Berlin

Adele Romanski, Foto: © James Laxton; Tom Tykwer, Foto: © Joachim Gern; Stephanie Zacharek 
Chema Prado, Foto: © Chema Prado; Cécile de France, Foto: © Ben Dauchez; Ryūichi Sakamoto, Foto: © nss (zakkubalan)

Once again a multitalented International Jury will decide who will take home the Golden and the Silver Bears at the Berlinale 2018. 19 films are competing for the awards in this year’s Competition. The winners will be announced at the Berlinale Palast on February 24.

Director, screenwriter, film composer, and producer Tom Tykwer will head the jury (see press release from November 2, 2017). The other members of the jury are actress Cécile de France (Belgium), photographer and former director of the Filmoteca Española Chema Prado (Spain), producer Adele Romanski (USA), composer Ryūichi Sakamoto (Japan), and film critic Stephanie Zacharek (USA). Thus six different disciplines related to filmmaking are represented in the International Jury.

Tom Tykwer (Germany) – Jury President

Director, screenwriter, film composer, and producer Tom Tykwer made his first feature, Deadly Maria, in 1993, and achieved his international breakthrough with Run Lola Run in 1998. After The Princess and the Warrior (2000), Tykwer made his first film in English: Heaven, based on Krzysztof Kieślowski’s last screenplay, opened the Berlinale in 2002. Further international productions followed with his adaptation for the screen of Patrick Süskind’s novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) and The International (Berlinale opening film in 2009). After Three (2010), for which Tykwer won the German Film Award for Best Director, came Cloud Atlas (2012), on which he collaborated as a director for the first time with the Wachowskis (the Matrix trilogy). Tykwer went on to compose music for and direct several episodes of the siblings’ Netflix series Sense8 (2015-2017). Tykwer’s feature A Hologram for the King with Tom Hanks in the lead was released in 2016. The filmmaker, who has won countless prizes, has presented six of his films at the Berlinale, most recently the projects Germany 09, 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation (2009), and Rosakinder (2013), both anthology films made with other German directors. In 2017, with Achim von Borries and Henk Handloegten, Tykwer developed and co-directed the highly-acclaimed German series Babylon Berlin.

Cécile de France (Belgium)

Born in Belgium, Cécile de France studied acting in Paris and Lyon. Since 2000, she has appeared regularly in French and international productions. Her big breakthrough was under the direction of Cédric Klapisch in L’auberge espagnole (2002). Later she starred alongside Jackie Chan in Around the World in 80 Days (2004), and filmed with directors such as Xavier Giannoli (Chanson d’amour, 2006 and Superstar, 2012), Claude Miller (Un secret, 2007), Clint Eastwood (Hereafter, 2010), and the Dardenne brothers (Le gamin au vélo, 2010). Most recently she played alongside Jude Law in Paolo Sorrentino’s series, The Young Pope (2016); as well as in Etienne Comar’s Django (2017), the opening film of last year’s Berlinale. Cécile de France has already won two French César Awards. She was nominated for a European Film Award in 2011 and received a Shooting Star Award at the Berlinale in 2003.

Chema Prado (Spain)

After studying architecture and interior design, Chema Prado began working for various film magazines. Then in 1976 he took a position as head of programming at the Filmoteca Española (Spanish National Cinemateque). In 1987 he was appointed the institution’s deputy director; and two years later, its director, a post he held until 2016. For several years he was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). He was also a consultant for the San Sebastian International Film Festival, as well as a jury member at many festivals, including Cannes, Sundance, Locarno, Rotterdam, and Venice. In addition, he is a dedicated photographer and has shown his works in numerous Spanish galleries and museums, as well as in Portugal, France, and Mexico. He was named a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French government, and has been honoured with several Spanish orders of merit, including the Encomienda de Número al Mérito Civil.

Adele Romanski (USA)

Adele Romanski recently won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for producing Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight (2017). Together, she and Jenkins founded the production company PASTEL along with partners Sara Murphy and Mark Ceryak. Prior to this Romanski produced David Robert Mitchell’s The Myth of the American Sleepover (2010), which premiered in Cannes and won her an Independent Spirit Award nomination; and Chad Hartigan’s Sundance competition entry, Morris from America (2016). In addition she also produced the second season of the Golden Globe-nominated series The Girlfriend Experience alongside executive producer Steven Soderbergh, Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan. Romanski is currently producing two new films, If Beale Street Could Talk directed by Jenkins and Under The Silver Lake by Mitchell. Both are now in post-production and will be premiered later this year.

Ryūichi Sakamoto (Japan)

Born 1952 in Tokyo, Sakamoto debuted in 1978 with his solo album “Thousand Knives”. The same year he joined the pioneering electronic-music pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra. In 1983, Sakamoto scored the soundtrack for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, in which he co-starred with David Bowie. Since those early days he has released over a dozen solo albums, created art installations exhibited in various museums around the world, and composed more than thirty film scores for directors including Bernardo Bertolucci, Pedro Almodóvar, Brian De Palma, and more recently Alejandro González Iñárritu for whom he composed the music of The Revenant. His work has been recognized with accolades including an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, a Grammy, and more. Sakamoto has been a fervent defender of environmental and social causes and is particularly committed to reforestation and supporting the victims of the 3/11 earthquake, tsunami, and anti-nuke activism. In 2017, along with the release of his 16^th solo album async and the documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (Stephen Nomura Schible), Sakamoto continued composing film scores, presenting site specific performances, and created audio/visual installation work, IS YOUR TIME with Shiro Takatani.

Stephanie Zacharek (USA)

Since 2015 Stephanie Zacharek has been the film critic at TIME, the renowned US news magazine. She was previously chief film critic at The Village Voice and Salon.com. Zacharek, who lives in New York, began her career in the 1980s. She has published articles and reviews in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and in magazines such as Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Sight & Sound. In 2015 she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. Zacharek, who studied at Syracuse University, is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. She is a regular on international film festival juries, most recently at Tribeca, Mumbai, Busan, and the SXSW in Austin. Over the years Zacharek has also participated in many Berlinale Talents panel discussions and events.