Curators
INTERFILM Festival
4 - 9 November 2025
4 - 9 November 2025
Curators
Next to the pre-selection Competitions, sections and thematic programs are curated by teams of film-enthusiastic experts. Here is an overview of the curators in 2025:
studied theater and film studies as well as acting in Berlin and New York and has appeared on stage, TV and film. She curates for various international film festivals, including interfilm Berlin, Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis, Arab Filmfestival San Francsico (2014-2019) and plays and sings in the all female swing band The Toolbox Orchestra. She also works as an on-set coach and acting coach (Young Talents), gives acting and pitch trainings, e.g. for the DFFB Berlin and the KUKI Film Festival and moderates film screenings, panels and events at international (film) festivals.
Selection Committee: International Competition
The passionate cineaste initially studied film history and switched from theory to practice when she went to the Film Academy to study screenwriting and directing. She was already a member of the international jury at INTERFILM in 2001. Since then, she has been a regular jury member for the Script Pitch and on the festival's pre-selection committee. This year, she will also be part of the curation team for the International Competition. She has been judging short films for the Almagro International Film Festival (AIFF) in Spain since 2023. She now also works there as a program coordinator and is part of the curation team for the Spanish and international competition. She lives in Berlin and works as a freelance screenwriter and dramaturge.
Selection Committee: International Competition
Selection Committee: Script Pitch
is a queer writer and director born in Mexico. His short films were screened at Oscar qualifying festivals like Out Fest Los Angeles and Morelia Film Festival. His Spanish feature film screenplay “Acapulco Magic” was a finalist at the Guanajuato Film Festival screenplay competition, it also won the film fund for features in development provided by the Mexican Film Institute IMCINE. The project was invited to La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut Français program to attend Cannes Film Festival and Gotham Film Week in New York. He started at Interfilm curating Queer Fever and now is part of the selecting committee of Script Pitch where he also acts as a writing Mentor for the selected screenplays. He co-curates the German Short Film competition at Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis.
Selection Committee: International Competition
Selection Committee: Script Pitch
is opening the festival for the forth time as a presenter and curates for INTERFILM since 2023. Previously, she curated and hosted the documentary screenings for children 10+ at KUKI and enjoyed discussing film with children. She is a documentary film director, circus educator, acro yoga teacher and loves movement and dance above all else.
Selection Committee: Documentary Competition
Originally coming from the music side of things, Moritz has been playing in punk and reggae bands, has toured extensively as one half of an anti-folk duo and has played records to people for the better part of his life. Studying art, music and media he came in contact with short film which in it’s diversity and diy ethos reminded him immediately of what he loved about the music scenes he came from. Growing interested in questions of narrative perspectives, the contradictions of documentary approaches and essayist forms.
Selection Committee: Dokumentarfilmwettbewerb
Selection Committee: Reality Bites
Selection Committee: Craving for Narratives
Selection Committee: Sound & Vision
started as a location manager at interfilm in 2011 and has since worked in various positions for the festival. Since 2018, she has been head of acquisitions for short film distribution at interfilm Berlin. She is also a member of the festival curatorial board, the artistic direction collective and responsible for financing at interfilm. Sarah has a Master's degree in Media Studies from the Film University Babelsberg. She is a member of the selection committee for the German competition.
Selection Committee: German Competition
is a emergent film producer, curator and political educator from Berlin. She is currently studying film production at filmArche and social work with a focus on critical diversity and community studies at Alice Salomon University. She co-initiated and directs the Tibet Film Festival Berlin, curated films at Sinema Transtopia and produced the podcast „die mische ballert“, which sheds light on mixed race BiPoc Perspectives in Germany. In her projects, she combines creative work with political education, particularly on the topics of diversity and community.
Selection Committee: German Competition
Vic Atanasov (no pronoun) studied Gender Studies in Berlin and Tokyo, with a research focus on gender as well as female and queer gazes in Japanese cinema. As an editor and event organizer, Vic is active in Berlin’s queer arts and culture scene. Since 2024, Vic has been part of the editorial team at interfilm. Vic is viewing films and curating the German Competition for the first time this year. Since 2023, Vic has also been working with the Japanese film festival Nippon Connection, where Vic is responsible, among other things, for coordinating the cultural program.
