GUESTS
2026

Heidi Salaverría

Heidi Salaverría is a philosopher and Professor of Art Theory and Artistic Practice at the MSH Medical School Hamburg. As a cultural practitioner, she works transdisciplinarily. She researches and publishes on topics such as a political aesthetics of doubt, dealing with conflicts, and questions of recognition, with a special focus on pragmatism, critical theory, and psychoanalysis. Salaverría is a member of the international art project Hypercultural Passengers and the Performance Philosophy network. Her recent publication includes the article “The Courage to Speak Into the Unknown, or: What Conflict Culture Can Learn From Queer Salsa Dance in panorama cinema” (Québec 2024).

Participation: Opening Event

Hengameh Yaghoobifarah

Hengameh Yaghoobifarah is a writer, editor, and DJ whose work is shaped by queer feminist analysis, pop culture, and humor as a strategy of resistance. They studied Media and Cultural Studies as well as Scandinavian Studies in Freiburg and Linköping. Based in Berlin since 2014, they work as an editor for Missy Magazine and co-founded the literary magazine Delfi in 2023. Together with Fatma Aydemir, they published the essay collection Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare (2019). Their two novels, Ministerium der Träume (2021) and Schwindel (2024), as well as Habibitus (2023), a collection of columns written for the daily newspaper taz between 2016 and 2022, were published by Blumenbar. In 2023, WDR released Hengameh’s first radio play, Unverpackt. They also host the bi-weekly conversational podcast Auf eine Tüte.

Participation: Opening Event

Martin Muth

Martin Muth is a debate format developer, performance artist, host, and actor. He has been developing his dispute performance series since 2019. Across different formats, he disrupts factional obligations, sets highly trained rhetoric professionals against each other, and plays with the perception of person and persona. Using music, acting, dance, storytelling, and interaction, his work challenges concepts of the self in theaters, museums, public spaces, and at festivals. His projects have been shown at Schauspielhaus Hamburg, MARKK Hamburg, the Augsburg Peace Festival, MS Dockville, Feel Festival, and the Grassi Museum Leipzig. In 2025, he won the THA Augsburg ideas competition with the workshop format “Pongflict”. He lives in Hamburg and the Southern Alsace near Basel. www.martinmuth.com

Participation: Opening Event

Stephan Wortmann

Stephan Wortmann is a pianist with a classical background and a passion for jazz and electronic music. His musical interests range from atmospheric synthesizer sounds to catchy melodies and driving grooves, which he combines to create a unique, modern sound. He performs regularly with his band projects A100, Dance Depot, and Yes But Yes, and is also active as a solo artist under the name Futuremoose.

Participation: Opening Event

Frédéric Jaeger

Frédéric Jaeger (born 1984) studied Film and Philosophy at the Free University of Berlin and Art and Media in Prof. Thomas Arslan’s Narrative Film class at the Berlin University of the Arts. During his studies, he made five short films and one feature. His shorts screened at festivals including Go Short, Max Ophüls Preis, Underdox, and Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, as well as in numerous cities worldwide. His debut feature film ALL WE EVER WANTED was his graduation project. Before filmmaking, he worked for 20 years as a film critic and ten years as a festival programmer, including as Artistic Director of Berlin Critics’ Week and Head of Program at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival.

Participation: Opening Event

Canan Turan

Canan Turan works as an independent film scholar, script advisor, curator, and film educator, focusing on anti-discrimination, feminism, and power dynamics. Raised in Berlin-Kreuzberg, she studied Film Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and Screen Documentary at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is a member of the Berlinale Generation selection committee, programs narrative short films at the Tallgrass Film Festival (USA), and moderates Open Eyes, the school film project of the Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival. Her films KIYMET (2012) and FROM HERE (2020, as creative producer) have been shown internationally. In her podcast film.macht.kritisch., she examines cinema through the lens of power, inequality, and resistance.

