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Berlinale Talents Selection Process

Each year, Berlinale Talents welcomes 200 filmmakers from all over the world to take part in our Summit and Labs, and to join the Talents community. That is, however, the final stretch of a long road, beginning in July with our Call for Entries and culminating at the Berlinale in February. Transparency is key for us, and that's why we would like to explain more about that process.

With over 3,500 applications every year, it's a tough and time-consuming job to decide on the final group of talented filmmakers. From the application deadline at the start of September until all applicants are notified in mid-December, we work non-stop to ensure a fair and balanced selection. Let us break it down for you.

  1. Start of July: Call for Entries
  2. July – End of August: Application Period
  3. September: Eligibility Screening
  4. October – November: Application Review

Application Review

Once all applications have been screened to ensure they are eligible, they are then sent on to be reviewed for consideration.
If you applied to the Summit alone, then your application is sent to the Selection Committee.
If you also applied to a Lab or Talent Press, that application is sent to the relevant jury.
It is important to know that both of these applications are considered separately, and if either is accepted by the reviewing bodies then you will be invited to take part in Berlinale Talents.
Since "talent" is a broad term and ultimately a unique characteristic, we don’t have hard selection criteria beyond our fundamental eligibility requirements, however a number of soft factors are taken into consideration. You can find more about them in our FAQs.
To check if you meet the eligibility requirements, head to our How to Apply page, which breaks it down by craft.

As a committee we look at different things: your professional experience of course, but also the question of whether this is a good time to come to the Berlinale Talents, can we offer you something and can you share something with the other Talents?
Dana Linssen, Selection Committee 2024

Summit Application

Applications to the Summit are reviewed by our Selection Committee, which is comprised of four members:

  • Agustina Arbetman, Director, Programmer, Curator
  • Gabor Greiner, Aquisition & Distribution
  • Dana Linssen, Film Critic, Philosopher & Writer
  • Wilfred Okiche, Film & Culture Critic

The applications are split into six blocks. The committee members work in teams of two, ensuring that every application is viewed at least twice. As the members work through the six blocks, they also switch teams, so the pairings change at each round making sure the review is balanced and diverse.

Lab and Talent Press Application

If you have submitted a project to the Doc Station, Short Form Station, Script Station, Talent Project Market, or have applied as a critic to Talent Press, your application is sent to a specialised jury.

It is important to note that if your project is not selected for the Lab, that does not affect your Summit application. The two are reviewed separately.

The juries for 2025 are: 

Doc Station

  • Diana El Jeiroudi, Filmmaker
  • Wouter Jansen, Sales
  • Yulia Serdyukova, Producer

Script Station

  • Vera Herchenbach, Acquisitions executive
  • Ming-Jung Kuo, Producer
  • Signe Zeilich-Jensen, Script consultant & curator

Talent Project Market

  • Sarika Lakhan, Producer
  • Gabor Greiner, Sales & Acquisition
  • Lorna Tee, Producer & curator

Short Form Station

  • Anja Dörken, Funding Executive, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
  • Afsun Moshiry, Film curator & producer
  • Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck, Curator & head, Berlinale Shorts

Talent Press

  • Frauke Greiner, Head of Press & Publicity, Berlinale
  • Marina May, Head of Division Film, Television, Radio Goethe-Institut
  • Savina Petkova, Film critic, Member of FIPRESCI

After two months of intensive reviewing, the selection committee and juries come together at the start of December to finalise their decisions. Once all the wrap up meetings have taken place, we can finally let all applicants know the outcome of their application.

  1. Start of December: Final wrap up by selection committee and juries
  2. Mid-December: Applicants notified of outcome
  3. Mid/End of December: Deadline for selected applicants to respond
  4. Early January: 200 Talents announced publicly
  5. February: Berlinale Talents Summit