Selection Committee: German Competition
has been into interfilm and KUKI from an early age, was a member of the children's jury and a youth curator and grew to love the medium here. After a brief detour into sociolinguistics, she studies production design at Babelsberg Film University and works as a freelance director, graphic designer and in the production department. Having been an activist since her teenage years, she has been part of the climate justice movement since 2019.
Selection Committee: Green Film Competition
has been an interfilmer for over 25 years. He studied sociology and journalism, enjoys writing book reviews, published the book "Das Digital" in 1998 and in 2022 published "When Shiva rages, the world shakes - Hinduism as an adventure in everyday life in India". He has been curating at interfilm since the beginning, he looks after the website, organizes the monthly, nationwide short film programme series Shorts Attack and loves gardening.
Selection Committee: Green Film Competition
Selection Committee: Sound & Vision
I was born in Berlin and work as an editor, film technician, cameraman and currently as a documentary filmmaker. I also realize the technical realization of film festivals, among others for Interfilm and Kuki since 2020. This is my first curation at Interfilm. I am looking forward to great films!
Selection Committee: Green Film Competition
was born in Australia to Chinese-Russian and German immigrants and settled in Berlin in her early twenties in 1993. She has always been involved in music, film, performance and art and has worked at interfilm Berlin since 1998. Monica became Artistic Director of KUKI Young Short Film Festival in 2011, leads KUKI’s film-curation workshops for teenagers, gives talks and curates short film programs for festivals and institutes around the world. In 2021, she joined the short film selection committee at Berlinale-Generation and developed the digital film education platform, Kurzfilm im Klassenraum that was launched in 2022. Her focus lies on the inventive and empathetic potential of the cinematic short form and how film can help young people feel at home in the world and in themselves. For the adult side of interfilm, she researches films and co-curates the genre programs and Teenage Riot.
Selection Committee: KUKI .18 Junges Kurzfilmfestival Berlin
is an ultra-long-term student of German philology and something with culture. She has been a permanent part of the KUKI team since 2018, where she organizes, screens, curates, feeds social media, bakes cakes, and co-curates Teenage Riot. And because she likes all weird things, she is also co-curator of eject.
Selection Committee: KUKI .18 Junges Kurzfilmfestival Berlin
Selection Committee: Eject - The long night of weird shorts
is a Birmingham, Alabama native and Berlin based filmmaker/producer and collage artist. He has produced projects in both Europe and the US. Recently, he completed an intership with interfilm and beyond excited to be co-curating Eject.
Selection Committee: Eject - The long night of weird shorts
successfully dropped out of an unhealthy degree course to rock a technical apprenticeship instead and is now industriously sitting in the office for money or travelling around. As a cultural work balance he has been drifting through various media landscapes for years and ended up as a volunteer at Interfilm in 2017. His penchant for tinkering and his open heart for absurd curiosities quickly became apparent and so it was practically inevitable that he has been co-curating and co-producing the show ‘eject’ ever since.
Selection Committee: Eject - The long night of weird shorts
did an internship at Interfilm in 2019 and has been hooked on short film ever since. She studied art history and social and business communication at the UdK in Berlin, is interested in literature (modern) and horror films (bloody) and writes herself (miniatures). In 2025, Ronja is co-curating “eject - the long night of deviant films” for the third time.
Selection Committee: Eject - The long night of weird shorts
is a Shiraz-born, Mannheim-raised film curator, programmer, and creative producer currently based in Berlin. She is a curator of Sinema Transtopia, advisor to the Berlinale Forum, Producer at Road River Films and artistic director of Interfilm Script Pitch Lab. In the past she has made film programmes for the Berliner Festspiele and the Akademie der Künste. She is currently engaged in research projects pertaining to the history of Iranian cinema from the 20th century.
Selection Committee: Script Pitch
is a Berlin-based Indonesian filmmaker with a background in neuroscience and a passion for storytelling. After studying in the Netherlands, she shifted her focus to film—directing shorts, exploring documentaries, and working on sets. During her internship at KUKI, she honed her curatorial eye for shorts that challenge form and sparks dialogue. Now, as part of the Script Pitch Selection Committee, she’s keen to champion fresh, original voices.
