Marco Müller

Marco Müller is a film scholar, producer, and festival visionary. He currently directs the Film Art Research Centre at Shanghai University. His career highlights include leading the Electric Shadows Festival in Turin, the Pesaro Film Festival, the festivals of Rotterdam, Locarno, Venice, Rome, Macao IFFA, Hainan IFF, and Taormina. In 2025, he will take over the Zhejiang Youth Festival. Müller also founded major film funds like the Hubert Bals Fund, Montecinemaverità, and South/East Cinema Fund, supporting global filmmaking. As a producer, he has contributed to 11 acclaimed films, earning top-tier awards. A prominent voice in cinema, Müller has written for European and Chinese publications and authored over 20 books on global film, from Chinese and Japanese to Soviet, Indian, and Italian cinema.

Participation: Opening Conference

Francis Seeck

Francis Seeck is a professor of Social Work with a focus on Democracy and Human Rights Education at TH Nürnberg, an anti-discrimination trainer, and an author. In research and teaching, Francis Seeck focuses on topics such as classism critique, political education, anti-discrimination pedagogy, gender and queer studies, and human rights-oriented social work. Since 2010, Francis Seeck has worked in the field of anti-discrimination education and political education with a particular emphasis on classism critique and gender diversity. Published works include several books on the topic of classism, including Solidarisch gegen Klassismus (2020, Unrast Verlag), Zugang verwehrt (2022, Atrium Verlag), Klassismus überwinden (2024, Unrast Verlag), and Klassismuskritik und Soziale Arbeit (2024, Beltz-Juventa Verlag). Francis Seeck is currently leading the research project Classism Research: Interdisciplinary Approaches and Future Perspectives. 

Participation: Opening Conference / Workshop

Nuray Demir

Nuray Demir is an artist and curator. Her practice is characterized by a research-driven and transdisciplinary approach. Since 2016, she has been giving lectures and hosting educational programs. She curated performative festivals such as DAS[neue]WIR – Art and its Institutions Will Belong to All of Us at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn (2023) and House of Self-Defence at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin (2023). Other projects include event series like MEMORY CARE at District Berlin (2020) and Hamamness as part of the Wiener Festwochen (2017). In the spring of 2024, she published the performative publication The Words of the Arty Class. Since 2018, she has been collaborating with Michael Annoff on the artistic research project Kein schöner Archiv in Berlin, in cooperation with institutions such as the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the KINDL – Center for Contemporary Art, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, and the TA T Tieranatomisches Theater.

Participation: Opening Conference

Heike-Melba Fendel 

Heike-Melba Fendel was born in Cologne, Germany. After high school, she spent several years in Manhattan before moving on to the international film festival circuit, where she wrote about cinema and its key industry figures. Heike is the founder and managing director of Barbarella Entertainment, a talent agency based in Cologne and Berlin. She writes books, essays, and features, curates film screenings in cultural hubs, and actively supports NGOs working with and for refugees.

Participation: Opening Conference

Katalin Gennburg

Katalin Gennburg, born in 1984 in Weißenfels and raised in Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg, has represented the northern part of Treptow for Die Linke in the Berlin House of Representatives since 2016. The trained urban historian serves there as the spokesperson for urban development, construction, environment, and tourism for the Left faction. Since 2023, she has been the deputy state chairwoman of her party and is currently running for the direct mandate to the German Bundestag in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. Politically, she is concerned with how cities change, since moving from a shrinking city in the East to the Berlin metropolitan area. She works on issues such as urban development, housing policy, and sustainable tourism policy for a city where people are at the center, not profit interests.

Participation: Opening Conference

Biene Pilavci

Biene Pilavci’s path to filmmaking was anything but conventional. After completing two professional trainings, she founded the socio-cultural center Escanda in Asturias, Spain, during a year-long stay in 2002. In 2005, she began studying directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB), graduating in 2012 with her documentary ALLEINE TANZEN, a film exploring the power of family ties. In 2013, she co-directed CHRONIK EINER REVOLTE – EIN JAHR ISTANBUL, a documentary about the Gezi Park protests and the fight for democracy, produced for arte and Das Kleine Fernsehspiel. In 2020/21, she co-initiated and co-curated the Berlinale Forum program FIKTIONSBESCHEINIGUNG, highlighting the perspectives of non-German heritage filmmakers on Germany. She is also a co-founder of the Neue Deutsche Filmemacher*innen network and the Nichtmeintatort initiative. After receiving a grant from the Berlin Senate in 2021, she was named Artist in Residence at the Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul in 2024.

