinema by making frequent visits to the Film Archive in Brussels. She began by working as a production assistant on films when living in Barcelona. In 1992, she took up the position of Coordinator for Wallonie Bruxelles Images, fostering the films of the French-speaking community abroad by means of facilitating, marketing and promoting work at international film festivals. In 2001, she completed a year-long professional development programme at EAVE, les Entrepreneurs de l’Audiovisuel, before becoming Head of Wallonie Bruxelles Images. After 14 years, she moved to the Centre for Fine Arts (CFA - BOZAR Brussels), where she held the position of Coordinator and Film Curator from 2006 until 2013. Since 2013, she has been head of the Film Department at BOZAR and is a member of its Management Team. She has been a member of the European Film Academy since 2006 and is a member of the Académie André Delvaux (Magritte Awards). She has participated in numerous committees for project evaluation and schools, and has sat on several juries at international film festivals.