Juries

Alik Shpilyuk

Artistic Director of Ukrainian Film Academy, Program Director of IFAF “KROK”, Program Advisor of Odessa IFF, member of the Expert Commission of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, Head of the Ukrainian Oscar committee, member and expert of the European Film Academy, expert at EURIMAGES, member of FIPRESCI.

Anna Kazejak

Anna Kazejak is an internationally acclaimed Polish director and screenwriter. Graduate of The Polish National Film, Television and Thatre School in Lodz. In her almost 17-year film career she directed 5 feature films and 5 premium tv series, among others Ode to Joy premiered at Rotterdam IFF, The Word premiered at Berlinale, Fucking Bornholm premiered and awarded at Karlovy Vary IFF (Europa Cinemas Label). She currently developing 2 new projects as a director and one tv series as a creative producer. One of her upcoming films will be an adaptation of a fregments of a novel Flighs from recent Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk. Anna Kazejak is a member of the European Film Academy, Polish Film Academy and Polish Directors Guild.

Maik Schöttke

Maik Schöttke studied Media Education - Audiovisual Culture and Communication in Magdeburg and graduated with a Master of Arts in 2014. He specialised in film early on, so that film history became a compulsory programme for him every semester. During his studies, he worked part-time first at ZDF and later at MDR's regional broadcasting centre in Magdeburg, as well as in the editorial department and in studio direction. He then produced moving images professionally for the entire VW Group for three years, until he was hired by Volkswagen Financial Services in corporate communications in 2017. Since then, he has been responsible for internal film productions, studio technology and live streams in the media centre.

Sophie Brakemeier

Sophie Brakemeier is a media scholar, film critic and programme coordinator at goEast - Festival of Central and Eastern European Film. Since 2019 she is a permanent member and former editorial director of the project FILMLÖWIN - Das feministische Filmmagazin.

Prof. Dr. Sabine Brombach

Prize donor, professor at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, focus: gender & diversity. Social scientist, women's officer; study projects on the topic: women and girls; education, counselling, coaching. Worked in France, Great Britain, Morocco, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia.

Verena Gräfe-Höft

Verena Gräfe-Höft is a Hamburg-based producer and founder of JUNAFILM. She is a member of the EAVE Producer Network and an alumna of the European TV Drama Labs & Inside Pictures. In 2017 she was chosen by German Films as Producer on the Move in Cannes. In 2019 she won the Producer Award at Filmfest Hamburg.

Dr Gabriele Heinen-Kljajić

After graduating from high school in the town of Mechernich (1981), Heinen-Kljajić studied political science, German language and literature and sociology at the University of Bonn (MA 1989). In 1990, she became a research assistant at the universities of Gießen, Frankfurt am Main and Jena as part of the Volkswagen Foundation's research project "Arms Control in Western Europe". She served as Minister for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony and is still active in various bodies in the fields of science, culture and education.

Klaus Buhlmann

Prize donor. Born Braunschweig. He began his professional career at the Braunschweiger Zeitung newspaper and later moved to the Lower Saxony Police. There he worked for many years as head of department and spokesman for the Braunschweig police directorate. Since his retirement, he has enthusiastically devoted himself to his passion for theatre and film.

Bibiana Beglau

Since the beginning of her career, Bibiana Beglau has worked with the directors responsible for transforming contemporary theater and cinema. She performed regularly under the direction of Christoph Schlingensief, Dimiter Gotscheff, Einar Schleef, Frank Castorf, Luk Perceval, Martin Kušej, Sebastian Nübling and Thomas Ostermeier before winning national and international acclaim for her leading role in Volker Schlöndorff’s feature film 'The Legend of Rita'.
In 2014 she was nominated ‘Actress of the Year’ by the theater trade magazine Theater heute, and was awarded the German Theater Prize Der Faust in 2015 for her exceptional acting performance. Bibiana Beglau is a member of the Academy of Arts and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.
Photo: Rafaela Pröll

Sabine Weimann

Abitur in Hamburg. Grew up in Cologne and Aachen. Studied at the Free University of Berlin. Sabine Weimann looks back on 30 years of professional experience in casting for film and television. During this time she initiated two new casting departments for UFA, including team building and management. Projects she has worked on include All You Need, Bonusfamilie, Meine Tochter Helen, Hinter Gittern, Soko Wismar, Tatort, Rudi Dutschke, die Ungehorsame, die Schatzinsel, etc.
 

Prof. Dr. Ing. Klaus Fricke

Klaus Fricke studied geology and paleontology at the Georg-August University in Göttingen and then completed a one-year supplementary course in environmental protection at the University of Kassel. Here he found his way into waste and resource management. In 1999, he accepted an appointment at the Technical University of Braunschweig. There he is head of the chair for waste and resource management. As Dean of Studies at the Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, he has been responsible for the international master's program "Sustainable Settlement and Infrastructure Planning in Urban Areas" since 2008. Since 2004, Klaus Fricke has been the editorial director and publisher of the journal "Müll und Abfall". In addition to his higher-level editorial activities, he is responsible for the topic area "international waste management". He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Öko-Institut e. V.

Natalie Lettenewitsch

Research assistant at the Seminar for Film Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, research work on nature documentary film and other topics. Previously program work, editorial and organizational activities at various film institutions and festivals.

Robin Ivy Osterkamp

Robin Ivy Osterkamp (no pronoun) is a speaker for trans* and non-binary topics at the Landesfachstelle Trans* des Queeren Netzwerk Niedersachsen, a research assistant at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Hanover and an honorary board member of the Bundesverband Trans*.

Kai S. Pieck

Kai S. Pieck is an award-winning director and writer for film/TV/streaming, event and stage. In 2018 he initiated the Queer Media Society, an initiative of queer media professionals to make visible and represent queer content and people in the media.

Nadine Wrietz

The Berlin actress has been in front of the camera since she was 11. She was an ensemble member of the renowned "Theater Strahl" for several years and has appeared in more than 100 different cinema and TV productions over the past 35 years. Especially her portrayal of the self-sacrificing mother "Betty" in "DIESES BESCHEUERTE HERZ" was well received by critics and audiences. Nadine Wrietz is a member of the German Film Academy and was part of the "Actout" initiative in 2021. She lives with her wife and child in Berlin Kreuzberg.