Juries 2011

Isabella Rossellini (Italy)

Isabella Rossellini is one of the most renowned actresses in international cinema. In recent years she has also made her mark as a producer and director. The daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini has played in more than 40 feature films and worked with such directors as Robert Zemeckis, Joel Schumacher, Peter Weir, Abel Ferrara, Peter Greenaway and David Lynch or John Schlesinger, with whom she filmed The Innocent in Berlin in 1992. She celebrated her international breakthrough in 1986 with Lynch’s cult film Blue Velvet. She was a guest at the Berlinale for the first time in 1994 as the leading actress in Fearless. In 2005 she presented the short film My Dad is 100 Years Old, a tribute to her father. She returned in 2007 as narrator to Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon The Brain! and in 2008 she presented her directorial debut Green Porno about the sex life of insects. In autumn 2010, filming was finished on Late Bloomers (Berlinale Special 2011), the romantic comedy directed by Julie Gavras in which Isabella Rossellini stars alongside William Hurt.

Jan Chapman (Australia)

Producer Jan Chapman is an outstanding figure in the Australian film industry. Her first international success came with The Piano (1993), which went on to win three Oscars. Since then she has continued working successfully with director Jane Campion, most recently in 2009 on the historical romantic drama Bright Star. In 1989 she founded her own production company, Jan Chapman Films, and has subsequently produced numerous films with different directors that have been acclaimed by both critics and audiences (Love Serenade, Holy Smoke, Lantana, Somersault). In 2004 she received the “Officer of the Order of Australia” for her contributions to Australian cinema.

Nina Hoss (Germany)

The talented German film, television and theatre actress Nina Hoss celebrated her first major success in 1996 in the title role of Bernd Eichinger’s A Girl Called Rosemarie. In 2000 she was one of the Shooting Stars at the Berlinale. Her close collaboration with director Christian Petzold has been extremely successful: she won the 2001 Adolf Grimme Award for her role in his film Something To Remind Me and two years later the Adolf Grimme Award in Gold for Wolfsburg. Her performance of Yella earned her the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007. Her most recent screen roles include the modern vampire thriller We Are the Night (by Dennis Gansel) and the romantic movie Summer Window (by Hendrik Handloegten).

Aamir Khan (India)

Aamir Khan is a Bollywood superstar: He rose to overnight fame with the film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). In 2001 he achieved international success in the drama Lagaan - Once Upon A Time In India which was nominated for an Academy Award. After his directorial debut in 2007 with Taare Zameen Par, Khan starred in the film 3 Idiots which broke all box-office records in his home country. Aamir Khan is also an acclaimed producer: the film satire Peepli Live (2010) was chosen as the Indian entry for an Academy Award nomination. Altogether, four of his last ten films entered the running for an Academy Award nomination.

Guy Maddin (Canada)

Filmmaker Guy Maddin, who grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, created a cult classic with his first feature film Tales from the Gimli Hospital of 1988. He has since notched up nine feature films and countless shorts, often integrating stylistic features that draw on the aesthetics of old silent movies and early sound productions. In 2007 he presented his silent movie Brand Upon the Brain! at the Berlinale. It was accompanied by a live orchestra, three Foley artists, a singer and Isabella Rossellini as narrator. In 2008 Guy Maddin opened the Berlinale Forum with My Winnipeg. For this tribute to his Canadian hometown he combined documentary footage with family photos and old film excerpts.

Jafar Panahi (Iran)

Renown director, author and producer Jafar Panahi made a number of short films and documentaries before he filmed his directorial debut, Badkonake sefid (The White Balloon), which earned him the Camera d’or in Cannes in 1995. In 1997 he won the Golden Leopard in Locarno for Ayneh (The Mirror), and in 2000 the Golden Lion in Venice for Dayereh (The Circle). Offside won the Silver Bear (Grand Prix of the Jury) at the Berlinale in 2006. In his films Jafar Panahi critically examines the social circumstances in his country. Shortly after the Berlinale invited him to be on the International Jury in 2011, Panahi was sentenced to six years imprisonment and banned from filmmaking for the next 20 years. There has been worldwide protest against this verdict that violates the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Unfortunately Jafar Panahi was denied permission to leave his home country for Berlin. The Berlinale was holding a place open in the Jury for him and in doing so wanted to signalize its support for his struggle for freedom.

Sandy Powell (United Kingdom)

Trained in London, Sandy Powell designs costumes for film, theatre, dance and opera. She works on outstanding productions designing costumes for the most diverse historical epochs. To date she has been nominated for a total of nine Academy Awards - most recently for the costume design in The Tempest. She won the first of three Oscars for her work on the film Shakespeare In Love (1999). Her costumes for Martin Scorsese’s biopic The Aviator brought her a second Academy Award in 2005. Most recently she was honoured for her work on the film The Young Victoria (2010). In addition she has been nominated nine times for the BAFTA, and took home the award twice, for Velvet Goldmine in 1999 and The Young Victoria in 2010.

