Kantarama Gahigiri is a Rwandan-Swiss writer/director. She is a graduate of the Realness Residency (2018), La Fabrique Cinéma in Cannes FF (2019), Le Moulin d'Andé (2020), Berlinale Talents (2021), Locarno Filmmakers Academy (2022) and Vienna's MuseumQuartier Q21 Residency (2023). Today, Kantarama is pursuing her passion and exploring identity, sovereignty, empowerment and representation on screen with her latest projects.
Works (selection)
Tanzanite, feature film in development.
Terra Mater - Mother Land, (10 min) addresses the connections between colonization, capitalism and climate change and premiered at the Berlinale (2023) in the short film competition.
Mother Earth, (4 min) about ecological responsibility, a postcard from the future sent to Piazza Grande, 75th edition of Locarno Film Festival (2022).
Ethereality, short film about migration and the sense of belonging. Awarded Best Short Documentary (Poulain d'Or) at FESPACO 2021, screened in competition at Chicago IFF (2020), Namur IFF (2021), Clermont-Ferrand (2020), Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (2019) and is featured in the curated program Quartiers Lointains Season 6 : Afrofuturistics. The film screened at more than 80 festivals worldwide and was released in France (2021) and three consecutive years in Switzerland (2021-22-23).
Tapis Rouge, feature film (co-writer, co-director) about immigration and integration in the
Miri Gossing lives and works in Cologne, Germany and Portland, USA.
She studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and at the Academy of Arts Düsseldorf. She is part of an artist, producer, filmmaker and curator duo together with Lina Sieckmann and several film collectives.
In 2016 Gossing&Sieckmann founded the film&art production company "Schalten und Walten" and in 2019 the "Blonde Cobra - Festival for Queer & Experimental Cinema" in Cologne, Germany.
As artists, they work on the boundaries of documentary and feature film, exploring themes such as architectures of desire, queer subcultures, and haunted spaces.
Their films have been shown internationally at festivals and art institutions (including IFFR, Hamburger Bahnhof- Museum für Gegenwart, Image Forum Tokyo, Portland Art Museum) and have received several awards (including Wim Wenders Stipend, German Short Film Award, National Gallery Nomination Award, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen).
Anna Melikova, born in 1984 in Ukraine. Was raised in the Crimea. After studying German in Kyiv, she worked as a film curator and critic in Moscow. Since 2017 lives in Berlin. She wrote the screenplay for Grand Jeté (director: Isabelle Stever, UA Berlinale 2022). She is a member of the selection committee of Berlinale Panorama and the selection committee of Queer Short Film Fund. In 2022 she was a fellow of the LCB (Werkstatt Prosa). Her debut novel "Ich ertrinke in einem fliehenden See" will be published in 2024, by "Matthes & Seitz". With her film project "Der weibliche Körper meines Geliebten" she received the Kompagnon Fellowship Prize at Berlinale Talents 2023.
KORNEL MIGLUS
* 25 April 1957 in Tarnowskie Góry, Poland, lives in Berlin. He studied philosophy, linguistics and psychology in Poland, the USA and Germany and holds a doctorate from the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the FU Berlin. He also studied film and screenwriting at the DffB in West Berlin and Hunter College/NYC and completed the Materclasses with Krzysztof Kieslowski in the European Film Academy programme. He is a graduate of the Media SOURCES I programme. From ???? to 2023 he was Artistic Director of the filmPOLSKA Festival in Berlin. He is the managing director of Vacant Filmproduktion Berlin, editor of the ABC film series of the radio station Multi-Kulti, Berlin, lecturer in screenwriting at the Humboldt University Berlin and at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice. In addition, both film commissioner of the Polish Institute in Berlin and producer of various documentary film seminars and film workshops, producer and curator of the festival 610 Berlin Warsaw and director of the meditation group and talk therapy Cornus am Mahler.
JOSEP PRIM ARMENGOL
* 1985 in Spain, trained as a filmmaker at the CECC in Barcelona. He worked as a short film producer, photographer, graphic and web designer. In 2009 he co-founded Marvin&Wayne, a film distribution agency based in Barcelona that specialises in promoting short films from Spain and Latin America. In the agency, he plays an important role as head of the festivals and distribution department. Marvin&Wayne is known worldwide for its commitment to the short film sector and for its continuous support of Spanish and Latin American film talent.
STUDIERENDENJURY
LENA FRIEMEL, born and raised in Berlin, is studying for a Master's degree in Fine Arts at the Caspar David Friedrich Institute. The artist uses 3D animation and filmic recordings to explore themes such as feminism and the confrontation and reflection of lived emotions and experiences. She won the audience award at the 2022 Insomnale with her short film "keep digging".
WILHELMINE KLAMT studies art at the CDFI of Greifswald University. In film, she works in the field of found footage and documentaries. Away from film, she specialises in representational painting. In her work, she deals with growing up in East Germany and with youth and internet culture.
Vincent Zwoch is born and grew up near Freiberg. He studies social work at the University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg. Since the first semester he is part of the student cinema and leads it from the sixth semester. His main interests are juggling, (historical) movies and series.