European Film Promotion has unveiled the 10 Shooting Stars, up-and-coming acting talents set to break out internationally, who will be honored at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival.
The selection comprises Bartosz Bielenia from Poland, star of Jan Komasa’s “Corpus Christi,” among films shortlisted for this year’s best international feature film Oscar; France’s Zita Hanrot, the voice talent of Zunaira in animated Oscar contender “The Swallows of Kabul” who broke out locally with Philippe Faucon’s “Fatima”; and Portugal’s Joana Ribeiro who is currently shooting Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller “Infinite” for Paramount alongside Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Previous Shooting Stars include Alicia Vikander, Alba Rohrwacher, Matthias Schoenaerts, Pilou Asbæk and Baltasar Kormákur.
The Shooting Stars initiative is also honoring German actor Jonas Dassler, who made a splash at Berlin last year with his performance as a serial killer in Fatih Akin’s “The Golden Glove”; Dutch actor Bilal Wahib, who played the lead in local hit “De Libi” and at 20 is the youngest in the class of 2020; and Victoria Carmen Sonne from Denmark, who broke out with daring Sundance drama “Holiday” by director Isabella Eklöf.
Levan Gelbakhiani from Georgia, whose training as a classical ballet dancer led to his breakout as the lead of Levan Akin’s Cannes drama “And Then We Danced”; Switzerland’s Ella Rumpf (“Raw”) soon to be seen in Netflix series “Freud”; Martina Apostolova of Bulgaria who impressed with surrogate mother drama “Irina”; and Estonian actor Pääru Oja who played the titular role in standout crime drama “Mihkel” round out the selection.
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They will participate in profile-raising workshops, as well as meetings with producers and casting directors, all designed to foster their professional networks. EFP European Shooting Stars events will take place between Feb. 21-24.
The 2020 honorees were chosen by a jury comprising British casting director Lucy Bevan, Finnish director Dome Karukoski, producer Katarina Krnacova from Slovakia, former Bulgarian Shooting Star turned director Vessel Kazakova (“Cat in the Wall”) and film journalist Rudiger Sturm from Germany
The 70th Berlin Film Festival will run Feb. 20-March 1.