Since 1955, the Berlinale awards Golden and Silver Bears to the best short films. And since 2003, the Berlinale Shorts has its own international jury each year. This jury awards the two Bears, picks the EFA Short Film Nominee Berlin and awards the DAAD Short Film Prize for the Berlin Artist-in-Residence Programme to the next scholarship holder.
At the Berlinale 2011, the Golden and Silver Bears for the best short films will for the first time since 2002 be awarded again during the official award ceremony in the Berlinale Palast on Feb. 19, 2011. The other two prizes will be announced during the award ceremony of the independent juries at the Saarland State Offices in Berlin on Feb. 19, 2011.
In 2011, the jury that awards the Berlinale Shorts prizes will consist of American photographer and filmmaker Nan Goldin, Israeli film director and head of the Sam Spiegel Film School Renen Schorr, and Tunisian director and producer Ibrahim Letaief.
Nan Goldin (USA)
Nan Goldin is one of the world’s most celebrated photographers. She first became known internationally in the 1980s, when the main theme of her art was her own life and that of her friends: her most famous photographs focus on sexuality and relationships, and on living and dying with AIDS. In 1996, she won the Berlinale Teddy Award for her autobiographical documentary I’ll Be Your Mirror. She had screened her first slide show at the Arsenal in 1983 through Alf Bold ,who was a dear friend. In 2007, Nan Goldin received the Hasselblad Award for her photography.
Renen Schorr (Israel)
Director Renen Schorr is the founder and director of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem, which became one of the most prestigious film schools in the world under his leadership. He is one of the leading architects of the new Israeli cinema as initiator and founder of four Israeli film funds. In 1987, his film Late Summer Blues, a portrayal of teenage life before the army draft, won the Silver Menorah Award for Best Film — the Israeli equivalent to the Oscar.
Ibrahim Letaief (Tunisia)
As director and producer Ibrahim Letaief is one of the most famous representatives of Tunisian film. In 1997, he founded his own production company, “Long et Court”. With it he realized short films, commercials and a number of longer films. In 2008, Letaief made his first feature, Cinecittà, a comedy about a director who is so hard-pressed for money he robs a bank. The film was a hit at box offices in Tunisia. Letaief now works on his second feature and teaches at the National Film School ESAC, a state film school in Tunis. In 2009, he was honoured with the National Culture Award as best director in Tunisia.
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