2009 Jury Hosts

Each Banff World Television Awards Program Competition, a select group of external organizations with specific expertise in television and new media are recruited to host individual Banff World Television Award category juries. The organizations selected judges to nominate the world’s best television programs and determine the category winners of the prestigious Banff World Television Awards.

The following are our 2009 Jury Hosts:

Christoph Lanz Art & Performing Arts Programs
Mr. Lanz has been the Managing Director Deutsche Welle TV, Berlin since 2002. Prior to this, he was the Editor-in-Chief of Deutsche Welle TV in Berlin where he was responsible for re-launching the station as News and Information Channel.  Mr. Lanz has also been a television anchor and a journalism lecturer at the Free University of Berlin, the University of Leipzig and the Technical University of Mittweida.

Sandro Vakhtangov Art & Performing Arts Programs
Alexander (Sandro) Vakhtangov is the founder of Sandro Vakhtangov Productions and currently serves as a Juror at Rose D’OR, Switzerland and EMMY International, Ukraine. He began his career in television as a director at State Television, Georgia, and has since worked as a Professor at the Tbilisi State University, a Senior Producer at Georgian TV/Radio Broadcasting and an Art Director at Studio “Audiencia.”  Mr, Vakhtangov has directed 30 television films and over 300 TV programs and video clips. He has also directed multiple social ads and documentaries in co-operation with Georgian and international organizations such as UNICEF, AFG and the US Embassy in Georgia.

Zhou Yanou Environmental Programs
Ms. Yanou works for the International Department of Sichuan Television and is responsible for international communicational and international sales. Previously, she was the Manager of International Cooperation at the International Department of Sichuan Television, responsible for international cooperation, international co-production and international sales. Currently, Ms. Yanou is the Manager of International Cooperation for the Sichuan TV Festival Office of Sichuan Broadcasting Group.

Holger Preusse Environmental Programs
Mr. Preusse never wanted to be an adventurer, but his life as a journalist in the last twenty years and director of more than 70 documentaries changed his mind. After he finishing his M.A. in contemporary German literature, political science, philosophy and sociology, he found documentaries which took him all over the world - to deserts, jungles, under sea and on top of the mountains. Mr. Preusse’s work focuses on culture, science and music, and many of his documentaries have been awarded with national and international prizes. Holger has also developed many new formats for public and private TV-Channels, such as “The Philosophical Quartette” (ZDF). Currently he works at fernseh|büro as an Executive Producer and Director.

Daniele Doglio History & Biography Programs
Daniele Doglio is a Professor of Media Economics & Copyright Management at Università  Cattolica Milano Strategy Consulting for Rai Educational. Rai Educational is the Educational Division of Italy’s Public Service Broadcaster which operates two
24 hours digital, one of which (RAI STORIA) entirely dedicated to contemporary and twentieth century History.

Cynthia Fenneman History & Biography Programs
Cynthia A. Fenneman is president and CEO of American Public Television (APT), a prime distributor of award-winning programs to the more than 360 U.S. public television stations.  Last year, APT presented 54 of the top 100 highest rated public television titles in metered markets.  Fenneman is a broadcasting and production executive with 33 years of experience in commercial, public and network cable television.  Fenneman has been awarded more than 30 international, national and regional awards, including 12 regional Emmys and a CableAce.

Charlie Maday History & Biography Programs
Charlie Maday is the Senior Vice President, Military Programming and Public Affairs, The History Channel.   Before his current position Mr. Maday was Senior Vice President, Programming, The History Channel, and was the executive in charge of program development and strategy for seven years.  Mr. Maday is a veteran of the documentary programming and production. He has been with A&E Television Networks since 1987, supervising a wide variety of documentary projects including a number of award-winning international co-productions.

Roberta Durrant Investigative & Current Affairs Programs
Roberta Durrant has worked as Creative Producer / Director / Script Editor on several award winning dramas, sitcoms, actuality series, documentaries, feature films, etc. Her credits include the comedies “Madam & Eve” (Rose d’Or Winner 2002) and “Stokvel” (International Emmy finalist 2005 & 2007). She has also produced several drama series, most notably the series “Home Affairs” (semi-finalist International Emmy 2006 as well as International Emmy, Rose d’Or and Banff finalist 2007 and International Emmys 2008). She has produced two feature films, “Inside Out” & “Skilpoppe” and is currently packaging a third entitled “Felix.” Roberta heads up one of South Africa’s premier independent production companies, Penguin Films.

