Feb 04, 2020
GWFF Best First Feature Award Jury

Since 2006, when it introduced the GWFF Best First Feature Award, the Berlinale has been even more committed to supporting the next generation of filmmakers. The award is endowed with 50,000 Euros, donated by the 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 producer and the director of the winning film. Additionally, the director will be awarded with a high-quality viewfinder as both a useful instrument and memorable trophy. In total, 21 directorial feature film debuts from the sections Encounters, Panorama, Forum, Generation and Perspektive Deutsches Kino are nominated for the GWFF Best First Feature Award.

A three-person jury will decide on the GWFF Best First Feature Award:

Ognjen Glavonić (Serbia)

Born in 1985, the Serbian director and writer Ognjen Glavonić studied Film and TV directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. His remarkable filmography includes Živan pravi pank festival (Živan Makes a Punk Festival, 2014), which premiered at the Cinéma du Réel festival in Paris and Dubina dva (Depth Two, 2016), which garnered numerous awards at 70 festivals, after premiering at the Berlinale Forum in 2016. His latest work, Teret (The Load, 2018), is his first feature fiction film. It debuted at Cannes in the Director’s Fortnight section and went on to win 26 awards at more than 90 festivals. Glavonić is also the director and co-founder of the Pančevo Film Festival in Serbia.

Hala Lotfy (Egypt)

Hala Lotfy is an Egyptian director, producer and the founder of Hassala Films collective. Ann Al Sho'our Bel Berouda (Feeling Cold, 2005) is one of her notable documentary works, which received numerous awards including the Special Jury Prize at the National Film Festival in Egypt. Lotfy also created seven documentaries for the TV series Arabs of Latin America for Al Jazeera. In 2011, she was chosen by Charlotte Rampling to receive the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award. Lotfy’s feature fiction debut Al-khoroug lel-nahar (Coming Forth by Day, 2012) had its European premiere at the Berlinale Forum in 2013 and won many awards including the Prize of the FIPRESCI jury and Best Director from the Arab World at Abu Dhabi Film Festival. EXT./Night (2018) is the latest feature fiction she produced, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018.

Gonzalo de Pedro Amatria (Spain)

Gonzalo de Pedro Amatria is a film programmer and scholar from Pamplona, Spain. Working as a university professor for Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, he also published essays on filmmakers, such as Hong Sangsoo, Ross McElwee, Jem Cohen or Werner Herzog. His programming experience involves the work as a programme coordinator at the Punto de Vista Festival in Pamplona until 2014 and curating film series for the likes of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, FIDMarseille and Museo Reina Sofía. He worked at Locarno Festival from 2014 to 2018 in the selection committee of the Pardi di domani section, as associate programmer for Filmoteca Española and the International Film Festival de Valdivia. Currently he is the artistic director of Cineteca Madrid.

The following 21 films are nominated for the GWFF Best First Feature Award:

Encounters (3)

Los Conductos
France / Colombia / Brazil
by Camilo Restrepo
with Luis Felipe Lozano, Fernando Úsaga Higuíta
World premiere

Nackte Tiere (Naked Animals)
Germany
by Melanie Waelde
with Marie Tragousti, Sammy Scheuritzel, Michelangelo Fortuzzi, Luna Schaller, Paul Michael Stiehler
World premiere

Zabij to i wyjedz z tego miasta (Kill It and Leave This Town)
Poland
by Mariusz Wilczyński
with the voices of Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Chyra, Maja Ostaszewska, Małgorzata Kożuchowska
World premiere / Animation

Panorama (8)

Cidade Pássaro (Shine Your Eyes)
Brazil / France
by Matias Mariani
with O. C. Ukeje, Chukwudi Iwuji, Indira Nascimento, Paulo Andre, Ike Barry
World premiere

Digger
Greece / France
by Georgis Grigorakis
with Vangelis Mourikis, Argyris Pandazaras
World premiere

Futur Drei (No Hard Feelings)
Germany
by Faraz Shariat
with Benjamin Radjaipour, Banafshe Hourmazdi, Eidin Jalali
World premiere

Kød & Blod (Wildland)
Denmark
by Jeanette Nordahl
with Sandra Guldberg Kampp, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Joachim Fjelstrup, Elliott Crosset Hove, Besir Zeciri
World premiere

Minyan
USA
by Eric Steel
with Samuel H. Levine, Ron Rifkin, Christopher McCann, Mark Margolis, Richard Topol
World premiere

Mogul Mowgli
United Kingdom
by Bassam Tariq
with Riz Ahmed
World premiere

Pari
Greece / France / Netherlands / Bulgaria
by Siamak Etemadi
with Melika Foroutan, Shahbaz Noshir, Sofia Kokkali, Argyris Padazaras, Lena Kitsopoulou
World premiere

Vento Seco (Dry Wind)
Brazil
by Daniel Nolasco
with Leandro Faria Lelo, Allan Jacinto Santana, Renata Carvalho, Rafael Theophilo
World premiere

Forum (4)

Chico ventana también quisiera tener un submarino (Window Boy Would Also Like to Have A Submarine)
Uruguay / Argentina / Brazil / Netherlands / Philippines
by Alex Piperno
World premiere

Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)
Nigeria
by Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri
World premiere

Gorod usnul (In Deep Sleep)
Russian Federation
by Maria Ignatenko
World premiere

Namo (The Alien)
Iran
by Nader Saeivar
World premiere

Generation (4)

Irmã (Sisters in the End of the World)
Brazil
by Luciana Mazeto, Vinícius Lopes
World premiere

Las niñas (Schoolgirls)
Spain
by Pilar Palomero
World premiere

Mamá, mamá, mamá (Mum, Mum, Mum)
Argentina
by Sol Berruezo Pichon-Riviére
World premiere

Palazzo di Giustizia (Ordinary Justice)
Italy / Switzerland
by Chiara Bellosi
World premiere

Perspektive Deutsches Kino (2)

Kids Run
Germany
by Barbara Ott
with Jannis Niewöhner, Lena Tronina, Eline Doenst, Giuseppe Bonvissuto, Carol Schuler, Sascha Geršak, Oliver Konietzny
World premiere / Opening film

Schlaf (Sleep)
Germany
by Michael Venus
with Gro Swantje Kohlhof, Sandra Hüller, August Schmölzer, Marion Kracht, Agata Buzek
World premiere

Press Office
February 4, 2020