International Guests of the Festival

Alice Rathert

Alice Rathert is a producer at Post Republic’s Berlin studio. She oversees post production for both picture and sound on projects of various scales and budgets, both theatrical and high-end episodic. As a VFX producer she also managed visual effects for feature films and episodic on behalf of the studio's VFX arm AUTOMATIK vfx. As a producer/vfx producer she has worked on projects like Roter Himmel (directed by Christian Petzold), Unorthodox (directed by Maria Schrader), and Love Trilogy: Naked/Chained/Reborn (directed by Yaron Shani).

Stephan Komandarev

Stephan Komandarev is a Bulgarian director, producer and scriptwriter, who has a number of award-wining fiction and documentary films such as: 2023 - “BLAGA’S LESSONS” (2023) – fiction, Grand Prix Cristal Globe and Best Actress Award - Karlovy vary IFF  2023. “ROUNDS” (2019, fiction – premiered at Sarajevo FF, won 13 awards, “DIRECTIONS” (POSOKI) (2017, fiction - premiered at “Un Certain Regard” Cannes film festival 2017, won 12 awards), “THE WORLD IS BIG AND SALVATION LURKS AROUND THE CORNER” (2008 - the first Bulgarian film, shortlisted for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (2010), the most world-wide theatrical released Bulgarian film ever, won 35 awards); “THE JUDGMENT” (2014) (winner of 12 awards, Bulgarian entry for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film – 2016); He is 2011 EAVE graduate and Member of the Bulgarian Film Directors’ Association and Bulgarian Film Producers’ Association. Member of the European Film Academy.

Guillaume de Seille

Guillaume de Seille, b 1968, studied civil engineering. After two awarded short-films as writer/director, he worked ten years for Canal+ in the cinema department (presales of French and European films), was commissioning editor for a couple of years within the short film department of Canal+ and artistic producer for French public broadcaster France 2. Independent producer since 2000, he produced or co-produced with Arizona more than 60 non-French feature art-house films invited in every major festivals and theatrically released in France.

Hesitation Wound by Selman Nacar (Turkey), Venice Orizzonti 2023 Cold as Marble by Asif Rustamov (Azerbaijan), Tallinn Black Nights best director 2022 Herd immunity by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan), Tallinn Black Nights 2021 Sughra’s sons by Ilgar Najaf (Azerbaijan) Busan 2021 Kerr by Tayfun Pirselimoglu (Turkey), Antalya best director & Warsaw 2021 Between two dawns by Selman Nacar (Turkey) San Sebastian & Antalya Special Jury 2021 Yellow cat by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan), Venice Orizzonti 2020 A dark, dark man by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan), San Sebastian 2019 Oleg by Juris Kursietis (Latvia), Cannes Directors Fortnight 2019 The man who surprised everyone by Natalia Merkulova & Alexei Chupov (Russia), Venice Orizzonti best supporting actress 2018 The gentle indifference of the world by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan), Cannes Un Certain Regard 2018 Ága by Milko Lazarov (Bulgaria), Berlinale out of competition 2018

Laila Pakalnina

Laila Pakalnina graduated from the Moscow Film Institute (VGIK), Department of Film Direction, in 1991. A director and scriptwriter of 32 documentaries, 5 shorts, and 6 fiction features, altogether she has 43 films, 2 children, 1 husband, 2 dogs and 2 bicycles. And many ideas for new films. Her films have screened in official programmes at Cannes, Venice, Berlinale, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Rome, Tallinn and other international festivals, where they have won numerous awards.

Mariëtte Rissenbeek

Mariëtte Rissenbeek is the Managing Director of the Berlin International Film Festival. Born in the Netherlands, she studied German language and literature, theatre studies and sociology at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht and the Freie Universität Berlin. In 1986, Mariëtte joined the film distribution company, Tobis Film, handling acquisitions as well as the exploitation of ancillary German-speaking rights. In 1995, she moved into film production and worked as a producer at Ziegler Film where she produced several different film formats. In 1998, she established her own production company in Hamburg and worked with Mika Kaurismäki before moving to the Munich-based production company Hofmann & Voges in 2000. In 2003, Mariëtte Rissenbeek became responsible for international festival relationships and public relations at German Films, the German organisation for the international promotion of German cinema. She became Deputy Managing Director at German Films in 2006 and Managing Director in 2011.

