Juries

International Jury 2022

M. Night Shyamalan (USA) - Jury President

Screenwriter, director and producer M. Night Shyamalan has been captivating audiences worldwide with his genre films over the past three decades. His impressive filmmaking includes 14 feature films as a cinema director. His breakthrough, the 1999 psychological thriller The Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis, was the second highest grossing film of that year and received six Academy Award nominations. He then released a string of blockbusters with Unbreakable (2000), Signs (2002), and The Village (2004). The Visit (2015) was the most successful horror film of 2015. He could repeat this success with his next film Glass (2019). Shyamalan has also had an equally successful start in the TV sector in 2015 with the 10-episode event series Wayward Pines for FOX, based on the best-selling novels. Currently Shyamalan serves as showrunner for the award-winning series Servant for Apple TV+. He has also directed several episodes of the series. His latest cinema film Old, which is based on the graphic novel "Sandcastle" was released internationally in cinemas in summer 2021. He is currently working on his next cinema film, Knock at the Cabin, which will be released in February 2023.

Karim Aïnouz (Brazil / Algeria)

Karim Aïnouz first studied architecture in Paris and Brasilia before doing a degree in film studies at New York University and gaining practical experience as an assistant director for Todd Haynes. His feature film debut Madame Satã premiered at Cannes in 2002, later O Céu de Suely (Love for Sale, 2006) and Viajo Porque Preciso, Volto Porque te Amo (I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You, 2009) screened in Venice. Aïnouz is also a regular guest at the Berlinale: in 2014, with Praia do Futuro (Futuro Beach) was shown in Competition; at the same time, Cathedrals of Culture ran in Berlinale Special, where he was one of six directors. His two documentaries Zentralflughafen THF (2018), awarded the Amnesty International Prize, and Nardjes A. (2020) were both shown in Panorama. His feature film A Vida Invisível (Invisible Life) won the main prize in Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in 2019, and two years later his autobiographical work O Marinheiro das Montanhas (Mariner of the Mountains) also screened at the Croisette.

Saïd Ben Saïd (France / Tunisia)

Saïd Ben Saïd is a French-Tunisian film producer, founder and chairman of SBS Productions. His large output of 40 films includes films directed by Paul Verhoeven, David Cronenberg, Roman Polanski, Brian De Palma, Nadav Lapid, Philippe Garrel, Walter Hill, Alain Corneau, Kleber Mendonça Filho, André Téchiné and Ira Sachs. Recent releases include: David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars with Julianne Moore who won Best Actress in Cannes in 2014, Paul Verhoeven’s Elle which was awarded with Best Foreign Picture at the 2017 Golden Globes, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms which won the 2019 Golden Bear at the Berlinale and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Bacurau which received the 2019 Jury Prize in Cannes. His latest production is Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, which premiered in the Competition at Cannes 2021. In 2015, Ben Saïd founded his distribution company SBS Distribution and his international sales arm SBS International to service his own productions.

Anne Zohra Berrached (Federal Republic of Germany)

Anne Zohra Berrached, born in Erfurt in 1982 as the daughter of a German and an Algerian, first studied social pedagogy and worked as a theatre pedagogue in London before turning to filmmaking. After her first own short documentary film Der Pausenclown (2009), she studied at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Her first feature-length film Zwei Mütter (Two Mothers) was awarded the section prize in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino at the Berlinale in 2013, and three years later 24 Wochen (24 Weeks) ran for the Golden Bear in the Competition. The film was awarded the German Film Award in Silver and received the GUILDE Film Award. Berrached, who usually has professional actors act together with amateurs in her films and focuses on the greatest possible authenticity, presented her most recent film Die Welt wird eine andere sein (Copilot) in the section Panorama of the Berlinale in 2021. In addition to her cinema work, the filmmaker has directed three highly acclaimed Tatort episodes.

Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe)

Zimbabwean filmmaker and writer Tsitsi Dangarembga studied at Cambridge and the University of Zimbabwe before coming to Berlin to study directing at the German Film and Television Academy. As a screenwriter or director, she has been involved in several of her home country's cinematic milestones, including Neria (1991), Flame (1996), Everyone's Child (1996) and I Want a Wedding Dress (2011). In 1992, she founded her own production company, Nyerai Films, and in 2003, the International Film Festival for Women in Harare, which also gave birth to the African Women Filmmakers' Development Hub. She is also one of the co-founders of the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust. Dangarembga's most recent novel “This Mournable Body”, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020, which belongs to a three-part series including “Nervous Conditions” (1988) and “The Book of Not” (2006). In 2021, she was awarded the “Friedenspreis des deutschen Buchhandels“ as well as the PEN Pinter Prize and the PEN International Award for Freedom of Expression.

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Japan)

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's episodic film Gûzen to sôzô (Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy) premiered in the Competition at the Berlinale in 2021, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. In the same year, he also received the Best Screenplay Prize for an adaptation of Murakami’s Doiraibu mai kâ (Drive My Car), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Hamaguchi’s graduation film Passion from the Tokyo University of the Arts, screened at the San Sebastián Film Festival in 2008. This was followed by the feature film The Depths and the documentary Tōhoku Trilogy (Nami no oto (Sound of the Waves), Nami no koe (Voices from the Waves), Storytellers), which he directed together with Ko Sakai between 2011 and 2013. His international breakthrough came in 2015 with Happî awâ (Happy Hour), which celebrated its world premiere in Locarno. Three years later, he was invited to the competition in Cannes with Netemo sametemo (Asako I & II). In addition to his directing work, he also wrote the screenplay for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Supai no tsuma (Wife of a Spy), which won the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice in 2020.

Connie Nielsen (Denmark / USA)

Connie Nielsen was born in Denmark where she started her career on stage alongside her mother in political Revue and Variety shows. She moved to France and Italy as a young woman to continue her studies and further her acting career internationally. Once in the US, she starred in Ridley Scott's Oscar winner Gladiator (2000), Mission to Mars (2000) by Brian de Palma and Basic (2003). She first appeared in a Danish production for Susanne Bier's Brothers (2004) for which she was nominated for the European Film Award, among others, and received Best Actress awards in San Sebastián and the Danish film prize The Bodil. Nielsen has also worked with directors such as Olivier Assayas (Demonlover, 2002) and Lars von Trier (Nymphomaniac: Vol.1, 2013) and appeared in blockbusters such as Wonder Woman (2017) by Patty Jenkins and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021). Most recently, she was a lead actress and executive producer on the British series Close to Me (2021). Nielsen is also the founder of the organisations Human Needs Project and Road to Freedom Scholarships.

Jury Encounters 2022

Chiara Marañón (Spain)

Spanish born Chiara Marañón is the Director of Content at MUBI. She holds a BA in Cinema Studies and two MAs from the International Film & TV School in Cuba and the University of Westminster. Marañón has served as a jury member at international film festivals including Mar del Plata or Jeonju, and curated programmes for FICCI in Cartagena and Tabakalera Centre for Contemporary Art in San Sebastián. As a filmmaker, she directed The Girl in The Lemon Factory (2013), working together with Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami on the screenplay. One of the first to join the company over ten years ago, Marañón currently spearheads MUBI’s global content acquisitions and programming, with a focus on Europe, supporting partnerships and overseeing content for MUBI GO in the United Kingdom.

Ben Rivers (United Kingdom)

Ben Rivers is a British artist and filmmaker. He won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2011 for his first feature film Two Years at Sea. In 2014 he was awarded his second Tiger Award for Short Film for Things at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and in 2015 he was nominated for the Golden Leopard at Locarno for The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers. Rivers’ short film The Hunchback, which he co-directed with Gabriel Abrantes and which won three awards, also premiered at Locarno. Together with Ben Russell, Rivers directed two films: A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness and The Rare Event, with which he was a guest at the Berlinale Forum Expanded in 2018.