Participation: Opening Conference

Christopher Andrews

Christopher Andrews is a UK-based writer-director.

His debut feature BRING THEM DOWN, featuring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott premiered at TIFF 24, and won the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director at the British Independent Film Awards. He has also written scripts for the upcoming films CAVENDISH, FRANKENSTEIN IN BAGHDAD and TRAWLER.

Participation: Opening Conference

Jovana Reisinger

Jovana Reisinger is an author, filmmaker, and visual artist. Her second novel, Spitzenreiterinnen, was nominated for the Bavarian Book Prize in 2021 and was adapted for the Staatstheater Kassel and the Residenztheater Munich. Her third novel, Enjoy Schatz, premiered at the Schaubühne Berlin, where Reisinger also made her debut as a performer. Her fifth book, Pleasure, is a narrative essay on luxury and classism. In 2025, her first feature film, UNTERWEGS IM NAMEN DER KAISERIN, will be released.

Participation: Opening Conference

Andreas Kemper

Andreas Kemper is a freelance sociologist who critically addresses topics like classism, educational disadvantage, the AfD, fascism, antifeminism, and “libertarianism” and privatized cities. In 2009, he co-authored an introductory book on classism with Heike Weinbach, playing a key role in establishing the term in German-speaking countries. In 2013, the founding year of the AfD, he was the first to publish a book warning against the party. Two years later, he revealed that Björn Höcke was behind the neo-Nazi account “Landolf Ladig” – an exposé that led to an impeachment procedure in 2015 and a party expulsion in 2017. Both failed, partly due to the growing fascist currents within the AfD. Kemper is currently working on a book titled Zur Aristokratie des Antifeminismus (The Aristocracy of Antifeminism), in which he argues that around one hundred individuals from interrelated noble families (like von Beverfoerde, von Storch, etc.) play a key role in advancing family-based antifeminism.

Participation: Opening Conference

Paola De Martin

Paola De Martin is the daughter of migrant workers whose family—like half a million other migrant worker families—was legally denied the human right to live together in Switzerland. Today, she is a textile designer, educator, historian, and human rights activist. Paola De Martin works as a postdoc at the Gta Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture at ETH Zurich. She teaches and researches design history and sociology. Her current focus is the global intertwining of Swiss labor, cultural, and migration history in the 20th century. Paola De Martin is co-director of the ethnographic-artistic collective Schwarzenbach-Komplex and president of the association Tesoro. Her dissertation, “Give us a break! Designszenen und Arbeitermilieu im Aufbruch” (published by Diaphanes in 2022), was nominated for the silver medal for outstanding doctoral theses at ETH Zurich and honored with the Swiss Grand Prix Design in 2024.

Participation: Opening Conference / Workshop

Hala Elkoussy

Hala Elkoussy is a visual artist who works across a variety of media: photography, installation, archival material, sculpture and film. After Obtaining a BA from the American University in Cairo and an MA in Image and Communication from Goldsmiths College, University of London, she completed a residency at the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. She is co-founder of the Contemporary Image Collective Cairo, the first artist run collective dedicated to the image in the Arab region. She is also the founder of Fotomasr, an archive of photographs from 20th Century Egypt. Running across Elkoussy’s practice is a concern for the power of storytelling in relaying non-authoritative histories to counter balance the mega-narratives of the State and Media. With a number of short films to her name, her first feature Cactus Flower premiered in International Film Festival Rotterdam. Her second feature East of Noon premiered in Directors’ Fortnight – Cannes.

Participation: Chain Reaction

Öykü Sofuoğlu

Participation: Chain Reaction

Flavia Dima

Flavia Dima is a film critic, cinema curator and freelance translator/researcher. Her texts have been translated in several languages and have been published in magazines such as MUBI Notebook, Filmmaker Magazine, Sabzian, Reverse Shot, FILM MENU, Films in Frame and Scena9. She has been an associate curator of BIEFF since 2020 and collaborates with Romanian festivals such as ESTE Film Festival and Art200. Her debut in poetry, “ulaanbaatar”, appeared in 2024 at OMG Publishing.