Participation: Opening Event

Dario Werner

Dario Werner was born in Berlin in 1997 and grew up in Hamburg. During his childhood and youth, he gained his first stage experience through several choir performances and the children’s opera series Opera Piccola at the Hamburg State Opera. Since 2018, he has been studying law at the University of Hamburg. Additionally, as a member of the Debating Club Hamburg, he has participated in numerous tournaments. In 2021, he and his team were runners-up in the German Debate Championship for the first of three times.

Participation: Opening Event

Susanna Wirthgen

Susanna Wirthgen is an economist and currently a PhD candidate in the DYNAMICS Research Training Group at Humboldt University of Berlin and the Hertie School. Her research focuses on whether and how economic growth can reduce electoral support for populist parties. Beyond academia, she is actively engaged in countering populism, including through anti-populist rhetoric workshops at schools in Brandenburg. For many years, she volunteered with the debating club Wortgefechte Potsdam and the national debating association VDCH. Drawing on six years of competitive debating, she now brings her experience to science slams and show debates, communicating complex topics—especially scientific ones—in a sharp, accessible, and engaging way.

Participation: Opening Event

Cem Kaya

Cem Kaya is a director, cinematographer, and editor. After studying Communication Design at Merz Akademie Stuttgart, he directed the feature documentaries ARABEKS (2011) and REMAKE, REMIX, RIP-OFF (2014), both of which explore Turkish pop culture. In 2017, he served as cinematographer for Forensic Architecture’s investigative film 77SQM_9:26MIN. His latest work, LOVE, DEUTSCHMARKS AND DEATH (AŞK, MARK VE ÖLÜM, 2022), a portrait of the musical culture of Turkish migrants in Germany, won the Berlinale Panorama Audience Award.

Participation: Opening Event

Emma Paetz

Originally from Northern Canada, Emma Paetz moved to the UK to train at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Having worked across stage and screen, she is most known for her roles in HBO’s GENTLEMAN JACK, PENNYWORTH, and for playing Uta Hagen in Richard Eyre’s 8 HOTELS. WORRY TIME is her feature film debut as a screenwriter.

Participation: Steilvorlage (Feb 10)

Tom Brennan

Tom Brennan is a director of theater and film, playwright, and actor. His multi-award-winning theater company, The Wardrobe Ensemble, was an associate company of Complicite, Bristol Old Vic and Shoreditch Town Hall. His work with the company has been performed at The National Theatre and Almeida Theatre, among many other venues across the UK and USA. He is a Creative Associate of The North Wall Arts Centre and was the Geoffrey Garton Creative Arts Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. His published plays with The Wardrobe Ensemble have been performed by companies all over the world. His credits as writer and director for theater include Princess Smartypants (2024), The Unicorn (2022), and Robin Hood: The Legend of The Forgotten Forest (2021). His short film A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK (2022) was part of the official selection for several film festivals and was nominated for Best Emerging Talent and Best Experimental Film.

Participation: Steilvorlage (Feb 10)

Eileen Jones

Eileen Jones is a film critic at Jacobin magazine and co-host of the Filmsuck podcast. She’s a retired lecturer in the Department of Film and Media at the University of California at Berkeley, where she also earned her PhD in Film Studies. Her credits as an independent film screenwriter and producer include SUTURE, directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, and CONCEIVING ADA, directed by Lynn Hershman-Leeson. Jones is a member of the Berlin Critics’ Week selection committee.

Participation: Steilvorlage (Feb 10)

Adilkhan Yerzhanov

Adilkhan Yerzhanov is a film director and scriptwriter, born in 1982 in the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. He graduated from the Kazakh National Academy of Arts with a degree in Film Directing. He is a two-time participant of the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival with the films THE OWNERS (2014) and THE GENTLE INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD (2018) and of the Venice International Film Festival with the films YELLOW CAT (2020), and GOLIATH (2022). YELLOW CAT (2020) was included in Kazakhstan’s long list for the International Feature Film category at the Academy awards. THE OWNERS (2014) was included in the catalogue of the “100 Best Asian Films”, published in 2015 by the Busan International Film Festival. In collaboration with the production company Tiger Films he directed the post-horror film CADET (2024) that has participated in a number of prestigious international film festivals and was officially selected as Kazakhstan’s entry for the Academy Awards in the category Best International Feature Film.

