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Jaka Bizilj is a German writer, promoter, and film producer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Cinema for Peace Foundation.
Bizilj was born 8 December 1971 in Ljubljana, Slovenia and grew up in Slovenia, Libya, Tanzania, Malaysia and Germany.[ citation needed ] He studied politics, literature and film at the German University of Mainz and went on to become a journalist and political activist.
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Jaka Bizilj is a writer, promoter, and producer. He began organizing concerts in 1995 with artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Bryan Adams, Montserrat Caballe and Liza Minnelli and toured with artists such as José Carreras. Since the end of the 1990s, he has been working internationally as a producer and was the largest presenter of open-air opera in Europe for many years. He annually staged up to 700 concerts and live productions. Among his productions are concerts with the filmmusic of movies like "Harry Potter", "Lord of the Rings", "The Hobbit", "Star Trek", the music of Hans Zimmer, and among others as "Magic of the Dance", Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita", Elton John’s musical Aida and the Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde. He has also launched several cultural festivals.
In 2002, he founded the Cinema for Peace initiative and in 2008 the Cinema for Peace Foundation to create awareness of the social relevance of films and the influence of movies on the perception and resolution of global social, political, and humanitarian challenges of our time.
Bizilj is also involved in the production of films, including the Richard Curtis remake “Suddenly Gina ” and the documentary “Letter to Anna” about Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. He was also involved in the realization of the documentary "This Prison Where I Live" about the detained Myanmar comedian "Zarganar" and the recent film productions "After the Silence" and raised funds for the development of the film "Song of Names" with Dustin Hoffman and Anthony Hopkins.
Together with the last living Nazi-war-crimes prosecutor from Nuremberg, Benjamin Ferencz, and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk Jaka Bizilj initiated in The Hague in February 2023 “The Court of the Citizens of the World” with international prosecutors and judges arguing a blueprint case on crime of aggression against Vladimir Putin[ citation needed ] resulting in a verdict on February 24, 2023, calling on the International Criminal Court and the United Nations to issue an arrest warrant against Putin. [1] The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant three weeks later on March 17, 2023, [2] thus making Putin as the first European President a fugitive war criminal.
Bizilj distributed the Bosnian Oscar-winning war-satire "No Man's Land" by Danis Tanovic. Ahead of the G8 Summit in Germany, he produced at the initiative of Bob Geldof and Richard Curtis 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.[ citation needed ]
Together with the Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court, he organized with the Cinema for Peace Foundation - "The Special Evening on Justice" on the eve of the International Criminal Court Review Conference of the Rome Statute in Kampala, Uganda.[ citation needed ] The Cinema for Peace Foundation presented on this occasion the first "Justitia Award" to honor the United Nations and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for establishing and supporting the International Criminal Court. The award was presented to Ban Ki-moon by the Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador Bianca Jagger. [3]
On 8 June 2010, Bizilj hosted the "Sports for Peace" gala[ citation needed ] on the occasion of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa - the world's biggest single sporting event and the first ever FIFA World Cup to take place in Africa - bringing together the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, South African President Jacob Zuma, Madama Graça Machel, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, 1Goal Ambassadors and many other dignitaries from across the globe to address this serious issue - the second Millennium Development Goal (MDG): "achieve universal primary education by 2015". [4]
In 2011, he organized for the first time a Cinema for Peace Dinner in Cannes [5] and accompanied the visit of the 14th Dalai Lama to Wiesbaden with a film program and a charity dinner to support the culture of Tibet. [6]
Bizilj produced the Los Angeles premiere of Cinema for Peace in January 2012 by staging “Help Haiti Home” benefiting Sean Penn's J/P Haitian Relief Organization.; [7] [8] In June 2012 Bizilj welcomed 100 personalities from the world of arts, film, and society on the occasion of the Art Basel fair and “Art & Cinema for Peace” in honor of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. This occasion included the premiere of the documentary film “Ai Weiwei - Never Sorry” by Alison Klayman. Actress Susan Sarandon concluded the evening with a video statement expressing the worldwide support for Ai Weiwei. [9]
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