Participation: Chain Reaction

Beatrice Loayza

Beatrice Loayza is a film and art critic, historian, and programmer based in New York. Her writing can be found in the New York Times, the Criterion Collection, the New York Review of Books, Film Comment, Guardian, Art in America, 4Columns, the Nation, and other publications. She also writes a monthly column for the Metrograph Journal called “Strange Pleasures.”

Participation: Chain Reaction

Friedl vom Gröller

Born in 1946 in London, Friedl vom Gröller spent her childhood in Vienna and Berlin. She studied photography at the School of Graphic Arts and realised her first films in 1968. In 1971, she earned her master’s certificate in photography and opened a commercial studio. Her contributions to photography and film have been widely recognised, with the National Award for Photography in 2005 and the National Award for Film in 2017. Beyond her artistic work, Friedl vom Gröller has also been a pioneering educator. In 1990, she founded and directed the School for Artistic Photography in Vienna until 2010, and in 2006, she established the School for Independent Film, where she continues to support aspiring filmmakers. Her works have been shown at prestigious screenings and exhibitions worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, the Berlinale, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and Bafici in Buenos Aires.

Participation: Back to the Class Issue

Vika Kirchenbauer

Vika Kirchenbauer is an artist, writer, and music producer based in Berlin. Focusing on effective subject formation, she explores violence as it relates to various forms of visibility and invisibility, examining how subjects are implicated in and situated within institutional power structures. Comprehensive solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, and Kunstverein Kevin Space, Vienna. Her videos and installations have been featured in exhibitions and screenings at venues such as d/p, Seoul; the Tainan Art Museum, Taiwan; the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; the Berlin International Film Festival; the New York Film Festival; and the Toronto International Film Festival. Her first monograph, published by Mousse Publishing, unites essays and works from 2012 to 2022. Since 2022, she has been a Professor of Fine Art at Braunschweig University of Art.

Participation: Back to the Class Issue

Sinthujan Varatharajah

Participation: Back to the Class Issue

Adriano Valerio

Adriano Valerio is an Italian director based in Paris. His short film 37°4S received a Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival (2013) and won the David di Donatello (2014). His debut feature BANAT – THE JOURNEY premiered at Venice International Critics’ Week (2015), earning nominations for the David di Donatello and Golden Globes. His short MON AMOUR MON AMI was shown in the Orizzonti section (Venice) and at the Toronto International Film Festival (2017). His documentary LES AIGLES DE CARTHAGE premiered at Venice International Critics’ Week (2020). The short film THE NIGHTWALK won the Prix Canal+ at Clermont-Ferrand (2021) and the Audience Award at Mostra Internazionale del Nuovo Cinema, Pesaro. His short CALCUTTA 8:40AM premiered at Festa del Cinema di Roma and won the Nastro D’Argento (2023). His documentary CASABLANCA was shown at Authors’ Days/Venice Nights (2023) and Berlin Critics’ Week (2025). He directed two episodes of the TV series NON UCCIDERE (2018), broadcast by Rai and Arte, and collaborates with École Nationale Supérieure Louis-Lumière, Scuola Holden, and Istituto Marangoni.

Participation: Back to the Class Issue

Jianjie (JJ) Lin

Jianjie (JJ) Lin initially aspired to become a biologist, but was drawn away by the alluring world of cinema, leading him to earn his MFA in Filmmaking from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. His debut feature, BRIEF HISTORY OF A FAMILY, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and the Berlinale, Panorama Section. The film screened at over 60 festivals worldwide, earning numerous accolades, including the Black Panther Award for Best Film at the Noir In Festival, Special Mentions at the Zurich Film Festival and Athens International Film Festival, Best Director at the Beijing International Film Festival Future Forward Competition, and the NETPAC Award at the Cairo International Film Festival. JJ’s new short film, HIPPOPOTAMI, will premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, followed by its European premiere at the Berlin Critics’ Week.

Participation: Family Fatale

Skinner Myers

Skinner Myers is an award-winning writer and director based in Los Angeles, California. A graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, he has written and directed nine films, including CHIMERA, THE LAST SUPPER, OBSCURED, and NIGGER. His film LA TIERRA DEL ÉXODO screened at over 90 festivals worldwide, earning multiple awards. FRANK EMBREE won the Grand Jury Award at HollyShorts and competed for the Oscars in the Best Live Action Short category. Skinner’s debut feature, THE SLEEPING NEGRO, premiered at the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival and Champs-Élysées Film Festival, earning the FIPRESCI Prize and a Visionary Award. Praised by The L.A. Times and Slant Magazine, the film is streaming on MUBI (U.S.) and UniversCiné (France). His second feature, BEFORE YOU FADE AWAY INTO NOTHING, solidifies his cinematic vision. Skinner is currently in pre-production for his third feature, MOODSWING WHISKEY, executive produced by Juel Taylor (THEY CLONED TYRONE). He is represented by The Gersh Agency.