Bettina Brokemper (Germany)

The producer learnt her profession at the University of Television and Film, Munich. In 2003 she founded the production company Heimatfilm with which she has celebrated national and international successes, most recently Bal (Honey, Golden Bear 2010). In 2001 she became established as managing director of Zentropa Entertainment in Cologne, co-producing films such as Lars von Trier’s Dogville and Antichrist.

Assaf Gavron (Israel)

The bestselling Israeli author has published four novels, including the internationally acclaimed “Almost Dead”. Gavron is singer and songwriter in the Israeli cult pop band “The Mouth and Foot” and was the chief writer of the award-winning computer game “Peacemaker”. He was awarded a DAAD artists-in-Berlin fellowship in 2010 and last December was honoured with Israel's Prime Minister's Award for Authors.

Michèle Ohayon

The Moroccan-Isralei director rose to fame in 1997 with the Oscar-nominated film Colors Straight Up. She has since celebrated repeated successes with her feature documentary works. She presented her film Steal A Pencil For Me at the 2008 Berlinale Special, followed in 2010 by S.O.S./State Of Security, a documentary about National Security challenges as viewed by the former US head of counter-terrorism Richard A. Clarke.

Nan Goldin (USA)

Nan Goldin is one of the world's most celebrated photographers. She first became known internationally in the 1980s, when the main theme of her art was her own life and that of her friends: her most famous photographs focus on sexuality and relationships, and on living and dying with AIDS. In 1996 she won the Berlinale Teddy Award for her autobiographical documentary I'll Be Your Mirror. She had screened her first slide show at the Arsenal in 1983 through Alf Bold who was a dear friend. In 2007 Nan Goldin received the Hasselblad Award for her photography.

Ibrahim Letaief (Tunisia)

As director and producer Ibrahim Letaief is one of the most famous representatives of Tunisian film. In 1997 he founded his own production company, “Long et Court”. With it he realized short films, commercials and a number of longer films. In 2008 Letaief made his first feature, Cinecittà, a comedy about a director who is so hard-pressed for money he robs a bank. The film was a hit at box offices in Tunisia. Letaief now works on his second feature and teaches at the National Film School ESAC, a state film school in Tunis. In 2009 he was honoured with the National Culture Award as best director in Tunisia.

Renen Schorr (Israel)

Director Renen Schorr is the founder and director of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem, which became one of the most prestigious film schools in the world under his leadership. He is one of the leading architects of the new Israeli cinema as initiator and founder of four Israeli film funds. In 1987 his film Late Summer Blues, a portrayal of teenage life before the army draft, won the Silver Menorah Award for Best Film - the Israeli equivalent to the Oscar.

The recipients of honorary awards are not chosen by a jury but by the festival director.

A Children's Jury with members aged 11 to 14 awards the Crystal Bears in the Generation Kplus competition. The jury members are selected from film questionaires submitted the previous year and officially invited to participate by the festival director. The members of the 2011 Generation Kplus Children's Jury: Ilenga Altuğ, Christian Becker, Merten Ebbert, Antonia Felsmann, Olivia Mirza, Mascha Tabea Luise Leskien, Jakob Oeschey, Paul Reichhoff, Lotta Schwerk, Jurek Stanislawski and Liv Thastum.

A Youth Jury with members aged 14 to 18 awards the Crystal Bears in the Generation 14plus competition. The jury members are selected from film questionaires submitted the previous year and officially invited to participate by the festival director. The members of the 2011 Generation 14plus Youth Jury: Faysal Asfaha, Jonathan Curio, Theresa Greiwe, Leonie Goebel-Künnecke, Roberta Huldisch, Oskar E. Levis and Tara Mauritz.

The International Jury of the Generation Kplus competition awards the Grand Prix of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk (German Child Support Organisation) worth 7,500 Euros, to the Best Feature Film. The charity's special prize, which has a value of 2,500 Euros, is awarded to the Best Short Film.

Members of the Generation Kplus International Jury 2011 were: Hong Kong Chinese producer and director Mabel Cheung (produced Shui Yuet Sun Tau, Crystal Bear 2010), New Zealand director Taika Waititi (Boy, Grand Prix of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk 2010), German filmmaker Felix Gönnert, Australian director and producer of indigenous cinema Rachel Perkins (Bran Nue Dae, Generation 14plus 2010) and Jonathan Davis, expert on European film policy.