CONVERSATIONS WITH THE STARS
The 16th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival is proud to welcome a glorious delegation of award-winning and up-and-coming guest artists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and beyond!
Lighting up the stage are: Academy Award winner, director Pepe Danquart; Turkish-German screenwriter Nesrin Samdereli and director Yasemin Samdereli of “Almanya,” German Film Awards’ Best Film in Silver; Austrian documentary filmmakers Nina Kusturica and Nora Friedel; Swiss actor Nicolas Hugentobler; director Andres Veiel of If Not Us, Who, winner of Berlinale 2011’s Alfred Bauer Award; the 2011 Swiss Film Prize Best Actor Scherwin Amini; director Peter Luisi of The Sandman, Max Ophüls Festival’s 2011 Audience Award winner; accomplished actor-director Stefan Weinert; actor Milan Peschel of Stopped on Track, winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard Ex-aequo at 2011 Festival de Cannes; and the celebrated director of Switzerland’s #1 box office hit of 2010, Sennentuntschi, Michael Steiner.
Actor Scherwin Amini was born in 1992 and currently lives in Lucerne. In 2009, he produced the short film Reinfall with Peter Girsberger. Reinfall was shown at the Schweizer Jugendfilmtage (Swiss Youth Film Days) and was presented with the Luzerner Nachwuchsfilmpreis (film award for up-and-coming talent). In 2011, he received the Swiss Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film Bold Heroes.
Director-Writer Pepe Danquart was born in 1955. From 1975-81, he studied Media & Communication at Freiburg University and was a founding Member of Media Workshop Freiburg (MWF). He became a member of the European Film Academy in 1994 and graduated from the European producers school EAVE in 1995. In 1994 he won an Academy Award for his short film Black Rider (Schwarzfahrer). In 2000 he won the German Film Award for Best Director for Home Game. In addition to his work as a director/writer, he teaches various film schools in Germany, and works as a dramaturgical adviser and producer for documentary films. He is the creative partner of producer Mirjam Quinte (Quinte Film Production) and is a commission editor at the National Cultural Film Fund (BKM) in the Ministry of Culture of Germany.
Since several years Alice Dwyer is one of the most requested actresses of her generation. She has impressed the audience with her roles in Distant Lights (Lichter, 2003/Director: Hans Christian Schmid), Kombat Sechzehn (2005/with Ludwig Trepte and Florian Bartholomäi), Das Lächeln der Tiefseefische (2005/with Jacob Matschenz and Adrian Topol) and Freischwimmer (2007/ with August Diehl). Dwyer has a special charisma of a subtle, quiet but still powerful young woman, who is diverse and profound. Among her current projects are the leading role in Anna Justice's international feature film Remembrance. In 2008 Alice Dwyer has been awarded with a Max Ophüls Prize as Best Young Actress for her role in Höhere Gewalt / Die Tränen meiner Mutter.
Nora Friedel works for Mobilefilm Production. Since 2007 at the company, she has fulfilled a variety of roles including project-development, international relations and assistant directorship. She has produced and directed 10 short films. In 2010, she graduated in Transmedia Art from the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Actor Nicolas Hugentobler was born in 1990 in Erlenbach, Canton Zurich. Nicolas used to be a junior trainer with FC Herrliberg and still plays soccer with FC Herrliberg. He graduated from high school in 2009, and has supported a school project in Honduras with his final paper. He is currently a university student, and enjoys traveling and sports. He made his screen debut as an actor in Michael Schaerer's Bold Heroes.
Director-Writer Nina Kusturica was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1975. She has lived in Vienna in 1992 since the beginning of war in Sarajevo. She studied Directing at the Vienna Film Academy. Directing of feature films and documentaries, she has participated and won prizes in numerous film festivals. In 2003 she co-founded the film production company Mobilefilm.
Director Peter Luisi has attracted attention with his feature films Verflixt Verliebt (BBFF 2005), Love Made Easy and The Sandman, as well as being co-author of Fredi Murer’s Vitus. His films have earned the Zurich Film Prize, 8 nominations for the Swiss Film Prize, the Grant Award, and the Audience Prize at Max Ophül Filmfestival.
Screenwriter Nesrin Samdereli was born in 1979. She studied screenwriting at the Berlin Film Academy (DFFB). After several short films and one feature film for television Alles getürkt!, her cinema debut is Almanya – Welcome to Germany. It premiered at Berlinale 2011, and has won several awards in Germany (including the Golden Lola for Best Screenplay), Belgium, and Ukraine. She also works as a codirector with her sister Yasemin Samdereli.
Director Yasemin Samdereli was born in 1973 and studied at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). She has worked in pedagogical media projects, and began directing short films in the ‘90s. In 2002, she realized her first television production Alles getürkt, and in 2007 the comedy Ich Chef, du nix followed. She co-wrote the award-winning and popular series Turkish for Beginners (2006). The film Almanya – Welcome to Germany is her cinema debut as director.
Director Michael Steiner was born in 1969 in Hergiswil SG, Switzerland. He is one of Switzerland’s most successful directors. He studied Ethnology, Art History and Film at the University of Zurich. He has worked as a journalist, a press photographer, and as a director at Condor Film, Zurich. His previous two films My Name is Eugene and Grounding were both blockbusters in his home country, and welcomed around one million admissions. My Name is Eugene won the Swiss Film Prize for Best Picture in 2006 and the Audience Award for Best Children’s Movie at the Montreal Children Film Festival 2006. With sales of more than 140,000 tickets, Sennentuntschi was last year’s most successful Swiss film. Michael Steiner lives in Zurich and in Manoc Manoc, Philippines.
Director Andres Veiel was born in Stuttgart in 1959. Parallel to his studies in psychology in the 1980s, he studied film and theater direction at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien. His cinema debut was Winternachtstraum (1992). In his very personal film The Survivors (1996), he explores the stories of three classmates who committed suicide. In the acclaimed Black Box BRD (BBFF 2001), he compares the CV’s of the RAF terrorist Wolfgang Grams and victim of RAF, banker Alfred Herrhausen. His theater piece The Kick (2006) about a brutal torture-murder in the Brandenburg village of Potzlow, also became a film. If Not Us, Who is his first live-action feature film.
Director & Screenwriter Stefan Weinert studied set and stage design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Trained as an actor in Cologne and New York, he has worked as: an actor in theatre and film; a stage designer at operas of Cologne and Vienna; a curator at the Videotheater Barcelona; an art director at the Opera Barcelona; and a film producer.