Participation: Family Fatale

Ramon Zürcher

Ramon Zürcher is a Swiss film director and screenwriter. After studying fine arts at HKB, he pursued film directing at DFFB. His debut film, DAS MERKWÜRDIGE KÄTZCHEN (2013), premiered in the Berlinale Forum, followed by screenings at over 80 festivals and numerous awards. His follow-up, DAS MÄDCHEN UND DIE SPINNE (2021), also premiered at the Berlinale, where it won the Best Director Award and the FIPRESCI Prize in the Encounters section. DER SPATZ IM KAMIN, the final part of the “Animal Trilogy,” premiered in the International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival in 2024. The film has since won multiple awards and is nominated for three German Film Critics’ Awards and six Swiss Film Awards. He is currently working on the romantic drama DIE JUNGE FRAU MIT DEM BRECHEISEN (working title).

Participation: Family Fatale

Agnieszka Glińska

Agnieszka Glińskais is a film editor and a.o. member of  the Polish and European Film Academy. She studied History and Theory of Film at the University of Łódź and Film editing at Łódź Film School. She won “Best Editing” at FPFF in Gdynia in 2015 for 11 MINUTES by Jerzy Skolimowski and THE HERE AFTER by Magnus von Horn, and again in 2020 for SWEAT. In 2016, she received the Polish “Eagles” for 11 MINUTES and won again in 2023 for EO. In 2022, she earned Iceland’s “Edda Award” for LAMB by Valdimar Jóhannsson. EO won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2022 and was Oscar-nominated in 2023. In 2025, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE also received an Oscar nomination.

Participation: Family Fatale

Daphné Hérétakis

Daphné Hérétakis studied at Paris 8 University, where she graduated with a Master’s degree in documentary filmmaking, and at Le Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Art. Her films tread a fine line between documentary and fiction, blending intimacy and the collective, and have been presented at many festivals such as La Semaine de la Critique à Cannes, IFFR, Visions du réel, Sarajevo Film Festival, Dokleipzig, etc. With her feature film project, currently in pre-production, she has participated in the Sundance Mediterranean Screenwriter’s Workshop, LIM Less Is More workshop by Groupe Ouest, Crossroads (Festival de Thessaloniki, development prize by Isabelle Fauvel), and the Emergence Program in Paris. She lives and works between France and Greece.

Participation: Myth Mayhem

Annalisa D. Quagliata Blanco

Annalisa D. Quagliata Blanco is a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she pursued a double major in Film/Video and Studio for Interrelated Media. Her work has been showcased internationally, earning her recognition across the arts community. Her project IMAGO was awarded a prestigious scholarship from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA. She has also been a recipient of grants from both the FONCA Young Creators Program and the Promotion of Cultural Projects Program, underscoring her dedication to innovative and impactful storytelling.

Participation: Myth Mayhem

Robin Vanbesien

As a visual artist and filmmaker, Robin Vanbesien (b. 23.07.1979) explores modes of embodied knowledge and collective imagination engaged in social and political struggles. Through the notion of CINÉ PLACE-MAKING, he examines cinema’s capacity to preserve, reclaim, and redistribute invisibilized memories, histories, and lived cultures, using a cinematic language that probes beyond prevalent scenes of representation. He collaborates with situated emancipatory grassroots movements, exploring cinema as a space for social gathering and political engagement, rehearsing the capacity to hold space collectively. In 2020, Vanbesien co-founded THE POST FILM COLLECTIVE, which investigates cinema as a form of speculative rehearsal and communal assembly. His works UNDER THESE WORDS (SOLIDARITY ATHENS 2016) (2017) and THE WASP AND THE WEATHER (2019) premiered at Transmediale and Cinéma du Réel. His first feature, HOLD ON TO HER, had its world premiere at Berlinale Forum Expanded (2024).

