Juries and Awards
Read more about the different awards at Films From the South, and who picks the winners this year.
The Silver Mirror
The main competition of the Films from the South festival this year consists of a great selection of fiction films competing for the festival's main prize, the Silver Mirror Award.
Jury
Cornelia Boysen
Cornelia Boysen is one of Norway’s most experienced film producers. She has produced a wide range of both live-action and animated films for a broad audience, including the animated trilogy and box office hit Louis & Luca (2013, 2015, 2019), the biopic Sonja – The White Swan (2018), and the EFA winner The Crossing (2020). In 2025, she has had two releases, including No Comment, which will have its international premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in November. She is currently in production with the thriller mystery Vampyr, scheduled for release in February 2027.
Ida Madsen Hestman
Ida Madsen Hestman is a film and music critic, cultural journalist, and media scholar with a master’s degree from the University of Oslo. She has also studied Art Direction at Westerdals and documentary production at Volda University College. Hestman is the founder and editor of the cultural platform TBA, writes about music for Klassekampen, and works as a freelancer with a background from NRK, VG, Dagbladet, NATT&DAG, Montages, and the production company Monster, among others. She is a member of Norsk PEN, the Norwegian Film Critics Association, FIPRESCI – The International Federation of Film Critics, and the Norwegian Critics’ Association.
Brwa Vahabpour
Brwa Vahabpour is a Norwegian-Kurdish director and screenwriter. He studied film at the Nordland Art and Film School and directing at the Norwegian Film School. Vahabpour has made several short films, including Gjeteren (2018) and Silence (2020), and has directed the TV series Jordbrukerne (2021). He made his feature film debut this year with Onkel Jens.
Doc:South
The Doc: South Award is given to the best of a selection of films in the documentary competition section of the Films from the South Festival. More information will be announced closer to the festival dates.
Jury
Martin Hoftun Jæger
Martin Hoftun Jæger is 24 years old and studies documentary directing at the TV School in Lillehammer. He is passionate about tellong real and meaningful stories about people and themes that are often overlooked. Among his films are På dypt vann, about poor swimming education in Norway, and Hender & poter, about life at a veterinary clinic, for better or worse.
Kasper Skålid
Kasper Skålid is 22 years old and comes from Sogndal. He is interested in film and storytelling, and likes documentaries because they open up the horizon for environments, people and stories that people have little knowledge about. He is currently in his third year of the bachelor's degree program in documentary filmmaking at the University of Innlandet, and has edited three documentaries.
Siri Hertzberg Brenno Hjorth
Siri Hertzberg B. Hjorth is 22 years old and studying documentary directing at the TV school in Lillehammer. She is passionate about films that dare to experiment with the visual and explore difficult topics that we refrain from talking about. She has made a number of short documentaries. Her latest project was about when you are actually "sick enough" to get help for your mental health problems, which became both a strong and personal documentary that she hopes to continue working on.
The Audience Award
Films from the South is first and foremost an audience festival, and therefore, we want to know which film you, the audience, think is the best. You can participate in choosing the audience favorite at this year's festival by giving points to your favorite films. All the films in the festival program are part of the competition – vote for the films you like the most.
You can vote for the Audience Award by scanning the QR codes located at our venues. The votes must be registered by 23:59 on Saturday, NOV 15. The winner will be announced on the Awards Ceremony ahead of The Secret Agent at Vega Scene on Sunday, NOV 16.