Holger Franke
Writer, director and actor born in 1942. After training to be an actor (1961-1964), he worked in various theatres as well as on the radio and television. In 1972, Franke initially began acting with the Grips Theatre in Berlin and a year later founded the Rote Grütze Theatre with which he remained associated as a writer, director and actor well into the 1980’s. During this period he created works such as “Darüber spricht man nicht” (We don’t talk about that) and “Was heißt hier Liebe?” (This is love, isn’t it?). In the 1980’s and 1990’s, he wrote and directed plays for the Theaterhof Priessenthal, the Bremen Shakespeare Company and the Theaterhaus Stuttgart. 1987 was the year of his first collaboration with Dani Levy on the screenplay for the film “RobbyKallePaul”. In 2005, they both received the German Film Award for the comedy “Alles auf Zucker” (Go for Zucker!), in which his actress daughter Anja Franke also plays a part. He is currently working on a screenplay based on Wladimir Kaminer’s “Russendisko” (Russian Disco), among other things.
Matthias Luthardt
Writer and director, born in Leiden, The Netherlands, in 1972. First he studied German studies, Roman studies and rhetoric in Tübingen, Paris and Hamburg. Between 1998 and 2005 he studied film directing at the HFF „Konrad Wolf“ (Film and Television Academy) in Potsdam-Babelsberg. In 2006 his feature film directing debut “Pingpong” premiered at the film festival in Cannes in the section “Semaine de la Critique” and was honored with the screenplay award of the SACD and the Young Critic Award of the students’ jury of the Franco-German Youth Office. At the European Film Awards, “Pingpong” was nominated for the “Fassbinder Award” as “best European discovery”.
Irene Visedo
Actress, born in Madrid in 1978. She trained from the age of fourteen as an actress in various Spanish theatres including Ángel Gutiérrez’ Chamber Theatre and Teatro de la Abadía. Her first film roles were in “The Devil’s Backbone” by Guillermo del Toro and “Cascabel” by Daniel Cebrián, for which she received the award for Best Young Actress at the Filmfestival Cinespaña (Spanish Film Festival) in Toulouse. In 2003, she was nominated for the Newcomer Award by the Spanish Actors Union. Her most recent role on German cinema screens was in “Die Frau des Anarchisten” (The Anarchist’s Wife) by Marie Noelle and Peter Sehr.
Short Film Jury
Florian Mischa Böder
Born in Hanover in 1974. Studied film direction and screenplay at the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne between 1997 and 2002. During his studies, he worked in the editorial team of the ARD “Morgenmagazin”, as a director on the Harald Schmidt Show and as a director and writer for documentaries on the “Sendung mit der Maus” show. In 2001, he had his first major success with the short film musical “ich muss gehen” (I have to go) which is still being shown successfully at film festivals worldwide. Feature films “Die Österreichische Methode” (The Austrian Method) from 2007 and “nichts geht mehr” (Nothing’s Working Anymore) from 2008 along with various dramatizations and productions for the theatre. He has received awards such as the Max Ophüls Prize, the German Film School Award Munich, and the Sponsorship Award for Excellent Directing, Winterthur.
Robert Gwisdek
Actor, born in 1984. Son of actress Corinna Harfouch and actor Michael Gwisdek. He made his highly-acclaimed film debut as a 13-year old in “Grüne Wüste” (Green Desert) directed by Anno Saul. After four years spent studying acting at the HFF “Konrad Wolf” (Film and Television Academy), he received the Best Actor Prize at the 2005 “Schauspielschultreffen” (a get-together for budding young German actors) for his portrayal of Macbeth. He had further roles in “NVA” by Leander Haussmann and “Lauf um Dein Leben – Vom Junkie zum Ironman” (Run for your Life) by Adnan G. Köse. For his role as Anton in Hermine Huntgeburth’s “Väter, denn sie wissen nicht, was sich tut” (Fathers – forgive them for they know not what they do), Robert Gwisdek was awarded the “Günter Strack Nachwuchspreis” (Günter Strack Young Talent Prize) in 2008 for Best Actor. Dietrich Brüggemann’s film “Renn, wenn Du kannst” (Run, if you can), which is due for release in February 2010, features Gwisdek in the main role as the paraplegic Ben.
Katharina Liebert
Born in Vienna in 1984, festival director. For the past five years, she has been a member of the management team at the Viennese short film festival Vienna Independent Shorts (VIS). She has been studying law since 2002 and film studies since 2005 at the University of Vienna. She is currently working as a film projectionist in several art house cinemas in Vienna and at the Lower Austrian Filmhof Film Festival. In 2006, she helped found a cinema for immigrants in Limerick, Ireland and in 2007, she was a project coordinator and co-curator for the DVD production of “Future Cinema Austria”. She previously worked as a curator for the “New Directors’ Lounge” in the Schikaneder Cinema in Vienna (2006/2007), for a short film program for the St. Petersburg Open Cinema Festival (2006) as well “shorts & skirts: Die lange Nacht des kurzen Films” (shorts & skirts: the Long Night of the Short Film) together with Birgit Flos for the Diagonale Film Festival in Graz (2008).
Peter Stockhaus
Producer and managing director of Peter Stockhaus Filmproduktion GmbH in Hamburg. After studying business studies, economics, German studies and politics at the universities of Duisburg, Trier and Hamburg, he has held various positions as a producer and production manager since 1988. He also lectures at the Hamburg Berlin Film School, the Akademie Grafik-Werbung-Druck (Academy of Graphic Design, Advertising and Printing) in Hamburg, the Media Campus in Hanover and Filmtrain in Kiel.
He has produced over 70 feature films and documentaries, including “Bungalow” by Ulrich Köhler, “Cowboys and Angels” by David Gleeson and “Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb” (The Day Bobby Ewing Died) by Lars Jessen. Many of his productions have received accolade at international film festivals while at home his awards include the German Short Film Award, the German Film Critics Award and the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Award.
