Teddy Talents Talks: Queer Visions | Berlinale Talents -

Babatunde Apalowo

Babatunde Apalowo is a Nigerian film director and screenwriter based in the UK. He won the Homevida competition sponsored by the United Nations and his short film "A Place of Happiness" has screened at several international film festivals. In 2022, he won the AMVCA for Best Editor and was nominated for Achievement in Screenwriting at the African Movie Academy Awards. His debut feature film is "All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White".

Corrie Chen

Corrie Chen is an award-winning filmmaker and a highly sought after television director. Her work ranges from comedy to drama, fiction to documentary, and has screened extensively at academy-accredited film festivals around the world. Born in Taiwan, Corrie is naturally drawn to stories that explore the themes of identity and belonging. An alumni of Berlinale Talents, her directing credits include the landmark 4-part miniseries “New Gold Mountain” for which she won best direction at Australian Director’s guild awards, and the award winning digital series “Homecoming Queens”. Her new 4-part miniseries “Bad Behaviour” is screening in competition at Berlinale Series 2023. In 2020, she was named one of the Asian-Australian Leadership Summit’s 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians.

Gök Akyel

Gök Akyel is a transfeminist film activist from Turkey. He is the director of Pink Life QueerFest which is the first and only queer film festival in Turkey since 2011 and also chair of the board of Pink Life LGBTI+ Solidarity Association which is also the first and only trans self-organization in Turkey. Gök is also concentrating on creating queer films as a producer and screenwriter. Gök was invited to sit on the jury of the Teddy Award of the Berlinale in 2021.

Jennifer Reeder

Jennifer Reeder is a director, screenwriter, video artist and lecturer from Chicago. In her short films, she has devoted herself to the world of young girls, making her own mark in the teen-film genre in the process. Her films have been shown around the world, both in fine art contexts and at prestigious film festivals. Reeder's past Berlinale highlights include premieres of “Blood Below the Skin” (2015), “Crystal Lake” (2016), her first feature-length film “Knives and Skin” (2019) and the horror-thriller “Perpetrator” (2023).

Lío Mehiel

Lío Mehiel is a Puerto Rican and Greek actor, filmmaker, and artist. Their work explores the inherent contradiction of the trans experience — simultaneously rooted in the body while also transcending beyond it. Lío’s first short “Disforia” premiered at Outfest 2018. Their mixed-media project “Phantom Feel” received international acclaim by The Art Newspaper, Dazed, and was featured on a Manhattan billboard as part of Pussy Riot’s public art exhibition. Lío is a co-founder of Voyeur Productions.

Djamila Grandits

Djamila Grandits is a Vienna based cultural worker, curator and film programmer. As part of CineCollective she’s responsible for the artistic direction and management of Kaleidoskop Film und Freiluft. She is part of the selection committee of DOK Leipzig. Programming for frameout - digital summer screenings and tricky women | tricky realities. Jury at sixpackfilm and member of the non-fiction commission of Zürcher Filmstiftung. Works as moderator and host of various panels, events and interviews. Djamila cares about entanglements and the exploration of collective spaces. She is inquisitive about the intersection and deconstruction of theoretical concepts, artistic-, political- as well as activist forms and expressions.