Participation: Myth Mayhem

Rocio Mesa

Rocio Mesa is a filmmaker from Southern Spain. She combines writing, directing, producing, and programming. Her latest feature film as writer/director, TOBACCO BARNS (SECADEROS, 2022), world-premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival, winning the Dunia Ayaso Award, and premiered at SXSW, obtaining the Visions Audience Award. TOBACCO BARNS has been selected and awarded at many festivals worldwide, receiving a theatrical release in several territories. Mesa practices analog experimental filmmaking, with her works seen at specialized festivals, exhibitions, and museums like the National Gallery of Art in Washington. As a producer, she is credited for PORTALES (2023) by Elena Duque, premiered at Berlinale Forum Expanded, and MBAH JHIWO / ANCIENT SOUL (2021) by Álvaro Gurrea. She is the founder of Naino Films and director of LA OLA, promoting avant-garde Spanish cinema in North America. Mesa has worked as a programmer for the LA Film Festival and Art House Theater Day.

Participation: Myth Mayhem

Lilliya Scarlett Reid

Lilliya Scarlett Reid is a multidisciplinary artist who grew up in Livingston, Montana. She writes fiction, and paints. Both practices have inspired her filmmaking process. Her debut short film “BITS”  premiered at SXSW 2024. Reid also won the Directorial Discovery Award Grand Prize at Flickers Rhode Island Festival 2024.

Participation: Caught in the Act

Joshua Burge

Joshua Burge is an American actor, musician, and filmmaker known for his collaborations with Joel Potrykus. His performances in films like BUZZARD, RELAXER, and VULCANIZADORA – the latter earning a Jury Special Mention at the 2024 TriBeCa Film Festival – have made him a standout in the indie film scene. He has appeared in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s THE REVENANT alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Mike Mills’ 20TH CENTURY WOMEN with Greta Gerwig, and Alex Andre’s PRATFALL opposite Chloé Groussard. Burge made his feature film debut in Potrykus’ APE, which was honored with Best Emerging Director and a Special Mention for Best First Feature at the 2012 Locarno Film Festival.

Participation: Caught in the Act

Bernardo Zanotta

Born in 1996 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Bernardo Zanotta grew up working in a video store and behind the scenes in theatre production. In 2014, he moved to the Netherlands and graduated in 2018 from the Moving Image department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. During his studies, he became active in artist-run analogue film labs, experimenting with expanded cinema using 16mm projectors and curating experimental film screenings. His short films, which blend the familiar and the fantastical, have gained international acclaim. Notably, his 2018 film HEART OF HUNGER won the Pardino d’Argento Award at the Locarno Film Festival. Zanotta’s work has since been showcased at prominent venues and festivals, including the British Film Institute, EYE Filmmuseum, FID Marseille, BAFICI, Rotterdam, and Pesaro. He is currently developing his first feature film.

Participation: Caught in the Act

Uisenma Borchu

Born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Uisenma Borchu moved to the GDR with her family. She studied documentary film and television journalism at the University of Television and Film Munich. Her diploma film DON’T LOOK AT ME THAT WAY won the Bavarian Film Award for Newcomer Directors, the Fipresci Film Critics Award at the Munich Film Festival and the Grand Prix in the New Talent Competition of the Taipei Film Festival. She directed the play NACHTS ALS DIE SONNE FÜR MICH SCHIEN at the Münchner Kammerspiele. BLACK MILK premiered at the Panorama Section at the Berlinale.

Participation: Caught in the Act

Guest: tba

Participation: Caught in the Act

Zhu Xin

Zhu Xin, born in June 1996, graduated from China Academy of Art in 2018. His debut feature, VANISHING DAYS (2018), was selected for the Berlinale Forum and the Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents section. It was also screened at more than 30 international film festivals, including Hong Kong, Taipei, Marrakech, Sofia and Vienna. OLYMPIC (2022), a sci-fi sports thriller, premiered at the Warsaw International Film Festival in the Shorts Competition. His documentary feature A SONG RIVER premiered at the 8th Pingyao International Film Festival and won both the Youth Jury Award and the Cinephilia Critics’ Award. ALL QUIET AT SUNRISE is his second fiction feature.

