Distinction for Europe's best young actors at the Berlinale 2011 (February 10 - 20)

European Film Promotion (EFP) has announced the names of the jury for SHOOTING STARS 2011. They will be selecting Europe's ten most talented young actors to be presented at the Berlin International Film Festival from February 12-14, 2011 and honoured for their artistic achievements. Beforehand, the EFP member organizations had nominated their candidates. Initiated by European Film Promotion (EFP), the event is financially supported by the MEDIA Programme of the EU.
The members of the 2011 jury are the German actress Heike Makatsch (Love Actually), who was feted as a German SHOOTING STAR in 2001, the renowned Danish director Ole Christian Madsen (Flame & Citron), the producer Cédomir Kolar (A.S.A.P. Films, France), the internationally active casting director Lina Todd from the USA (Little Man Tate), and Derek Elley, author and film critic from Great Britain.

SHOOTING STARS is a unique European programme which has been annually presenting young acting talents from various European countries at the Berlinale for the past 14 years and focusing attention on the diversity and creativity of filmmaking in Europe. The highlight of the three-day event is the presentation of the SHOOTING STARS AWARDS on the main stage of the Berlinale Palast, supported by Studio Babelsberg, one of the leading film studios for international feature film productions in Europe.

Jury member Heike Makatsch: "I am especially pleased this year to be able to select the most interesting up-and-coming European actors together with my jury colleagues. There are so many exciting talents among them! The films give a good insight into European filmmaking and the kind of subjects which are particularly topical in the respective countries. Shooting Stars is an international initiative which is really unique for young actors. I fondly remember my experience with EFP in Berlin."



Jury SHOOTING STARS 2011


Derek Elley (Film critic / UK) began as a film critic in the early 1970s, writing on international cinema for magazines such as "Films & Filming" and "Monthly Film Bulletin" and the yearbook "International Film Guide". In 1998 he co-founded the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. For 20 years, he was the chief international critic of the trade paper "Variety", during which time he also co-ordinated the annual Variety Critics' Choice selection at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. He is currently the chief film critic for the Hong Kong-based website "Film Business Asia".



Cédomir Kolar (Producer / France) His credits include many acclaimed European co-productions such as Before the Rain by Milcho Manchevski and No Man’s Land by Danis Tanovic, (Academy Award in 2002). In 2003, he founded the Paris-based production entity “A.S.A.P. Films”, together with his fellow producer Marc Baschet and the director Danis Tanovic with whom he continued producing several remarkable films such as Hell and, most recently, Cirkus Columbia. Recently he worked with Aktan Arym Kubat on The Light Thief, Marion Hänsel on Black Ocean and Benedek Fliegauf on Womb.



Ole Christian Madsen (Director / Denmark) is one of the most respected of the contemporary Danish directors and screenwriters with a remarkable number of award-winning films, beginning with Sinan's Wedding (1997) and Pizza King (1999). In 2001, he wrote and directed the acclaimed Dogma film Kira's Reason – A Love Story and turned the bestseller Angels In Fast Motion into an award-winning hit in 2005. His filmography includes Prague (2006), and the acclaimed Flame & The Citron, starring Mads Mikkelsen and Thure Lindhardt, sold to 70 countries and one of the biggest box-office hits in DK ever.



Heike Makatsch (Actress and German Shooting Star 2001) is presently one of Germany's most eminent film and television actresses. She has appeared in German films like Aimée & Jaguar, Gripsholm, Hilde and The Door as well as international productions, including Love Actually opposite Hugh Grant. In television, she made an impression in such productions as Das Wunder von Lengede and Margarete Steiff. In 2010, Heike Makatsch made her stage debut at the Centraltheater in Leipzig. She played the role of Jane in “Paris, Texas", staged by Sebastian Hartmann and based on the film of the same name by Wim Wenders. In 2011, she was cast in the role of Aunt Polly in the first German cinema adaptation of Tom Sawyer under the direction of Hermine Huntgeburth. Heike Makatsch was honoured for her roles with, among others, the Bavarian Television Prize, the Golden Camera and the Bambi.



Lina Todd (Casting Director / USA), based in New York and Los Angeles, is a member of the Casting Society of America and a founding member of the International Casting Directors Network (ICDN). Working mainly in American and European films such as Peter Weir's The Way Back, Gilles Paguet-Brenner's Sarah's Key, Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me and Jodie Foster's Little Man Tate, she is now producing Shirin Neshat's and Shoja Azari's film Paradise and Kim Spurdock's Kin which just received the Chris Columbus Award. She is also the Breakthrough Performer Director at the Hamptons International Film Festival.