Edvinas Pukšta

Litvanija

Edvinas Pukšta is lithuanian festival programmer, film hunter & selector, industry expert, consultant & juror, member of the European Film Academy, hiker & mountain climber (Kilimanjaro’s Uhuru peak at 5850 m is the highest point), fan of basketball and always curious cinephile.

Programmer, scout and member of Selection Committee at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn (from 2018) and Program Director of Tartu Love Film Festival Tartuff (from summer of 2023). Edvinas regularly attends 20 international film festivals around the world since 2001 and watches at least 1200 feature films every year.

Previously he programmed the Vilnius International Film Festival for 15 years until summer of 2018. Then he was invited as Independent Expert to join for 3 consecutive years in the Selection Committee of the European Film Awards. First Cut Lab trusted him with three invitations as Industry Expert to share opinions on still unfinished films from Helsinki (2019), Karlovy Vary (2021) and Trieste (2022).

Edvinas judged short and feature films as a Jury member in Cannes (CICAE Jury for Quinzaine des realisateurs), Berlin (CICAE Jury for section Forum), Busan & Warsaw (NETPAC Juries), Bangkok (World Film Festival), Curitiba (Brazil), Cluj-Napoca (Romanian Shorts & Features Juries), Bucharest, Tallinn, Minsk, Malatya, Pilsen, Arras, Varna (Bulgarian National Films Competition at the Golden Rose FF), Trieste (International Competition), Pune (International and Marathi Competitions), Edipsos on Evia Island (Works-in-Progress & Development at Evia Film Project), Mestia (Projects in Development at Svaneti International Film Festival), Prishtina (Balkan Competition), Wroclaw (Polish Shorts Jury), Lodz (Transatlantyk Jury of Polish Shorts), Calcutta, Adana, Kutaisi and Tehran (International Short Competitions).