GWFF Best First Feature Award
Since 2006, when it introduced the GWFF Best First Feature Award, the Berlinale has been even more committed to supporting the next generation of filmmakers. At the 75. Berlinale the award will be presented to a film premiering in the new section Perspectives. The award is endowed with 50,000 euros, donated by the GWFF (Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten), a society dedicated to safeguarding film and television rights. The prize money is to be split between the producer and the director of the winning film. Additionally, the director will be awarded with a high-quality viewfinder as both a useful instrument and memorable trophy.
Best First Feature Award
El Diablo Fuma (y guarda las cabezas de los cerillos quemados en la misma caja) (The Devil Smokes (And Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box))
by Ernesto Martínez Bucio
produced by: Carlos Hernández Vázquez, Gabriela Gavica Marrufo, Alejandro Durán
Special Mention
On vous croit (We believe you)
by Charlotte Devillers, Arnaud Dufeys
Perspectives Jury 2025
Meryam Joobeur (Tunisia / Canada)
Meryam Joobeur is a filmmaker of Tunisian origin based in Canada. Her first feature film, Mé el Aïn, was selected for the Competition at the 2024 Berlinale and has since garnered 12 awards, including Best Director at the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Grand Prize at the Taipei International Film Festival. Joobeur's short film Brotherhood (2018) won the award for Best Canadian Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar. It also screened at around 150 other festivals and received 78 international awards. She had previously directed short films such as the documentary Gods, Weeds and Revolutions (2012) and Born in the Maelstrom (2017). She is also an alumna of the Berlinale Talents Lab from the 2015 edition.
Aïssa Maïga (France / Mali)
Aïssa Maïga has worked as an actress for some of the world’s great directors, including Michael Haneke (Hidden, 2005), Cédric Klapisch (Russian Dolls, 2005) and Michel Gondry (Mood Indigo, 2013). The Dakar-born Parisian actress appeared in Alain Gomi's Berlinale Competition entry Tey (2012) and was nominated for a César for Abderrahmane Sissako's Bamako (2006). She has also appeared in international productions such as Paris, je t'aime (2006), Bianco e nero (2008) by Cristina Comencini and Chiwetel Ejiofor's directorial debut The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019), which screened at the Berlinale. Maïga's directorial credits include the documentary Above Water, which celebrated its world premiere in Cannes in 2021. Her latest work is the eagerly awaited Marie & Jolie directed by Erige Sehiri’s follow up to Under the Fig Trees.
María Zamora (Spain)
María Zamora has produced more than 20 feature films, including Mapa (2012) by León Siminiani, Libertad by Clara Roquet (Cannes, 2021) and Carla Simón's Summer 1993 (Berlinale Generation 2017). With her company Elastica Films (founded 2021), she produced Golden Bear winner Alcarràs: The Last Harvest (2022), also nominated for the European Film Award. Most recently, she produced Matria by Álvaro Gago (Berlinale Panorama 2023), Creatura by Elena Martín, which won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the 2023 Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, The Rye Horn by Jaione Camborda, which won the main award in San Sebastián in 2023, and Mothers Don‘t by Mar Coll (Locarno, 2024). She is currently in the post-production of Carla Simón's new film Romería.