Edvinas Pukšta

EDVINAS PUKŠTA  is a festival programmer, film hunter and selector, industry expert, consultant, and juror, as well as a member of the European Film Academy. An avid hiker and mountain climber (highest reached: Kilimanjaro’s Uhuru Peak at 5,850 m), basketball fan, and ever-curious cinephile, he has dedicated his career to discovering and championing films worldwide.

Since 2018, a Programmer, Scout, and Selection Committee Member at the BLACK NIGHTS Film Festival(Tallinn) and, since 2023, Program Director of the Tartu Love Film Festival TARTUFF.

Edvinas has attended over 20 international film festivals annually since 2001, watching at least 1,200 feature films each year (1,292 counted in 2024). He previously spent 15 years programming the Vilnius International Film Festival until 2018. From there, he was invited as an Independent Expert for three consecutive years on the European Film Awards Selection Committee.

He has also served as an Industry Expert for First Cut Lab, offering insights on unfinished films in Helsinki (2019), Karlovy Vary (2021), and Trieste (2022).

As a jury member, Edvinas has judged short and feature films worldwide, including:

• Cannes (CICAE Jury, Quinzaine des Réalisateurs)

• Berlin (CICAE Jury, Forum)

• Busan & Warsaw (NETPAC Juries)

• Bangkok, Curitiba, Cluj-Napoca, Novi Sad, Bucharest, Tallinn, Minsk, Malatya, Pilsen, Arras, Varna, Trieste, Pune, Calcutta, Adana, Kutaisi, Tehran, and more.

• Recent jury work includes Co-Production Forum of WEMW (Trieste, January 2025).

Edvinas will host the Q&A’s for Boom!, Drowning Dry, The Shadow, Five and a Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius & Southern Chronicles following the screenings of these films.