Attending: Halbwissen

Tolganay Talgat

Tolganay Talgat is a Kazakh actress with more than 12 films in her filmography, many of which have won awards at various festivals. She was the first Kazakh actress to participate in the Berlinale Talents program, in 2017. In 2018 she presented the film BAD BAD WINTER, in which she played the lead, at the ACID program in Cannes. Tanat has received several awards from Kazakh film critics. She previously worked in the German Drama Theater in Kazakhstan for five years and continues to be involved in independent film and theater projects. Currently, she is based in Berlin and studies film directing at DFFB.

Participation: Halbwissen

Rebecca Heiler

Participation: Halbwissen

Benjamin Heisenberg

Born in 1974 in Tübingen, Germany, Benjamin Heisenberg is a director, writer, and visual artist. He studied sculpture and film directing at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and the University of Television and Film Munich. Heisenberg is the co-founder and co-editor of the film journal Revolver (since 1998) and has taught at international film schools. His films have screened and received awards at major festivals including the Berlinale (Competition and Panorama Special), the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), and the Zurich Film Festival. His work has also been exhibited at institutions such as MoMA New York, Haus der Kunst Munich, ZKM Karlsruhe, and Offscreen Paris. In 2022, his novel Lukusch was published by C.H.Beck. Alongside numerous short films in the context of contemporary art, his feature films as writer and director include SCHLÄFER (2005), THE ROBBER (2010), and ÜBER-ICH UND DU (2014). Recent works are the short film ER SO SIE SO (2023) and the feature film DER PRANK (2025). His awards include the Austrian Film Award, Bavarian Film Award, First Steps Award, Max Ophüls Prize for Best Film, and multiple jury and audience prizes. His next feature film, LIEBESGEISTER (MADE IN GERMANY), is in development for shooting in 2026.

Participation: Halbwissen

Farina Mietchen

Farina Mietchen (born 1994, Neumünster) lives and works in Hamburg. After studying philosophy and sociology, she transferred to the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK), where she studied film. Her artistic practice moves between documentary and fictional forms and deals with social structures and realities. In addition to her film work, photography forms an independent focus within her practice. From 2019 to 2025, she was a member of the Cake und Cash collective, which in 2023 received an art scholarship from the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius.

Attending: Rudelkritik

Fábio Rogério

Fábio Rogério was born in Sergipe, Brazil, in 1985. He’s a Botafogo supporter and the father of Rudá. With Wesley Pereira de Castro, he co-directed ONE MINUTE IS AN ETERNITY FOR THOSE WHO ARE SUFFERING (2025). The film was selected for Tiradentes Film Festival (Brazil) and won the Best Feature Film award in the Aurora Section.

Attending: Rudelkritik

Oliva Popp

Participation: Rudelkritik

Göran Hugo Olsson

Göran Hugo Olsson (born 1965, Lund) studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm after completing studies in film at Stockholm University. He is a documentary filmmaker, director of photography, and inventor of the A-cam, the world’s smallest Super-16 camera, and the D2, the only uncompressed digital camera. He is also editor-in-chief and founder of the short documentary television program IKON (SVT). Previously, he worked on SVT’s ELBYL series and was co-founder of Story AB. A member of the editorial board of Ikon South Africa—a platform for creative documentaries in South Africa—for the SABC and the film commissioner at the Swedish Film Institute from 1999 to 2002, he has traveled the world making films, commercials, newsreels, and music videos.

Participation: Argue against, argue again (Screening & Talk), Workshop

Lars Säfström

Lars Säfström has worked as an independent producer and film critic. He was employed by SVT (the Swedish public service television) variously as an editor, producer, head of drama and commissioning editor for documentary between 1979 and 2024, when he retired. 

