The 2012 jury for SHOOTING STARS - Europe's Best Young Actors - has now been finalised. The Danish actor Thure Lindhardt (Flame & Citron), the Dutch director Marleen Gorris (Within the Whirlwind), the Romanian producer Ada Solomon (Renovation), the German casting director Simone Bär (Inglourious Basterds) and the British film journalist Matt Mueller (Total Film) will be selecting Europe's ten best acting talents at the beginning of December for European Film Promotion's (EFP) SHOOTING STARS event. The candidates were proposed by the EFP member organisations from across Europe.

During the Berlin International Film Festival (February 9 - 19, 2012), EFP will bring the young stars together with important personalities from the film industry as well as representatives of the international press and encourage discussion about the diversity and creativity of European films and their artists. A highlight of the three-day event will see the talents being presented with the SHOOTING STARS AWARD for their acting skills in a gala ceremony at the Berlinale Palast.

SHOOTING STARS JURY MEMBERS 2012

Simone Bär (Casting Director – Germany) numbers among the most respected European casting directors. After founding the "Casting Studio" in Berlin in 1990, she has worked both nationally and internationally with the finest directors. Her list of credits includes films by the German directors Christian Petzold (Yella), Tom Tykwer (Three) and Marc Rothemund (Man tut was man kann). Moreover, she was responsible for the German casting on Roland Emmerich's Anonymous, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Stephen Daldry's The Reader. In 2002, Simone Bär received the German Casting Award at the Cologne Conference.

Marleen Gorris (Director – The Netherlands). Academy Award-winning Marleen Gorris has a large range of internationally acclaimed films on her list of credits. In 1996, Antonia's Line won her various prizes such as the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Her subsequent films have also been critically acclaimed, including The Luzhin Defence (UK), Mrs Dalloway (UK), starring Vanessa Redgrave, Carolina (USA) with Shirley MacLaine, Within the Whirlwind (German co-production) starring Emily Watson. Marleen Gorris is currently preparing two films set in the Netherlands. In addition, she works as a consultant for feature films for the Dutch Film Fund.

© Mikkel Bache

Thure Lindhardt (Actor and SHOOTING STAR 2000 – Denmark) is one of the most critically acclaimed Danish actors of his generation. He garnered international recognition with various films, including Into the Wild (Sean Penn) and two films by Danish director Ole Christian Madsen: Nordkraftand Flame & Citron for which he was nominated as "Best Actor" at the Bodil Awards and the European Film Awards in 2008. In the US, Thure attracted attention with his role in Angels and Demons by Ron Howard. Known in Germany for Love in Thoughts (Achim von Borries), he soon will be seen in the German feature Formentera by Ann-Kristin Reyels, as well as the Bulgarian production The Island (Kamen Kalev).

Matt Mueller (Film Critic – UK) is a London-based film journalist with considerable and award-winning achievements in the industry. He has served as the editor on two British film magazines - Total Film and Premiere's UK edition - and seen his writing published in The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent, Entertainment Weekly, Screen International, GQ and Empire.
A contributing editor for Total Film and Wonderland magazines, he continues to profile some of the biggest names in the business whilst also covering the film world as a respected industry pundit.

Ada Solomon (Producer – Romania). When setting up her company HiFilm Productions in 2004, Ada Solomon had already gained substantial experience as a filmmaker. With HiFilm, Ada has produced award-winning shorts by Cristian Nemescu (Marilena From P7), Radu Jude (The Tube with a Hat) and Paul Negoescu (Renovation), debut features by Melissa de Raaf and Razvan Radulescu (First of all, Felicia) and documentaries by Alexandru Solomon (Cold Waves), among others. She is the initiator of the NexT Film Fest in Bucharest and the Romanian coordinator for EAVE, and was presented by EFP as a Producer on the Move at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2011.