Festival director Dieter Kosslick and campus director Dorothee Wenner opened the 2008 Berlinale Talent Campus on 9 February before around 600 invited guests at Hebbel am Ufer. Through 14 February, 350 participants from approximately 100 countries were scheduled to attend workshops and discussions with international experts. Opening guests included director Stephen Daldry, composer and Volkswagen Score Competition mentor Gustavo Santaolalla, actor Kate Henshaw-Nuttall and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg managing director Kirsten Niehuus.
The evening included the world premiere of three short films nominated for the 2008 Berlin Today Award. Presenter Peter Twiehaus introduced directors Maheen Zia, Ole Bendtzen and Ville Jankeri before the screening.
Maheen Zia won the fifth Berlin Today Award for Match Factor, ahead of Ole Bendtzen’s documentary Berlin Hair Today and Ville Jankeri’s drama The Last Wash. Anneke Kim Sarnau and Navid Akhavan play the leads in Zia’s story about an Iraqi man who comes under police suspicion in Germany. Juror Wim Wenders praised the film’s restrained depiction of its characters and Berlin.
A public screening of the three shorts was scheduled for 11 February at Kino Hackesche Höfe. Zero Fiction Film produced the series with Medienboard support and assistance from the regional film industry. Deutsche Welle and DW-TV served as media partners and planned to broadcast the winning film.
The next competition round invited Campus participants to submit short-film ideas under the theme “My Wall.” Five finalists would make their films with German production companies. Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Germany’s Federal Foreign Office supported the 2009 award, under the patronage of foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Further information was available at http://www.berlintoday.de.
