The Berlin Film Festival has revealed its juries, and the addition of Liu Jian’s animated feature “Art College 1994” to its competition lineup, which now has 19 films and is complete.
In addition to the already announced actor Kristen Stewart as president, the International Jury members will be actor Golshifteh Farahani (Iran/France), director and writer Valeska Grisebach (Germany), director and screenwriter Radu Jude (Romania), casting director and producer Francine Maisler (U.S.), director and screenwriter Carla Simón (Spain), and director and producer Johnnie To (Hong Kong, China).
“Art College 1994” is set in China in the 1990s. It follows a group of young people who “prepare to face a world caught between tradition and modernity,” according to the festival. Jian Liu was previous in the main competition in Berlin with “Have a Nice Day” in 2017.
The jury for the Encounters program, which features 16 films, will comprise Greek actor Angeliki Papoulia (“Dogtooth”), Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili (“Beginning”), and Italian festival programmer and academic Paolo Moretti.
The jury members selecting the first feature award from 19 film debuts in all sections of the festival are French festival programmer Judith Revault d’Allonnes, Egyptian director Ayten Amin (“Souad”), and Swiss director Cyril Schäublin “Unrest.”
The jury selecting the best documentary – from 20 films across all sections – will be Emilie Bujès, artistic director of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel, Colombian producer, director and programmer Diana Bustamante (“Refugiado”), and British director Mark Cousins (“The Story of Film: An Odyssey”).
The jury judging the 20 films in the international short film section will comprise Romanian editor Cătălin Cristuțiu, the U.S. artist and director Sky Hopinka, and the German director and screenwriter Isabelle Stever.
The jury members for Generation Kplus are Filipino documentarist Venice Atienza, Latvian producer Alise Ģelze and German festival programmer Gudrun Sommer. The members of the jury for Generation 14plus are German cinematographer and media educator Fion Mutert, Colombian filmmaker and artist Juanita Onzaga, and Ukrainian director and screenwriter Kateryna Gornostai.
The Perspektive Deutsches Kino section will be judged by two juries. The Compass-Perspektive and Kompagnon Fellowship jury comprises German actor Dela Dabulamanzi, German film editor Anne Fabini and Swedish director Jöns Jönsson. The jury for the Heiner Carow Prize will be Germany’s Freya Arde, a film composer, guitarist and music producer, German director Peter Kahane, and German film archivist Mirko Wiermann.
The winner of the Berlinale Series Award will be chosen from a seven-strong lineup by Danish screenwriter, showrunner and executive producer Mette Heeno, U.S. actor André Holland and Tel Aviv-born, Berlin-based producer Danna Stern (“Fauda”).