From left to right: Ilker Çatak, Jennifer Reeder and Xabier Erkizia
Ilker Çatak (Germany)
Ilker Çatak is a director and screenwriter from Berlin. He grew up in Berlin and Istanbul and spent four years working for German and international cinema productions before studying film formally. He has realised over a dozen short films; his graduation film Sadakat won the Student Academy Award in Gold in 2015. His fourth feature film Das Lehrerzimmer (The Teacher’s Lounge), which premiered last year in Panorama, is nominated for the Oscar® as Best International Feature Film of the Year 2024. The film has been honoured with multiple distinctions, including five German Film Awards. Çatak has also received numerous prizes for his other short and feature-length works, such as Es gilt das gesprochene Wort (I Was, I Am, I Will Be).
Photo © Florian Mag
Jennifer Reeder is a director, screenwriter, video artist and lecturer from Chicago. Alongside her training as a ballet dancer, she began her artistic career with the trilogy The White Trash Girl, shot on VHS, in which she played the lead role. 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 (Berlinale Shorts 2015), Crystal Lake (Generation 2016), her first feature-length film Knives and Skin (Generation 2019) and the horror-thriller Perpetrator (Panorama 2023).
Photo © Joe Mezza
Xabier Erkizia (Spain)
Xabier Erkizia is a sound artist and researcher from the Basque region. In his works, he examines the acts of listening to, producing and shaping sound . He realises projects both as a solo artist and in collaboration with other artists and bands. He also creates sound installations for exhibitions and stage productions as well as radio productions and film soundtracks. El sembrador de estrellas (Berlinale Shorts 2022) and Samsara (Encounters 2023) by Lois Patiño are two of over 100 films he has worked on. In addition, Erkizia is active as a filmmaker, researches and publishes on sound in all its forms, curates music festivals and teaches.
https://erkizia.audio-lab.org/
Photo © Asier Gogortza
The International Short Film Jury awards the following Prizes:
- Golden Bear for Best Short Film (the winner of the Golden Bear qualifies for being eligible for next year’s short film Oscar)
- Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film)
- Berlin Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards (the winning film is the Berlin candidate for the category “European Short Film”)
Berlinale Shorts 