Meet the 2015 Shooting Stars

Jury members Charles Gant (2014) and Damon Wise (2015) share their jury experiences and discuss this year’s new Shooting Stars

Damon Wise

 Charles Gant: So, Damon, congratulations on your Shooting Stars choices for 2015. My first observation is: four men and six women! Did that to some degree reflect the gender balance of all the submitted candidates you were choosing between? My second observation is: it's nice that you selected a lot of different countries to the ones we picked a year ago. Only the UK, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands are common to the 2014 and 2015 choices. So you have six fresh countries that didn't feature last time.

Damon Wise: Thanks! I have to admit, some of the responsibilities hadn't really dawned on me until we sat down to debate the choices. As the only native English-speaker on the jury I was obviously very much aware of the potential for bias not only towards the UK candidate but also the Scandinavian nominees. Other than that, though, I hadn't really thought of some of the other issues – it was only after I'd chosen my final ten than I thought to ask whether there had to be a particular gender mix (the long list featured 11 men and 14 women). At the end of the process, we did look at the geographical spread, but really just out of curiosity. It didn’t impact on our discussions and choices. That was also the point at which we realised that certain countries weren't represented, or perhaps weren't the heavyweights we were expecting from the outset. We didn’t at all pay attention to which countries were chosen last time. Was that something that you were ever conscious of when you made your selections for 2014?

Charles: I think our submitted candidates last year were pretty evenly mixed regarding gender, and that maybe reflected in our final choice of five men and five women as Shooting Stars. I do recall that we had a really passionate debate about the last spot in the line-up, but it was a choice between three male candidates. We didn't look at the home countries of the previous year's Shooting Stars, either, and paid absolutely no attention to it. I think we were aware that some of the candidates came from countries with more thriving film cultures, and so, understandably, had maybe been given more opportunities to shine. But ultimately as jury members we chose the ten best and most deserving Shooting Stars, and that's all you can do. How did you find the debate about the qualities of the candidates, in terms of both brilliant acting ability, but also that sometimes hard-to-define "star quality"?

Eva Röse

Damon: For me, personally, the hardest part was being objective about the actor – by that I mean judging the performance and not the film. I know that seems obvious, but that can be harder than it sounds, especially for a journalist who is used to assessing a film in its entirety, and I would tell any future nominee that a good showreel is a vital part of the selection process – if a film is dealing with a dark or serious subject matter, that quite often determines how much (or little) we get to see of an actor's range. As for "star quality", that wasn't something we really debated – I think we were all agreed that we were looking for actors with impact, people who could hold our attention as well as our gaze. A lot of this came down to instinct – I realised very early on that an actor's charisma onscreen could sometimes outweigh their CV.

Charles: The five-person jury always mixes a critic, a producer, a filmmaker, a casting director and an actor (typically a former Shooting Star), and I was interested in the different perspectives these people brought. We came from all over Europe, and were a mix of men and women, which I believe is always the case. Last time, I would say that our director and casting director were especially invested in the subtleties of performance. For me, also, the clue is in the title, and we are celebrating future film stars showcasing talent to make an impact internationally. Anyway, I want to hear more about this year's Shooting Stars! Maisie Williams I know from Carol Morley's The Falling, and Sven Schelker from Swiss gay docudrama The Circle. So let's start with those two.

Damon: I was slightly concerned about voter etiquette when it came to the UK – should we be allowed to vote for our home territory? (We did all have one.) In Maisie's case there was also Carol Morley's film (The Falling), which tells a very specifically British story, one that's very much about a certain time and place. I decided to abstain from comment and just see what happened. Not only did the jury love the film, a couple were also huge Game Of Thrones fans (she plays the tomboyish Arya Stark), and so Maisie sailed through unanimously. And Sven? Sven is a very good case for spending time on a showreel. His performance in The Circle is very moving, but his charming showreel made us all smile – it gave us an insight into his personality as well as clearer idea of his abilities.

Malgorzata Szumowska

Charles: We had a very strong showing from Scandinavia last year, with Shooting Stars from Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and even our Italian Shooting Star, Miriam Karlkvist, is half-Swedish. Tell me about your selections from Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

Damon: As I was expecting, the Scandinavian nominees were all of a very high standard. The first film I sat down to watch was Itsi Bitsi, which set the bar quite high – it's the true story of Eik Skaløe, a beatnik poet and activist who introduced Denmark to psychedelic rock. Not only is it Joachim Fjelstrup's first leading role, it's his first film full stop – and he's just magnetic. Emmi Parviainen, from Finland, captivated us too, with a performance as a single mother in The Princess Of Egypt that's as heartfelt and real as any that the Dardennes brothers have ever captured. Hera Hilmar, who plays a very different kind of single mother in Life In A Fishbowl, delivered a showreel that not only showcased her rather scary versatility but revealed her terrific command of English too.

Charles: I look forward to discovering these films. I just realised that I have seen quite a few of Hera Hilmar's performances. She has a memorable supporting part in current UK festive comedy Get Santa, with Jim Broadbent and Rafe Spall. She was in Brit indie flick We Are The Freaks, Joe Wright's Anna Karenina and Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate. She has talent representation in the UK, so I am now wondering if she studied there, or is (or was) based in London. Let's continue our sweep through Northern Europe. Tell me about your choices from Germany, Lithuania and the Netherlands.

