‘Happening’ Star Anamaria Vartolomei Among 10 European Shooting Stars Announced for Hybrid 25th Anniversary Edition

European Film Promotion has announced the 10 rising young actors selected for the 25th edition of European Shooting Stars, the promotional event held during the Berlinale that has been instrumental to boosting careers of top talents such as Alicia Vikander, Riz Ahmed, Alba Rohrwacher and George MacKay.

Due to Omicron-related constraints, this year’s Shooting Stars is taking place as a hybrid edition comprising some online events being scheduled before the Berlinale, while others will take place on-site during the festival. One of the program’s highlights will be the European Shooting Stars Awards Ceremony set for Feb. 14 at the Berlinale Palast.

The 10 selected European Shooting Stars for 2022 are: Gracija Filipović (Croatia); Marie Reuther (Denmark); Anamaria Vartolomei (France); Emilio Sakraya (Germany); Clare Dunne (Ireland); Hanna van Vliet (The Netherlands); João Nunes Monteiro (Portugal); Timon Sturbej (Slovenia); Evin Ahmad (Sweden); and Souheila Yacoub (Switzerland).

This year’s roster – three men and seven women – of standout actors, picked from a pool of nominations from across Europe and deemed to have the chops for an international career, were selected by a jury consisting of: Swedish-Georgian filmmaker Levan Akin; Timka Grin, who is president of the International Casting Directors’ Network (ICDN) and is from Bosnia and Herzegovina; former Italian European Shooting Star Sara Serraiocco; producer Bernard Michaux, who is from Luxembourg, and Germany-based film scholar and curator Yun-hua Chen.

The jury praised Gracija Filipović for her breakout role in recent Cannes Camera d’Or winner “Murina,” directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic. While Marie Reuther made a strong impression with her “transformative” performance in her debut lead role in “Kamikaze,” which is HBO’s first Danish-language mystery thriller, a European Film Promotion statement said.

Anamaria Vartolomei stars as the gifted literature student Anne in Venice Golden Lion winner “Happening” by Audrey Diwan, a performance praised by Variety critic Guy Lodge as “career elevating.” Emilio Sakraya, who was nominated for his turn in Til Schweiger’s “The Salvation of the World as We Know It,” will be playing the lead – a rapper named Xatar – in Fatih Akin’s upcoming feature “Rheingold.”

Clare Dunne, elicited particular praise for her performance as Amanda Kinsella in the AMC Plus/RTE crime thriller series “Kin,” which follows her lead role as Sandra in Phyllida Lloyd’s film “Herself,” which she also co-wrote.

Hanna van Vliet was chosen for her role in “Anne+,” the series about a 20-something Dutch lesbian that has travelled widely and which she also co-created.

João Nunes Monteiro impressed with the “quiet intensity and respectful authenticity” of his performance in Miguel Gomes and Marueen Fazendeiro’s “The Tsugua Diaries,” which premiered in this year’s Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.

The jury picked Timon Sturbej for his past work in Darko Stante’s “Consequences,” and upcoming pic “Riders/Spring Dreaming” by Dominik Mencej, about two friends from a small Slovenian village who transform their mopeds into choppers and embark on a journey, which will be released later this year.

Evin Ahmad made the cut for being the protagonist of Swedish Netflix Original series “Snabba Cash,” in which she plays a young single mom who becomes entangled in the criminal world.

Souheila Yacoub has the distinction of having been at Cannes last year with two films in which she plays the lead: “A Brighter Tomorrow,” (“De bas étage”) by Yassine Qnia and “The Braves” by Anaïs Volpe, the pic that got her Shooting Stars status. Variety critic Jessica Kiang praised Yacoub’s performance in “The Braves” saying she has “a very appealing presence” on screen.

As in the past editions Shooting Stars will involve a special international press presentation, exposure to the the film industry and the Berlin public, and opportunities for the rising starts to meet casting directors, producers and filmmakers.

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