European Film Promotion (EFP) has announced the ten up-and-coming European acting talents selected for the 28th edition of European Shooting Stars. They will be introduced to the international press, film industry and public during the 75th Berlinale (13-23 February 2025). As part of this initiative, the actors will participate in a tailor-made, four-day programme – substantially supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe – MEDIA programme – that will peak with the European Shooting Stars awards ceremony on 17 February at the Berlinale Palast.

The 2025 European Shooting Stars were selected by an international jury, composed of Romanian director-screenwriter Radu Muntean, Swedish casting director Pauline Hansson, Swiss producer Amel Soudani, French actress and former Shooting Star Ludivine Sagnier, and Montenegrin journalist and curator Vuk Perović (see the news). These five experts recognised the talents’ remarkable potential for an international career, citing several factors, including their outstanding work in the feature films and drama series which were submitted for their nomination.

“A big thanks to the jury for their critical eye and for making this year’s selection. It was not an easy task, among so many excellent nominees. We are delighted to warmly welcome this exceptional group of emerging talents to the European Shooting Stars family. This year, we are thrilled to have Cyprus and Montenegro represented in the programme for the very first time. We are confident that all of these dynamic forces will benefit from the programme, which we have been able to enhance with the support of our new partners: MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Hessen Film & Medien and Film- und Medienstiftung NRW,” says Tina Hajon, programme director of European Shooting Stars.

The 2025 European Shooting Stars are: Marina Makris (Cyprus), Besir Zeciri (Denmark), Maarja Johanna Mägi (Estonia), Devrim Lingnau (Germany), Elín Hall (Iceland), Kārlis Arnolds Avots (Latvia), Šarūnas Zenkevičius (Lithuania), Lidija Kordić (Montenegro), Vicente Wallenstein (Portugal) and Frida Gustavsson (Sweden). The quotes below are from the jury.

Marina Makris is a well-known Cypriot performer, recently crowned Best Actress at the Cyprus Film Days International Festival for her striking performance in Adonis Floridis’s compelling drama Africa Star (2024). The jury is attracted by her ‟Mediterranean magnetism” and honours Makris as a ‟brilliant, intelligent actress – she has an intense, profound look, and carries with her a womanly strength, as though she can carry the world on her shoulders”.

Born in Copenhagen and with Albanian heritage, Besir Zeciri from Denmark reflects a diverse new wave of Scandinavian actor. Having once considered a career in the police force, Zeciri had his attentions diverted when joining a theatre company in 2009. From there, his career has blossomed, culminating in a leading role in Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle [+lire aussi :
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interview : Magnus von Horn
fiche film] (2024), which premiered at Cannes and is Denmark’s official Oscar entry. The jury lauds his ‟real presence in the film which ensures the audience will struggle to forget him”.

Maarja Johanna Mägi is well-known to Estonian audiences, appealing to both adults and children on local television. She became known for her role in Elmo Nüganen’s film trilogy Melchior the Apothecary (2022), for which Mägi was awarded Best Film Actress at the Estonian Film Awards. The jury praised her versatility, especially in her latest film, Aurora (2025): ‟She has so many faces, but you can see the disturbed character on each of them. Her role comes with religious rigidity, transpiring in her emancipation as she inspires a revolution inside her own family, and she portrays this with the strength of a hurricane.”

German actress Devrim Lingnau was born in Mannheim, to a Turkish father and a German mother. Lingnau impressed in the British horror flick Carmilla [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (2019) and is also the face of the Emmy-winning Netflix drama series The Empress (2022), which won her the Best Newcomer Award at the German Screen Actor Awards. Her next major role is in Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s thriller Hysteria [+lire aussi :
interview : Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
fiche film] (2025), in which, according to the jury, ‟she is so involved in the character, and yet you don’t see any tools or techniques; it’s as if she is living in the moment, like she hasn’t read a script, and is just embedded in the truth of the story”.