Danijel Hočevar

Damon: To start with Lithuania, Aistė Diržiūtė's performance in The Summer Of Sangaile – which, incidentally has been selected for the first day of next year's Sundance Film Festival – is a good example of what I was talking about earlier. I was so engrossed in the story I had to keep reminding myself to keep my eyes on Aistė, as she plays a significant supporting character who drives the story but isn't necessarily the focus. Aistė has a very easy and disarming charm, as does Abbey Hoes from the Netherlands, who stars in Nena. Both these actors are very young – 23 and 20 respectively – but they possess maturity and deceptively rich emotional depths that really ground their characters in reality. Jannis Niewöhner, from Germany, is possibly our most 'classic' Shooting Star – good-looking, intense, romantic. He really is quite a package.

Nathalie Cheron

Charles: Thanks Damon. And finally, what should I look forward to from our Irish and Spanish Shooting Stars?

Damon: On the surface, Ireland’s Moe Dunford would appear to tick some of the same boxes as Jannis – his showreel contains scenes from the TV show Vikings that prove he has a seriously commanding presence, like a missing Hemsworth or Worthington brother. His film Patrick’s Day, however, in which he plays a young Dublin man with mental-health problems, persuaded us that Moe has more in him than action and fantasy roles. Spain’s Natalia De Molina, meanwhile, is probably the most ‘classic’ Shooting star among the girls: she’s very feminine, with a wicked smile and great comic timing. Her film Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed – incidentally, Spain’s foreign-language Oscar hopeful next year – in which she stars alongside Pedro Almodóvar regular Javier Cámara, was the last film I watched, and it was a nice way to sign off. It’s a gentle, bittersweet road movie that left me feeling a lot less anxious about the future than some of the more hard-hitting titles we saw!

Meet the Shooting Stars 2015 jury

Shooting Stars 2014 jury participant and film critic Charles Gant passes the torch to this year’s new jury members

Exactly a year ago at this time, I was engaged in one of the more agreeable assignments a film critic can be asked to perform. Despatched from European Film Promotion’s Hamburg office had arrived a box packed with numerous films on screener disc, and a similar number of actors’ showreels. It was my pleasant duty to watch all the discs in advance of a December jury meeting. My fellow jurors and I would then select the ten young actors from across Europe who would all be anointed Shooting Stars at the 2014 Berlinale.

The only downside to participating in the Shooting Stars jury is that it’s an honour that doesn’t usually repeat. Each year, EFP selects a fresh actor, critic, casting director, producer and filmmaker to make up that year’s jury. However brilliant and insightful (or otherwise) our contributions to the jury may be, we do not expect ever to return.

So it’s with a tinge of jealous regret that I welcome the men and women who have been invited as this year’s Shooting Stars jurors. From France, casting director Nathalie Cheron, who combines prolific work on French-language films with major international titles such as The Bourne Identity, Taken and Luc Besson’s Lucy. From Slovenia, producer Danijel Hocevar, whose excellent 2013 film Circles yielded 2014 Shooting Star Nikola Rakocevic. From Sweden, 2006 Shooting Star Eva Röse, an actress who plays the title role in internationally renowned crime series Maria Wern. From Poland, filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska, who directed 2014 Shooting Star Mateusz Kosciukiewicz in the justly acclaimed drama In The Name Of, winner of the Teddy Award at the 2013 Berlinale. Finally, from the UK, film critic Damon Wise, who is a contributing editor to Empire magazine.

Over the years, I have participated in the jury not only for EFP’s Shooting Stars but also for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Rising Star Award. Although the schemes are quite different – for a start, Shooting Stars honours ten young actors equally, whereas the BAFTA prize eventually produces a single winner from the five nominees selected by the jury – there’s some similarity in terms of the kinds of jury discussions that ensue. Are we considering only pure acting ability? Or are we also looking for that ineluctable quality – star power – that is referenced in the titles of both awards? Charisma and screen presence are vital qualities for a film actor, and – quite rightly – these are considered alongside excellent technical acting skill.
I don’t want to give away any secrets of the jury room, but in my stint selecting the Shooting Stars, it’s certainly true that various jury members put the emphasis more on different aspects of the qualities under consideration. The mix of men and women on the jury, and our different backgrounds and professions, seemed to inform the debate. Sadly, I’ll never get to hear what will be said in the jury room this year, but there’s one thing for sure: I can’t wait to hear the names of the 2015 Shooting Stars that result.

THE JURY

Nathalie Cheron (Casting Director - France) is casting for French and European productions and already worked with some of Europe’s most respected directors. Her credit list includes Lucy and The Family by Luc Besson, Les Garçons et Guillaume, à table! by Guillaume Gallienne, Mr Morgan's Last Love by Sandra Nettelbeck, Sa Majesté Minor by Jean-Jacques Annaud, Paris, Je t'aime by 20 directors and The Bourne Identity by Doug Liman. Nathalie Cheron is member of the International Casting Directors’ Network (ICDN) and of the Association des Responsables de Distribution Artistique (ARDA).

Danijel Hočevar (Producer - Slovenia) is one of the most experienced producers from his region. Together with the directors Damjan Kozole and Metod Pevec he established the production company Vertigo in 1994. Here more than 40 feature films have been realized, including the multi award-winning An Episode In A Life Of An Iron Picker (2013) by Danis Tanović, Circles by Srdan Golubović and I Am From Titov Veles (2007) by Teona Mitevska. Danijel Hočevar has been selected as one of “Variety’s Ten Producers To Watch”. He is a voting member of the European Film Academy, a member of the selection jury of Nipkow Programm and a member of the pedagogical team of EAVE and MidPoint.

