Berlin Film Festival Unveils New Selection Committee Under Tricia Tuttles Leadership

Under the new leadership of Tricia Tuttle, the Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the members of its selection committee for different Berlinale sections including the Competition, Berlinale Specialand Perspectives. The upcoming edition will mark the first spearheaded by Tuttle, who succeeds to Carlo Chatrian and Maritte Rissenbeek.

Under the new leadership of Tricia Tuttle, the Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the members of its selection committee for different Berlinale sections including the Competition, Berlinale Special and Perspectives. The upcoming edition will mark the first spearheaded by Tuttle, who succeeds to Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek.

The four members of the new-look selection board are Mathilde Henrot, programmer, a producer and the co-founder of Festival Scope. She was a member of the selection committee of the Locarno Film Festival from 2018 to 2024 and has been a programmer for the Sarajevo Film Festival since 2012.

Jessica Kiang, a Berlin based film critic, essayist and programmer who regularly writes reviews for Variety. Kiang has been writing about film for almost 15 years. Since 2022 she has been the international programmer of the Belfast Film Festival.

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Jacqueline Nsiah is afilm festival, art and culture consultant based in Accra, Ghana. She has served as project manager at the Goethe-Institut and joined the Berlinale selection committee in 2023.

Elad Samorzik is a film programmer who previously worked for a decade as artistic director of the Jerusalem Film Festival from 2014 to 2024. 

“Berlinale welcomes nearly 20,000 international professionals each year, while also attracting over 324,000 public admissions,” said Tuttle, a progressive American film journalist and curator who led the BFI London Film Festival during a fast-growing five-year chapter. She was appointed by Germany’s culture minister Claudia Roth to turn the Berlinale into a proper rival to Cannes and Venice, while maintaining its flare for arthouse cinema.

“We introduce films locally which we hope will go on to reach audiences around the globe; it is always a privilege to be part of this journey, as we know that cinema is an art form that is as dazzlingly vibrant as it is vital,” she continued.

She said one of the most important aspect for this committee was to put together a “team with tremendous knowledge and networks, as well as different perspectives and tastes.”

“This group brings a generous love of diverse forms of cinema and an excitement about sharing that passion,” she continued.

The committee, which will be co-chaired by Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stütz, and overseen by Tuttle, will be in charge of selecting the films competing for the Golden and Silver Bears and those screening as Berlinale Special Presentations. Existing heads of sections will also contribute to these selections. All will select films competing in the new Perspectives section for the Best First Feature Award and for the nominations for the Best Documentary Award. 

The committee will also be completed by a group of delegates and advisors, including film critic and programmer Jin Park who will advise on genre films, and programmer Rowan Woods, along with Berlin-based curator and programmer Ana David, Glasgow-based film programmer, festival organiser Kate Taylor, Berlin-based curator Rabih El-Khoury and journalist and curator Toby Ashraf will be advisors involved in the general preselection. 

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