Amnesty International Slovenia Human Rights Film Award (Competitive Section)

Jelena Aščić, Slovenia

Jelena studied comparative literature and had worked as a TV and radio moderator already in secondary school. She continued her career at POP TV as an entertainment programme presenter. Soon she returned to RTV Slovenija where she works as a journalist and moderator in news programme. Being a journalist and a daughter of immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, she is very sensitive to social issues, such as workers' and human rights, poverty, marginalized groups, immigrants. She is the author of two documentaries; her first film about Bosnian construction workers in Slovenia Gradimo suženjstvo (Building Slavery) was awarded by Društvo novinarjev Slovenije (The Slovene Association of Journalists), RTV Slovenija and Viktor academy, and reached the semi-final of Civic Fest. Her second film about sexual abuse of children Nikomur ne smeš povedati (You Can't Tell Anyone) has been nominated for several awards, as well.

Kusha Bahrami, Iran

Kusha is an independent filmmaker and photographer, a conscientious objector, refugee and human rights activist. Kusha fled Iran in 2006 because he had refused to serve compulsory military service and converted to Christianity. He has lived in Greece since 2009, in 2012 he was given refugee status. He has been an Amnesty International member since 2009 and a member of the executive board since 2010. His photos have been displayed at different exhibitions in Greece, he is the (assistant) director of two documentary films: This Is My Story and Fairy Tale. At the moment, he is directing a new documentary film titled Solving by My Tooth.

Matej Povše, Slovenia

Matej's passion of photography started at the age of 13 when he learned the basics of photography and won several awards in school competitions. During his studies at Ljubljana's Secondary School of Design and Photography he began working for Dnevnik newspaper. His photos have been published in different Slovenian and international media which has enabled him to share his photographic views and creations with broader audiences.

He has won several awards, including Emzin Fotografija, Društvo novinarjev Slovenije (The Slovene Association of Journalists) Award and Slovenia Press Photo Award.

Recently he has been focusing on new media, especially multimedia, with a thematic focus on refugees and migrants in North Africa and Gaza. His work is displayed in solo exhibitions. He sees photography not only as an impression of reality, but a field which subjectively captures light.