Sevda Shishmanova Investigative & Current Affairs Programs
A Journalist with practical experience in Television and Radio program-making mainly in international affairs. A Film Directing graduate with significant experience in documentary productions and as an international correspondent.  Sevda has worked as a reporter, commentator and international correspondent in Bulgarian National Television (BNT)  and Iconomedia Press Group.

Kerry Stauffer Mini-Series
Kerry Stauffer is the Director, Digital Film & Media Production at The Banff Centre. Under Kerry’s leadership, programming initiatives such as dramatic and documentary post production residencies offer filmmakers the opportunity to focus intensively on the completion of a film. As Director, Kerry also creates partnership opportunities in media production and content creation for artists and filmmakers. Kerry has produced and edited national television specials for the CBC and has produced, directed & edited four seasons of the BRAVO Banff Masters series, an in depth profile of producers, writers, and directors from around the world.

Petros Petrou Continuing Series & Serial Programs
Petros was born in Nicosia / Cyprus and has an educational background in business administration and marketing. He joined Ogilvy & Mather in 1999 as an account executive, and began at Dias Publishing House in 2000 where he is now the marketing manager of the largest media organization in Cyprus. Petros is a part time Marketing Teacher at The University of Nicosia and has recently been elected to the Omonias AC board of directors, the biggest Athletic Club in Cyprus. Petros is a creative leader in Cyprus, creating events including the Madame Figaro Woman of the Year Awards, Time Out Eating Awards and Cyprus Fashion Week.

Lidiya Koval Political Programs/Continuing Series & Serial Programs
Lidiya Koval is the project manager for Television Industry Committee which is a professional association of main television channels, media agencies and advertisers. TIC represents interests of television industry and protects the interests of its members. The main purpose of TIC is to promote the development of television industry in Ukraine.

Victoria Chubinets Popular Science & Technology Programs
Ms. Chubinets is the Vice President of Programming and Sales for Corona Films in Russia and St. Petersburg. She attended the State Art-industrial Academy Russia and was a leading art designer and Senior Coordinator of the first world maxi-media channel,  Sarmath 01 where she was also the lead art designer of the exposition “Rasing the Kursk”. Miss Chubinets has been the executive producer of several international documentary projects such as “Call of the Wild” and“Tank on the Moon”, and she is a Board Member of National Comity “Russia against corruption”.

Shane Smith Reality Format Programs
Shane Smith is the Executive Producer, In-Flight Entertainment, Spafax Canada, focusing on Air Canada. Founded in London in 1985, Spafax is a world leader in the in-flight entertainment (IFE) industry, specializing in IFE management, custom publishing, advertising sales and technical services. Worldwide, Spafax works with over 60 international airline clients, and is the exclusive IFE supplier for Air Canada, programming their in-flight TV, movies and audio.

Fumina Koike Reality Format Programs
Fumina Koike is the Product Manager for NHK Product Development in Japan.

Massimo Arvat Social & Humanitarian Programs
From 1990 to 1994 Mr. Arvat worked at the Museum of Cinema of Torino and was a founding member of the Zenit Arti Audiovisive in 1992. Currently, he is a Board member of both Eurodoc and Doc.IT and  has worked with many international broadcasters (RAI, Mediaset, Tele+, Arte, ZDF, Fox, Discovery Channel, VPRO, YLE, SBS, DRTV) as an independent producer. He also works as a media trainer at Universities, Art schools and professional workshops.

Sun Xu Social & Humanitarian Programs
Sun Xu has rich working experience in international TV programs and plays a main role in the Beijing New Century Media which was founded in 2003 and is based in Beijing.  Beijing New Century Media specializes in international television, bringing international TV formats to Chinese TV stations and building platforms to connect Chinese TV stations with international broadcast design companies.

