Darren Aronofsky to Head 2015 Berlinale Competition Jury

Darren AronofskyDarren Aronofsky

Director, screenwriter and producer Darren Aronofsky will serve as Jury President, the International Jury who will decide who will receive the Golden Bear and Silver Bears of the 2015 Berlinale Competition.

The other members of the International Jury are Daniel Brühl, Bong Joon-ho, Martha De Laurentiis, Claudia Llosa, Audrey Tautou and Matthew Weiner.

Darren Aronofsky, Jury President, USA
Following his studies at Harvard University, Darren Aronofsky celebrated his feature film debut in 1998 with Pi, which won the award for Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival and Best Script at the Independent Spirit Awards. He presented his highly acclaimed cinematic adaptation Requiem for a Dream at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, and the cult film The Fountain at the Venice Film Festival in 2006. Again in Venice, his film The Wrestler won the Golden Lion in 2008, and was hailed as the film of the year at the AFI Awards in Los Angeles. The film’s success also represented a sensational comeback of actor Mickey Rourke.

In 2011, Darren Aronofsky presented Black Swan, a psychological thriller taking place in the world of professional ballet. It was nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Director’s Guild of America Awards and the BAFTAs. His visually sweeping film Noah was released in 2014.

Daniel Brühl, Germany
Daniel Brühl is one of a handful of German movie stars who have also established a successful international career. Following his distinction with the German Film Award for Das weiße Rauschen,Vaya con Dios and Nichts bereuen in 2002, he celebrated his breakthrough in 2003 with Good Bye, Lenin!, which screened inCompetition at the Berlinale. For that role, Daniel Brühl received the European Film Award as well as another German Film Award. His international work has included roles in Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate and Michael Winterbottom’s The Face of an Angel. Following various productions in Germany, Spain, France and the US, he was recently nominated for numerous awards, including a Golden Globe Award, for his work in Ron Howard’s Rush. His most recent role was alongside Helen Mirren in Simon Curtis’s Woman in Gold.

Bong Joon-ho, South Korea
Born in 1969 in Seoul, South Korea, Bong Joon-ho studied sociology before graduating from the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA). He initially worked as a screenwriter and director’s assistant while also making many short films of his own. His feature film debut Barking Dogs Never Bite was released in cinemas in 2000. His film Memories of Murder was screened at the San Sebastián film festival, among others, and won numerous awards. In 2006, following its world premiere in the Quinzane des Réalisateurs in Cannes, The Host would go on to become the biggest box office hit ever in South Korea. Bong Joon-ho was invited to Cannes once again in 2009 forMother, this time in the section Un Certain Regard. His English language film debut Snowpiercer, featuring Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton and John Hurt, was a selection in the 2014 Berlinale Forum program.

Martha De Laurentiis, USA
Martha De Laurentiis and her husband Dino founded their production firm – today known as the De Laurentiis Company – in 1980. Since then it has been responsible for over 40 feature films and television series, including Stephen King’s directorial debut Maximum Overdrive, The Bedroom Window by Curtis Hanson, Michael Cimino’s Desperate Hours, Breakdown and U-571 by Jonathan Mostow and Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon. It produced Ridley Scott’s film adaptation of Hannibal, which screened out of competition at the Berlinale in 2001. De Laurentiis Company is also an executive producer of the Hannibal television series, which stars Mads Mikkelsen and has entered its third season in the US. At the 2014 festival, Martha De Laurentiis talked about the Hannibal series at Berlinale Talents.

Claudia Llosa, Peru
Peruvian native Claudia Llosa studied Communication Studies in Lima and later scriptwriting at the Escuela TAI in Madrid. She began her career in advertising before starting her own film production company. Her first feature film Madeinusa was released in 2006. Three years later, the WCF-funded film The Milk of Sorrow was a selection in the Berlinale Competition program and went on to win the Golden Bear and the FIPRESCI Award. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2012, her short film Loxoro was a selection in the Berlinale Shorts program and won the Teddy Award. Her English-language film debut Aloft, starring Jennifer Connelly, Mélanie Laurent and Cillian Murphy, screened in Competition in 2014 and Sundance Spotlight 2015.

Audrey Tautou, France
Audrey Tautou’s feature film debut – in the comedy Venus Beauty Institute – garnered her a César Award. Her international breakthrough came in 2001, when she starred in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie and was nominated for the European Film Award, as well as for another César and a BAFTA in 2002. Other films in her repertoire include Cédric Klapisch’s acclaimed L’Auberge Espagnole trilogy, Not on the Lips by Alain Resnais, Salvadori’s Priceless, Coco Before Chanel, and international productions such as The Da Vinci Code and Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things. Most recently, the French actress worked with Claude Miller (Thérèse Desqueyroux) and Michel Gondry (Mood Indigo).

Matthew Weiner, USA
Since 2007, Matthew Weiner has been the creator, executive producer and writer of the successful and critically acclaimed television series Mad Men, whose seventh and last season is currently running in the US. To date, he has received nine Emmys, two BAFTAS, three Golden Globes, numerous WGA awards and many other distinctions recognising his work on the series. As a director, he has been nominated twice by the DGA for his work behind the camera. Are You Here, starring Owen Wilson and Amy Poehler, marks his feature film debut as a writer, director and producer. Weiner’s other credits as a writer include the television series Becker, The Naked Truth, and The Sopranos – for which he was also an executive producer.

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