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Former Jerusalem Film Festival artistic director Elad Samorzik, Berlin-based critic, essayist and programmer Jessica Kiang, Ghana-based festival and art consultant Jacqueline Nsiah, and Festival Scope co-founder and programmer Mathilde Henrot have been appointed to the selection committee of festival director Tricia Tuttle’s first Berlin International Film Festival, taking place from February 13-23, 2025.

The committee chooses the Competition and Berlinale Special titles and contributes to the Perspectives section. It is overseen by Tuttle. with co-directors of film programming Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stutz, who were appointed in June.

Tuttle, Lyanga and Stutz have also confirmed a group of advisors and...

The Berlin Film Festival is launching a new €50,000 competitive section for international fiction feature debuts called Perspectives, and is discontinuing its Encounters strand.

Perspectives will include up to 14 fiction debuts from all over the world, with a jury of three deciding on the best first feature award.

The award is endowed with €50,000, funded by 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 producers and the directors of the winning film.

Perspectives emerges from the best first feature award at the Berlinale, run...

The Berlin film festival has appointed Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stutz as co-directors of film programming, as part of a new-look executive team.

The duo were appointed by new Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle. They will work with Tuttle to curate the Competition and Berlinale Special sections including Berlinale Special Gala, and will lead the wider team on shaping the overall film selection.

Stutz will continue in his current role as head of the Panorama section, alongside his new co-director of programming duties.

Tuttle has also made three new executive appointments as part of the new governance structure, announced in April.

The Berlin Film Festival‘s new leadership duo of Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek have revealed some of their new programming team. As anticipated there is a strong Locarno (Chatrian’s former festival) flavour. Chatrian has appointed a seven-member selection committee. Locarno’s former head of programming, Marc Peranson, will serve as head of programming and chair of the selection committee, which will also include three former Locarno selectors in the shape of Lorenzo Esposito, Sergio Fant, and Aurelie Godet. Also joining the committee will be programmer Verena von Stackelberg and author and curator Barbara Wurm. The new chief for the festival’s Panorama section will be Michael Stutz, a former Panorama curator. He takes over from Paz Lázaro, who will also be joining the selection committee.

Artistic director Chatrian and executive director Rissenbeek officially take office from outgoing boss Dieter Kosslick on June 1, 2019. They said, “We have different tasks,...

Even before officially taking office June 1, incoming Berlinale co-chiefs Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek have unveiled a new team that includes the core of Chatrian’s programming staff when he headed the Locarno Film Festival.

Berlin’s new seven-member selection committee includes Locarno’s former head of programming, Marc Peranson – who takes on the same post in Berlin – and three Locarno selection committee members: Lorenzo Esposito, Sergio Fant, and Aurelie Godet. Variety reported exclusively last month that Peranson, Esposito and Fant would be among those making the move with Chatrian from Locarno to Berlin.

Rounding out the new selection committee are Paz Lazaro, who is stepping down as head of the Berlinale’s Panorama section; Verena Von Stackelberg, founder and managing director of Berlin’s Wolf Kino arthouse cinema; and Barbara Wurm, an expert on Eastern European film.

“I’m responsible for the festival’s artistic profile. In looking after the programming work,...

The Berlin Film Festival has reshuffled the team for its Panorama sidebar, with longtime head Wieland Speck shifting to a consultant role and a new team, headed by current program manager Paz Lazaro, taking over the reins together with Michael Stutz and Andreas Struck.

Lazaro, who has been program manager at Panorama since 2006, will be the formal head of the section but will curate the sidebar together with Stutz and Struck. Stutz will take over Lazaro's title as program manager and oversee the section's Teddy Award, which honors excellence in gay cinema. Struck will also handle editorial and communications...