Black Nights Stars, a programme presenting up-and-coming actors and actresses from the Baltic Sea region - has announced its jury that includes acknowledged casting directors Cassandra Han, Tanja Grunwald and Frank Moiselle, among other industry experts.

The 7th edition of Black Nights Stars, a part of Discovery Campus, an international continuing education programme organized by Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event and Black Nights Film Festival, includes a four-day programme of networking, workshops and other industry events, finishing with an Award Ceremony.

The international jury will select the eight participants from Baltic region countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, and their names will be announced at the end of October.

The jury includes members of the International Casting Directors Association (ICDA) and other prominent industry figures:

Cassandra Han is an American casting director based in Europe since 2003. Credits include the upcoming six-part series A Trillion Dollars (W&B TV for Paramount+), Oskar Roehler'sRoehler's Bad Director, a Somali-language feature Samia and UK casting for Miss Fallaci (Paramount+). Italy Casting credits: James Mangold's Oscar-winning Ford vs Ferrari, Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life (2019 Cannes) and Gaumont'sGaumont's hit Netflix series Barbarians. Cassandra was nominated for the Veronika Migorí award for Filip (Akson Studios), which won the Silver Lion at the Polish Film Festival. She is a president of the European Board of Governors of the Casting Society (CSA), s a Board member of the ICDA, a founding member of WIFTM Italy and a member of the European Film Academy. Jury member for the 2021 Berlinale Shooting Stars. A founding member of Ethan Hawke's New York theater company Malaparte, she holds an MFA in acting from Trinity Rep.

Tanja Grunwald, based in Copenhagen, began her career as a casting director in 1998, working with some of Denmark's top directing talent. Her focus has been on feature films and TV series, occasionally casting commercials. Tanja has developed an extensive database of professional and non-professional actors, covering various acting types. Her recent work includes Speak No Evil (Christian Tafdrup), An Awful Woman, (Christian Tafdrup), Barstarden (Nicolaj Arcel), Chestnutman (Mikkel Seerup) for Netflix, The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg), Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg) and the Danish casting on Ruben Østlunds Triangle Of Sadness. Tanja Grunwald is an ICDA member.

Philippe Ros is a cinematographer, digital imaging supervisor, consultant, instructor & lecturer.
Philippe specializes in hand-held camera and ergonomic issues and is fully acquainted with digital shooting systems and post-production workflows. He has worked as Digital Imaging Director and cinematographer for five years on Oceans, a film directed by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud. He worked as Digital imaging supervisor on Home directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, and as a consultant for a major TV series production to redesign the workflow and the lighting design. Since 2003, he has given numerous courses, conferences and workshops worldwide. The CWC (Camera, Workflow & Creativity) workshop is designed for cinematographers, DITs and colourists. The Creative Triangle is designed to improve relationships between directors, actors and cinematographers. Philippe is a Member of the AFC (French Association of Cinematographers), Co-chair of the Technical Committee of IMAGO (International Federation of Cinematographers) and Honorary Member of the CSC (Canadian Society of Cinematographers) .

Kristina Kolytė is a casting director based in Vilnius, Lithuania, and has been actively engaged in the field for over 16 years. Throughout her career, she has had the privilege of collaborating with accomplished Lithuanian directors, as well as with a lot of international filmmakers, including Leiv Igor Devold, Miquel Alexandre, Sven Bohse, Viesturs Kairis, Kristian Petri, among others. Kristina is a Board member of the International Casting Directors Association (ICDA), also a member of the European Film Academy.

Frank Moiselle, CSA, ICDA, CDG, is a Casting Director. Frank began his career in casting as Casting Assistant to Nuala Moiselle on John Huston's feature film adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead. As Casting Director, he has worked with acclaimed directors such as Jim Sheridan / The Secret Scripture, In America; Joel Schumacher / Veronica Guerin; Gillies MacKinnon / Tara Road and Neil Jordan / Ondine. For TV he has cast *Bally Kiss Angel *(BBC), The Tudors, The Borgias and Penny Dreadful (Showtime), Vikings (History/MGM), and Vikings: Valhalla (Netflix/MGM). Frank is a three-time, prime-time Emmy nominee for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series. He is a committee member of the CDG and a member of the European Film Academy. He is a fellow of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland and holds a Higher Diploma in Education from the National University of Ireland, University College Dublin.

Malou T. Schultzberg from Stockholm/Sweden is running a theatrical boutique agency representing actors, directors and scriptwriters and is developing a commercial talent agency platform aimed to the global market. Malou has a background in casting and has worked with directors such as Mikael Håfström, Morten Tyldum and Lars von Trier. Besides casting for film/tv, she has cast more than 800 commercials internationally. She has an education in advertising & media, film & theatre science, scriptwriting and law. She has written, directed and produced multiple projects. Further, Malou acts as Vice Chairman of Swedish Agent and Management Association (SWAMA) and is a Women in Film & Television (WIFT) member. Malou has previously acted as an Ambassador for Women's Entrepreneurship, an assignment for the government to make women's entrepreneurship visible and inspire more women to start up and run their own businesses.

Tanel Toom is an Oscar-nominated film director and screenwriter. He studied filmmaking at Tallinn University, Estonia and National Film and Television School, UK. His films have been screened worldwide in numerous film festivals (including Venice Film Festival, Busan, Warsaw, San Sebastian, Black Nights Film Festival etc) and won several awards. His short film The Confession won the Student Academy Award and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

His first feature film Truth And Justice (2019) broke all the box office records in Estonia and quickly became the most-watched film in the country. It was Estonia's submission for the 2020 Academy Awards, making it to the shortlist in Best Foreign Language category. His second feature film Last Sentinel (2023), starring Kate Bosworth, Lucien Laviscount, Martin McCann and Thomas Kretschmann, premiered in March 2023. In 2020, Tanel was chosen by Variety as one of the "10 Europeans to Watch".