European Film Promotion (EFP) is delighted to announce this year’s jury: 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 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 for the latest edition of EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS. 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 of the European Union and the participating national film promotion institutes, EFP’s member organisations.
Austrian director, screenwriter and producer Barbara Albert had her international breakthrough with the feature film debut Nordrand, which premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 1999. Leading actress Nina Proll was honoured with the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actress and a year later was celebrated as Austria’s European Shooting Star. Barbara Albert is co-founded coop99, which produced European arthouse films such as The Edukators, Darwin’s Nighmare, Toni Erdmann and Quo Vadis Aida?, which was nominated for an Oscar as best International Feature Film. Her sixth feature film as a director, Blind Heart, celebrated its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2023.
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 by Alantė Kavaitė, the national box office hit Emilia, Breaking Free by Donatas Ulvydas and, A Butterflys‘ Heart by Inesa Kurklietytė. Her recent film Remember to Blink by Austėja Urbaitė 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 by Jorge Dorado alongside John Lynch. Moe’s recent on-screen appearances include the role of Richter in the US-Film for Netflix Texas Chainsaw Massacre by David Blue Garcia and as Budge in Stephen Fingleton’s Nightride, 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 by Nida Manzoor 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 by Shoola Amoo and County Lines by Henry Blake. Her upcoming projects include Netflix and Film4 feature The Kitchen by Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya 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.org, 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.
For 27 years, European Film Promotion has presented its flagship programme EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS during the Berlin International Film Festival – an initiative designed to discover and promote talented actresses and actors from throughout Europe to the international film scene.
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 EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS 2024 will be announced in mid December.
For further information about the jury see below.
UK
In 2022 Aisha won a BAFTA TV Craft Award for scripted casting for TV show We Are Lady Parts. Her TV credits include The Baby for Sister Pictures and HBO / Sky, Netflix’s Man vs. Bee and Working Title’s BBC TV adaptation of Everything I Know About Love. Aisha’s film credits include The Last Tree and Polite Society. Her upcoming projects include Netflix and Film4 feature The Kitchen directed by Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya and Channel 4 / Disney’s adaptation of Candice Carty-Williams’ acclaimed novel Queenie.
Aisha Bywaters – Casting Director
UK
Austria
Barbara Albert studied Directing and Screenwriting at the Vienna Film Academy. Her first feature, Nordrand, was in competition in Venice in 1999, where Nina Proll won the Award for the best young acting talent. Albert then co-founded her production company coop99 - a leading producer of European arthouse films such as The Edukators, Toni Erdmann and Quo Vadis, Aida? which was nominated for the best International Feature Film at the Oscars 2021. Her 6th feature film Blind at Heart premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2023. Coming full circle, she is now a professor at the Vienna Film Academy.
Barbara Albert – Director
Austria
Lithuania
Živilė Gallego created Fralita Films in 2009. Films produced by the company include Sundance winner of the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic and 2015 Lithuanian candidate for the Oscar The Summer of Sangailė by Alantė Kavaitė, the award-winning A Butterfly’s Heart by Inesa Kurklietytė and Remember to Blink by Austėja Urbaitė which won 2023 Best Film and FIPRESCI awards at GoEast Film Festival and the Lithuanian National Awards “Silver Crane” for Best Film, Best Director and Best Sound Director. Gallego is a graduate of EAVE and ESoDoc, and was selected by EFP as a Producer on the Move in 2015.
Živilė Gallego – Producer
Lithuania
Greece
Vassilis Economou serves as the Public Relations officer, senior writer, and industry reporter at Cineuropa.org. As a producer, he leads development and promotion for Asphalt, a new genre production house. Previously, he was a programmer and selection committee member for the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the International Press Coordinator at the Odesa International Film Festival and a member of the Antalya Film Forum Consultants' Board. He has collaborated with Locarno Pro and served on the pre-selection committee for Le Groupe Ouest's project development platform, Less is More.
Vassilis Economou – Film Critic
Greece
Ireland
Moe Dunford, a graduate of the Gaiety School of Acting, performs for both stage and screen. Most recently, he was series regular Alex Kurtz in season 2 of The Head and Richter in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which held the Number 1 spot globally on Netflix. Dunford also appeared in Nightride in early 2022 in the lead role of Budge and went on to win a 2022 IFTA for Best Actor for this role. He won the Breakthrough Artist Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival 2019, where he also won the Best Actor Award for his work in The Dig. Dunford was Ireland’s Shooting Star at the 2015 Berlinale.
Moe Dunford – Actor
Ireland
