23/11/2023 - Five industry experts are going to select Europe’s most promising up-and-coming acting talents for the new edition of the initiative, set to take place at the 2024 Berlinale

(l-r, top to bottom) Barbara Albert, Moe Dunford, Aisha Bywaters, Živilė Gallego and Vassilis Economou

Five highly renowned experts are waiting in the wings to pick up Europe’s ten most promising acting talents from the nominees for the 27th edition of European Film Promotion (EFP)'s European Shooting Stars (16-19 February, 2024) at the Berlin International Film Festival.

With their combined expertise in various fields of the film industry, the jury members will tackle the challenging task of selecting the ten most talented and internationally versatile up-and-coming actresses and actors from all the candidates who have been nominated by their national film promotion institutes and film centres. This important stepping stone for promising acting talent from throughout Europe is made possible thanks to the financial support of the Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme and the participating national film promotion institutes, EFP’s member organisations.

Austrian director, screenwriter and producer Barbara Albert had her international breakthrough with her feature debut Nordrand, premiered in competition at the 1999 Venice Film Festival, and continued a successful career with titles like Mademoiselle Paradis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Barbara Albert
film profile] and her latest feature film as a director, Blind at Heart, world-premiered at the recent Tokyo International Film Festival. She has also co-founded coop99, which co-produced films such as Toni Erdmann [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Maren Ade
film profile] and Quo Vadis Aida? [+see also:
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interview: Jasmila Žbanić
film profile]

Živilė Gallego hails from Lithuania and was 2015 Producer on the Move The multi-award winning producer and founder of Fralita Films has been responsible for films such as the 2015 Lithuanian Oscar submission and Sundance winner The Summer of Sangailė [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alanté Kavaïté
film profile] and the recent Remember to Blink [+see also:
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interview: Austėja Urbaitė
film profile] won the Lithuanian National Awards "Silver Crane" in the categories Best Film, Best Director, and Best Sound Director.

Jury member and former Irish European Shooting Star Moe Dunford recently starred as Alex Kurtz in the second season of The Head. Moe’s recent on-screen appearances include the role of Richter in the US-Film for Netflix Texas Chainsaw Massacre and as Budge in Nightride [+see also:
trailer
film profile], for which he won an IFTA Best Actor award in 2022. Moe will be seen in the second season of The Dry in late 2023 and in Conflict by Aku Louhimes in 2024.

The BAFTA Award for the British sitcom We Are Lady Parts brought Aisha Bywaters international recognition. Her casting credits include the TV series The Baby and Man vs. Bee as well as the critically acclaimed films The Last Tree [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Shola Amoo
film profile] and County Lines [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. Her upcoming projects include Netflix and Film4 feature The Kitchen and Channel 4/Disney’s TV adaption of Candice Carty-Williams’ acclaimed novel Queenie.

The jury is rounded off with the Public Relations officer, senior writer and industry reporter at Cineuropa, Vassilis Economou. Previously, he programmed at the Tallinn Black Night Film Festival, gained experience as international press coordinator at the Odesa International Film Festival and was a member of the advisory board of the Antalya Film Forum.

At the Berlin International Film Festival the ten selected talents will take part in four-day tailor made programme of networking and press as well as industry events, culminating in the glamorous presentation of the European Shooting Stars Awards at the Berlinale Palast. The selected talents will be announced in mid December.