 Eva Röse (Actress and SHOOTING STAR 2006 - Sweden) has been one of the most popular Swedish actresses for the past 15 years. She has starred in over 50 feature films and TV productions and has played in over 20 stage productions at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm and the Stockholm City Theater. On the big screen she was successful in a number of popular Scandinavian films such as Kopps and Göta Kanal 2 and in the award-winning film Storm. Since 2008, Eva stars as the crime inspector Maria, in the internationally renowned Swedish crime series Maria Wern. The series contains 14 movies shown both as feature films and on TV.

Malgorzata Szumowska (Director - Poland) belongs to the most prominent Polish filmmakers and covers a broad spectrum working as screenwriter and producer as well as documentary and feature film director. She has been honoured with several awards, including the Teddy Award for In The Name Of at the Berlin Film Festival and the Silver Leopard Award at the Locarno Film festival for 33 Scenes From Life. Malgorzata Szumowska was twice nominated for the European Film Awards for Happy Man and Stranger. Her movie Elles, featuring Juliette Binoche and Anaïs Demoustier, French SHOOTING STAR 2010, was sold to over 40 countries.

Damon Wise (Film Editor - UK). A film writer since 1987, Damon Wise is currently a Contributing Editor with Empire magazine and an advisor to the BFI London Film Festival's Thrill strand. As a writer he has had his features, interviews and reviews published in many UK publications, including The Times, Financial Times, The Guardian and The Observer, as well as other film magazines such as Sight & Sound and the short-lived Neon. As well as covering set visits and junkets, he is a regular attendee at key international film festivals, including Sundance, Cannes, Venice and Toronto. In 1998 he published his first book, Come By Sunday (Sidgwick & Jackson), a biography of British film star Diana Dors.


This blog will appear at occasional intervals leading up to the Berlinale, and then more regularly during the Shooting Stars activity Feb 6-10.

Shooting Stars hit East Berlin

Tonight will be  the climax of three days of hectic activity for the Shooting Stars, as they come onstage at the Berlinale-Palast to accept their awards. Over this period, they have had intense sessions with numerous casting directors who come each year to the Berlinale for the annual meeting of the International Casting Directors Network. The ten have had the opportunity to meet talent agents – although increasingly our Shooting Stars are arriving not only with agents in their home country but also with international representation, such is the growing international interest in  European acting talent. And of course they have met the press.

Charles Gant © Ralf Uhler

This morning, in a break from the official activities, the actors were invited to special tours by three Berlin residents from the film industry. Talent agent Mechthild Holter from the Players agency took Cosmina Stratan (Romania), Marwan Kenzari (Netherlands) and Mateusz Kosciukiewicz on a tour of Alexanderplatz, including the revolving restaurant at the top of the TV Tower. Italian actor Luca Marinella, who is now resident in Berlin after coming here as a 2013 Shooting Star, invited Maria Dragus (Germany), Miriam Karlkvist (Italy) and George MacKay (UK) to check out his favourite places in Kreuzberg, scene of the famous Banksy graffiti art and many street murals. And Nikola Rakocevic (Serbia) and I joined director Anno Saul in his own lakeside home in Hohenschoenhausen, for some exercise and sunshine next to Lake Obersee, and culture in the Mies Van Der Rohe Haus museum and gallery that is nearby. This beautiful lakeside spot was once the home of many elite Stasi members, who used the single-storey 1932 Mies Van Der Rohe house as a laundry facility.

Having served on the jury last December where we are judging based on the submitted spotlight films and the actors' showreels, it's been particularly special to spend time with all ten of the Shooting Stars – who also include Danica Curcic (Denmark), Edda Magnason (Sweden) and Jakob Oftebro (Norway) – at the Berlinale. I have served on juries for rising acting talent before, and of course I am aware that such accolades are useful for bringing press attention, enhancing status in our very competitive film industry, and giving a little extra spotlight to their next movies. But what I had never previously understood was the personal boost it also gives, and especially in their own confidence as actors, to receive this endorsement. I will leave Berlin knowing that the Shooting Stars initiative is more vital than I ever suspected, and I am happy to have played my small part.

Charles Gant, Shooting Stars 2014 jury member

Trail:

Tonight, the ten Shooting Stars will walk the red carpet before Berlinale Competition film In Order Of Disappearance, and receive their Shooting Star awards on-stage before the film

Shooting Stars: meet the sales agents

Charles Gant at the EFM

For the international sales agents here at the Berlinale selling films in the market, the Shooting Stars designation for their cast members can be a welcome boost. At the Doc&Film stand, the poster image and marketing materials all feature the face of Miriam Karlkvist from South Is Nothing (Il Sud E Niente), just one of the films the Italian company is presenting at the EFM. Doc&Film's Daniela Elsner long ago considered festival offers, and agreed with Toronto, Rome and the Berlinale Generation strand that they would be the first three steps in the film's life – a plan negotiated up-front and agreeable to all. Of course, at this point, Daniela had no idea that in Berlin her lead actress would be feted as a Shooting Star.

“We liked the image,” explains Daniela. “We have three films at the Berlinale, but the South Is Nothing poster is specifically with Miriam, and it makes sense to us with the Shooting Stars. It gives another light on the film in Berlin. I think it's well-established enough that people know. If you mention Shooting Stars, it means something. That's also because of years of work of everyone, which was not so much the case in the beginning.”

Over at the TrustNordisk desk, CEO Rikke Ennis is in the happy position of selling three films featuring Shooting Stars. She has On The Edge, fresh from its Rotterdam premiere, featuring both Denmark's Danica Curcic and Norway's Jakob Oftebro; Berlinale competition entry In Order Of Disappearance, with Jakob; and The Absent One, with Danica, which is in post-production.