Selection Committee: Script Pitch
is based in Berlin and studied cultural studies and later film studies. Elisa teaches at FU Berlin, works in film education for children, and was involved in several fiction films. Elisa has previously worked for the Berlin Critics' Week and, in 2025, joins Interfilm for the first time as part of both the curation and viewing teams. Their main interests center on queer, anti-colonial, experimental, playful, and collaborative approaches to filmmaking.
Selection Committee: Focus on - Weaving Tomorrows
is an independent producer, curator, story editor, and arts consultant based in Toronto, Canada. Through his mother, he is Anishinaabe and a member of Lake St. Martin First Nation (Manitoba). From July 2010 to June 2020, Jason was the Executive Director of imagineNATIVE, an Indigenous-run organisation mandated to support Indigenous filmmakers and media artists. In this capacity, Jason oversaw all operational and artistic activities of the annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the world’s largest showcase of Indigenous screen content. He also oversaw the organisation’s year-round initiatives, international partnerships, and special projects, including On-Screen Protocols & Pathways, an influential framework for film and television production, and the 360 VR series 2167. Under his leadership, imagineNATIVE became the global hub for Indigenous film and an integral part of the Canadian industry.
Since his departure from imagineNATIVE, Jason has focussed on his practise as a screen-content producer and film programmer. In March 2022, Jason joined the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as an International Programmer. He currently programmes narrative features from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Global Indigenous Cinema (non-Canadian). Beginning in 2013 until 2020, Jason was an Advisor for Indigenous films at the Berlinale. He also oversaw the Indigenous Cinema stand at the European Film Market from 2015-2020, which promoted features and shorts made by Indigenous filmmakers to international sales agents, distributors, and festivals. In February 2021, Jason received the Clyde Gilmour Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association. The award is bestowed to Canadians whose work has in some way enriched the understanding and appreciation of film in their native country.
Selection Committee: Focus on - Weaving Tomorrows
Invisible Women is an archive activist film collective which champions the work of women and filmmakers with marginalised identities from the history of cinema through screenings, events and editorial.
Founded in 2017, Invisible Women have presented work across the UK and beyond, including at Flatpack Birmingham, Cinema Rediscovered, London Short Film Festival, Glasgow Film Theatre, EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam, Balkan Can Kino Athens, Cine Tonalá Mexico City, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA and BFI Southbank. The collective is based in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Berlin. Current members are Camilla Baier, Lauren Clarke and Rachel Pronger.
Selection Committee: Focus on - Weaving Tomorrows
is a Syrian filmmaker since 1997, curator, and activist, with a diverse body of shorts, documentaries, and feature films that have earned several international awards. He founded the Film Festival in Exile (2015) with support from Goethe-Institut and DOK.fest München and has curated programs including the Film Station for Goethe-Institut Damaskus im Exil (2016) and sections at Berlinale, DOK.fest München, Dresden Filmfest, Regensburg Short Film Week, and several others.
A Berlinale Talents alumnus (2008), he has served on juries at Munich Film Festival and Regensburg Film Week. He has received several fellowships and residencies for at-risk and exiled artists across Europe. Somar also founded Movies on Rails, a traveling cinema for exiled artists, and leads film workshops for refugee students aged 8 to 12 in Finland. Currently, he is writing his debut novel, Years of Ember.
Selection Committee: Focus on - Weaving Tomorrows
is a Glasgow-based filmmaker, curator and doctoral researcher with a focus on film archives from 1930s Palestine. His films have won major awards at IDFA, Sundance, London Short Film Festival and Go Short, he has been selected as a European Film Academy candidate for 2026 and also has been nominated for a 2025 BAFTA award for Best British Short Film. His creative and academic work explore anti-colonial, participatory and archival methodologies around themes of collective memory, fragmented identities and displacement.
Selection Committee: Focus on - Weaving Tomorrows
studied film, theater, ethnology and journalism in Berlin. After his studies he learned film animation at Kaskeline Filmproduktion and realized his own animated films as well as stage designs and projections for the Schaubühne Berlin, Schauspielhaus Hamburg and for the world exhibition spectacle "Flambee" in Hannover 2000. He joined interfilm in 1998 and took over the role of producer.
Selection Committee: Reality Bites & &
Selection Committee: Craving for Narratives
Selection Committee: Virtual Reality meets Full Dome
Selection Committee: 3D Shorts
is a Berlin-based multidisciplinary actor & artist, active member of the BIPoC-Alliance, which developed a space for the BIPoC Community at the Berlinale is a co-curator of The Black Gaze at Interfilm but also over all a creative force in various film and storytelling projects.
