Juries

Michael Verhoeven, one of the formative personalities in German film, presented his feature film debut The Dance of Death in 1967. In 1970 his anti-war film O.K. led to a scandal among the members of the Berlinale Competition jury. Verhoeven, who has his own production company, has made numerous highly regarded films about the German past including The White Rose (1982) and The Nasty Girl (1990).

Jury President and Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton is one of her generation’s most sought-after performers. She gave her film debut in Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio which won a Silver Bear at the 1986 Berlinale. Since her international breakthrough with Orlando she has alternated with ease between European arthouse films and big Hollywood productions. Until Jarman’s death she appeared in all of his films. Her film portrait of him was shown in the Panorama at the 2008 Berlinale. In 2008 she received an Academy Award for best supporting actress in the thriller Michael Clayton.

The award-winning Spanish writer and director Isabel Coixet has been a guest with her films at numerous international festivals, including four times at the Berlinale: 1995 in the Panorama with Things I Never Told You, 2003 in the Competition with My Life Without Me, 2007 in the Panorama with the compilation documentary Invisibles and 2008 with the moving bestseller interpretation Elegy. Isabel Coixet is currently realizing the romantic thriller Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo.

Gaston Kaboré is one of the most important people in his country’s film scene. Following his studies in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Paris his feature film Wend Kuuni marked a breakthrough for African cinema in 1982. He combines the skills of screenwriter, director and producer and has realized numerous documentary films. In 1997 he received the Pan-African Film Festival (FESPACO) Award for his historical drama Buud Yam. In 2005 he founded the Imagine Film School in Ouagadougou which trains new filmmakers in Burkina Faso.

The award-winning, bestselling author Henning Mankell is especially famous for his Inspector Wallander mysteries which have been published in 38 languages. The highly productive author and theatre director focuses on political and social themes, but he is also acclaimed as a writer of children’s books and plays. Mankell lives alternately in Sweden and Mosambique where he works as director of the “Teatro Avenida”.

Christoph Schlingensief, a leading personality in Germany’s cultural scene, is renowned as a film, theatre and opera director, radio play writer and artist. His works repeatedly challenge the frontier between politics and art and provoke public debate. As a filmmaker he first became known between 1989 and 1992 with what is known as his German Trilogy (including The German Chainsaw Massacre). His opera productions include “Parsifal” (Bayreuth 2004), „The Flying Dutchman“ (Manaus 2007), „Jeanne d’Arc“ (Berlin 2008) and „Eine Kirche der Angst vor dem Fremden in mir“ (Duisburg 2008).

Hong-Kong-born director Wayne Wang has lived and worked in the USA since his youth. In many of his films he confronts American society with the world of Chinese immigrants, as in the bestseller adaptation The Joy Luck Club (1993). His arthouse film Smoke (Silver Bear at the Berlinale 1995) brought him major success in Europe as well. His latest film A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers received several festival awards.

As a keen film aficionado, food activist, author and star chef Alice Waters named her legendary restaurant in Berkeley Chez Panisse after one of Marcel Pagnol’s film characters. Alice Waters, vice president of Slow Food International, works in the renowned Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley and for various film festivals. She also has collaborated on projects such as the documentary Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. The multiple award-winning gastronomy expert recently joined the California Hall of Fame.

With more than 70 short films and features, this director is one of his country’s most important underground digital filmmakers. De La Cruz, who participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus 2005, is also a writer and musician, as well as director of the Philippine MOV International Digital Film Festival. With his production company Filmless Films, he has made many works, including Mondomanila: Institute of Poets, a surreal cinematic reflection on Philippine society.

With her role in the screen drama Lorna’s Silence (winner of Best Screenplay at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival), this young actress achieved her international breakthrough and a nomination for the 2008 European Film Awards. Born in Pristina, Arta Dobroshi has played many stage roles in her country, as well as a leading role in the prize-winning German-Albanian production Magic Eye (2005), a film about the situation in Albania in 1997, when it was rocked by unrest.

