The Film Prize Jury
Experts from the international film and festival industry formed the independent jury of the Film Prize for International Cooperation Germany/Arab World. The nominated teams presented their project to the Film Prize Jury during the Jury Pitch. The three Film Prize winners were announced at the award ceremony held in the frame of Berlinale Talents.
The Film Prize Jury and the Berlinale Talents and Film Prize teams. From left to right: Marianne Khoury, Frank Albers, Hania Mroué, Vincenzo Bugno, Mohannad Al Bakri, Atje Drexler, Karin Schyle, Doris Hepp, Florian Weghorn, Rabih El-Khoury
Alexander Wadouh
worked in the film industry in a variety of production areas since 1999. He completed his studies in film production at the DFFB in 2006, and between then and 2009 he worked for production company Essential Film GmbH on numerous international art-house movies, as well as for the French World Sales Coproduction Office. In 2006 he founded film production company Chromosom to develop and produce national and international projects for all distribution channels. His films have all won awards (six German Film Prizes, a European Film Award, a Bronze Lion, etc.) and ran, or are running, successfully in cinemas.
Doris Hepp
Master's degree in German Philology, Comparative Literature and Journalism. From 1992 – 2000 commissioning editor with ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel, working particularly for ARTE, the German-French binational channel. Responsible for theme nights (3-4 hours of programming on a particular theme), the ARTE late night documentary slot "La Lucarne" and the selection of films for Arte’s short film magazine “Short Circuit”. From 2000 – 2004 also directing documentary courses at the Television Business School in Luebeck. Since 2000 Doris is commissioning editor in the TV-Drama - now Fiction/ARTE - department of ZDF, in charge of feature films (international co-productions), fictional series and still for creative documentaries for “La Lucarne”.
© Sally Kandil
Elke Kaschl Mohni
took office as Regional Director of the Goethe-Institut for South West Europe in Brussels in July 2019. She has been with the Goethe-Institut for the past 15 years, holding positions as Regional Director Middle East/North Africa in Cairo (2016-19) and Head of Strategy in headquarters (2012-16) as well as directing the institutes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2009-12), and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2005-09). She graduated with a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Berne, Switzerland with a thesis on “Dance and Authenticity in Israel and Palestine: Performing the Nation”. Her MA is in Contemporary Arab Studies from Georgetown University, Washington DC, with a focus on politics and cultural studies. Throughout her work with the Goethe-Institut, Elke has maintained a strong interest in the area of film as a vibrant means of artistic creation and sociopolitical commentary in the Arab world and in Africa.
Hania Mroué
is the founder and director of Metropolis Cinema, the only art house movie theatre in Lebanon, opened in 2006. She started in 2010 MC Distribution, a company dedicated to selling and distributing Arab and International independent titles in the MENA region. She’s co-founder of the recently launched initiative “Cinematheque Beirut”, a project dedicated to the preservation and restoration of Lebanese film heritage. She is a founding member of the association Beirut DC (created in 1998), to promote and support independent Arab films. For 10 years she was the Managing Director of Beirut DC’s Arab film Festival “Ayam Beirut al Cinema’iya”. From 2010 to 2012, she was Chief Arab Programmer at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival. She served as jury member at several prestigious film festivals such as Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique 2017, the Berlinale’s First Feature Competition 2012, among others.
Marianne Khoury
A Cairo-based filmmaker, Marianne Khoury gravitated towards cinema after graduating with an Economics degree from Cairo and Oxford. For more than three decades, Marianne has closely collaborated with iconic filmmaker Youssef Chahine. She produces and directs films that engage the audience on an intimate level, tackling themes of identity, memory and marginalization. She produced and co-produced around 30 feature films and documentaries that won awards in regional and international festivals. Acting as a conduit between artists and the cinema industry, Marianne was instrumental in introducing the first edition of the Panorama of the European Film in Cairo in 2004. Her latest initiative, The Dahshur Workshops, is dedicated to the mentoring and development of films made by emerging Egyptian and Arab talent. Marianne served as a jury member in major festivals and a consultant to prominent cultural institutions.
Mohannad Al-Bakri
has been involved in the field of creative industries for over a decade in the Arab region. His latest tenure was at New York University in Abu Dhabi (2015 – 2019), where he was Director of External Relations and Partnership. His job involved identifying and managing local and international stakeholders, cultivating partnerships and developing a fellowship program in arts management. Prior to that, he was the Regional Managing Director of Luminus Media – Jordan (SAE Institute) from 2012 until 2015; during that period, he worked on the development of the Institute by introducing new creative and professional features. He also helped to establish a new branch of the SAE Institute in Saudi Arabia and contributed to the setting of two additional SAE branches in Iraq and Libya. Al-Bakri is not new to the RFC. He served as its Capacity Building Manager for five years (2007 – 2012). He is therefore well-known to the Jordanian film community and has largely contributed to developing its local and regional training programs. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the Edu-Feature Program, through which five feature Jordanian narratives were produced. Mohannad started his professional career as a Director developing dynamic programs promoting the active role of youth in society, enhancing their participation and supporting freedom of expression.
Vincenzo Bugno
was born in Venice and lives in Berlin. After graduating in literature, art history and cinema he worked as a journalist and film critic for Swiss, Spanish and particularly Italian (“Corriere della Sera”, “Manifesto”) media, later on for various TV broadcasters (“Arte”, “ZDF”, “Tele+”, “Sky Italy”) also as a writer and director of many reports on cinema and other cultural topics. For several years he has been a consultant/curator for international film festivals. From 2006 to 2009, he became a member of the Programming Committee at the Locarno Film Festival and Head of its Open Doors section. Since 2002 Vincenzo Bugno has worked at the Berlin International Film Festival in various capacities, as Member of the Selection Committee and Festival Delegate for Italy and the Arab world among others. He is one of the initiators, the Head and a jury member of the Berlinale World Cinema Fund /WCF, founded 2004 and started by the Berlinale and the German Federal Cultural Foundation with the objective of supporting film production in regions lacking a structurally strong film industry. Beside his commitment for the Berlinale/WCF he is also Curator of the Torino FilmLab / Feature Lab.