Mihai Chirilov

Artistic director and co-founder of Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF). Artistic consultant of International Documentary Festival FARAD, Romania. Artistic director of the Making Waves Romanian Film Festival in New York. Film critic and member of FIPRESCI and the European Film Academy. Curator of various Romanian film programs abroad (among others, for Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY) and co-organizer of the complete Lucian Pintilie retrospective at MoMA, in 2012. Hundreds of articles and essays, and co-author of the books "Lars von Trier: The Films, the Women, the Ghosts" and "New Romanian Cinema: From Comrade Ceaușescu to Mr. Lăzărescu". Romanian translator of several novels by Chuck Palahniuk - "Choke", "Diary" and "Snuff". Jury duties in many film festivals, including the Teddy Jury in Berlinale, Hong Kong, Karlovy Vary, Goteborg, Chicago, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Moscow, Vilnius a.s.o.

Giona Nazzaro

Giona A. Nazzaro: Locarno Film Festival, Delegate General for Venice International Film Critics Week, IFFR – Rotterdam, Visions du Réel. Worked also for Torino Film Festival and Festa del cinema di Roma. Acted as member of the Eidg. Filmkommission CH (Switzerland) and is part of the Sindacato Nazionale Critici Cinematografici Italiani. Film critic and author.

Sofia Exarchou

Sofia Exarchou is a Greek film director and screenwriter. In 2014, she was selected for the Sundance Screenwriter's & Director's Lab. Park(2016), her debut feature film, was widely acclaimed after its premiere at Toronto IFF and San Sebastian IFF, where it won the New Directors Award. Her sophomore film, Animal, was selected and participated in L’Atelier(Festival de Cannes, 2020). In August 2023, Animal premiered at Locarno IFF, where it won the Award for Best Performance.

Steffi Niederzoll

Steffi Niederzoll was born in Nuremberg in 1981. She studied audiovisual media arts at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) and the Escuela de Cine y Television in Cuba (EICTV) from 2001-2007. Her short films have successfully screened at numerous renowned national and international film festivals such as Berlinale. She participated in various directing master classes and was a scholarship holder at the Cultural Academy Tarabya, Turkey. In addition to her film work, she is also involved in interdisciplinary artistic works. She was a member of the core group of the collective “1000 Gestalten”, which caused a worldwide sensation with its performance during the G20 summit in Hamburg. Her collective works have been presented at the Brecht Festival, the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde and Vejle, Denmark, among others. Together with Shole Pakravan, she wrote the book “How to Become a Butterfly” about Reyhaneh Jabbari, which was published by Berlin Verlag in 2023. Sieben Winter in Teheran is her debut feature-length documentary.

Yasmine Talli

After studying management of cultural institutions at Sciences Po Lille, Yasmine Talli started her career at ARTE France Cinéma, (the subsidiary of the European TV channel ARTE in charge of film coproductions). She stayed there 2,5 years occupying different positions: first production assistant, then business affairs junior and finally feature length projects coordinator. She worked on coproductions like THE WHISTLERS by Corneliu Porumboiu, COLD WAR by Pawel Pawlikowski, WILD GOOSE LAKE by Diao Yinan, THE SQUARE by Ruben Ostlund, TITANE by Julia Ducournau among many others. After that Yasmine worked for a year for the SOFICA Cofinova - a French private financing company for independent cinema based on tax incentives - as cinema investment manager and financed films like HAPPENING by Audrey Diwan, THE RESTLESS by Joachim Lafosse, or PARIS 13TH by Jacques Audiard. She joined mk2 Films as acquisitions manager in 2021, working both on titles to acquire for international sales and on coproductions.