Lars Henrik Gass studied literature and theatre. Since 1997, he has been director of the renowned International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Until 2007, he was also a member of the German Short Film Award jury. He has written many essays on photography and film, and teaches at a number of universities and academies. In 2001, Gass published his book “Das ortlose Kino. Über Marguerite Duras”.

Born in Hamburg in 1981, actress Hannah Herzsprung has received much acclaim from both critics and audiences for her powerful performances – e.g., as prison inmate and talented pianist in the award-winning drama Vier Minuten (Four Minutes) by Chris Krauss; or as Florina, the rebellious girl next door, in Das wahre Leben (Life Actually) by Alain Gsponer. She won the Bavarian Film Award as Best Young Actress for her role in Vier Minuten in 2006. This was followed in 2007 by the German Film Award as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Das wahre Leben.

For many years In-Ah Lee was collaborating with Wim Wenders. In 2006 she produced The Way I Spent the End of the World for Romanian director Catalin Mitulescu. At present In-Ah Lee is involved in projects for greenskyfilms, a production company based in Cologne and Los Angeles. Here she is responsible especially for international co-productions and independent films.

Born in Teheran, director Rafi Pitts now lives in France and is a leading representative of contemporary Iranian cinema. His feature film debut The Fifth Season, filmed in his native Iran, was an international festival success. In 2006 Rafi Pitts presented the drama It’s Winter in the Berlinale Competition. He is currently working on his fifth feature film, The Hunter.

Jury President Costa-Gavras is one of the most renowned figures of dedicated, political filmmaking. His international breakthrough came in 1969 with the political thriller Z, which won him two Academy Awards. In 1990 Costa-Gavras was awarded the Berlinale Golden Bear for his film Music Box (with Armin Mueller-Stahl and Jessica Lange). He last participated in the Berlinale Competition in 2002 with Amen. Costa-Gavras is also President of the French Cinemathèque.

Production designer Uli Hanisch was honoured with the German and the European Film Awards for his work in the adaptation of Patrick Süskind’s novel Perfume – The Story Of A Murderer (2006). He has done the production design for almost all of Tom Tykwer’s films, including the upcoming The International, starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. His set designs also shaped films by Oliver Hirschbiegel (The Experiment) and Sönke Wortmann (The Miracle Of Bern).

Diane Kruger’s international breakthrough came with her role in Wolfgang Petersen’s monumental epic Troy. The young actress played in the 2007 Berlinale Competition film Goodbye Bafana by Bille August. Together with Nicolas Cage she is currently on screen in National Treasure: Book Of Secrets.

Walter Murch is a multiple-Academy Award winner who wrote film history with his spectacular sound design for Francis Ford Coppola’s anti-war film Apocalypse Now. As a cutter and sound designer he has collaborated with Coppola for 30 years, on films ranging from The Godfather to his latest work Tetro. He has also created image and sound montages for George Lucas, Jerry Zucker and Anthony Minghella.

Shu Qi is one of the most popular and sought-after actresses in Asian cinema. Born in Taiwan, she has played in over 50 films in a great variety of genres. On the international circuit she attracted attention for her role in the thriller The Transporter (2002). In 2000 Shu Qi appeared in the Berlinale Competition film The Island Tales directed by Stanley Kwan.

Alexander Rodnyansky was born in the Ukraine, and is one of the biggest cinema and TV producers in Russia. A studied filmmaker, he is now president of the Moscow media holding CTC and a formative figure in Russia’s media landscape. His work as a director includes a series of documentaries about contemporary Russia, including 1992s two-part Farewell USSR, which won numerous awards.

Actor Marc Barbé has worked with France’s most eminent directors, including Jaques Rivette, Philippe Grandrieux and Laetitia Masson. In 2007, he appeared in the Berlinale opening film La môme - La Vie en Rose. Barbé has also proved his versatility on the stage and in TV productions. As a director Marc Barbé has made a number of short and medium-length films.

