Sigrid Hadenius-Ebner

Sigrid Hadenius-Ebner is the Festival Producer at the Uppsala Short Film Festival. She is responsible for the industry events at the festival, spanning from Uppsala Talent Days and the Uppsala Short Film Pitch, to planning all seminars, panels, and masterclasses.

Since 2014 she has been a part of the selection committee for the International Competition and since 2023 she has been the head of the National Competition. She is also a freelance programmer and curator for other festivals and cultural organizations. Sigrid has a background in art history (Uppsala University) and film studies (Stockholm University).

Lizete Upīte

Lizete Upīte is an animation film director from Latvia. Lizete began her audiovisual media studies at the Baltic Film and Media School in Estonia, but after exchange studies in Portugal, she changed her major to animation. 

In 2013 she graduated from La Poudrière Animation Film School in France. Her graduation film, the short animation “Night on the Lake”, was bought by ARTE and screened in several festivals around the world, also receiving the Latvian National Film Award “Lielais Kristaps” as the best student film.

Since then Lizete has been working on several international animation film projects as a director, editor and script advisor. She has directed and animated her own animation short films, namely, “Night Walks” (LV / 2018/ 6’) and “Riga’s Lilac” (FR, LV / 2019 /14’).

With “Riga’s Lilac” Lizete took part in several pitching forums including the Baltic Pitching Forum, the European Short Pitchand Annecy Mifa pitches. The film received the “Lielais Kristaps” award as the best short film. 

Elza Gauja

Elza Gauja is a Latvian filmmaker. She recently completed her film directing master's degree, with her diploma work, a full-length feature film titled A Postcard from Rome, receiving the "Best Feature" award at the Latvian National Film Awards "Lielais Kristaps" in 2024.

Prior to that, in 2023 Elza released two feature-length films – her debut fiction film Keep Smiling, Mom! (2023) and her debut documentary Meanwhile in Lucavsala (2023, crowned Best Debut in “Lielais Kristaps”). Additionally, Elza's documentary short The Professor and Gena (2022) was nominated for “Lielais Kristaps” in two categories. 

Elza has participated in the MFI Script 2 Film Workshop, Ex Oriente Film training programme, Midpoint Series Launch 2022 and Camp 4Science 2023.