European Film Promotion (EFP) is excited to announce the ten up-and-coming European acting talents selected for the 28th edition of EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS. These exceptional talents will be presented to the international press, film industry, and public during the 75th Berlinale (13 – 23 February 2025). As part of this initiative, the actors will participate in a tailor-made, four-day programme – substantially supported by Creative Europe’s MEDIA Programme of the European Union – that will peak with the European Shooting Stars Awards Ceremony on 17 February 2025 at the Berlinale Palast.
The European Shooting Stars 2025 were selected by an international jury, comprised of Romanian director and screenwriter Radu Muntean, Swedish casting director Pauline Hansson, Swiss producer Amel Soudani, French actress and former Shooting Star Ludivine Sagnier and Montenegrin journalist and curator Vuk Perović. These five experts recognised the talents‘ remarkable potential for an international career, citing several factors, including their outstanding work in the feature films and drama series which were submitted for their nomination and which are noted in bold in their bios below.
“Big thanks to the jury for their critical eye and for making this year’s selection. It was not an easy task, among so many excellent nominees. We are delighted to warmly welcome this exceptional group of emerging talents to the European Shooting Stars family. This year, we are thrilled to have Cyprus and Montenegro represented in the programme for the very first time. We are confident that all these dynamic forces will benefit from the programme, which we have been able to enhance with the support of our new partners: MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Hessen Film & Medien and Film- und Medienstiftung NRW,“ says Tina Hajon, programme director of EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS.
Here are the European Shooting Stars 2025: Marina Makris (Cyprus), Besir Zeciri (Denmark), Maarja Johanna Mägi (Estonia), Devrim Lingnau (Germany), Elín Hall (Iceland), Kārlis Arnolds Avots (Latvia), Šarūnas Zenkevičius (Lithuania), Lidija Kordić (Montenegro), Vicente Wallenstein (Portugal) and Frida Gustavsson (Sweden). The quotes below are from the jury.
Latvian actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots is building a career through unique and challenging roles. Having starred in Viesturs Kairisš’s January (2022), which was submitted as Latvia’s official entry for the Academy Awards, it won Avots the Best Actor award at the Rome Film Festival in 2022. Beside further international recognition, with the actor taking home the top actor prize at Series Mania in Lille, for his performance in Soviet Jeans (2024) which also convinced the jury: ‟His performance (…) shows that he is equally as adept at comedy as he is tragedy, as he brings humour to the role, but he suffers a lot. He is energetic, and yet sensitive.”
This edition is very special as actors from all three Baltic countries have been selected for the programme – Lithuania will be represented in by Šarūnas Zenkevičius, and Estonia by Maarja Johanna Mägi, known to Latvian film-goers for her role in the Latvian-Estonian co-production film Melchior the Apothecary
With a four-day intensive, customised programme, EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS provides an international networking platform for the selected talent to meet international journalists, casting directors, producers and filmmakers while in Berlin. It offers a unique opportunity to create the professional network encouraging and strengthening the talents to embark on an international career. The programme culminates in a ceremony at the Berlinale Palast on Monday 17 February, where each actress and actor will be honoured with the European Shooting Stars Award.
Throughout its 28 years, EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS has been an important stepping-stone for the selected talent’s international careers – notable Shooting Stars over the years include: Riz Ahmed (Relay, Fingernails, Encounter, Sound of Metal), Matilda de Angelis (Citadel: Diana, Across the River and Into the Trees, Atlas, The Undoing), Asta Kamma August (Families Like Ours), Suzy Bemba (Poor Things, Homecoming), Leonie Benesch (September 5,The Teachers‘ Lounge), George MacKay (The End, The Beast, Munich – The Edge of War, 1917), Carey Mulligan (Spaceman, Maestro, She Said, The Dig, Promising Young Woman, The Great Gatsby), Benedetta Porcaroli (Immaculate), Alba Rohrwacher (Maria, La Chimera, Happy as Lazzaro), Bill Skarsgård (Boy Kills World, It, It Chapter Two), Vic Carmen Sonne (The Girl with the Needle), Anamaria Vartolomei (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo), Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander (The Assessment, Rumour, Firebrand, Beckett, Tomb Raider) and Maisie Williams (The New Look, Game of Thrones).
EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS is made possible thanks to the support of Creative Europe – the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the German Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, the Berlin International Film Festival, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Hessen Film & Medien, Spotlight and Armani beauty, as well as the participating national film promotion institutes and film centres from the Shooting Stars’ countries (EFP’s member organisations): With special thanks to German Films, Danish Film Institute, Deputy Ministry of Culture (Cyprus), Estonian Film Institute, Film Centre of Montenegro, Icelandic Film Centre, Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual I.P. / ICA (Portugal), Lithuanian Film Centre, National Film Centre of Latvia and Swedish Film Institute. EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS’ main media partner is Variety, with additional media partners: Screen International, Cineuropa, Blickpunkt:Film, HeyUGuys and Festival Scope.