Ji.hlava Academy is an educational, networking and creative platform open to emerging filmmakers, film students and aspiring film professionals in non-fiction contemporary cinema. It takes place during the Ji.hlava IDFF.

Over the course of four days, Ji.hlava Academy will offer a creative lab for those dedicated to making, reflecting upon and sharing contemporary films. The program is designed for aspiring filmmakers and future film professionals who want to push the boundaries of visual style and authorial approach, broaden their understanding of non-fiction filmmaking and become part of the creative industry.

This year, we are honored to have two distinguished tutors guiding the program: Una Gunjak, an acclaimed writer, director and editor, and Khavn, a renowned Filipino filmmaker, poet, and composer.

Under the mentorship of these experienced unorthodox tutors, the Academy program will be divided into two tracks. The first track, Practical Filmmaking, will involve hands-on filmmaking sessions where participants will shoot and edit short films throughout the program under the guidance of Khavn. The second track led by Una Gunjak, Industry Insight and Development, will include curated masterclasses, lectures, talks, and meetings with industry insiders and festival programmers.

"Fairly, it was one of the most interesting and engaging workshops I have attended recently. I learned so much from Khavn and the rest of the participants. The workshop gave me the possibility to learn about an absolutely new genre for me. The haiku I made during the workshop are part of my current film project. Moreover, I plan to share this knowledge with students as a co-lecture of a documentary course next year."

Lala Alieva, Azerbaijan
Participant of Ji.hlava Academy 2020

Head tutors in 2025

Khavn / Philippines
filmmaker, composer, writer

Khavn is the director of more than 203 films − 52 features and 151 short films. He is also the composer of 40 albums and author of 8 books. His poetry and fiction have won in the Palanca Awards, the Philippines’ foremost literary award. He has served in the jury of various film festivals such as the Berlinale, Clermont-Ferrand, CPH:DOX, Jeonju, Bucheon, New Horizons, Dok Leipzig, & Ji.hlava IDFF. Khavn has exhibited at the MoMA, MAXXI, Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, National Museum of Singapore, & Venice Architecture Biennale. He has lectured at the Berlinale Talent Campus, Bela Tarr’s Film Factory, Goethe Institut, & the Danish Film Institute. Khavn has curated programs for the Viennale, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, & the Sharjah Biennial. Selected retrospectives of his films were presented in Rotterdam, Pesaro, Dokufest Kosovo, Sao Paulo, Taiwan, Film Mutations Zagreb, and Oberhausen among others.

Una Gunjak / Bosnia and Herzegovina
writer, director and editor

Sarajevo born, Paris based writer, director and editor, Una Gunjak studied in Italy and then in the UK, at the NFTS, where she graduated from the Editing department. Her short film ‘The Chicken’ premiered at the Cannes’ Critics' Week in 2014, won the European Film Award for Best Short Film and competed at Sundance Film Festival. ‘Excursion’, Una’s first feature premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2023, taking home the Special Mention Award. It went on to screen at more than 50 festivals so far, winning along awards for Best Script at FAF Belgrade and Best Actress at the Marrakech Film Festival. ‘Excursion’ secured theatrical release in 20 countries across Europe and the Mediterranean and was sold to HBO.

Una had to honour to serve as jury member for the Opus Bonus programme of Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2023, and for the Main Competitions of Sarajevo Film Festival and the Festival of Auteur Films Belgrade in 2024.

She is an editing consultant and tutor respectively for the First Cut Lab and the Dok Incubator.