“We always mention Shooting Stars,” says Rikke. “It's a good platform and to promote the film. It's good sales-wise. Here in Berlin there are so many films, all the attention you can get, all the visibility is always welcome. If you have a cast with Shooting Stars, and all the glamour around it, it always helps.”

In Order Of Disappearance, also starring Stellan Skarsgard, Bruno Ganz and former Shooting Star Anders Baasmo Christiansen, premieres in the Berlinale tonight (Feb 10)

Our Shooting Stars jury spokesman: Anders Baasmo Christiansen

As a former Shooting Star himself, Norwegian actor Anders Baasmo Christiansen has a special role on our jury and is its public face. Introducing the 2014 Shooting Stars today at the Hotel De Rome for their Berlin press conference, he spoke tenderly about how the accolade, which he received in 2010, impacted him not just in terms of doors it opened for his career. “It put me on a different level of confidence with my own work,” he said. “Actors tend to feel self-doubt. We sometimes feel like we are the worst person in the world and that's part of our process.” But with such an endorsement as Shooting Stars, he advised this year's winners, “If you find yourself in that position, you can blame the script rather than yourself.”

Anders and Jakob during the Shooting Stars Press Presentation

Afterwards, Anders told me about his time as a Shooting Star, which came a fair way into his career, in honour of the Berlinale Panorama 2009 opening film North, from Rune Densted Langlo. “I was the oldest of the Shooting Stars group, and 2010 was my last chance to be a Shooting Star,” said Anders. He remained level-headed about the accolade and didn't necessarily expect big changes in his career. However, the Shooting Star designation won him an international agent – Denmark's Anne Lindberg – who has been mentioned to me many times in conversation here in Berlin as the best Scandinavian talent agent. She also represents the 2014 Shooting Stars Danica Curci (Denmark) and Jakob Oftebro (Norway).
Anders gives credit to Anne's patience that he hasn't necessarily leapt at international offers that have come his way, and says he now feels more ready to embrace them. He added, “I always say, with Shooting Stars, not every door is necessarily opening, but maybe the road of coincidences [that you need to occur take you to your career goal] will be a little bit shorter.”

Partying with the Shooting Stars

Last night in Berlin the ten Shooting Stars were seen on the red carpet for the Berlin-Brandenburg Film Fund party at the Ritz-Carlton, and later walked over to the Tesiro Golden Bear Lounge at the Hotel Hyatt, for a private reception celebrating the jewellery brand's association with the annual award scheme. At the Berlin-Brandenburg party, I first spoke with Sweden's Edda Magnason, who has made a remarkable transition from musician to actor with her film debut, playing famed Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund in Waltz With Monica. She won the role by an unconventional route, after somebody attending one of her concerts suggested to director Per Fly that she should be considered for the role. Multiple screen tests and almost a year later, the film-making team were convinced that they had found their Monica. Edda, who won Best Actress at last month's Swedish Film Awards, has been busy recording her third album, which will be released in the spring.

From left-right): Cosmnia Stratan (Romania), Mateusz Kosciukiewicz (Poland), Jakob Oftebro (Norway), Miriam Karlkvist (Italy), Maria Dragus (Germany), Richard Shen (President of TESIRO), Danica Curcic (Denmark), Marwan Kenzari (The Netherlands), Nikola Rakocevic (Serbia), Edda Magnason (Sweden) and George MacKay (UK)  © Markus Nass

I also caught up with the UK's George MacKay, who is in Berlin on a special break from his London play The Cement Garden. George is coming off a big UK box-office hit, Sunshine On Leith, which is adapted from a stage musical that incorporates songs from Scottish band The Proclaimers. The film was released on the same day in the UK as two of George's other 2013 films, dystopian teen romance How I Live Now, and the gritty low-budget drama For Those In Peril, which won him a Scottish BAFTA. George spoke about losing weight for one of his 2014 films, Duane Hopkins' Bypass – a mindboggling thought since his frame definitely already qualifies as lean. The film-making team soon realised that a dietician was needed to help George lose the weight safely and responsibly.
George's other 2014 film is Pride, from Matthew Warchus, who is best known in the UK for directing stage smash Matilda: The Musical. The film is inspired by the true story of the gay rights activists who set up a group supporting the striking miners in their epic – and ultimately doomed – battle with Margaret Thatcher's UK government in 1984-5. George and I are both excited about a young actor called Ben Schnetzer, an American who studied acting in London and is making his career in Europe, first in The Book Thief (playing a German Jew), and then in the British films Pride and Posh – the latter an acclaimed adaptation of a Royal Court stageplay. I believe Ben is playing a Russian in it, and he is an actor that Europe will be very happy to adopt.

All the Shooting Stars were a little giddy after their epic eight-hour photo shoot yesterday, which between set-ups had left plenty of time for hilarity to ensue. After the shoot, local Shooting Star Maria Dragus took George for an authentic Berlin experience: currywurst and chips at Curry 36. I caught up with Maria at the Tesiro party, where I was teasing her about her resemblance to Elle Fanning (I'm not the first person to mention this), and she told me all about shooting White Ribbon with Michael Haneke. His directing style is surprisingly straightforward and non-cerebral, I learnt, and we talked about how details in the set decoration, often invisible to the camera, nevertheless help the actors believe in the moment and commit to the role, thus elevating their performance. All the Shooting Stars were presented with gifts by Tesiro, and were welcomed by the company's President, Richard Shen.

