Jury

Agnès Brun is a professor for artistic and educational training at the Academie Fratellini in Paris. The former French gymnastics champion discovered circus art in 1987 during an internship at Zirkus Plume, where she managed acrobatics workshops. From 1988 she served as an educational director and acrobatics teacher at the circus school "Le Salto". She cooperates with many companies in the fields of circus, street theatre, stand-up comedy, acrobatics and stunts and was on tour with different productions.

Aurelia Cats was born in Ares, France. At age eight, Aurelia went to Annie Fratellini’s École Nationale du Cirque in Paris. By age ten, she won the "K d’Or" at the Festival Première Rampe in Monte Carlo. She was trained in every discipline related to the circus – from acrobatics to horse vaulting. She became an aerialist in 1993, in 1995 she won Gold at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris and at the Festival Cirkus Prinsessan in Stockholm. Aurelia Cats is Manager of Art Vision Production, a production and talent agency. She was a jury member at the Festivals in Paris 2005 and Monte Carlo in 2008.

Born in Berlin Johnny Klinke came to Frankfurt at the age of ten. In 1988, after his studies and five years of preparation, he joined up with Matthias Beltz and Margareta Dillinger to found Tigerpalast Varieté Frankfurt/Main. Numerous international variety and circus artistes have performed there. Tigerpalast is one of the leading variety theatres in Europe. In 2007 Margareta Dillinger and Johnny Klinke received the Goethe-Plakette of the State of Hesse, the highest honour of the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts. Since 1992 Johnny Klinke has been jury spokesman for the European Youth Circus in Wiesbaden.

Kristian is the 4th generation of the famous Hungarian circus family Kristof. He revive the original personality of the long-forgotten Gentleman Juggler, not missing the cigar boxes and the cigar itself, by balancing a coffee table and chairs on it. The Guinness Book of Records has listed his trick, of releasing (all) three cigar boxes in the air and catching them perfectly in their original initial position after completing four full turns (1440 degrees), as a world record. Kristian was director of the International Circus Festival of Budapest 1996 until 2012, founder of the former Maciva Master Studios and now he is working e.g. as Company manager of Recirquel.

Francesco Mocellin has been a member of the Italian Society of Circus Friends since 1982 and acted as its President since 2001. Besides various activities for the Italian Ministry of Culture he wrote articles about circus shows for various magazines and is a co-author of the "Studienheft für Zirkuskunst" and a board member at the European Documentation Centre for Circus Arts. He has lectured at many circus conferences and visited numerous circus shows and festivals. Francesco is a lawyer by profession and a member of the Vicenza Bar Association since May 2019.

Juggler Zdenek Polach, known as Zeejay (26), takes up the legacy of his circus family in the eighth generation. He started juggling at the age of four. He holds several world records in juggling and is a winner of the Golden Trick of Kobzov (Bronze 2015), the Israeli International Circus Festival (Gold 2015) and the European Youth Circus in Wiesbaden (Gold in 2018). He performed at Circus Arlette Gruss, Cirque Pinder, at the Roncalli Varieté, Varieté Et Cetera and over the past three years at Flic Flac, where he also works backstage and is involved in the organization.

Anastasiya Voladas-Massot has been performing in the circus from the age of 16 years old, all-around Europe with her handstand act. She was awarded in different circus festivals like Monte Carlo, Massy, Latina, Budapest and Wiesbaden. She took part in the Wiesbaden Festival twice and in 2012 she was also a member of the jury of Wiesbaden Circus Festival. In 2012, together with her husband David Massot, Anastasiya created Cirque Imagine, the permanent circus in Lyon, France. Continuing being a circus performer she is also directing all the artistic aspect of the different shows. Additionally she is directing a dinershow presented all year round, a Christmas show and some special events.