From February 15 to 20, 2025, Berlinale Talents will welcome 201 selected filmmakers to Berlin. Over six days, participants will explore the theme “Listen Courageously: Cinematic Narratives in Times of Dissonance” through an engaging programme of talks, workshops and public discussions. Representing a multifaceted community from 62 countries, the filmmakers’ participation is the first step into one of the world’s largest film communities. With over 10,000 alumni worldwide, Berlinale Talents is a global community that offers a unique opportunity to connect and collaborate on a world-wide scale, fostering connections and creativity beyond regional networks.
The careful selection process was guided by the Berlinale Talents’ core values, diversity and equality. It took place over several months, culminating with 201 Talents selected from 3,836 applications from 123 countries
A common thread that connects the Talents is their impressive professional and versatile experience, having showcased their work at international festivals. To name just a few, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, whose work has been screened all over the world including La Biennale di Venezia, the Tate Modern and others, will return to the Berlinale following the selection of her work Conspiracy for Forum Expanded in 2023. It will also be a return for award-winning filmmaker and journalist Clare Weiskopf, whose Alis won the TEDDY AWARD at the Berlinale in 2022.
Another thread is their passion for creating both artistic and social impact, like Argentinian filmmaker María Silvia Esteve whose films have screened in Cannes, Locarno and at MoMA, and who is co-founder of an audio-visual female collective focused on the creation of auteur pieces by Latin American women. Or Canadian Italian filmmaker Luis De Filippis who, during the production of her award-winning Something You Said Last Night, began the Trans Film Mentorship, providing five trans and/or non-binary youth with mentorship, training and paid work experience on set.
As always, the impressive group of talented creatives is as diverse in background as it is in craft. Sine Özbilge is a multidisciplinary visual artist, XR explorer and film director based in Belgium with roots in Istanbul, who specialises in independent animation. Udit Duseja is a sound designer who brings experience from across the UK, India, and the US, with work featured at major international festivals and successful collaborations with Sir John Akomfrah and Garrett Bradley. Also taking part is Atena Eshtiaghi, an Iranian composer living in Germany, who notably won the Deutscher Dokumentarfilm-Musikpreis in 2024.
These are just a few highlights from an overall outstanding selection of filmmakers. Berlinale Talents leadership duo Nikola Joetze and Tobias Pausinger share: “It is a great joy for us to be able to bring such a diverse and immensely talented group of filmmakers together under our theme ‘Listen Courageously’. To amplify their diversity of narratives and histories, we must approach each other with both courage and curiosity. In doing so, we safeguard the beauty of this multifaceted art form – one that reflects the individuality of its creators and embraces differences while possessing the ability to unite us beyond social and cultural divides.”
The 201 Talents (108 female, 81 male, eight non-binary and four preferred not to say) come from 14 fields of work, made up of directors, producers, screenwriters, editors, cinematographers, sound designers, score composers, production designers, digital set designers, actors, sales agents, distributors, audience designers (curators for cinemas, VOD platforms, and festivals), film critics.
In addition to the summit, 40 Talents are developing projects from feature films, documentaries, shorts and virtual reality in the Talents Labs that will be presented to an industry audience during a pitching event at the European Film
Berlinale Talents is a globally recognised project and talent development initiative that has shaped and created for 23 years the next generations of film makers and inspires the global film industry with new ideas and aesthetics.
The public programme and the dates for the Berlinale Talents presentations and networking events will be published in early February.
The globally unique Talents Footprints – Mastercard Enablement Programme returns for its fifth edition, where Berlinale Talents and co-partner Mastercard will support two new projects. This year’s jury includes German actor Sibel Kekilli (Head-On, Game of Thrones), Vincenza Cristina Saccà (Senior Vice President Consumer Marketing & Sponsorship Europe at Mastercard), and German filmmaker, screenwriter, and Talents alum Dieu Hao Do (Hao Are You). The trio will select two fellows from the international Berlinale Talents alumni community who, beyond their cinematic work, have founded cinema-related social organisations, cultural networks or educational programmes dedicated to advancing gender equality, ecological sustainability and inclusion in the industry in the long term. The two fellowship recipients will receive substantial mentoring and financial support over the course of a year.
In addition, two alumni of the programme will return to the Berlinale to participate in exclusive networking opportunities such as the Dine & Shine Dinner during the festival, fostering peer-to-peer connections and facilitating the exchange of important knowledge between these social-minded pioneers and their initiatives.
The names of the fellows will be revealed in the presence of the jury during the Dine & Shine Dinner on February 16, 2025.
Berlinale Talents is part of Berlinale Pro*, which unites the European Film Market, the Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents and the World Cinema Fund. Berlinale Pro* is the festival’s full-circle industry infrastructure that serves the global film industry as incubator, enhancer and supporter in all stages of film development, production, sales and distribution.
Berlinale Talents is supported by the Minister of State for Culture and Media, Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Board, Mastercard and ARRI.
21.01.2025 | Berlin's blog
Cat. : FESTIVALS