The TIFF Board

Kristin (b. 1973) was born and and raised in a small village in Steigen municipality. She holds a Master’s Degree in Peace and Conflict Transformation from UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. Prevously she has served as the elected Mayor of Tromsø, as the head of Tromsø city council, as a political counselor of the Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs, as chair of the board of Tromsø Harbor, and several terms as elected member of the Tromsø municipality. Kristin used to work as a therapist and as the leader of Færingen Terapeutiske samfunn (phoenix house), and also as a teacher in school and kindergarden. Currently she serve as a member of the board of Troms and Finnmark county municipality, and as member of the health commitee in Tromsø. She is currently working for the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Departement (NAV).

Bjørn Eirik (b. 1955) has an MSc degree in International marketing from UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. He has a background as a market analyst at Innovation Norway, fisheries attaché to the Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo and division director at the National research institute Nofima. In 2012-2019 he managed Sparebank1 Nord-Norge’s Culture Business Foundation. Since 2019 he has been doing research on cultural and creative industries (CCI) at the UiT School of Business. Bjørn Eirik has many years of board work experience from various cultural organizations.

Elle Márjá (b. 1983) has distinguished herself as a strong and uncompromising voice in Sápmi for several years across genres and forms of expression as an artist, director, producer and composer. She has directed and produced a number of short films and music videos. Previously worked in NRK Sápmi and in the Sami National Theater Beaivváš. She is an artist partner in Dáiddadállu - Kautokeino artist collective. Elle Márjá is now involved in a band project Snoweye, as well as several film and art projects.

Odne (b. 1973) is a County Council Representative in Troms and Finnmark County Municipality, representing Arbeiderpartiet (The Labour Party). He is also a County Municipality representative in Sør-Varanger. Odne has board experience as Deputy Chair for Aurora Kino IKS. In 2009-2020 he worked as a teacher at Kirkenes ungdomsskole (junior high school). He is now Section Leader at The Church City Mission in Sør-Varanger.

John-Kristian (b. 1980) has worked for TIFF since 2012 as a production manager at Verdensteatret. He’s also been involved with production, communications and programming for the festival. He is the program director for the festival’s Films from the North program and from August 2020 until February 2021 he is substituting as the manager at Verdensteatret.