Executive Director of Jinzhen international short film Festival
Thom Palmen is one of the founders of the Umeå International Film Festival in Sweden. (1986-2007)
He has been invited as a jury member to numerous film Festivals, notably in Berlin, Sofia, Regensburg, Cottbus, Aix-en-Provence, Indie-Lisboa, Poznan, Bratislava, Hamburg, Setubal, Cork, Kinochock (Anapa), Tampere, Puchon (Korea), FESPACO (Burkina Faso).
He is currently working as a curator for a number of festivals and parallel to that as a producer at the same time developing projects within the field of the cinema.
Since April 2017 he has been Executive Director of Hancheng Jinzhen International Short film Festival.
His first film as producer, In the Theme (director Olga Popova, Russia), was selected and awarded at Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) Shorts in 2008.
He also works as pitching coach for animators at VAF (Visegrad Animation Forum in Trebon, Czech Republic) and as tutor for a large number of short film projects of any genre.
He moved to Riga, Latvia in 2013.
Background:
- Studies in Art History, History of Ideas and Sociology.
- Founded the Umeå International Film Festival in 1986. Since 1996 Artistic Director.
- General Secretary of the European Coordination of Film Festivals (ECFF) 1999-2002.
- President of the European Coordination of Film Festivals (ECFF) 2002-2004. And for a second period 2006 – 2007
- Member of the pre-selection committee for the Swedish National Film Prize for Shorts & Documentaries (Golden Bug) 2003-2007
- Voting member of the European Film Academy.
- Since 2007 started working as producer. Since then worked on around 100 short films and three features.