Meet the Shooting Stars: Mateusz Kosciukiewicz and Nikola Rakocevic

The balance between glamour and diligence for this year's Shooting Stars was aptly on display at their photo shoot this morning. An 8.30am start at the shoot location meant lie-ins were not much of an option for the ten actors, and Norway's Jakob Oftebro may have been regretting going on to Soho House after the Danish party last night, where he more or less closed up the bar with Harvey Weinstein. On the other hand, Jakob looked totally fresh and rested, such are the advantages of youth.
In between the styling sessions for the shoot (the snaps with me above are as we arrived, before the grooming team worked their magic), I managed to grab some interview time with both Poland's Mateusz Kosciukiewicz and Serbia's Nikola Rakocevic, and both told similarly engaging accounts of their first steps into acting.

Nikola Rakocevic and Charles Gant © Sinissey

Nikola grew up in the town of Kragujevac in central Serbia, about 100km from Belgrade. He has one older brother, his father was a forklift-truck driver and his mother worked in accounts for an insulation manufacturer. Mateusz grew up in the small town of Nowy Tomysl, near Poznan in western Poland. He also has one older brother, his father is a carpenter and his mother a hospital cleaner.
Both were encouraged to act as teenagers by inspiring women who fostered local talent. For Nikola it was the Kragujevac after-school acting club run by a woman called Slavica Urosevic. Not only did she encourage his acting, but she also inspired all the kids to “find yourself”, and to make the best of themselves in whatever direction their life took them. In the case of Mateusz, it was while visiting the local cultural centre at Nowy Tomysl that the woman who ran it, Renata Smiertelna, persuaded him to read a poem aloud, and then encouraged him down the path of acting. Together with local retired actor Henryk Dabrowski, she ultimately helped him prepare for theatre school in Wroclaw – a Silesian city better known outside Poland by the name Breslau.

Nikola had previously received encouragement to act by his grandfather, who whenever he had friends visiting would ask the nine-year-old to perform characters from his favourite TV show Djekna. Meanwhile his grandmother – the whole family lived in the same house together – developed his acting by improvising scenes together, sometimes in a made-up language. “I always say that my grandfather was my first agent and my grandmother was my first acting teacher,” says Nikola.
Mateusz had a chequered history at acting school, transitioning from puppet theatre to drama and not completing his degree. He looks back on those years with self-deprecating amusement at his own behaviour, which involved “challenging everything – I wanted to make my own new style, invent the programme. It was crazy.” Also problematic was his accepting roles in films, which as all actors know is deeply discouraged at acting school, since it interferes with the teaching programme. “Half of the professors wanted to kick me out and the other half wanted to give me another chance because they believed in my talent,” he says.

He is aware of his incredible good fortune that the Polish film industry, after a difficult transition from the full state subsidy of the Communist era, was at last beginning to find its feet again just as he was making his way as an actor. There had been a dearth of career opportunities, he says, for his immediate antecedents. But in 2009's All That I Love, “I was the first young actor in a long time to be given an opportunity to have a big success in the cinema.” Comparisons with Zbigniew Cybulski – aka “the Polish James Dean” – ensued.

Although it feels almost trivial to talk about the tragic conflict in this context, Nikola agrees that growing up during the wars of former Yugoslavia, in which his father was conscripted to fight, and in which “for three years as a child I am seeing dead people on TV every day”, certainly gives him access to deeper emotions that may not be so easily available to all – ones that he can convey with restraint and subtlety. You get more than a hint of that in his film Circles, the true story of Srdjan Aleksic, a Bosnian Serb soldier who in 1993 lost his life defending an ethnic Bosnian shopkeeper from being attacked by a group of fellow soldiers.

I'm reminded of Mark Wahlberg, who very different reasons had known troubles in his youth, experiences that can help him get to the necessary place a lot quicker than, in his mocking words, “Let me think about the colour blue. Let me think about my dead cat.”

Mateusz is returning to the Berlinale after his film In The Name Of, directed by his wife Malgorzata Szumowska, won the Teddy Award here last year. He was also just in the city shooting the German-Australian co-production Elixir, an English-language film in which he plays a Frenchman, alongside former Shooting Star Natasha Petrovic. Meanwhile Nikola has likewise made a foray into English with the Las Vegas-set Travelator. “I don't have so many lines,” cautions the actor – not, he clarifies because his role is small. He plays the protagonist, a hired assassin who is despatched to Vegas to kill a protected witness. “He's a silent guy who kills other people,” explains Nikola.

First impressions of the Shooting Stars

Today here in Berlin begins three action-packed days of events and festivities celebrating the ten Shooting Stars for 2014. All of the actors are here at the Berlinale, some together with their agent, others braving the spotlight on their own. As a jury member and official Shooting Stars blogger I am privileged to be shadowing the group, and last night we met at our hotel for a relaxed introduction session with organisers European Film Promotion.

Jakob Oftebro and George MacKay during the introduction meeting © Ralf Uhler

Several of the stars have particular excitement to be here in Berlin. Norway's Jakob Oftebro is here at the festival with a film in competition, Hans Petter Moland's Kraftidioten (In Order Of Disappearance), also starring Stellan Skarsgard, Bruno Ganz and Shooting Star jury member Anders Baasmo Christiansen. Anders, who himself was a Shooting Star in 2010, arrives today. Last night Jakob spoke on behalf of the whole group when he articulated how happy they are all to be here, and looking forward to this special time together. Shooting Stars 2014 may have found its ambassador.
George MacKay from the UK stepped briefly outside the Shooting Stars bubble last night since his girlfriend Saoirse Ronan was here with Berlinale Opening Night film Grand Budapest Hotel from Wes Anderson. The pair met on the set of Kevin Macdonald's dystopian teen romance How I Live Now and managed to keep their relationship pretty much under wraps until the UK release of the film last autumn. George has been given leave of absence from the London play The Cement Garden, in which he is currently starring, to attend the Berlinale.