Silvan Zürcher (Switzerland)

Silvan Zürcher is a Swiss producer, screenwriter and director. He studied philosophy, film and German studies in Bern and Zurich, then film production at the DFFB in Berlin. His first feature film Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat, director: Ramon Zürcher) premiered in 2013 at the Forum of the Berlinale and was subsequently celebrated at numerous international festivals and won many awards. In 2017, he founded the production company Zürcher Film together with his brother Ramon Zürcher. In 2021, their second feature film Das Mädchen und die Spinne (The Girl and the Spider, co-directed with Ramon Zürcher) celebrated its world premiere in the Berlinale’s international competition Encounters and was awarded the prize for Best Director and the FIPRESCI Prize.

International Short Film Jury 2022

Payal Kapadia (India) - Filmmaker

Payal Kapadia’s poetic, deeply personal and highly political debut feature A Night of Knowing Nothing premiered in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes in 2021, where it received the L’Œil d’Or as the best documentary film across all festival sections. Dubbed “one of the year’s most electrifying debuts,” it also garnered awards at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Mar del Plata International Film Festival. Her latest short, And What Is the Summer Saying, premiered at the 2018 Berlinale and went on to win the Special Jury Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. In 2017, Payal Kapadia celebrated her Cannes debut with Afternoon Clouds screening in the Cinéfondation section for young directors, after her short The Last Mango Before the Monsoon had won her the FIPRESCI prize as well as the Special Jury Prize at the 2015 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. A Berlinale Talents alumna, she is currently working on her next feature film in Mumbai.

Rosa Barba (Italy) - Artist, Filmmaker

Artist and filmmaker Rosa Barba’s work encompasses films, sculptures, installations, live performances, texts and publications based on the material and conceptual qualities of cinema. She creates installations and site-specific interventions that explore how film defines the physical quality of the space, and places the work and viewer in a new relationship. Her cinematic works are set in undefined time periods and move between experimental documentary and narrative fiction. Her works are represented in international collections, renowned institutions and have been presented in biennials around the world, including Tate Modern London, Dia Art Foundation New York, Pirelli Hangar Bicocca Milan, Arter Istanbul, Jeu de Paume Paris, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Madrid, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and the Biennale di Venezia. And for its reopening in 2021, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin featured an exhibition of Rosa Barba’s work.

Reinhard W. Wolf (Federal Republic of Germany) - Film and Media Art Curator, Writer

Reinhard W. Wolf heads the Mainz community cinema CinéMayence which is known not only for its carefully curated film programmes but also for being able to screen all kinds of formats – including Super 8 films. As a writer, his main thematic focus is on new media and short film. He works as a freelance editor for the online short film magazine shortfilm.de and has written numerous magazine articles and contributions to books as well as two studies on the situation of short films in Germany: Expertise zur Situation des deutschen Kurzfilms (An Expert Look at the Situation of German Short Film, Oberhausen: 1998) and Kurzfilm in Deutschland – Studie zur Situation des kurzen Films (Short Film in Germany – A Study of the Situation of the Short Film, Dresden: 2006). He has been working as a film and media art curator for exhibitions and film festivals at home and abroad for many years, especially for the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

Generation Kplus International Jury 2022

Daniela Cajías (Bolivia)

The Bolivia-born cinematographer became the first woman to receive the Spanish film award Goya in 2021 for her work on Pilar Palomero’s award-winning feature debut Las niñas. The film celebrated its world premiere in 2020 in the Generation Kplus competition. Daniela Cajías was also represented at Generation with As duas Irenes (2017) and La eterna noche de las doce lunas (2013) - two films that were successful at international festivals and received numerous awards.

Nicola Jones (Federal Republic of Germany)

Born in Halle/Saale, with stations in Leipzig, Munich and Berlin, Nicola Jones worked as a consultant and speaker in the area of film funding as well as international film relations and EU film policy. In 2016, she took over the direction of the German Children’s Media Festival Goldener Spatz. As managing director of the Children’s Media Foundation of the same name, she remains active at European level with the KIDS Regio initiative.

Samuel Kishi Leopo (Mexico)

Born in Mexico, the director, screenwriter and editor studied audiovisual arts in Guadalajara and made numerous short films before presenting his feature film debut Somos Mari Pepa at Generation in 2014. In 2020, he was awarded the Grand Prix of the International Jury Generation Kplus with Los lobos and the Peace Film Prize which is awarded during the Berlinale. Samuel Kishi Leopo has been the Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Organization for Migration (IOM) since 2021.

