Shooting Stars: International jury to select the best 9 acting talents
After 10 successful years, European Film Promotion (EFP) has changed the concept for SHOOTING STARS: for the first time, EFP has appointed a jury of prominent industry figures to select the best nine from a variety of talented up-and-coming actors from the most diverse of European countries. They will be presented as SHOOTING STARS to an international professional audience during the 58th Berlin International Film Festival in 2008. 22 EFP member countries have each nominated an actor. The jury will make its decision at the beginning of December.
The presidency of the international jury has been taken on by Michael Ballhaus (Germany), one of the world's most successful cinematographers (GOODFELLAS, THE DEPARTED), who worked for many years in the USA with such directors as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. His colleagues are: actress Lucy Russell (SHOOTING STAR UK 2002), producer Vibeke Windeløv (Denmark), personal manager Derek Power (USA) and casting director Beatrice Kruger (Italy).
"I am very pleased to be closely involved in the choice of the nine European SHOOTING STARS for 2008", says Michael Ballhaus. „Europe is so rich in excellent young actors and actresses who unfortunately are often only known in their native countries. The goal of EFP to make the best actors from 22 European countries known internationally is something that I think is very important. The United States - where I worked for very many years - has an exemplarily functioning star system at its disposal - developing something similar in Europe would help the film industry here a lot."
Lucy Russell (L'ANGLAISE ET LE DUC by Eric Rohmer, ANGEL by François Ozon) is thrilled to be able to pass on the experiences she could make as the British Shooting Star in 2002: „Five years ago I was selected as UK Shooting Star and found it an amazing experience. I gained a much wider perspective on the existing scope and quality of European cinema and the incredible potential of the European film industry. I met inspirational people and made many invaluable contacts. I'm extremely proud to be on the jury for this year's Shooting Stars selection and am delighted to be in a position to advise my colleagues how to take utmost advantage of this accolade. What I really appreciate is that SHOOTING STARS is not simply an award with a statuette, indeed, there is much more to it than being in the spotlight for one evening. It really gives you the chance to talk to key people from the film industry that you'd otherwise find difficult to meet and you can build up an inestimable network for your future career."
In the past ten years, the SHOOTING STARS project has developed into a label and become a talent exchange for actors from all over Europe. Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Ludivine Sagnier, and Franka Potente were among the SHOOTING STARS in previous years.
"Apart from the new selection criteria and the establishment of an international jury, we would like to support the SHOOTING STARS even more intensively in their international career," stresses EFP managing director Renate Rose. „We have therefore planned a series of events, such as master classes, which are specially conceived for the SHOOTING STARS 2008 and will present them with their films at other festivals within Europe. Moreover, we are working on a website for SHOOTING STARS - with many services for European actors." Also planned are the presentation of the Studio Hamburg Shooting Stars Award on the stage of the Berlinale Palast, a party with important decision-makers from the film industry, a speed dating with international casting directors, and an international press conference.
The SHOOTING STARS project is supported by the MEDIA Programme of the EU, the EFP member countries, Volkswagen and Studio Hamburg International Production. In 2008, SHOOTING STARS will be shuttled with the Volkswagen Tiguan.
For more information on Shooting Stars please have a look at: www.efp-online.com