Sweden's Edda Magnason is celebrating her recent Best Actress win at the Swedish Film Awards – aka the Guldbagge Awards – for her title role in music biopic Waltz With Monica. An acclaimed recording artist in her home country, Edda makes a sensational film debut as legendary Swedish jazz singer Monica
Zetterlund.
This year's crop of Shooting Stars is international not only in the sense of representing ten different European countries, but also to some degree themselves. Italian Shooting Star Miriam Karlkvist is half-Swedish, and Danish Shooting Star Danica Curcic has Serbian heritage. Norway's Jakob Oftebro works happily in any Scandinavian language (and English, of course) and co-stars with Danica in Danish film On The Edge, which is selling in the market here in Berlin. Poland Shooting Star Mateusz Kosciukiewicz returns to Berlin having just completed shooting a movie here three weeks ago.
Finally a word about Serbian Shooting Star Nikola Rakocevic, who seemingly comes complete with his own GPS device. He was able to guide us back to our hotel as we took some welcome past-midnight air walking home from the Danish party, having seemingly noted the directions when being driven to the event. If I get lost in Berlin, which I expect to do, I'm calling Nikola.

This evening (Saturday February 8) the Shooting Stars attend the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Film Fund reception at the Ritz-Carlton, and a welcome cocktail with Shooting Stars main partner and Berlinale official partner Tesiro. Medienboard is a partner in Nikola Rakocevic's film Circles, for which he is nominated as a Shooting Star this year.

Casting directors step into the spotlight at Shooting Stars

Since 2004 and the creation of the International Casting Directors Network, Shooting Stars at the Berlinale has recognised the importance of the vital industry creatives who help connect acting talent with filmmakers. But while many film fans could name a famous composer or cinematographer, most would be pressed to recall a single casting director's name.

Hoping to bring a brighter spotlight to their profession are the team behind documentary Casting By, which screens on Sunday evening with Shooting Stars in Berlin. The film tells the story of the creation of the casting profession, with a particular focus on one of its most illustrious practitioners: Marion Dougherty. Explains one of the film's producers Joanna Colbert, who is herself a Hollywood casting director and formerly ran the casting department for Universal Pictures, "I thought this story had to be told: how Marion discovered De Niro, Pacino, Gene Hackman, Bette Midler, Redford. She gave all of these people their first job, and she was invisible. She was changing film history and changing Hollywood, and nobody knew her name." Colbert, whose casting discoveries include a ten-year-old Kirsten Dunst for Interview With The Vampire and Channing Tatum for Step Up, has a personal connection to the films' subject in that she herself was mentored by casting director Juliet Taylor, who was previously mentored by Dougherty. Explains Colbert, "It¹s such an important part of casting today. There's no school for casting, so it has to be a mentorship. I learned from the best. I had the opportunity to meet Marion on a Warner Bros flight, going across the country to cast Interview With The Vampire. She and I spoke on the flight. I could just tell she was a force, a force to be reckoned with. I was so thrilled. It was like meeting the greatest celebrity, for me, to meet Marion."

Like ICDN chairman Debbie McWilliams (see separate story, below), Colbert agrees that casting is becoming more and more international ­ and that's especially encouraging to hear coming from a casting director working exclusively on US productions. Says Colbert, "I think absolutely yes. One of the reasons is just a general evolution that's going on in the world of openness. People really looking at the way people live, and who they marry and who they adopt and what their kids look like. They are not just in a box any more. And then with the introduction of the internet, it opens us up even more to being able to do an audition anywhere in the world as quickly as we could do it with our neighbour. And I think it's exciting. Network television is the real litmus test for this quote unquote openness. Networks are casting with more diversity and more internationally, and I think that's
the sign that the world¹s eyes are finally open."

While studios and international sales agents are still guided by lists of actors they perceive to be bankable talent, says Colbert, "Thankfully we are evolving in this regard. The lists are now filled with names at the top that might otherwise be at the bottom. For example, Chiwetel Ejiofor, I used to have to beg for somebody to pay attention to that name and now he¹s an Oscar nominee and will be at the top of every list. And I love it. It's an unpronounceable name to some Americans, it's a name that used to scare executives and that will now be embraced, and I think it¹s thrilling."

In decades past, it was common for foreign-born actors to change their names to make them easier to pronounce for American film fans ­ Greta Gustafsson became Garbo, for example. In fairness, actors changing names to something more memorably iconic was more the practice of the time, regardless of ancestry. Still, it's heartening for our Shooting Stars past and present to consider that no name, however foreign-sounding to Anglophone ears, is now viewed as any impediment to a successful international career.

The unsung heroes of film: casting directors

At the Berlinale, the four days of events celebrating this year's Shooting Stars will see the spotlight fall quite properly on the ten young actors selected by the jury, on which I was proud to serve. Much more behind the scenes, important work will be occurring with the creative enablers who are so crucial to the careers of all actors: casting directors. Launched at the Berlinale in 2004 the International Casting Directors Network will once again see its members meet with the ten actors, with a view to future castings. The EFP¹s own research confirms that these sessions are fruitful and vital: 70% of past Shooting Stars went on to achieve an international film role via casting directors they met through this process at the Berlinale.