Marysia Nikitiuk

Graduated from Kyiv Karpenko-Karyi National University. Writes scripts for films since 2012. Her shorts as a writer have been in programs of such film festivals as Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand, Cairo IFF, TISFF, Golden Apricot etc... and awarded with numerous awards. From 2014 Marysia started to shoot her own films as a director, and made three shot films: IN TREES, MANDRAGORA and RABIES. Her first feature film WHEN THE TREES FALL was premiered at 68th International Berlin Film Festival in Panorama section in 2018. In 2019 film EVGE by Nariman Aliev, Marysia co-wrote, was premiered in Cannes Film Festival in Certain Regard section. In 2022 her second feature film LUCKY GIRL was premiered at Tallin Black Nights International Film Festival, in main competition. Now Marysia is finishing her next script CHERRY BLOSSOM, dedicated to Ukrainian-russian war. CHERRY BLOSSOM had won Eurimage development award at Sarajevo Film Festival in 2022

Enzo D’alo

Director, screenwriter and musician, Enzo d’Alò is regarded as one of the leading creators of European animation. He has received several prestigious awards and critical acclaim for his movies and television series, including the Franco Bianchi Award at the 70th Edition of the Venice film Festival. Enzo’s extraordinary body of works includes: La Gabbianella e il Gatto (Lucky and Zorba) a huge success at the Italian box office, with 1.5m tickets sold; Momo alla Conquista del Tempo wich took the prestigious Audience Award at the Montreal Children’s Film Festival; LA Freccia Azzurra (The Blue Arrow), Opopomoz; and Pinocchio wich screened as part of the 69th Festival del Cinema di Venezia before receiving an EFA Awards nomination. Television series Pipì Pupù & Rosemary was created from an original ideaby Enzo and written with Vincenzo Cerami, Academy Award winner for Life Is Beautiful. Distributed worldwide, the series includes 78 episodes, 4 longer specials and a feature film. In 2009 Enzo received a special mention from UNICEF for having married his art with children’s rights, and having shown the differences in opportunities for children’s lives. The following year Enzo was invited to be a guest of honor at the celebration of 50 years of Annecy.

Paola Cortellesi

Her career started in 1995 with her debut on stage, and spanned from cinema to TV earning her the most prestigious awards: Hystrio Award (2007,) Le Maschere Award and Critics Award (2006,) David di Donatello (2011,) Silver Ribbon (2018, 2019,2020,) and Italian Golden Globe (2018.) In 2014, she garnered a double Biglietto d’oro for the box office hits A Boss in the Living Room by Luca Miniero and Sotto una buona stella by Carlo Verdone, as well as a Flaiano Award. Between 2015 and 2019 she wrote and interpreted Do You See Me? by Riccardo Milani, Something New by Cristina Comencini, The Last Will Be the Last by Massimiliano Bruno, Mom or Dad?, Don’t Stop Me Now, and Like a Cat on a Highway, all by Riccardo Milani, In 2018, she starred in The Legend of the Christmas Witch by Michele Soavi. In 2020, she was a leading character in Figli, written by Mattia Torre and directed by Giuseppe Bonito, for which she received a Silver Ribbon for the third year in a row. In 2020 and 2022, she starred in Sky show Petra, directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi, which earned her a Silver Ribbon for the TV. In 2020, she played Nilde Iotti in the documentary movie by Peter Marcias. In 2021, she joined Antonio Albanese for the sequel to Like a Cat on a Highway by Riccardo Milani, which earned a Biglietto d’oro 2021. In 2022, she made her debut as a director with a film of her own writing, There’s Still Tomorrow.

Sudabeh Mortezai

Born in 1968 in Ludwigsburg, Germany, to Iranian parents, Sudabeh Mortezai grew up in Tehran and Vienna. She completed theater & film studies in Vienna and Los Angeles. Her feature debut MACONDO premiered in competition at the Berlinale 2014. Her second feature JOY premiered in Venice in 2018 and has received numerous international awards including Best Film at London Film Festival and the Etoile d'Or at Marrakech Film Festival.