YOUKI Jury 2024

We are so happy to welcome Elena Wolff, Sebastian Höglinger, Simon Olubowale, Bela Brillowska and Kim Lange as this year’s jury :) They will award five films in three age categories, the Austrian Award presented by Kino VOD Club and the <3-Award.

is an actor, director, and satirist living in Vienna. Since 2022, Elena has been studying film directing and screenwriting at the Vienna Film Academy under Barbara Albert and Jessica Hausner. Elena's first independently produced feature film Para:Dies premiered at the 2022 Max Ophüls Film Festival. In the fall of 2024, Elena's second independent feature film ASCHE will be released in Austrian cinemas.

Born in Linz in 1983, Sebastian studied theater, film, and media studies and has many years of experience in organizing and managing cultural events. He works as a curator and publicist and is part of the sixpackfilmdistribution team. From 2009 to 2014, he co-directed YOUKI alongside Peter Schernhuber, with whom from 2015 to 2023 he held the role of artistic and managing director of the Diagonale, the Festival of Austrian Film in Graz.

Also known as Sisi Bo'wale, Simon Olubowale is a freelance artist and actor. After graduating from the University of Art in Graz in 2018, he worked at various theaters in Germany and Austria, as a voice actor for SWR, an assistant manager at the achtung berlin film festival, a wellness masseur, and he played the role of the Fate Norn in Jchj v. Dussel's indie film F****t for Future. His short film Cassiopeia I was shown at the 2022 Art Expo in Dubai. Currently, he is focusing on screenwriting and creating collages.

Born in 2004 in Hamburg, Bela works as an artist in the fields of film, performance, text, and sound. She spent almost her entire childhood and youth at theaters in Hamburg, participating in acting and writing groups, which had a significant impact on her. Alongside her work in theater, she developed an early fascination with film and directed her first short films, many of them in collaboration with young actors she met in the theater scene. In 2022, she began studying art at the University of Fine Arts (HfBK) in Hamburg.

studied theater, film, and media studies and began her careerin the film industry in 2010 at VIENNA SHORTS, where she co-founded the section for young audiences. Since then, she has worked for international film festivals such as the Berlinale, Viennale, Filmfest München, and Crossing Europe. She is a passionate film educator who particularly enjoys watching and discussing short films with young cinema-goers. Since 2023, she has been the technical director at nonstop Kin