Generation 14plus International Jury 2022

Paolo Bertolin (Italy)

The film critic and curator works prolifically as a festival programmer for the Venice International Film Festival and as an artistic consultant for various international film festivals and institutions. As a producer, the native Italian has already been represented in the Berlinale Competition several times with films (Cha và con và, Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis, Chitrashala).

Rubika Shah (United Kingdom / Australia)

The award-winning British-Australian director, screenwriter and winner of the BAFTA Breakthrough 2020 made her debut in the Generation 14plus competition in 2015 with Let's Dance: Bowie Down Under. In 2017, she presented her short film White Riot: London to the Berlinale audience. In 2020, she returned to Berlin with the long documentary work White Riot and received the Special Mention of the Generation Youth Jury. Rubika Shah is currently working on A Saudi Tale for BBC Film.

Dash Shaw (USA)

With his debut film My Entire Highschool Sinking into the Sea, the comic book author and animator made his first guest appearance at Generation in 2017. His second feature film, Cryptozoo, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the NEXT Innovator Award. At the 71st Berlinale, the animated film received a special mention in the 14plus competition from Generation’s International Jury. The American is the author of several graphic novels, most recently “Discipline” was published by New York Review Comics.

Children’s Jury Generation Kplus 2022

A Children's Jury with members aged 11 to 14 awards the Crystal Bears in the Generation Kplus competition. The jury members are selected from film questionaires submitted the previous year and officially invited to participate by the Festival Director.

The members of the 2022 Generation Kplus Children's Jury: Tilda Aue, Maria Fock, Connar Beck Lowe, Henri Maritoh, Leonardo Urrutia Schwarze, Kerstin Teichmann and Ida Lilli Zschaubitz

Youth Jury Generation 14plus 2022

A Youth Jury with members aged 14 to 18 awards the Crystal Bears in the Generation 14plus competition. The jury members are selected from film questionaires submitted the previous year and officially invited to participate by the Festival Director.
The members of the 2022 Generation 14plus Youth Jury: Luise Dahns, Christian Fock, Quintus Gramowski, Viola Weiser and Helene Alma Zschaubitz

Jury GWFF Best First Feature Award 2022

Gaia Furrer (Federal Republic of Germany)

Born in 1975 in Italy, Gaia Furrer graduated in Cinema History at the University La Sapienza in Rome. She collaborated with Film Italia, the public agency in charge of promoting Italian cinema abroad, curating national and international projects. Furrer has also programmed and consulted on a few film festivals. Since 2004, she has worked as Head of Programming at the Noir in Festival, one of the most important European festivals focused on the film noir genre. After working as a programmer and as Head of Programming since the very first edition at Giornate degli Autori, the independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, she was appointed as its new Artistic Director in 2020.

Vimukthi Jayasundara (Sri Lanka)

Vimukthi Jayasundara is an award-winning Sri Lankan director known for his surreal films. After finishing his documentary, Land of Silence (2002), he made his directorial debut with Forsaken Land (2005), which won the Camera d’Or for best first feature at Cannes. This was followed by Between Two Worlds (2009), which competed at the Venice Film Festival, Chatrack (2011), which went on to be selected for Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and Dark in the White Light, which was selected for the Competition at Locarno in 2015. In 2012, he was invited to be one of three international directors to produce a film for the Jeonju Digital Project. He is currently developing his new feature Turtle’s Gaze on Spying Stars.

Shahrbanoo Sadat (Afghanistan)

Shahrbanoo Sadat is an Afghan filmmaker, who was recently evacuated from Kabul, when the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Her filmography involves the debut film Wolf and Sheep, which won the top award at the Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2016. Her second feature Parwareshgah (The Orphanage) was supported by, among others, the Berlinale World Cinema Fund and also premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2019. Both films are part of a five-part series based on Anwar Hashimi’s autobiographical text of 800 pages. Since 2020, Sadat has been working on the third part, a romantic comedy called Kabul Jan based in Kabul before the current political situation.