Film producer Ada Solomon, who comes from Bucharest, has worked with directors such as Christian Mungiu, Christian Nemescu and Razvan Radulescu. In 2003 she founded her own company, HiFilm Productions, which has already produced a number of successful films. In memory of Christian Nemescu and Andrei Toncu, Ada Solomon also initiated the NexT Cultural Society, which organizes the Bucharest NexT Film Festival.

Every since her screen debut in Michael Klier’s Ostkreuz, actress Laura Tonke has ranked as one of Germany’s outstanding talents. She has worked with directors such as Tom Tykwer, Dominik Graf and Rudolf Thome. Laura Tonke was nominated for the German Film Award for her role as the terrorist Gudrun Ensslin in the film Baader.

Ben Barenholtz is one of the key protagonists in America’s independent film scene. In 1968 he opened the New York Elgin Cinema which became a legendary forum for independent filmmakers with its Midnight Movies. Barenholtz is also a successful producer and distributor. He produced several of the Coen brothers’ films, including the drama Barton Fink which won the 1991 Golden Palm in Cannes.

Born in Algeria, the director first studied literature and then went to the Paris Film Academy. In 1996 she made her first feature film L’autre côté de la mer. In 1999 she presented the film Nadia And The Hippos in the Cannes –series ‘Un Certain Regard’. She was a guest at the 2004 Berlinale Forum with her drama A Wonderful Spell. Dominique Cabrera is also active as an actress and book author.

The director, who comes from Sarajevo, celebrated her feature film debut and an international success with Grbavica. The drama surrounding the aftermath of the war in Bosnia was awarded the Golden Bear at the 2006 Berlinale. In 1997 Jasmila Zbanic founded the artists‘ association and subsequent film production company Deblokada. In 2004 she presented a series of art videos and documentary films at the Kasseler Kunsthalle Fridericianum.

American Gigolo is the best-known film directed by Jury President Paul Schrader. Though it was with the screenplay to Taxi Driver that he made film history (1976). By continuing his collaboration with director Martin Scorsese, he also went on to celebrate success with Raging Bull (1980) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Schrader gave his directorial debut in 1978 with Blue Collar. It was followed, for instance, by Mishima in 1985. His film adaptation of The Comfort of Strangers (1991), a novel by Ian McEwan, with a script by Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, was outstanding. Schrader screened his crime drama Light Sleeper in the 1992 Berlinale Competition.

Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass also writes screenplays and directs films. Abbass, who lives in Paris, has starred in excellent films over the past years. For example, she displayed her versatility in Red Satin (2002) and then again as The Syrian Bride (2004). Most recently she performed in Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now (2005) and Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005).

With Mario Adorf, this year’s jury includes a connoisseur of German cinema. More than 120 film and television roles have made him one of the most famous actors in Germany. Adorf has starred in films such as Volker Schlöndorff’s The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum and The Tin Drum, in Fassbinder’s Lola and in Helmut Dietl’s Rossini. He has also performed in many international productions – including films by Claude Chabrol, Sergio Corbucci, Sam Peckinpah and Billy Wilder, among others.

Willem Dafoe is one of the most highly esteemed actors from the USA and is seen as a master of intriguing dark characters. After his debut in Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980), he won worldwide acclaim as a soldier in Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986). He has given brilliant performances in blockbusters like Spider-Man as well as in arthouse productions by David Cronenberg, Lars von Trier or Martin Scorsese. Dafoe is also well-known for his stage performances, in particular for his work with the legendary “Wooster Group”.

Since his screen debut in the Oscar nominated Love’s a Bitch by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexican actor Gael García Bernal is not just a celebrated star in his own country. Walter Salles cast him as Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries and Pedro Almodóvar in Bad Education. In 2006, Bernal could be seen in the Berlinale Competition film The Science of Sleep by Michel Gondry and in Iñárritu’s tremendously successful Babel.