The Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled the juries for its 2021 festival sidebars, the films screening outside the main competition at the 71st Berlinale.
German actress Jella Haase (Berlin Alexanderplatz), Dutch director Mees Peijnenburg (Paradise Drifters), and German writer-director Melanie Waelde (Naked Animals) will judge the movies running in this year’s Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus sections focused on children and youth films.
The three-member Encounters Jury, which will choose the winners of the sidebar section focusing on “new and diverse voices” in cinema, is made up of French festival programer Florence Almozini, currently of New York’s Lincoln Center, Cecilia Barrionuevo, artistic director of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina, and Diedrich Diederichsen, a German editor and publisher of numerous books on cinema and pop culture.
The short film jury, which will screen the 20 shorts in the 2021 Berlinale competition, consists of Egyptian artist Basim Magdy, Austrian cinematographer Christine A. Maier (Quo Vadis, Aida?), and German actor Sebastian Urzendowsky (The Counterfeiters).
The main competition jury, already announced, will consist of six previous winners of Berlin’s Golden Bear award for best film.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the 2021 Berlin Film Festival will be split in two this year. An online-only version of the festival, mainly for the international film industry, will run March 1-5. A second public festival for Berlin audiences is planned for June.
The Generation and Short Film juries will announce this year’s winners on March 4. The Encounters and Competition winners will be announced on March 5.
