European Film Promotion unveils 2012 Shooting Stars longlist

An international jury of film professionals comprising Dutch filmmaker Marleen Gorris, Danish actor and former Shooting Star Thure Lindhardt, producer Ada Solomon, German casting director Simone Bär and UK film journalist Matt Mueller chose the candidates who will be showcased at Berlin in February.

The line-up of five actresses and five actors is as follows:

France – Adèle Haenel (House Of Tolerance, Heat Wave)

Germany – Anna Maria Mühe (Cracks In The Shell, November Child)

Ireland – Antonia Campbell-Hughes (The Other Side Of Sleep, Albert Nobbs)

Iceland – Hilmar Guðjónsson (Either Way, Black’s Game)

Italy – Isabella Ragonese (The First Assignment, Our Life)

Poland – Jakub Gierszał (Suicide Room, All That I Love)

Romania – Ana Ularu (Outbound, Turkey Girl)

Sweden – Bill Skarsgård (Simon And The Oaks, The Crown Jewels)

Switzerland – Max Hubacher (Stationspiraten, The Foster Boy)

UK – Riz Ahmed (Four Lions, Trishna) [pictured]

Speaking on behalf of the jury, Gorris said that it had been a “real challenge” to select the finallists..

“We came away marvelling at the often brilliant way the nominated actors portrayed the feeling of a kind of modern loneliness, taking you on a journey in their search for identity no matter which part of Europe they came from,” Gorris said.

Western Europe again dominates the selection with eight talents (one more than for the 2011 line-up), while Eastern Europe is represented by only two newcomers, from Poland and Romania.

Now in its 15th year, Shooting Stars has been celebrating Europe’s young acting talent at the Berlinale since 1998 and to date has showcased a total of 233 new faces such as Andrea Riseborough, David Kross, Ana Geislerova, Daniel Craig, Daniel Brühl, Tómas Lemarquis and Ludivine Sagnier.

The three-day event from Feb 11-13 includes an Industry Breakfast with casting directors and workshops in cooperation with the Berlinale Talent Campus. It will culminate with the presentation of the Shooting Stars Award to the ten young talents by Shooting Stars’ main sponsor for 2012, the Chinese jewellery company Tesiro.