Jury Berlinale Documentary Award 2022

Wang Bing (People's Republic of China)

Wang Bing began his career as an independent filmmaker in 1999. Discovered in 2003, Tiexi qu (West of the Tracks), a documentary work of more than nine hours, has garnered great success internationally. In addition to his feature documentaries San zimei (Three sisters, 2012) and Feng ai (‘Til Madness Do us Part, 2013), he appeared in the Berlinale section Forum with Ta’ang in 2016 and went on to win the Golden Leopard with Mrs. Fang in 2017. His latest documentary Dead Souls premiered at Cannes in 2018. Acclaimed by critics and recognised as one of the most important Chinese artists, documentary makers and film directors of his time, he has been honoured by retrospectives of his entire oeuvre in major museums, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, at the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique or at Documenta.

Rana Eid (Lebanon)

Rana Eid is a Lebanese sound designer and filmmaker. Since 2003, she has been working on various Lebanese films, before opening DB STUDIOS for audio post-production with composer Nadim Mishlawi in 2006. Since then she has been working on films in the region and around the world teaming up with established filmmakers as well as emerging talents. In 2019, she worked on two Oscar nominated films, The Cave (2019) and Honeyland (2019). Most recently, she worked as the sound designer for the World Cinema Fund film You Will Die at 20 (2019) and Memory Box (2021), which ran in the Competition at the Berlinale 2021. As a filmmaker, she directed her first feature documentary Panoptic (2017) which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival.

Susanne Schüle (Federal Republic of Germany)

Susanne Schüle is a German cinematographer and has been making feature-length documentaries for 25 years, winning awards at many international festivals. She received the award for Best Cinematography for Absolut Warhola at the International Documentary Film Festival in Leipzig in 2001 and the Grimme Award in 2003. The short documentary Akkordeonspielerin won the German short film award in 2007. For Himmelverbot, she received the Best Cinematography Award at the DocuArt Festival in Bucharest in 2015 and her current camera work for Kühe auf dem Dach (Cows on the Roof) won the Most innovative feature film at the Vision du Réel in Nyon in 2020. In addition to her work as a cinematographer, Susanne Schüle is a professor at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf.

International Jury 2021

Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran) - Jury President

One year after winning the Golden Bear at the 70th Berlinale for his film Sheytan vojud nadarad (There Is No Evil, 2020), Mohammad Rasoulof returns to the festival, this time in the International Jury. He has directed, written and produced a variety of fiction and documentary films. Goodbye (2011), Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013) and A Man of Integrity (2017) all premiered and received awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Upon returning to Iran in September 2017, he was officially barred from leaving the country, a verdict which is still in effect. Rasoulof’s cinema had mostly relied on allegorical narratives as a mean for expression. In March 2010, Rasoulof was arrested on set while directing a project. In the first trial following the arrest, he was sentenced to six years in prison, a sentence that was later reduced to one year. He was released on bail with the sentence still being effective. He was sentenced again in 2019 to one year in prison. Despite his appeal, he has not been permitted to travel or to make films with no end time.

He was unable to personally accept his Golden Bear at the Berlinale on February 29, 2020.

Nadav Lapid (Israel)

Nadav Lapid is an Israeli film director who studied in Tel Aviv, Paris and Jerusalem. With his most recent feature film Synonymes(Synonyms), he won the Golden Bear for Best Film and the FIPRESCI Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2019. He had previously been at the Berlinale with his short films Kvish (Road) and Lama? (Why?), which were shown in Panorama in 2005 and Berlinale Shorts in 2015 respectively. Lapid’s debut feature film Policeman won the Special Jury Award at the Locarno Film Festival in 2011 and went on to win more than 20 awards internationally. His second feature The Kindergarten Teacher premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, screened at various other festivals in Vienna, Chicago, London, Busan or Warsaw and was later remade in the US, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. Lapid is a recipient of the French Order Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and has already been a jury member in Venice, Locarno and at the Semaine de la critique in Cannes. His latest feature film Ahed’s Knee is currently in post-production.

