Jaka Bizilj

Jaka Bizilj grew up in Slovenia, Libya, Tanzania, Malaysia and Germany and passed his university entrance exams in 1991. Through his high school and university years, he reported as a journalist for international print and broadcast media. In 1991 he began studies in politics, literature and film at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Jaka Bizilj lives in Berlin with his wife and a daughter.

Promoter and Producer

Jaka Bizilj works as promoter and producer. He began organizing concerts in 1995 with artists such as the Backstreet Boys, Andrea Bocelli, Bryan Adams, Montserrat Caballe, Max Raabe, Liza Minnelli and Jose Carreras. Since the end of the 1990s, Jaka Bizilj has worked internationally as a producer and was the largest presenter of open-air opera in Europe for some years. Jaka Bizilj stages approximately 500 concerts and live productions a year, and following successful runs of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita", 2008 he is producing Elton John's musical "Aida" as an open-air-production on a lakeside stage. The cosmopolite has launched a number of festivals. Since 2007, Jaka Bizilj is a film - producer. “Suddenly Gina” and “Letter to Anna” belong to his productions.

Goodwill Efforts

Jaka Bizilj is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and collaborates with and supports, among others, Unicef, Unifem, Amnesty International, DATA, amfAR and Richard Gere's Foundation, which has been iniciated especially through a meeting with the Dalai Lama. After visiting Nelson Mandela in November 2006, he began working closely with the "Schools for Africa programme", a joint initiative of UNICEF and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Since 2002, Jaka Bizilj has raised more than two million Euros for a variety of charitable causes.

Jaka Bizilj launched Cinema for Peace in 2002 and, at the initiative of Bob Geldof and Richard Curtis ahead of the G8 Summit in Germany, produced a remake of the Golden Globe-winning film "The Girl in the Café" with Iris Berben, Julia Jentsch, Jan Josef Liefers and Catherine Deneuve in 2007. The annual Cinema for Peace event had well over a billion media hits, making it one of the most-followed film galas in the world. On initiative of Cinema for Peace, Bob Geldof became the editor of Europe's biggest-selling newspaper BILD for a day and described the awards gala as "the Oscars with brains". George Clooney is said to have found inspiration for his Oscar-nominated film "Good Night and Good Luck" in the Cinema for Peace initiative.

Previous hosts and speakers include Richard Gere, Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Antonio Banderas, Sharon Stone, Catherine Deneuve, Forest Whitaker, Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank. Among the 2008 winners were Sir Ben Kinglsey, Jason Reitman, Diablo Cody and Malalai Joya, the first woman elected to the Afghan parliament.

Jaka Bizilj is currently engaged in several projects worldwide, for instance in realising "Sports for Peace", together with Richard Gere, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and Amnesty International.

Productions

* since 1996 - The Black Gospel Singers
* since 1997 - Nabucco, Aida
* since 1998 - Carmen
* since 1999 - Magic of the Dance
* since 2000 - Romanza with Helen Schneider, Königstein Castle Festival, Nahe-Festival (until 2005)
* since 2001 - Stardance, Dancing Queen/Abbafever
* since 2002 - Evita, Cinema for Peace
* since 2003 - The Vienna Johann Strauss Waltz Gala, Festival under the Stars (Herrenchiemsee Castle)
* since 2004 - The Magic Flute, Jedermann
* since 2005 - Last Night of Spectacular Classic, Arena di Bavaria, Wörthersee Festival, Long Walk to Justice/Live 8 Germany,
* 2006 - The World Football Concerts at the FIFA World Cup, Jesus Christ Superstar, Galanacht des Musicals, Mozart Gala
* 2007 - The Lord of the Rings in concert, Queen - a ballet homage by Ben van Cauwenberg
* 2008 – Aida, the musical by Elton John and Tim Rice

Film Productions

* "Not the same procedure as every year - Dinner for All" with Bob Geldof and Katja Riemann (2007)
* "Suddenly Gina") with Iris Berben, Julia Jentsch, Jan Josef Liefers and Catherine Deneuve (2007)
* "I don't feel like dancing" short film (2008)
* Eric Bergkraut's documentary "Letter to Anna" about the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (2008) [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117936425.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 Letter to Anna: The Story of Journalist Politkovskaya's Death] ]

Awards

* Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president, in 2008 committed the audience award for "Letter to Anna" at the One World International Human Rights Film Festival. The Prague festival uses international documentary films to highlight opportunities for individuals to champion human rights.

* "I don't feel like dancing" received the award "Best Short Fiction Film" by the "GoEast Festival" in April 2008

References