A new name for talent forged at the Berlinale: The Talent Campus is now Berlinale Talents

The label is new, the event is not: since 2003, the Talent Campus at the Berlinale serves to create a network of emerging creatives from all over the world, helping them connect with one another as well as with established filmmakers. Over the past eleven years, 4472 filmmakers have visited the Campus. Starting October 1, the initiative will continue under the name Berlinale Talents.

This name change positions participating filmmakers right where they belong: in the spotlight. The Berlin International Film Festival hereby aims to highlight the success stories of the past eleven years and harmonise the outward image of this networking platform with the current direction and developments for the section.

“When we launched the Berlinale Talent Campus eleven years ago, our guiding mission was to support creative filmmakers from different disciplines. This still holds true and will remain an influence on Berlinale Talents in the future. With the name change we want to underline that industry representatives are invited to discover promising talents and their film projects,” explains Festival Director Dieter Kosslick.

Berlinale Talents has been a major catalyst for many burgeoning careers. At the 2013 Berlinale alone, 45 former talents returned with their films programmed in various sections of the Berlinale. Participants are in the first decade of their careers and Berlinale Talents helps them to position themselves within the film industry. They can discuss with experts and renowned filmmakers about innovations and trends in the sector, and bring along their own projects for the project-labs. Berlinale Talents consults with them on how to push projects further and offers an opportunity to present film projects to a select festival audience following the Co-Production Market. An offer that draws the attention of Berlinale and European Film Market trade specialists.

A new name also means a new logo for Berlinale Talents as well as for the international Talents initiatives in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Japan. These initiatives have been operating in partnership with the Berlinale for years. Starting October 1, 2013, regional filmmakers may already apply for Talents Guadalajara 2014 and as of October 15, 2013 for Talents Buenos Aires 2014. Talents Durban, Talents Sarajevo and Talents Tokyo will also launch under a new name in 2014. The new denomination and logo aim to connect Berlinale Talents even more strongly with the Berlinale in the public mind, while the newly accentuated graphic alludes to the event’s dynamism, the talents’ potential and the freedom to develop further.

Berlinale Talents 2014 will take place from February 8 to 13 at the Theater Hebbel am Ufer (HAU). Each year more than 4000 filmmakers from about 140 countries apply, and a selection committee composed of international professionals selects 300 exceptional talents to invite to Berlin. More information can be found at: www.berlinale-talents.de.
Invitation to a press talk

On October 9, 2013, 10:30 am, the Berlin International Film Festival invites the press to a talk at Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Potsdamer Straße 2, 4th floor, with Festival Director Dieter Kosslick and the heads of Berlinale Talents, Christine Tröstrum and Matthijs Wouter Knol.

In addition to background information on the name change, we will also present examples of successful talent careers.

Berlinale Talents is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, a business division of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in co-operation with MEDIA - Training programme of the European Union, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Canon.