A big cheerleader for the ICDN is founder member and current chairman Debbie McWilliams, a London based casting director who is best known for her work on all of the Bond films since For Your Eyes Only in 1981. Understandably, she's a big supporter of Shooting Stars. "It's a fantastic for them to meet us and for us to meet them," she says. "It gives them a great platform that will prove fruitful, if not instantaneously, then over the years."
While casting directors continue to bristle at the limitations imposed by the dreaded sales agents' lists ­ those actor names that financiers believe will guarantee an audience for a film ­ McWilliams is lucky to be working on a franchise that's strong enough not to need them. "Doing the Bond films, I have the world to choose from. I'm not so dictated to from the commercial angle because we don't need it. The films stand on their own, and it's whoever is right for the part."

Encouragingly, at the current blockbuster end of film production, most would agree that  casting has become less star-powered, since these days the film brands themselves ­ Marvel Avengers, Spider-Man, Twilight, Hunger Games, Tolkien, Harry Potter, Planet Of The Apes, X-Men and all the numerous upcoming Young Adult literary franchises ­ are bigger than the star names they present to audiences. We have moved on from the days when studios were focusing more on developing films likely to snag the interest of the A-list stars that formed the $20m-per-movie salary club. This gives casting directors more of a vital creative input in these blockbuster films.

On the other hand, at the lower budgetary scale, the challenges of independent film financing make producers more lustful of star names than ever before ­ even for films with modest budgets that formerly might not have aspired towards them. Says McWilliam, "Everybody's chasing the same
names all the time. It's the same list who help get a film made. That to me is rather detrimental to how the film ends up: you could end up with somebody who's not appropriate at all. That's always the battle: trying to match up the suitability of the person versus their commercial worth, and we do the best we can. Everybody has to start somewhere and you wonder sometimes how anybody ever does break through."
McWilliams points to Alicia Vikander ­ a Shooting Star in 2011 ­ as an example of an actor who has broken through, and now appears on approved lists as a bankable name. She adds, "I think it's because of people like us going to things like Shooting Stars that we are able to find new people and
try to set them on their way."

Another positive, agrees McWilliams, is that casting is overall becoming more international: "Very much. Absolutely. Just on something like Game Of Thrones, they've got people from all over the place: Russia, France, Norway. They have really gone international. I've always tried to be as inclusive of other countries as much as I can, it just lends a bit more... it just makes it feel a richer blend. In the Bond films, I've cast lots of people who I've seen on trips abroad or watching foreign films. Like (Casino Royale's) Mads Mikkelsen, for instance."
While casting directors still struggle to have their role recognised ­ there is no Oscar or BAFTA for casting, for example ­ there are encouraging signs that they are finally emerging into more visibility. In the UK, for example, at the 2013 British Independent Film Awards, casting directors for the first time appeared as nominees in the Technical Achievement category, alongside other crafts such as music, sound design and editing. Two casting directors were nominated, Shaheen Baig for Starred Up and Amy Hubbard for The Selfish Giant, with the latter winning the award. Comments McWilliams on that small victory, "It's fantastic: somebody somewhere is saying, 'You know what, that did make a difference.' People take it so much for granted. It's a mystery to me why it has been so under-appreciated all these years. It's perhaps not entirely unremarkable that it is a very much female-dominated world, and I think we don't fight hard enough for ourselves."

Casting Directors events at this year’s Berlinale:
- Casting Breakfast: Individual Interviews with EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS 2014
- Screening of Tom Donahue's documentary 'Casting By', followed by a Q & A.
- Annual meeting and information exchange of ICDN members

Meet the Talent Agent

Theresa Peters is Head of Talent and a partner at United Talent in the US, having joined the agency in 2008 after 13 years at William Morris. In her early years as an agent, she was assigned the task of “covering” the UK market, keeping track of productions emanating from that territory, and establishing relationships with casting directors and producers. Consequently, her personal client list includes many British actors – notably James McAvoy, Ewan McGregor and Aaron Taylor-Johnson – and now an increasing number of Scandinavians. Theresa represents two of this year’s Shooting Stars – the UK’s George MacKay and Norway’s Jakob Oftebro – and she is coming to the Berlinale to join them for the Shooting Stars activities. On the way, she stops off in London to see George Mackay perform on stage in a new production of The Cement Garden .

Here are her words of wisdom about the increasing international scope of the film business, and new opportunities for European actors seeking to work in the US.

The new connectivity

“Ten years ago when actors were trying to break out over here, to put yourself on tape, you had to get your audition put on VHS [in the correct US format], spend $25 to get it on FedEx. It was a costly and cumbersome process. They would also once in a while come over here for a couple of weeks, and that was a big investment. The internet has allowed everyone to access anyone at any time. The director can Skype with the actor, just as if they are having a meeting down the street. It doesn’t matter where you live any more.”

The new financing

“When some of these movies are being made, it’s no longer so much the traditional studio financing, they are getting financing from all over. Sometimes they require an actor out of the UK, or with an EU passport. That’s an opportunity for an actor who isn’t based in the States or isn’t American to get a break in an American film. And the value of these films, the box-office is two thirds international and one third domestic. Casting directors are casting their net wide. Everyone’s looking at who’s coming out of RADA, who’s coming out of NIDA in Australia. Everyone’s open to just the best actor for the role. It doesn’t matter if you’re from the UK, Missouri or Denmark.”

Don’t jump on a plane!

