Last month the Berlin International Film Festival vowed to work toward better gender representation when its artistic director signed the Gender Parity Pledge. The fest seems to be taking that promise seriously: per Screen Daily, incoming artistic director Carlo Chatrian has appointed four women and three men to Berlinale’s selection committee.
The women joining the committee are former director and curator of Berlinale’s Panorama section Paz Lázaro; Locarno Film Fest alumna Aurélie Godet; Wolf Kino cinema founder Verena von Stackelberg; and author and curator Barbara Wurm.
Mark Peranson, Lorenzo Esposito, and Sergio Fant will also serve on the selection committee.
Chatrian hopes the committee will collaborate well past the 2020 edition of Berlinale. “The appointments are intended to create a committee that works closely together with a long-term commitment,” he said.
He also named Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck as the new head of Berlinale Shorts. The veteran film fest programmer, moderator, and juror will succeed Maike Mia Höhne.
Chatrian and incoming executive director Mariette Rissenbeek will officially take up their new posts — and begin leading Berlinale — on June 1. Rissenbeek will be the first woman to ever lead the fest.
Thirty-five percent of Berlinale 2019’s Competition films were women-directed. Angela Shanelec’s “I was Home, But” and Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” each received a Silver Bear, one of Berlinale’s highest honors.