The jury of the second Belarusian Film Critics Award Red Heather consists of 16 experts, among them film critics, journalists, and researchers. In addition to the co-founders of the award, Irena Katsialovich and Taras Tarnalitski, the team included film critic Uliana Budzik, essayist Maksim Zhbankou, art manager Lina Miadzviedzieva, festival programmer Igor Soukmanov, writer for Backstage Alena Soika, film critic Hanna Yafremenka, film researcher Almira Usmanava. Part of the jury remains anonymous for security reasons.
Experts will determine the best feature-length and short fcition, documentary feature-length and short films, as well as animated films. They will also determine the best filmmakers, actors, as well as Discovery of the year.
"We’ve invited the people for whom following film industry and analyzing it are either a profession or a matter of professional habit, yet in the current environment of the media and cultural crisis, we are often not just film experts, but also someone else," commented the founders of the award. "Our team also includes the film critics who have relatively recently started documenting film processes, such as the writer of the new Backstage online publication Alena Soika, as well as established academic researchers with many years of experience, such as Almira Usmanova. We want Belarusian cinema to be evaluated by people of varied experiences and tastes, accomplished and new voices, specialists who have had to move abroad or stayed in Belarus."
Part of the jury will perform its duties from Belarus, but according to the values of the award, which does not consider Belarusian or Russian state-funded projects, its members also have no affiliations with state institutions and hold no jobs at public companies or within the government.
The experts will go ahead with their work on submitted entries in October 2023. All submitted information and screener links will be shared exclusively and directly with the members of the jury.