Participation: Workshop

Daniel Bax 

Participation: Workshop

Gast: tba

Participation: Workshop

Ruth Beckermann

Ruth Beckermann was born in Vienna and grew up there. In 1978, she co-founded the distribution company Filmladen, where she worked for seven years. During this period, she began directing films and pursuing literary work. Since 1985, she has been active as an independent writer and filmmaker. Her works include THE PAPER BRIDGE and EAST OF WAR. THE DREAMED ONES (2016) screened at many international festivals and was awarded multiple prizes. THE WALDHEIM WALTZ premiered in 2018 at the Berlinale, where it won the award for Best Documentary. In 2019, Beckermann developed the multimedia installation JOYFUL JOYCE for the Salzburg Festival. MUTZENBACHER was presented in the Encounters section of the Berlinale in 2022 and received the award for Best Film. In 2024, FAVORITEN premiered in Berlinale Encounters, going on to be shown at more than 60 international film festivals, and earning numerous recognitions. Beckermann’s latest film, WAX & GOLD, has its world premiere at the 2026 Berlinale in the Berlinale Special section.

Participation: Agree to Disagree? – Controversies in film culture

Peter Bradshaw

Peter Bradshaw has been the chief film critic for The Guardian in Great Britain since 1999. He is also an editor for Esquire. He has published three novels and a collection of his reviews, The Films That Made Me… He was a member of the Un Certain Regard jury at Cannes in 2011. He is a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle. He has written a television drama, HUNTING ALICE BELL, and an audio drama, Mercy.

Participation: Agree to Disagree? – Controversies in film culture

Radu Jude

Born in 1977 in Romania, Radu Jude started out as an assistant director, then directed several short films before moving on to features with THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (2009). He then made other feature films including AFERIM! (2015), SCARRED HEARTS (2016), and UPPERCASE PRINT (2020). His feature film BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN won the Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlinale and KONTINENTAL ’25 won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay in 2025. His last feature film, DRACULA, was nominated for the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival 2025.

Participation: Agree to Disagree? – Controversies in film culture

Emilie Bujès

Emilie Bujès (born 1980) is a Swiss curator and the Artistic Director of the international film festival Visions du Réel. The festival has welcomed filmmakers such as Lucrecia Martel, Claire Denis, Werner Herzog, Jia Zhang-ke, Tatiana Huezo and Alice Rohrwacher while supporting both emerging and established voices premiering new works. She has recently served as a consultant for the Fondazione Prada Film Fund and previously worked as a program advisor for the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, Deputy Artistic Director of the La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival, and commission member at CNAP in Paris. A former curator at the Geneva Contemporary Art Center, she has taught at HEAD–Geneva and HKB Bern, collaborated with institutions including Transmediale Berlin and CAC Vilnius, received the Swiss Art Award for Curators in 2014, and co-edited Encircling the Image of Trauma (Archive Books, 2020).

Participation: Agree to Disagree? – Controversies in film culture

Florian Höhr

Florian Höhr is a film scholar, curator, and writer. He is the Program Director of the Nippon Connection Film Festival in Frankfurt am Main, the world’s largest festival for Japanese cinema. He also works as a film educator across various age groups and fields, ranging from giving lectures and film talks to teacher training and practical school workshops. He currently works with institutions such as the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, the University of Cologne, and LUCAS – International Festival for Young Film Lovers.

Participation: Reaktionszeit

Yuriyan Retriever

Yuriyan Retriever was born in Yoshino County, Nara Prefecture, Japan. She holds a Bachelor in Literature at Kansai University. She enrolled in NSC, the most famous comedy school in Japan, while still at university, graduating at the top of her class after winning the 2013 NSC Grand Live. Retriever is also active as an artist and is a highly acclaimed rapper. In addition, she has worked on TV dramas, commercials, voice acting and has signed advertising contracts with global companies such as Nike and KitKat. She has more than one million followers on Instagram. In recent years, she has been a member of the jury for the Japan Horror Film Awards (organized by Nico Nico). Retriever’s talent continues to blossom beyond the boundaries of comedy. Her next goal… “I wanna be the female Clint Eastwood!” Having put her job as a comedian behind her, she is now ready to enter the world of cinema. Retriever moved to LA at the end of 2024 to fulfill that dream.