“Any actor who stays in their community and gets access to the best stuff there, usually gets the best pop in the US. James McAvoy in The Last King Of Scotland, Michael Fassbender in Hunger, Tom Hardy in Bronson: these are the movies that gave them the pedigree and the clout over here, even though the films didn’t necessarily make any money. George MacKay, Tom Hughes, I have a handful of British actors that I think there’s no rush for them to come over here, live here for two months, do the whole rigmarole. Because I can get them access to material that’s going on here. It’s really important for these actors to establish their craft, and be respected in their communities first and foremost. Because it will translate ten times more than just coming over here and [maybe] getting lucky.”

What it takes

“To me, [a prospective new foreign client] has to be someone who is ambitious, and who’s in it for the right reasons, which is the art of it. The bigger picture is to grow, and work with some of the best people in the business. Then the rest follows. Similarly, if I sign people for the right reasons, I always have more success than just saying,, ‘Oh, I’m signing someone who’s cute and they have a shot at a pilot.’”

Agenting is a partnership

“Some US agents take on [foreign] clients, and they don’t really respect the home agent.. For me, the home agent is everything. They know their territory, they know the business in their land just as I know the business in the US. Some people would have no patience with someone who wants to grow slowly, they just want to put them in a big movie and make a lot of money. I know the right things will come at the right time. It’s important the choices that an actor makes because it lives with them forever and it definitely sets the tone.”

                                                          

Edda Magnason is overwhelmed, she just won the 50th anniversary Guldbagge Award for Best Actress! The next big stage and shiny award is already waiting for Edda. Berlin calling!

© Patrik Österberg/Mediebild.nu

Generation next

Shooting Stars jury member and film critic Charles Gant reckons he’ll never get jaded – as long as fresh acting talent keeps lighting up our cinema screens

I don’t know how my name popped up as a possible jury member for this year’s edition of Shooting Stars, but I certainly didn’t hesitate in agreeing to participate. A month watching the work of young actors across Europe, and then debating my discoveries with peers in various branches of the film industry: what’s not to like?
Of course, in my professional role as a film critic, I understand the primary creative role of the director, and the key contributions made by the screenwriter and the crew department heads. But when it comes to what excites me as a film viewer, what sustains my passion as I watch up to 300 features a year, I know in my heart that it’s actors that play the really crucial role.
It’s not hard for a film critic to become jaded: simply overwhelmed by the industrial scale of their viewing. And I know quite a few who seem to arrive at the screening room primarily preoccupied by two topics: what hospitality will be offered by the studio publicist; and at what time will the film be over?
But as I head towards my screening every weekday evening, I always do so buoyed by a sense of optimism. In every film, even if less than fully achieved, there will almost certainly be an actor to discover, or one I’m already familiar with but who I now see in a fresh light. There are literally hundreds of actors whose work I’m tracking with passionate interest. It’s a crazy obsession but I wouldn’t want to miss one of their performances.
Take George Mackay, for example, the 2014 Shooting Star who happens to come from my own country. I vividly remember watching him as Clive Owen’s angry teenage son in 2009 Australia-set drama The Boys Are Back, and looking out for his name. I quickly realised I’d seen him earlier that year with Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell in Defiance, and before that in PJ Hogan’s 2003 version of Peter Pan. I looked out for – and was again impressed by – him in the work that followed: teen ensemble Hunky Dory, TV miniseries Birdsong, Private Peaceful with Jack O’Connell, and then the trio of 2013 titles that helped snag him the Shooting Star status: How I Live Now, Sunshine on Leith and For Those In Peril. I’d never met him (I subsequently have), but already I felt invested in his career.

Fellow Shooting Star Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, from Poland, is a name that hit my radar more recently. It was back in August last year that I saw his astonishing contribution to In The Name Of, and was immediately Facebook messaging a Polish-based filmmaker friend to find out more about him. Maybe it’s because of the emotional connection you make with the character portrayed on screen, but it’s not hard to feel a rooting interest in the actor creating the portrait.

When the Shooting Stars organisers sent me the jury invitation, I had one particular reason for my ready assent. I’m interested in the cinema of every country, but the UK is understandably dominated by English language films, and my engagement with young acting talent is skewed towards the US and Great Britain. Here was a great chance to broaden my knowledge, sampling films from 24 countries across Europe. Some I already knew, of course – Cosmina Stratan shared the Best Actress prize in Cannes for Beyond the Hills – but many were fresh to me. When the package of DVDS arrived from the Shooting Stars Hamburg office, I was not disappointed.

Thanks to my participation in Shooting Stars I now have a whole new set of actors whose upcoming work I’m eagerly anticipating, to add to the long list that already includes past Shooting Stars such as Belgium’s Matthias Schoenaerts (a late discovery for me thanks to Rust and Bone), Germany’s Saskia Rosendahl (so brilliant last year in Lore) and Ireland’s Domnhall Gleeson (who is wonderful, and wonderfully different, in everything he does). So if I’m heading off to my evening screenings these days with an extra spring in my step, nobody should be at all surprised.

The SHOOTING STARS jury 2014 includes film critic and editor Charles Gant from the UK, Croatian casting director Oriana Kunčić, Norwegian actor and former SHOOTING STAR Anders Baasmo Christiansen , German film director Hermine Huntgeburth and film producer Jani Thiltges  from Luxembourg.

Charles Gant is chief film critic for the UK’s Heat magazine and a freelance contributor to Variety, Sight & Sound and The Guardian. This blog will appear at occasional intervals leading up to the Berlinale, and then more regularly during the Shooting Stars activity Feb 7-11.

Jakob Oftebro in KRAFTIDIOTEN check the Berlin International Film Festival competition programme and don't miss Jakob on the red carpet!

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