Adina Pintilie (Romania)

Adina Pintilie is a Romanian filmmaker, visual artist and curator. Her first feature film Touch Me Not won the Golden Bear for Best Film and the GWFF Best First Feature Award at the 2018 Berlinale. It was also nominated for the European Film Award and has been distributed in over 40 territories, as well as being screened in major festivals and institutions such as Toronto, Karlovy Vary, BFI London, MoMA New York and Viennale. Pintilie’s short- and medium-length works have also had impressive festival runs. Don’t Get Me Wrong premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2007 and won the Golden Dove for Best Documentary at DOK Leipzig in 2007, while Oxygen premiered in the 2010 Rotterdam competition. Additionally, Adina Pintilie served as a jury member at festivals and industry events such as Karlovy Vary, Goteborg Film Festival, Torino Filmlab and IDFA. She also holds masterclasses and lectures at many institutions and events such as Berlinale Talents and Academy of Media Arts Cologne.

Ildikó Enyedi (Hungary)

The award winning and Oscar nominated Hungarian film director Ildikó Enyedi returns to the International Jury of the Berlinale, where she already served as a member in 1992. Starting out as a concept and media artist, she eventually turned to filmmaking. Over the decades, she has written and directed a variety of short and feature films as well as episodes of TV series. Her film Testről és lélekről (On Body and Soul, 2017) won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and was nominated not only for the Academy Awards, but also for numerous European Film Awards, winning Best Actress for Alexandra Borbély. Enyedi’s first feature film My 20th Century (1989) was chosen as one of the twelve best Hungarian films of all time and selected among the ten best films of the year by “The New York Times” as well as winning the Caméra d’Or in Cannes. She has also been invited to juries at festivals in Venice, Moscow or San Sebastián, served as president of the Hungarian Directors’ Guild and is a member of both the European Film Academy and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Ildikó Enyedi is currently working on her latest feature film The Story of My Wife.

Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)

Gianfranco Rosi is an Italian documentary filmmaker, who studied at the New York University Film School. He is the only director ever to win two of the three major European film festivals with documentaries. In 2016, he received the Golden Bear for Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. The film was not only the first documentary ever selected by Italy to represent the country for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, but also nominated there as Best Documentary Feature. Additionally, it won the European Film Award. In 2013, Rosi was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film in Venice for Sacro GRA. He once again returned to the festival in 2020 with his latest film Notturno, which was chosen as Italian entry for International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards. His other works include the films Boatman (1993), which screened at Sundance, Locarno, Toronto and the IDFA, Below Sea Level (2008), which was nominated for the European Film Award, and El Sicario, Room 164 (2010) (FIPRESCI Award - Venice).

Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Bosnian film maker Jasmila Žbanić has been a regular guest at the Berlin International Film Festival, this time returning as a member of the International Jury. Her first feature film Grbavica won the 2006 Berlinale Golden Bear as well as the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Peace Film Award. It went on to win awards at many other festivals (among them the AFI Festival in Los Angeles) and was nominated for two European Film Awards. Žbanić returned to the Berlinale Competition four years later with Na putu (On The Path, 2010), which also received a nomination at the European Film Awards. Her third feature film, For Those Who Can Tell No Tales, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. Most recently, Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020) also screened in Toronto as well as many other festivals. The film is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and was chosen by Bosnia and Herzegovina as their submission for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards in 2021. Žbanić also directed the comedy Love Island (2014), which premiered in Locarno, and the documentary One Day in Sarajevo (2014).

Jury Encounters 2021

Florence Almozini (France) - Programmer

Florence Almozini is currently Senior Programmer at Large for Film at Lincoln Center, serving on committees including the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films, organising numerous retrospectives and overseeing the programming of new releases. At the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where she worked from 1999 until 2013 as Director of BAMcinématek, she launched the venue’s first ever film festival, BAMcinemaFest. She has served on juries for the Mar del Plata and Tribeca film festivals as well as Cinema Tropical and the Gotham Awards and has been on the selection committee for Tournées Film Festival since 2012. She was awarded the French Order Chevalier of Arts and Letters in 2013.