Participation: Reaktionszeit

Daniela Urzola

Daniela Urzola (Cartagena de Indias, 1992) is a film critic and programmer. She writes for printed and online media such as Caimán Cuadernos de Cine, Filmtopia, and Revista Mutaciones. She is part of the selection committee and Head of Press for Filmadrid International Film Festival, and is also part of the Press team at Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci). She has participated as a speaker and/or jury member at festivals such as Sitges Film Festival (Critics’ Jury), Singapore International Film Festival (FIPRESCI jury), Final Girls Berlin Film Fest (Brain Binge), Mar del Plata Film Festival (youth jury), Novos Cinemas, IBAFF, and FICBUEU. She also teaches regularly and/or collaborates with film literacy programs in both Spain and Colombia.

Participation: Reaktionszeit

Edna Bonhomme

Edna Bonhomme is a critic, historian of science, and journalist. She holds a PhD in History of Science from Princeton University as well as a BA in Biology and an MPH in Public Health. She has received awards and fellowships from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the Camargo Foundation, the Robert Silvers Foundation, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Esquire, The Guardian, the London Review of Books, The Nation, the New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is co-editor of After Sex (2023) and the author of A History of the World in Six Plagues (2025), which was shortlisted for the Best Science Book Prize in Austria. Her forthcoming book, Tending to Our Wounds, will be published in 2026. She has lived in Berlin since 2017.

Participation: Brückenschlag

Dorian Jespers

Dorian Jespers (born 1993, Brussels) is a filmmaker trained at INSAS (Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacles), KASK (The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent), and Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains. His short film SUN DOG, inspired by a surreal journey in the Russian Arctic, won over 20 awards worldwide—including the main prize at the Rotterdam Film Festival—and was named Short Film of the Year 2020 by the Short Film Conference. It qualified for the Ensors, the European Film Awards, and the Oscars, and was screened at MoMA, ICA London, and Garage Moscow, among others.

Participation: Brückenschlag

Teresa Villaverde

Teresa Villaverde is a Portuguese screenwriter, director, and producer, born in 1966 in Lisbon. She began her artistic career in theater, as co-writer and co-director of a stage production with the theater group of the Lisbon School of Fine Arts. She later transitioned into cinema, working in various production roles before directing her first feature films. Her work has premiered at major international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. Over the course of her career, her films have received numerous awards and have been the subject of sustained international circulation. As a filmmaker and educator, Villaverde is frequently invited to give masterclasses and teach in Portugal and internationally. Her filmography has been presented in major retrospectives, at the Centre Pompidou and Fundação de Serralves, both in 2019 as well as at cinematheques and festivals in Italy, Spain, Croatia, Switzerland, South Korea, and Portugal. Among her more recent works are BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO (2014), a collective feature film; COLO (2017), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival; and OÙ EN ÊTES‑VOUS, TERESA VILLAVERDE? (2019), produced for the Centre Pompidou; and her latest feature, JUSTA (2025).

Participation: Brückenschlag

Beate Gütschow

Beate Gütschow is an artist, photographer, and professor of artistic photography at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. She has been active in the climate justice movement since 2019. For several years, her artistic work has also focused on the ecological crisis, documenting climate damages and climate protests in Germany. In this long-term photographic study, the artist develops counter-images to the usual media-driven depictions of disasters. While the photographs themselves are rather still, the accompanying texts explore the complex relationship between the climate crisis, authoritarianism, and the financial system. This work has been exhibited at venues including Foto Arsenals Vienna, the Academy of Arts in Berlin, and the Insel Hombroich Foundation. Her book, “Resistance, Flood, Fire, Resistance.” was recently published by Spector Books.