Zoltan Rudi Social & Humanitarian Programs
Dr. Zoltán Rudi is the Director for Strategic Planning for MTV Hungary. Dr. Rudi started his media career at Hungarian Radio where he was editor-reporter and anchor, and later joined Hungarian Television. He joined MTV as the Director of Current Affairs Programs and as Acting Program Director before being elected President by the Board of Trustees of the Hungarian Television Public Foundation. Dr. Rudi lectures at the Sociological Faculty of the Miskolc University. In 2006 he was given the title of Honorary Tutor by the Budapest College of Communication in acknowledgement of his contribution to developing two adult training programs.

Moneeza Hashmi Social & Humanitarian Programs
Moneeza Hashmi is the General Manager of International Relations for HUM TV Lahore. Prior to her current position, Ms. Hashmi was the Executive Producer of “Khawteen Time”, a daily women’s program on PTV, which was the first ever public private partnership between PTV NGOs and civil society organizations to promote an awareness regarding gender, human rights, rights of minorities, reproductive health, education, economic empowerment, violence against women and legal rights through electronic media. Ms. Hashmi has been the President of the ‘The Himmat Society’ Lahore, Pakistan, since 1986 where she has worked to create a world free of gender discrimination, to promote human rights and values and to initiate dialogues and build bridges between civil society and policy members.

Jahid Mohseni Social & Humanitarian Programs
Jahid Mohseni is an entrepreneur whose family business, Moby Group, has driven the creation of Afghanistan’s media industry. Today, the award winning multi faceted media organisation boasts the most popular TV, radio and print media in Afghanistan, across the spectrum of the nation’s Dari, Pashto and English language audiences. Aligning Afghanistan’s social and cultural redevelopment with the success of the media businesses, Jahid has been responsible for building a sophisticated media industry post Taliban Afghanistan. With a hands on approach, he has worked to source and install infrastructure, recruit and train an Afghan team which now numbers at over 530, and which gives the people of Afghanistan voice, laughter, apolitical news and current affairs, memories and hope - regardless of their gender or ethnicity.

Betsy LeBlanc Social & Humanitarian Programs
Betsy LeBlanc is the Senior Sales Manager of PBS International and has more than 16 years of broadcast marketing and sales experience.  LeBlanc helped to launch the division originally known as WGBH International, the worldwide co-production and distribution division of WGBH-TV, 11 years ago and has played an instrumental role in the successful growth of the company which includes the representation of top filmmakers from around the world such as Ken Burns, Ofra Bikel, Stanley Nelson, Mary Olive Smith, Steven Engel and Robert Stone.

Silva Basmajian Sports Documentaries
Since 1976, Silva Basmajian’s more than 70 NFB films have garnered numerous awards, with many screening at more than 200 international festivals including Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. As Executive Producer of the NFB Ontario Centre, Ms. Basmajian oversees English-language production in the province. Since her appointment in 2004, she has explored innovative ways to tell Canadian and international stories, and championed cutting-edge projects like the ground-breaking NFB Filmmaker-in-Residence project, “Shorts in Motion” and North America’s first interactive dramatic feature film, “Late Fragment”, co-produced with the CFC.   Recently, Basmajian co-produced the critically acclaimed “Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma”, and is executive producer for “Paris 1919, Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action”, “Examined Life” and the 2009 Hot Docs award-winning “Waterlife” and “Invisible City”.

Marcelo Feijo Sports Entertainment Programs
Marcelo Feijo works in research and production of digital content for Internet, Mobile devices, and Digital Television at the Brazilian Television Institute. The Brazilian Television Institute (IETV) is a non-profit organization that promotes several events and research activities on television culture. The Brazilian Television Institute is very proud to have been a jury host for the BANFF TV Festival.

Leonard Yanovsky Telenovelas
In 1997 Leonard Yanovsky became the president and CEO of Intra Communications Inc. (ICI).  ICI is a diversified media company involved in different activities as a major distributor of television content in the CIS countries, a leading producer of television prime time mini-series and TV movies, and an active player in Russian language internet television. Leonard is a member of Producers Guild of Russian Federation, International Academy of Radio and Television (Russian Academy), Euro-Asian Television Academy and active member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (International Emmy) where he is participating as a Juror for International Emmy Award Competition.  Leonard Yanovsky was nominated as the best producer for TEFI Award (by Russian Academy of Television) in 2004.

