Shooting Stars 2024
by Pat Frickey

The red-carpet appearance on Monday evening of these ten exuberant young stars was delightful. They had most likely worn out their mirrors practicing their poses in anticipation of the European Shooting Stars Awards Ceremony; they posed like pros. The moment the cameras stopped snapping and they were sitting in their seats at the Berlinale Palast directly behind me, they morphed into giddy, young, elegantly dressed youth, not unlike gussied-up senior prom goers. They had bonded together for four days in Berlin and were relatively relaxed and chatty. Then it got serious again, and as they individually climbed the stage to receive their awards from German actress Corinna Harfouch, a few might have exhibited some awkwardness. But if so, it was all the more enchanting as their youthful enthusiasm, enveloped in a bubble of promise, captured the hearts of the audience.

The Shooting Stars Awards are presented annually at the Berlinale by European Film Promotion (EFP) to up-and-coming young actors from the thirty-seven member countries. Since 1998, ten talents selected each year from all over Europe have been presented during the Berlinale to the international press, the public, and the film industry. Some of the previous winners who have gone onto international fame are: Rachel Weisz (UK 1998), Daniel Craig (UK 2000), Nina Hoss (Germany 2000), Heike Makatsch (Germany 2001), Daniel Brühl (Germany 2003), Matthias Schoenaerts (Belgium 2003), Carey Mulligan (UK 2009), Alicia Vikander (Sweden 2011), and Maisie Williams (UK 2015).