Born in Canada, Elín Hall from Iceland began to showcase her ability in the likes of Let Me Fall [+lire aussi :
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interview : Baldvin Z
interview : Kristin Thora Haraldsdóttir
fiche film] (2018) and Cold (2023). Her performance exploring the complexity of grief in Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rúnar Rúnarsson
fiche film] (2024), which opened the Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes 2024, has earned her numerous awards. Hall ‟internalises the character, and you’re drawn to her; you never get tired of her. She is carrying a secret in the film, and it’s like the viewer is her sole confidante,” as the five film experts concluded. Elín also straddles the line between music and film, with two albums already to her name. 

Latvian actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots is building a career through unique and challenging roles. He starred in Viesturs Kairišs’s January [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (2022), which was submitted as Latvia’s official entry for the Academy Awards, and it won Avots the Best Actor Award at the Rome Film Fest in 2022. Besides this, he has enjoyed further international recognition, with the thesp taking home the top acting prize at Series Mania in Lille, for his performance in Soviet Jeans [+lire aussi :
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fiche série] (2024), which also convinced the jury: ‟His performance […] shows that he is equally as adept at comedy as he is tragedy, as he brings humour to the role, but he suffers a lot. He is energetic and yet sensitive.”

Lithuanian actor Šarūnas Zenkevičius has already starred in films at numerous international festivals: Frost [+lire aussi :
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interview : Sharunas Bartas
fiche film] (2017) premiered at Cannes and The Flood Won’t Come [+lire aussi :
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interview : Marat Sargsyan
fiche film] (2020) at Venice. Other notable works include the short film I Was Max (2022) and his leading role in Ignas Jonynas’s Borderline (2025), where he plays a troubled ornithologist who gets involved in smuggling. His performance overwhelmed the jury: ‟While the intensity rises in the film, he keeps all that tension inside him, without bursting. It’s very easy to be melodramatic, which he avoids. Instead, he contains all the energy, and he is like a bomb that is waiting to explode.”

Lidija Kordić from Montenegro started acting professionally while still studying at drama school. With a starring turn in Working Class Goes to Hell [+lire aussi :
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interview : Mladen Djordjević
fiche film] (2023) on home soil, plus the Turkish production Ataturk 1881-1919 (2023), Kordić will next be seen gracing the screen in the Italian feature Diva Futura [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] (2025). The jury considers Kordić courageous, and praises her ‟charming and charismatic performance” in this sumptuous period piece that sees her play famous adult film star Cicciolina.

2024 was a good year for Portuguese actor Vicente Wallenstein, having taken a starring role in Luis Filipe Rocha’s Your Face Will Be the Last, which also allowed him to display his talents as a pianist. The jury recognises Wallenstein’s ‟richness of diverse characters and his distinct versatility”, and lauds his performance ‟displaying the struggles and trauma within his character with a subtle sensitivity”. Last year also saw Wallenstein appear in both Romagem and After Dance – a Concert Film. He also enjoyed a shorter experience, on Paddington in Peru.

Frida Gustavsson hails from Sweden and belongs to the Bergmanian school of performance. This much is evident in her uniquely complex turn as Marieanne in the drama series Faithless (2024), which is based on an original script by the legendary filmmaker, resulting in rave reviews since its premiere at Toronto. The jury, who characterise her as a ‟charismatic and magnetic performer”, are also full of praise: ‟Even when doing nothing, she is vibrant. Her performance in Faithless presents a difficult challenge, but she tackles the role with such subtlety and intimacy. She uses minimalistic ways to express very strong feelings.” Other screen credits include supporting roles in major shows such as Vikings: Valhalla (2022) and Netflix’s The Witcher (2019). Gustavsson also impressed in the Swedish Oscar entry Tigers [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ronnie Sandahl
fiche film] (2020), while her next project sees her share the screen with Joel Kinnaman, in Ice Fall (2025).

Read more about each European Shooting Star and the full events programme here, and stay tuned to watch our interviews with all of them.