Our selection committee for the 2024 International Competition chooses films from 4,000 submissions. Presenting this year's program:

Anna Feistel, Alejo Franzetti, Theresa George, Ghasideh Golmakani, Maike Mia Höhne, Sebastian Markt, Moritz Maul, Nora Molitor, Felix Piatkowski, Yulia Serdyukova und Sarnt Utamachote.

Anna Feistel is a programmer, curator and arts mediator based in Hamburg. She studied Literature, Art and Media Studies at University of Konstanz and Sapienza Università di Roma. Her passion for short films ignited many years ago organizing a student short film festival and working in a communal cinema. She worked as art mediator for Art Basel, MKG Hamburg and Kunstverein Konstanz. Since 2016 she has worked in several positions at Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg including the distribution department, festival administration and school cinema week. Since 2019 she is part of the international competition selection committee and the programme coordinator of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg.

Alejo Franzetti was born in Buenos Aires and moved to Berlin in 2012. He is a member of the selection committee of Berlinale Shorts since 2017 and of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg since 2019. He graduated in Film-Direction at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires and was Meisterschüler by Thomas Arslan at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He has made films of different lengths and genres, such as "El contrabajo" (short), "La destrucción del orden vigente" (feature), "Panke" (medium length). His work has been shown at venues such as Torino International Film Festival, Mar del Plata International Film Festival, Festival Márgenes, Entrevues Belfort, Bafici, Anthology Film Archives. He was co-founder and programmer of INVASION, the Argentine film festival in Berlin. He has also engaged in projects such as Full Circle Lab, Talents Buenos Aires, Fakultät Null, Cinema en curs. He also collaborates as author and director at Kurzschluss - Das Kurzfilm-Magazin (arte).

Theresa George studied ethnology, political science and journalism at the University of Leipzig and has since been working as a freelance film anthropologist between cultural theory and film (mediation). She teaches Visual Anthropology, works for film festivals (Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Kasseler DokFest…), conceives film series / lectures / installations in diverse collaborations and co-developed numerous film projects. Her main interest lies in filmmaking and film reception in the former GDR of the 1990s, which she intends to deepen by developing the artistic research VIDEO2089.

Ghasideh Golmakani obtained a Ph.D. in cultural studies from Sorbonne University, specializing in the works of Iranian female filmmakers. Though self-taught in movie-making, Ghasideh honed her skills through her involvement in various feature film projects, including "Today/Emrooz," which represented Iranian cinema at the Oscars in 2013. Some of her more known short films were “Limbo”, “Online Shopping” and “Horn”. Her films tackle taboo topics prevalent in traditional Iranian society, using dark humor to address critical themes such as "street harassment," "child abuse," and the everyday violence experienced by women. Besides her filmmaking endeavors, she actively curates programs that spotlight Iranian women filmmakers on a global scale. Additionally, Ghasideh is a prolific writer, contributing analytical articles to various Iranian film magazines.

Maike Mia Höhne works as a filmmaker, curator, producer and professor. She has been Artistic Director of the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg since 2019. From 2007-2019, Höhne was head of Berlinale Shorts section of the Berlin International Film Festival. Her films have been digitized for the German Film Heritage and are distributed by the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art and the Short Film Agency. She is a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg and the European Film Academy. She lives in Hamburg with her two children.
Sebastian Markt studied history in Vienna and Berlin, worked in art house cinemas and has been a film critic for around fifteen years. He is a founding member of the Hauptverband Cinephilie and Lichtspiel - Netzwerk kulturelle Filmbildung. Sebastian has been head of the Generation section of the Berlinale since September 2022 and is also active as a programmer at the young Dokfest Kassel in addition to Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg.

Moritz Maul is a cultural worker based in Berlin. With a background in film studies he works in multiple positions on the festival circuit and writes for an independent magazine. He is a member of the Berlinale Shorts selection committee.

Nora Molitor studied Intercultural Communication, Spanish and History. She works for international literature, film and theater projects and festivals, including the Max Ophüls Festival, the Berlin International Literature Festival, the German-French stage festival Perspectives and Berlinale Forum Expanded. Jury activities for the FCDEP (Paris), BIEFF (Bucharest) and Encounters (Bristol). In 2023 she directed the dokumentART Festival in Neubrandenburg and in 2024 she worked in the debate team of the Berlin Critics‘ Week. She is a co-founder of transdemo e.V., a member of LaborBerlin e.V. and curates and coordinates interdisciplinary projects.

Felix Piatkowski, born in Rostock, 15 years in Hamburg studying media culture, working at the Medienzentrum, in the cinema and since 2008 at the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. Moved to Berlin in 2017 and turned to psychoanalysis, but never turned his back on the short film festival and has now been there for 16 editions.
Yulia Serdyukova is a documentary film producer and curator. Member of Freefilmers cinemovement, co-founder of Filma. Feminist Film Festival, founder of yutopia films. She is interested in producing and promoting works of independent filmmakers and grassroots initiatives that challenge colonial policies, imperialism, capitalism, patriarchy and heteronormativity. Additionally, oftentimes works as a local producer for European media on covering Russian war against Ukraine.

Sarnt Utamachote is a Southeast Asian nonbinary filmmaker and curator based in Berlin. They believe that cinema can be a tool for social engagement and collective healing. They are a co-founder of un.thai.tled, an artist collective from the German-Thai diaspora, and have curated multiple research-based exhibitions concerning postcolonial histories, the Southeast Asian diaspora, and activism in divided Germany (GDR/FRG). They work as a film programmer at XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin,Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, and at Sİnema Transtopia Berlin.