Feb 04, 2020
Berlinale Generation Introduces Its Juries

International film experts and young cineastes comprise the four official juries of Berlinale Generation.

The international Juries

Three jurors each from the two International Juries will award the Grand Prix for the Best Film (endowed with 7,500 Euros) and the Special Prize for the Best Short Film (endowed with 2,500 Euros). The award of the 14plus competition is endowed by the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education), and the Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk (German Children’s Fund) is the donor in the Kplus competition.

Abbas Amini (Iran)
Abbas Amini has been a filmmaker since he was 13. Living and working in Tehran, he is actively committed to the protection of human rights. In particular, he is a dedicated opponent of child labour, as demonstrated by his artistic work and engagement in the NGO “Association for the Protection of Child Labourers (APCL)”. His two films Valderama (2016) and Hendi va Hormoz (Hendi & Hormoz, 2018), both of which tell about the lives of young Iranians, were shown at Generation 14plus.

Jenna Bass (South Africa)
Jenna Bass lives in South Africa and works as a writer and filmmaker, and she is also former magician. Her award-winning films include The Tunnel (2010) as well as Love the One You Love (2014) and High Fantasy (2017), both developed in a collective. High Fantasy premiered in 2018 at Generation 14plus. Her third feature film, Flatland, was the opening film of Panorama in 2019. Most recently, she completed the short film Sizohlala, which was produced by Jia Zhang-Ke.

Rima Das (India)
As a self-taught cinematic all-rounder and as an advocate for gender equality, Rima Das was recognised by GQ India as one of the “Most Influential Young Indians 2018”. Her film Village Rockstars premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2017 and subsequently received the Indian Film Award. With Bulbul Can Sing, for which she was responsible for the script, direction, camera, montage, production design and production, she was a guest at Generation 14plus last year and received a Special Mention from the 14plus International Jury.

Marine Atlan (France)
The cinematographer and director Marine Atlan studied at La Fémis in Paris and worked as a camera woman for films by Louise Hémon, Benoît Bouthors, Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel. Her debut film Les amours vertes (2016) was awarded the main prize at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. For the sensitive staging of the film Daniel fait face, she received a Special Mention in the Kplus competition in 2019.

María Novaro (Mexico)
Mexican filmmaker María Novaro premiered with her feature film Tesoros at Generation in 2017. Her films have been shown at all renowned film festivals worldwide, including Danzón in 1991 in Cannes and Sin dejar huella (Leaving No Trace) in 2000 at Sundance. In the 1970s, she was part of the artist collective “Cine-Mujer”. Today, she heads the Mexican film institute IMCINE.

Erik Schmitt (Germany)
The German director Erik Schmitt has a close connection with Generation. Following his two short films Nashorn im Galopp (2013) and Berlin Metanoia (2016), his feature film debut Cleo opened the Generation Kplus competition in 2019. He received the German Short Film Award for Nun sehen Sie Folgendes (Now Follows, 2011). He is currently working on the science fiction film Rebel Girl with his Berlin production company Seven Elephants.

The award ceremony for the Generation 14plus competition will take place on Friday, February 28 in the Urania, and the awards for the Generation Kplus competition will be announced on Saturday, February 29 at the Urania.

The youngest official Berlinale juries consist of eleven Berlin children between eleven and 14 years of age for the Generation Kplus competition and seven young people from 14 years of age for the Generation 14plus competition. Independent of the International Juries, they will award the Crystal Bears for the Best Short and Best Film. Young festival attendees who have shared their thoughts and comments on Generation films via the film questionnaires can qualify for participation in the Children’s or Youth jury.

In addition to the official juries, the independent jury AG Kino Gilde 14plus, consisting of three young, independent cinema operators, will award a prize to a feature film from the Generation 14plus competition for the first time this year. ”We are pleased to support a significant step towards cinema exploitation in Germany. This move is aimed at making more qualitative films visible to a young audience beyond the Berlinale,” says section head Maryanne Redpath regarding the new cooperation with the AG Kino – Gilde e.V.

Press Office
February 4, 2020