Participation: Caught in the Act

Oskar Weimar

With a background in sociology, Oskar Weimar has created both documentary and narrative films that delve into concepts of identity and the ways individuals relate to society. In 2022, he earned a Master’s in Film and Television from the Victorian College of the Arts, where he developed an iterative, hands-on filmmaking approach. This method involved collaborating with non-professional actors through a process of improvisation, reflection, and continuous reworking. His debut feature film, NYAMULA, was filmed and produced in Kenya, in collaboration with local filmmakers and non-professional actors, and premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2025. Alongside James Litchfield, Oskar Weimar is a co-founder of the Melbourne-based collective, What Films.

Participation: Unsigned

Narges Kalhor

Tehran-born Narges Kalhor (1984) is an Iranian-German filmmaker. She studied directing in Tehran, where she was mentored by Abbas Kiarostami. In 2010, she continued her studies at the Film University of Munich. Kalhor gained recognition for her films, including SHOOT ME (2013), IN THE NAME OF SCHEHERAZADE (2019), and SENSITIVE CONTENT (2023). Her works explore themes of identity, exile, political resistance, innovative storytelling, and experimental visualization. Her latest film, SHAID, premiered at the 2024 Berlinale, winning both the Caligari Film Award and the CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award. Kalhor continues to create thought-provoking, award-winning films that are showcased internationally. With her upcoming project, THE INVERTED WELL, she is part of the Berlinale 2025 International Co-Marketing program.

Participation: Unsigned

Julian Warner

Julian Warner is a German-British curator, dramaturge, and artist. He is currently the artistic director of the Brecht Festival Augsburg (2023–2025) and an Artistic Fellow at the Research Center Global dis:connect at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Participation: Unsigned

Diane Severin Nguyen

Diane Severin Nguyen works with photography, video, and installation. Through material and sculptural experimentations, Nguyen approaches the photographic moment as one of transformation. The artist is particularly interested in exceeding photography as a mode of documentation, engaging with it as a set of conditions shaped by desire and speculation. Her video work narrates these tensions by examining the histories of power, victimhood, and propaganda that underpin cultural (and self) image-making. She has exhibited internationally, in places like SculptureCenter, The Renaissance Society, Rockbund Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Carnegie Museum of Art, Schinkel Pavilion, Jeu du Paume, Hammer Museum, and others. Her films have been screened at festivals like the New York Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and Berlinale. Nguyen is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow and lives and works in New York.

Participation: Pastime

Guest: tba

Participation: Pastime

Frédéric Jaeger

Frédéric Jaeger (*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-length film. His short films were shown at festivals such as Go Short, Max Ophüls Preis, Underdox, and Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, as well as in Dresden, Hof, Oslo, Paris, Frankfurt, Bucharest, Moscow, Weiterstadt, Landshut, and São Paulo. His first feature-length film, ALL WE EVER WANTED, was his graduation project at the University of the Arts. Before becoming a filmmaker, Jaeger worked as a film critic for twenty years and as a festival programmer for ten. He was Artistic Director of Berlin Critics’ Week (2015–2020) and Head of Program at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (2019–2023). He has written for outlets such as Spiegel Online, Der Freitag, taz, Berliner Zeitung, Die Presse, Kolik.Film, and Film Comment, and was editor-in-chief of critic.de (2004–2023).

Participation: Special Screening ALL WE EVER WANTED

Popo Fan

Born in China, Popo Fan gained recognition for his queer activist documentaries before relocating to Berlin in 2017, after filing a lawsuit against the Chinese government for banning his films. In Germany, he has written and directed short films while working as a guest director for the feminist porn company Erika Lust. For over a decade, he was an organizer of the Beijing Queer Film Festival and has served as a guest curator at Berlin’s iconic Sinema Transtopia, focusing on non-Eurocentric cinema. He is currently developing his feature film debut, Grammatik, inspired by his real-life struggles with learning German.

Participation: Special Screening ALL WE EVER WANTED

Dana Linssen

Dana Linssen is a Dutch film critic, philosopher, and freelance curator from the Netherlands. She is the former editor-in-chief of de Filmkrant, a long-standing critic for NRC Handelsblad, founder of the Slow Criticism Project, and a curator of Critics’ Choice, formerly at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Over the last ten years, Critics’ Choice has produced over 50 video essays and collaborated with the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam on the Vive le cinéma exhibition. Dana teaches at the Utrecht Academy of the Arts in the Film and Writing for Performance faculties, as well as at the ArtEZ Theater Academy in Arnhem. She has contributed to books on Chantal Akerman, Jem Cohen, Fiona Tan, Béla Tarr, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. A member of the Berlinale Talents selection committee, she has mentored at Berlinale Talents Press and Sarajevo Talents Press for many years. Throughout her career, she has received multiple accolades and awards for her work as a film journalist and critic.