Participation: Brückenschlag

Maria Petschnig

Maria Petschnig (born 1977) is an Austrian-born, New York City-based artist and filmmaker whose work explores themes of memory, voyeurism, and eroticism through video art, experimental film, and narrative cinema. Known for her psychologically charged and often uncomfortable imagery, Petschnig challenges viewers’ perceptions of intimacy and spectatorship. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at MoMA PS1, and reviewed by major publications such as The New York Times, Artforum, and Art in America. In 2021, she released her first documentary, UNCOMFORTABLY COMFORTABLE, which follows a homeless man living in his car in New York City. The film premiered at the Duisburger Filmwoche and won the ARTE Documentary Award. Her narrative feature BEAUTIFUL AND NEAT ROOM (2025), inspired by her own experiences living with over 60 roommates, won the Grand Prix at the Split Film Festival. As she told The New York Times, sharing her apartment was “a way to survive as an artist in New York City.” Petsching’s film work has been showcased by a variety of international art fairs and film festivals, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Anthology Film Archives in New York.

Participation: Publikumsjoker

Marc Richter 

Marc Richter (born 1968) is a Hamburg-based multimedia artist and composer. Working under the label “Neue Deutsche Kunst”, he produces his own work and also supports other artists who share a similar aesthetic, blending German art traditions with modern electronics and pop culture. Richter, also known for his musical project Black To Comm, operates at the intersection of visual art, curatorial practice, and music. He explores the limits of AI software by confronting it with surreal, overloaded, and often contradictory tasks and information. Within visual frameworks of Richter’s own design, the AI attempts to interpret these inputs, generating hallucinatory, lysergic artworks and films. His work is shaped by a melancholic, surreal atmosphere influenced by German folklore, early video art, Actionist performance, psychedelic culture, experimental music, and the writings of Angela Carter and J. G. Ballard. In 2024, he won the MuVi Award at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and published his first artist’s book.

Participation: Publikumsjoker

Dane Komljen

Dane Komljen (born 1986, Banja Luka) is a filmmaker whose work explores notions of the body, space, utopia, and collective existence. He has directed three feature films—DESIRE LINES (2025), AFTERWATER (2022), and ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH (2016)—as well as the documentary THE GARDEN CADENCES (2024) and numerous short films. His films have been awarded at major international festivals including  Locarno Film Festival, IFF Rotterdam, Cannes Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, New Horizons IFF, and the Seville European Film Festival, and have screened at the Berlinale, Cinéma du Réel, FIDMarseille, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, FIC Valdivia, VIENNALE, Mar del Plata IFF, FICUNAM, CPH:DOX, Jeonju IFF, among others. Komljen’s work has also been presented at art institutions such as the ICA London, Volksbühne Berlin, Centre Pompidou Paris, Union Docs New York, and the Lagos Biennale. He is Professor of Film at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg and lives and works in Berlin.

Participation: Steilvorlage (Feb 17)

Margaux Fournier

Originally from Marseille, Margaux Fournier draws on her Mediterranean roots to fuel her creativity. After a cross-sectional and multidisciplinary career at Sciences Po Lille and La Fémis, she embarked on the production of her first short, AU BAIN DES DAMES. The film is an intimate dive into the world of a group of 70-year-olds from Marseille, shot in her hometown.

Participation: Steilvorlage (Feb 17)

Martha Mechow

Participation: Steilvorlage (Feb 17)

Lucía Salas

Lucía Salas is an Argentinian film critic, programmer, editor, and filmmaker based in Spain, whose work navigates cinema, past and present. She is one of the editors of La vida útil magazine. She studied Image and Sound Design at the University of Buenos Aires and Aesthetics and Politics at CalArts and is currently a PhD candidate in the Communications-CINEMA program at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. As part of the filmmaking collective LaSiberia Cine, she made the films IMPLANTACIÓN (2016) and LOS EXPLORADORES (2016). She edited the books Una luz revelada. El cine experimental argentino by experimental filmmaker and writer Pablo Marín and, together with Ricardo Matos Cabo, Se acercan otros tiempos. El cine de Peter Nestler. Salas is a member of the Berlin Critics’ Week selection committee.

