American actor, screenwriter and director Kristen Stewart is considered one of Hollywood’s major talents. At the age of nine, she celebrated her screen debut, three years later, she starred in David Fincher’s “Panic Room” and achieved wider public recognition. Her international breakthrough came with the five-part “Twilight saga”. She was the first American to receive the French film award César. She celebrated her directorial and screenwriting debut with the short film “Come Swim” and has been a member of the International Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Kristen has become one of the most eminent international actors, thrilling audiences and critics alike. She is currently working on her feature-length directorial debut.

Born in Iran in 1983, Golshifteh Farahani began her acting career as a teenager. When she was just 16, she won Best Actress at the Fajr International Film Festival for her role in “The Pear Tree”. Later, she was in Bahman Ghobadi’s “Half Moon” (2006), and in Iran’s submission for the 2008 Academy Awards,” M for Mother” (2006). Her first appearance at the Berlinale was in 2009, starring in Asghar Farhadi’s “About Elly”, which won the Silver Bear for Best Director. Since 2009, the actor and musician has been based in Paris, working primarily in French and English language films. In 2014, she was nominated for a César Award for her role in Atiq Rahimi’s “The Patience Stone”.

After first studying German and philosophy, Valeska Grisebach began her film studies in Vienna. For her graduation film “Be My Star” (2001), she was nominated for the Grimme Prize and received the First Steps Award, the top prize at the Torino Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Prize in Toronto. Her second feature film “Longing” was invited to the Competition of the Berlinale. The film subsequently won prizes at numerous international festivals. Her film “Western” celebrated its world premiere in Un Certain Regard in Cannes. She received the German Film Award in Bronze, the German Film Critics’ Prize as well as prizes in Tromsø, Ludwigshafen, Seville, Mar del Plata and Istanbul, among others. In addition, Valeska, who also taught at the DFFB (German Film and Television Academy Berlin), has served as a jury member at festivals such as Locarno and the Cinéfondation in Cannes.

The Bucharest native Radu Jude, born in 1977, was already a popular guest at the Berlinale before receiving the Golden Bear in 2021 for the comedy “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”. His first fiction film “The Happiest Girl in the World” celebrated its world premiere in Forum, where “Everybody in Our Family” and “Uppercase Print” also screened, as well as the documentary “The Exit of the Trains” - which he co-directed with Adrian Cioflâncă. His first film in Competition, “Aferim!” won the Silver Bear for Best Director. One year later, Radu received the Jury Award in Locarno for “Scarred Hearts”, and in 2018, “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” won the Crystal Globe for Best Film in Karlovy Vary. Most recently, his short film “The Potemkinists” screened in 2022 at Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes.

Francine Maisler is one of the film industry’s most recognised and prolific casting directors. Already a ten-time recipient of the Artios Award of the Casting Society of America, Francine’s other distinctions include an Emmy, a Hollywood Film Award, two Independent Spirit Awards, and two BAFTA nominations. To date, she’s worked with directors such as Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig, Steve McQueen, Denis Villeneuve, Nora Fingscheidt and Yorgos Lanthimos. Films she has cast have been screened frequently at the Berlinale. Most recently, Francine worked on the films “Dune” by Denis Villeneuve, “She Said” by Maria Schrader and Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All”. Her upcoming films include Bong Joon-Ho’s “Mickey 17”, Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part 2” and “Joker: Folie à Deux” by Todd Phillips.

Filmmaker Carla Simón’s career is closely connected to the Berlinale. In 2017, her autobiographical feature-length film debut “Estiu 1993” celebrated its world premiere in the section Generation, and won both the Best First Feature Award as well as the Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury. The film went on to win three Goyas and over 30 more awards at international festivals, was nominated for an European Film Award in the category Best First Feature, and selected as Spain’s submission for the Academy Awards. This past year, the director, who grew up in a Catalan village, won the Berlinale Golden Bear for her second film “Alcarràs” and was nominated for eleven Goyas and three European Film Awards. In 2019, Carla Simón won the Eurimage Co-Production Development Award for the project at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. Her most recent short film “Letter to My Mother for my Son” screened at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.

Dennis Lim is a writer and film curator in New York City. Since 2013 he has been the director of programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where he also serves on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival, as co-chair of the New Directors/New Films programming committee, and as co-organizer of annual and recurring programs including Art of the Real, Print Screen, and Projections.