Participation: Special Screening ALL WE EVER WANTED

Sofia Bohdanowicz

Sofia Bohdanowicz is an award-winning filmmaker from Toronto known for her work at major festivals such as BFI, NYFF, Berlinale, and TIFF. Her debut feature NEVER EAT ALONE earned the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2016. In 2017, she was honored with the Jay Scott Prize by the Toronto Film Critics Association, and her film MAISON DU BONHEUR was nominated for the Rogers Prize. MS SLAVIC 7 premiered at Berlinale, was featured in Cinema Scope and Página/12, and screened at the Harvard Film Archive. A WOMAN ESCAPES, co-directed by Burak Çevik and Blake Williams, won the Churubusco Prize at the Festival Internacional de Cine UNAM and premiered at FIDMarseille. In 2020, MEASURES FOR A FUNERAL earned the Kodak and Silveryway Award at FIDMarseille and was shown in TIFF’s Centerpiece programme. Bohdanowicz has been recognized as one of Canada’s most influential filmmakers by Barry Hertz in The Globe and Mail. Her films are available on the Criterion Channel.

Participation: Private Eyes

Sonya Vseliubska

Sonya Vseliubska is a Donbas-born Ukrainian film journalist currently based in London. She is a staff writer for Ukrainska Pravda, the country’s leading online newspaper, and a regular contributor to Vogue Ukraine. Internationally, her writings on film have appeared in IDA Magazine, Modern Times Review, Talking Shorts, The Kyiv Independent, and Klassiki Journal, among others. Most of her work focuses on Ukrainian war documentaries.

Participation: Private Eyes

Valerie Dirk

Valerie Dirk is a film journalist and film curator and lives in Vienna. She studied film, media and literature and has been film editor of the Austrian daily newspaper Der Standar since 2022.

Participation: Private Eyes

Barbara Morgenstern

Barbara Morgenstern is a composer, producer, choir director, and live musician based in Berlin since 1994. Since 1998, she has released solo albums blending electronic music with songwriting.

In 2003-2004, she toured the world with Maximilian Hecker on a Goethe-Institut initiative. In January 2024, she released her first fully acoustic album, IN ANDEREM LICHT, through the Staatsakt label. Recorded at Berlin’s legendary Hansa Studio, the album features cello, double bass, saxophone, drums, and Morgenstern on piano and vocals.

Since 2012, she has collaborated with the theater group Rimini Protokoll on eight productions, two of which were invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen. From 2007 to 2021, she directed the “Chor der Kulturen der Welt” at Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), where she composed, arranged, and curated the choir’s musical program in partnership with the HKW.

Participation: Private Eyes

Axel Timo Purr

Axel Timo Purr is an editor at the online film magazine Artechock. After conducting field research in East Africa on modern (anti-)witchcraft movements, the informal sector, and the global economic influences on individual biographies, he has been coordinating a network for translations and design since 1999. Since 2001, he has written about topics related to Africa, literature, and film for Artechock, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and NZZ, among others.

Participation: No need for a long read?

Yun-hua Chen

Yun-hua Chen holds a PhD in Film Studies from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and is a respected film scholar, critic, and curator. She serves as Associate Editor at Film International and regularly contributes as a film critic to Cinephilia, Filmexplorer, and other publications. Currently, she is a member of the selection committee for Berlinale Shorts and sits on the board of the Association of German Film Critics. Prior to this, she was the festival director of the dokumentART Film Festival.

Participation: No need for a long read?

Sebastian Markt

Sebastian Markt studied history in Vienna and Berlin, gaining early experience in arthouse cinemas. Since 2012, he has worked as a film critic, contributing to publications such as Sissy, Perlentaucher, and Die Zeit. In 2013, he joined the Berlinale’s Generation section, where he became involved in program coordination from 2015. Most recently, he served as Head of Programming for the feature film selection before taking over as head of the section in 2022.

Participation: No need for a long read?

Savina Petkova

Savina Petkova is a Bulgarian cultural journalist based in London. She works freelance in film criticism, programming, events, and education, engaging with both English-speaking and Bulgarian contexts. She holds a PhD in Film Studies from King’s College London. In addition to traditional print media, she also works on podcasts and video essays.

Participation: No need for a long read?