Gillian Rose Wildlife & Natural History Programs
Gillian Rose is Vice President, Acquisitions and Co-Productions for WLIW New York (part of WNET.org), the third most watched public television station in the country. She acquires, develops and co-produces programs airing nationally on PBS stations and manages five weekly national shows, including National Geographic’s Wild Chronicles hosted by Boyd Matson.  Prior to joining WLIW, she worked with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Carlton Television and Newsweek Productions, part of The Washington Post Company. She has worked on many productions including shows for Discovery. Ms. Rose started her career as a journalist, writing about television. She was Co-Chairman of the International Emmy Awards Committee for seven years; is currently Chairman of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) East Coast and President of the International Film Academy of Jackson Hole.

Khim Loh Youth Programs (13+)
Khim Loh is one of Asia’s most established producers; she co-founded The Moving Visuals Co. with a wealth of industry experience and as Executive Producer, Khim’s TV production credits include over a hundred productions for both international and local broadcasters alike. Her recent TV projects include “Ancient Chinese Sports” which has aired worldwide on The History Channel UK and Asia. An established seminar speaker, Khim has been twice invited to speak at the Small Screen Big Picture conferences in Western Australia, the Trigger Points co-production conference in the Victoria Independent Film Festival, BCWW in South Korea and Mipdoc in Cannes.  Once cited as one of Asia’s Best Producers, Khim continues to live up to her reputation as one of the most driven producers in the business.

Mazen Rifka Youth Programs (13+) & Children’s Programs (2+)
Mazen Rifka is the Head of Acquisitions & Rights for Al Jazeera Children’s Channel in Qatar.

YoungyiIl Kim Children’s Programs (2+)
Youngyiil Kim is Communication Officer at the International Relations Department of Korean Broadcasting System. With an advertising background, he helps to promote KBS content, regularly appearing at media conferences and markets. Youngyiil holds Masters of Film Studies from University of East Anglia and Communications Policy Studies from City University in U.K. Prior to joining KBS, he taught film history and theories at universities.

Allison Dowzell Animation Programs
Ms. Dowzell is the Creative Development Manager for Creative Business, Wales. Allison began her working life with the BBC’s London based Outside Broadcast Department focusing primarily on sports programs as well as drama and light entertainment.  Allison went on to establish the South East office of the Wales Screen Commission based in Cardiff, which was responsible for features including “The Libertine”, “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, “Tomb Raider” and “Die Another Day.” Whilst at the Screen Commission Allison held the post of Treasurer for BAFTA Wales and she also sat on numerous awarding juries most recent being International Academy for Arts and Sciences (Emmy’s).

Nathalie Bourdon Comedy Programs
Nathalie Bourdon is the Head of Acquisitions & Development for Just for Laughs/Juste Pour Rire in Montreal, Quebec.

Stanley Fertig Comedy Programs
Stanley Fertig is senior vice president of HBO International, overseeing the pay television company’s mobile businesses outside the US. Under his leadership, HBO has launched mobile television services in over a dozen countries, including some of the world’s first subscription video on demand mobile TV services.  Fertig’s duties at HBO have also included the development of international programming services on other platforms, including the launch of a Japanese HBO on Demand with cable operator J:Com, and sitting on the boards of directors of HBO Asia and HBO Central Europe.

Robin Mirsky Continuing Series & Serial Programs
Robin Mirsky is Executive Director of the Rogers Group of Funds, including the The Rogers Telefund which has approximately $35 million available for bridge financing for Canadian programs, and The Rogers Documentary Fund, has given grants to more than 300 Canadian documentary films. The Rogers Cable Network Fund an equity investment fund for Canadian cable channels will infuse an estimated $7 million annually into Canadian independent production.

Dr. Vitaly Fedko Immersive Entertainment
Vitaly is President/CEO of Corona Films, an internationally recognized Russian media company. As CEO, Dr. Fedko develops the activities of Corona Films in both New Media with the famous Russian Network Sarmath 01, and the Production of many non-Fiction programs, like the Science and Technology Documentaries. Vitaly became the world specialist in Russian submarines after the tragic sinking of the Kursk. Corona also provides the programming of the Russian Military Channel Zvezda.