Berlin

Thursday evening, February 18, in the Theater Hebbel am Ufer (HAU 1-3), the eighth edition of the Berlinale Talent Campus successfully concluded with the Closing Ceremony and the Award Ceremony for this year's Score Competition. For six days, 350 young filmmakers from 95 countries had the unique opportunity to meet each other and the film industry's best, up close and personal. Over 100 events brought the Talents together with more than 150 invited international experts and Berlinale guests. During workshops, master classes and training sessions, they discussed the various facets of the trade under the banner "Cinema needs Talent - Looking for the Right People".

Filmmakers like Claire Denis (White Material), James Bond production designer Sir Ken Adam, cinematographer Christian Berger (The White Ribbon), as well as directors Stephen Frears (The Queen), Jasmila Žbanić (On the Path, Berlinale Competition) and Yoji Yamada (About her Brother, Berlinale closing film), plus many more, shared their wealth of experience with cinema's next generation. Young Filmmakers from Mexico, Africa and Eastern Europe presented their films in which they conveyed a confident, political and modern viewpoint, painting an impressive picture of their countries and societies. The Campus explored cross media, digital storytelling, financing, distribution and 3D, addressing these themes in daily events.

Collaborative filmmaking was the centre focus of the eighth Campus edition. "Filmmaking is something to do together. It's about being generous and accepting the dignity of other people," emphasised Shutter Island producer Mike Medavoy during the opening panel. Animation film director Merlin Crossingham (Chicken Run) stated: "Have passion, have drive, and don't forget to look at the people around you. They need you and you need them, essentially." Actor, director and producer Gael García Bernal (Revolución) added: "The support of professionals is essential to our own filmmaking. They will help you say what you want to say." In the hands-on trainings, Talents put collaborative filmmaking directly into action. In small, international teams, they received intimate training with experienced mentors as part of the Script & Doc Station, Talent Project Market, Talent Actors Stage, Talent Press and the Campus Studio for post-production and rough cut editing.

The Score Competition came to a glamorous finish at the Closing Ceremony, during which the competition's winner was announced and awarded. Finalists were asked to create a new score for a film excerpt from David OReilly's Please Say Something (Golden Bear, Berlinale Shorts 2009). The first prize went to Camilo Sanabria from Colombia, whose score was praised by jury members Klaus-Peter Beyer, Prof. Martin Steyer, Martin Todsharow, Connie Walther and this year's Score Competition mentor Alexandre Desplat (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Ghost Writer, Berlinale Competition) as an "imaginative well structured score which shows in a detailed way its own personality". Sanabria won an invitation from Dolby to travel to Los Angeles for a week-long visit to the city's sound studios. The second prize winner, Alexander Komlew (Germany), will be granted an additional session with the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg to record another score.

Photos, information and up-to-date coverage can be found at http://www.berlinale-talentcampus.de/ and http://www.talentpress.org/