Cecilia Barrionuevo (Argentina) - Artistic Director

Cecilia Barrionuevo has been the artistic director of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival since 2018 and a member of the festival’s programming team since 2010. Among her other work, she has been involved with the curation of “Neighboring Scenes: New Latin Cinema” at the Lincoln Center, Documenta Madrid and is an advisor at Antofacine in Antofagasta, Chile. Barrionuevo also co-edited several publications, including the bilingual collection of “Las Naves Cine”, and has taught film classes around the world. She is currently a member of the advisory board for the Film Study Center at Harvard University. In 2020 she was awarded with the honorary title of Chevalier of the Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture.

Diedrich Diederichsen (Argentina) - Editor and Publisher

In the 1980s, Diedrich Diederichsen was the editor and publisher of music magazines such as “Sounds” and “Spex”. During the 1990s, he taught at universities in Frankfurt, Pasadena, Offenbach, Munich, Weimar, Bremen, Giessen, Vienna, Gainesville, St. Louis, Cologne, Salzburg and Los Angeles. From 1998 to 2006, he was Professor of Aesthetic Theory / Cultural Studies at the Merz Academy in Stuttgart, and since 2008 at the Institute for Art and Cultural Studies of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His publications include books and texts on pop music, politics, visual arts and The Sopranos.

International Short Film Jury 2021

Basim Magdy (Egypt) - Artist

Through subtle humor, psychedelic plays of colour and fancifully elaborate titles, Basim Magdy creates surreal worlds and narratives. His work includes film, photography, painting, works on paper, and installations. Magdy has shown his films at Tate Modern, Locarno Film Festival, New York Film Festival and IFFR Rotterdam, to name a few. He has had solo and group shows all over the world, and his works are in the collections of MoMa, Guggenheim, Centre Pompidou, the Sharjah Art Foundation and Koç Foundation Collection (ARTER), amongst others. He was selected Artist of the Year by Deutsche Bank and won the New:Vision Award of the CPH:DOX, the Curtas Vila do Conde Experimental Film Award and the Abraaj Art Prize Dubai.

Christine A. Maier (Austria) - Cinematographer

Christine A. Maier’s cinematography has been featured at the Berlinale in films by Henner Winckler, Amie Siegel, Jamie Babbit and Jasmila Žbanić, whose film Grbavica won the Golden Bear in 2006. Quo vadis, Aida?, her most recent cooperation with Žbanić, which has already received multiple awards, celebrated its premiere in 2020 in the competition at the Venice International Film Festival. Venice is also where Maier’s career began 23 years ago, with her first feature-length fiction film Northern Skirts, directed by Barbara Albert. Just two years later, she was awarded the Österreichischer Förderpreis für Filmkunst. In 2018, she received the Austrian Film Award for Best Camera for Mademoiselle Paradis by Barbara Albert. In 2020, she was honoured with the FC Gloria Award and the Berlin Academy of the Arts Award for Film and Media Art.

Sebastian Urzendowsky (Federal Republic of Germany) - Actor

Sebastian Urzendowsky was discovered as a child actor and played in numerous films prior to studying acting. In 2006, he received international attention as the protagonist in Pingpong by Matthias Luthardt, which celebrated its premiere at Semaine de la Critique in Cannes. He also worked with Peter Weir, Mia Hansen-Løve and performed in many films that were presented in the Berlinale Competition, such as Der Felsen (A Map of the Heart) by Dominik Graf (2002), Lichter (Distant Lights) by Hans-Christian Schmid (2003), Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) by Stefan Ruzowitzky (2007) as well as Jessica Forever by Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel which screened in Panorama in 2019. In 2010, he was named Best Young Actor at the Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis. In 2017, he received his second Grimme Award for his portrayal in Mitten in Deutschland: NSU - Die Täter by Christian Schwochow.

Youth Jury Generation 14plus 2021

A Youth Jury with members aged 14 to 18 awards the Crystal Bears in the Generation 14plus competition. The jury members are selected from film questionaires submitted the previous year and officially invited to participate by the Festival Director.

The members of the 2021 Generation 14plus Youth Jury: Rosalie Isabella Louisa Borkowski, Laura Grohmann and Milan Wahjudi.