Participation: Steilvorlage (Feb 17)

Anne Küper

Anne Küper (she/her) is a cultural scholar, critic, and artist. Since 2018, her work has been published in CARGO Film/Medien/Kultur, critic.de, Der Freitag, Filmbulletin, Filmdienst, Film International, kolik.film, Sissy, and Tagesspiegel, among others. Since 2023, she has been the Managing Director of the German Film Critics’ Association. She regularly teaches, lectures, and moderates public events and also serves on various juries, including the prestigious Grimme Award jury, in the category “Information & Culture” (2024; 2025) and the selection committee for the German entry to the 98th Academy Awards (International Feature Film, 2025). In 2024, she received the Prize for Young Art Criticism from the German section of AICA. She is currently a research associate and doctoral candidate at Ruhr University Bochum, where she studies intimate relationships with chatbots.

Moderation: Halbwissen 
Presentation: Writing Workshop

Oliver Bassemir

Oliver Bassemir is a writer and filmmaker based in Hamburg and Berlin. He studied a range of disciplines before completing an MA in Experimental Filmmaking at the HFBK Hamburg. Alongside his studies, he worked in various service and technical jobs, including in kitchens, teaching, and repair work. He later co-founded an off-space cinema, exploring alternative ways of exhibiting and experiencing film. This and other art projects kept him busy until the pandemic and the following economic crisis. His debut short film [BORDEAUX], MA BILE was nominated by the Association of German Film Critics (VDFK) as Best Experimental Short in 2020. After several years and the completion of a mid-length film, he went on to write and co-direct a television mini-series BRÜT for NDR. He is currently developing his feature-length debut while continuing to work as a bicycle mechanic and to learn how beautiful and hard life with small children can be.

Moderation: Rudelkritik

Irit Neidhardt

Irit Neidhardt is a film producer, curator, and writer specializing in cinema from the Middle East. She has worked as a freelance professional in film mediation, research, and production since 1995. In 2002, she founded mec film, an internationally active distribution and sales company dedicated to films by Arab directors. In her numerous publications on Arab cinema, she focuses in particular on issues of international cooperation, co-production, and film financing between Europe and the Middle East. As a co-producer, she has been involved in several Arab feature and documentary films. Neidhardt lectures at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, and is a member of AG Kino, AG Dok, and DAVO. She also serves on the academic advisory board of the German edition of the Global Media Journal and is part of the editorial team of the renowned quarterly journal inamo. She has worked as a juror at international film festivals and on funding and selection committees in Germany, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine.

Moderation: Argue against, argue again (Talk)
Moderation: Workshop 

Kristina Aschenbrennerová

The Brno-based Kristina Aschenbrennerová is a programmer at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Slovak Queer Film Festival, and an independent television producer. An alumna of Film Theory and History at Masaryk University in Brno, she has been working in festival programming since 2010, focusing on East and South-East Asian cinema. She previously programmed for Art Film Fest Košice and BRNO16 International Film Festival. She is also director of the international TV festival Serial Killer, an educator at FAMU, and a former program manager of the Pop Up Film Residency. She joined IFFR’s programming team in 2022. She recently defended her PhD on authorial work and dramaturgy and is working on a book of interviews with legendary Czech producer Čestmír Kopecký.

Moderation: Reaktionszeit

Dana Linssen

Dana Linssen is a film critic, writer, philosopher, and freelance curator from the Netherlands. Since 1998, she has been a critic for NRC newspaper and contributor to film magazine de Filmkrant, where she was Editor-in-Chief and Publisher until 2019. For the International Film Festival Rotterdam, she programmed the Critics’ Choice section, and produced over 50 video essays for the big screen. Linssen is the founder of the Slow Criticism Project, a loose series of interventions to counterbalance the commodification of film criticism. She teaches at the Utrecht University of the Arts and the ArtEZ Theatre Academy in Arnhem. She is the co-founder of the new Dutch talent incubator FilmForward, where she is now Head of Studies of the Vrijplaats residency. She sits on the selection committee of Berlinale Talents and is a long-standing mentor of Berlinale Talents Press. When she is not writing about cinema, she develops texts for theater and performative practices. She is also a time traveller.

Moderation: Steilvorlage (Feb 17)