Selection Committee: The Black Gaze
@yagitown is a Berlin-based filmmaker and visual artist specializing in film, photography and performance art. She graduated from the Filmarche in 2011 in the Cinematography program. In 2021 she received the INITIAL 1st scholarship from the Academy of Arts for her photographic work and research, Hidden Figures, and as part of her former performance collective Luftpflanzen, took part in the Hamburg Fluctoplasma Festival 2021.
Her artistic practice and works mostly revolve around Afro-diasporic feminist and political perspectives that she owes to her ancestors.
Selection Committee: The Black Gaze
came to interfilm through an internship. Since then she somehow can't get away from the films. Views and co-curates Queer Fever. She is in charge of the festival website at achtung berlin and at the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival she is involved in the program and guest management. She is currently learning the business of livestreaming in a video production.
Selection Committee: Queer Fever
studied audiovisual media and film in Germany and France, and finally received his Master of Arts in cultural education from the Free University of Berlin. Marcel is committed to queer visibility and representation and celebrates the diversity of life. He has been a passionate member of the KUKI team since 2019 (yay!) and is looking forward to co-curating Queer Fever again like he already did in 2021 and 2022! Okay, let's go!
Selection Committee: Queer Fever
keeps saying that fae is applying for acting studies this year but is still enrolled at the FU for 8 Semesters now. But since "studying is a side hustle for now", she is concentrating on her work and passion. Along the way she got to perform on several stages across Berlin, stood in front of cameras as a model, actor or dancer and had the wildest moments as an artist supervisor. At INTERFILM she found one of her many homes and started curating as well as having her directing/producing debut with the 39th INTERFILM opening ceremony.
Selection Committee: Body Talk Dance Shorts
born and raised in Ecuador, studies Film Studies, Latin American Studies and French at the FU Berlin. He arrived in Berlin in his early 20s and fell in love with the Berliner cinema culture and its colorful landscape. Since 2024 part of the interfilm team, where the short film's potential unveiled before his eyes: condensing both conceptual and observational views of our crazy fascinating world in a short time; the dichotomy between DIY and cinematic aesthetics in the free exploration of certain topics pertaining our times; under the umbrella of curatorship, how all this unique pieces "communicate/talk" between each other: interfilm-ic language (no pun intended).
Selection Committee: Food on Film
Toma Danilov founded in 2014 a women* community "SHE36 empowering bicycle culture" and organized movie screenings about women* and bicycle culture. Studied psychology, worked as a bicycle messenger in Berlin and used arised GPS routes for her drawings. Loves hard arthouse and documentaries about "little people", in 2025 viewing and curating Bike Shorts special program. - https://www.instagram.com/she36_/
Selection Committee: Bike Shorts
has been an event man since childhood, whether on tour with his own bands, as a stagehand, festival planner or guide on bike tours. Since 2014, he has been part of the VELOBerlin bicycle festival, which not only presents new products, but also makes cycling accessible to new target groups with a diverse festival program. In 2025, he combines cycling and film culture together with Toma Danilov in the special program Bike Shorts.
Selection Committee: Bike Shorts
is an expert in immersive and interactive technologies and directs the Courant3D film festival in Angoulême. He is a specialist in sound and cinema, directs short films and documentaries, and animates conferences. This expertise allows him to serve as a jury member or curator for numerous festivals. For INTERFILM, he has developed several immersive short film programs together with Alexander Stein, which will be screened at the Zeiss-Großplanetarium in Berlin.
Selection Committee: Virtual Reality meets Full Dome
Selection Committee: 3D Shorts
studied cultural studies and management, worked in the music event sector until the pandemic and since then in music management, as a music journalist, author and DJ. She also produces music herself, for example at the Interfilm Festival for sound&vision. For the past three years she has been scoring short films together with her friend, roommate and co-producer Yule Post and this year she and Yule will be presenting at Interfilm Sound&Vision for the first time.
Selection Committee: Sound & Vision
is a multidisciplinary artist exploring interactive visual arts & design, performance, & sound. Her practice allows her to move ungovernend across different mediums and draws her to building community through collaborative learning and exchange by conceptualising and leading workshops across Berlin and beyond.
Selection Committee: Sound & Vision
