The German director and producer Peter Sehr will be jury president of the award “Dialogue en perspective” at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2008, the independent jury prize will be awarded for the fifth time to a film in the Berlinale section Perspektive Deutsches Kino. It will also be the fifth year of the partnership between the Berlin International Film Festival and the francophone TV channel TV5MONDE, which is awarding the prize in co-operation with the German-French Youth Office (FGYO). One special feature of the award is that the jury will
consist of seven German and French film lovers aged between 18 and 29, who will select the winning director of next year‘s award.
In Peter Sehr, a president has been found whose commitment to the French-German dialogue is evident in his work. The latest example is his German-French-Spanish co-production The Anarchist’s Wife, with Nina Hoss. Sehr directed the film together with his wife Marie Noëlle.
„The German-French collaboration has always been important to me”, explains Peter Sehr. “Together with Jan Schütte I am the German director of the German-French project ‘Masterclass of young European film producers’. In 2002, together with a couple of colleagues, I founded the association ‘Das Deutsch-Französische Filmtreffen’ (German-French Film Summit). Its aim is to strengthen the collaboration between both film industries and to foster the film exchange between both countries. Within this context it is very interesting for me to become president of the jury ‘Dialogue en perspective’. It gives me a totally new perspective on my German-French work, that is to say, the perspective of the young audience of tomorrow, and its critical ideas on the young German film. I am very much looking forward to this new way of collaboration.”