Selection Committee International Competition 2012

Ines Seifert - Following the completion of her studies in English, American and German literature at the Technical University Dresden, Ines Seifert worked from 1999 to 2005 as a festival assistant and programme coordinator at Filmfest Dresden. Parallel to this she was responsible as production manager for the Film Nights on the Banks of the Elbe events in 2001 and 2002. These positions have been followed by regular freelance assignments at the German Institute for Animated Film (DIAF), the German Short Film Association, Filmfest Dresden and most recently for the export body German Films. Her responsibilities here have included especially the presentation and organisation of film series and exhibitions as well as editorial and press related tasks. In addition since August 2009, Ines Seifert has worked as a production assistant at the animated film company Balance Film GmbH.
Stephan Raack - was born in 1975 in Lauchhammer, Brandenburg. Already during his school time, he took his first cinematic steps with a self-created home cinema and his first photo film "Möpschen hat Zahnschmerzen"/Puggle Has Toothache. The film "Concorde Affaire"/Concorde Affair (1979), which was screened in the Rundkino cinema in Dresden, gave him his first serious contact with the cinema virus. Finally his encounter with the owner of the "Casablanca" arthouse cinema "infected" him completely with the result that he became a permanent feature there as an employee. Since 2004 Stephan Raack has been the owner and operator of his own "THALIA – Cinema. Coffee and Cigarettes" monoplex as he calls it in Dresden's Neustadt. And since 2006 he has been a integral element of the viewing and selection committee at Filmfest Dresden.

Sven Voigt - was born and grew up in Freiburg, Breisgau. He has his first chance encounter with author films at the end of the 1980s with the late nights screenings on the public TV broadcaster Südwestfunk. Soon after he initiated a series of rather unsuccessful film evenings as part of a school cinema project. He studied history as well as media and communication sciences in Leipzig and Rennes, went to the cinema now and then and completed several film seminar assignments. Then however "The Big Sleep" by Howard Hawks triggered off a fierce and enduring passion in him for good films in general and Lauren Bacall in particular. After realising that Dresden lacked a video store or library with Lauren Bacall films in it (or in which anyone would even know how to spell Howard Hawks), in 2006 the Programmvideothek Filmgalerie Phase IV video rental store was established. Since 2008 he has been a member of the Filmfest Dresden viewing and selection committee.

Petra Wille - born 1971 in Offenbach am Main, came via the printed word (book trade and library) to motion pictures. She studied media sciences at the Film and Television Academy "Konrad Wolf" in Potsdam-Babelsberg and has gained experience in various areas within the film industry, such as production, distribution, programme curating, cinema programming, catering, film archiving, press and PR activities. Since 2005 she has written regularly on film and film events for various city magazines. From 2008 to 2010 she was Project Head at the German Short Film Association for the "German Short Film Prize On the Road" cinema tour.

Johannes Vittinghoff - was born in 1953 in Mühlheim an der Ruhr in North Rhine-Westphalia. A business graduate, he first studied German literature, the social sciences, philosophy and business administration, before passing his state exams as a secondary school teacher. Since 1993 he has been a member of Filminitiative Dresden e.V., the association which organises Filmfest Dresden. In 1995 he assumed the role of second chairman in the association and has remained in this position ever since. Furthermore Johannes Vittinghoff is the managing director and co-organiser of the Film Nights on the Banks of the Elbe events and has been a long-time member of the Filmfest Dresden viewing and selection committee.

Selection Committee National Competition 2010/11

Katrin Küchler - born and reared in Weida, Thuringia, she had a fascinating preoccupation with the hypnotic "Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse" in her youth. However it is doubtful whether this was a potential impulse for her subsequent media and communications studies at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. By that time she was already tending more towards an analytical viewpoint of film rather than to any social-science empiricism. In 2005 and 2006 she studied media and culture at the University van Amsterdam with a particular focus on the historical, theoretical and analytical aspects of motion pictures. After her first year at Filmfest Dresden in 2007 her heart started beating for short film. She wrote her master's thesis on the subject of "short.film.time – Temporal Variations in Short Film". Following her studies, she worked as an assistant at the Berlinale Shorts and conducted teaching assignments at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. Since 2010 she has been, in addition to Alexandra Schmidt and Karolin Kramheller, one of the trio managing the international short film festival where she has also become a member of the viewing commission for the first time.

Mandy Müller - born 1976 in Marienberg, the Ore Mountains, first intended to be an art teacher. However several minor but significant experiences during her teaching studies at the Technical University Dresden, matched by her desire for creative, artistic activities and animated music videos, caused her to take a detour away from her planned profession and embark on a career in the animation film industry. Instructive years spent among others at MotionWorks GmbH (Halle/Saale), the FAM Central German Television Academy as well as Balance Film GmbH Dresden have made a drawn and puppet animation animator out of her, one whose name can be found on the credits of several feature and short films as well as TV series. 2012 is Mandy Müller's first year as a member of the viewing and selection committee for Filmfest Dresden.

Frank Pawella - was born in 1971 in Gotha, Thuringia. Following his apprenticeship and work as a carpenter and organ builder, he completed his studies in art history, economic and social history as well as philosophy at the Technical University Dresden. Since 2005 he has been a research assistant at the university's Art and Music Studies Institute, focusing on modern art. He has released numerous publications, talks and research work on the subject of film music, adaptations and the iconography of pop stars in feature films as well as in propaganda films during the Nazi period.

Simone Lade - was born in 1973 in Aue, Saxony. However already by the mid 1990s she was drawn from the Ore Mountains region where she lived to Dresden, the capital of Saxony. Here she initially worked as a restaurant manager. From 2002 she worked for the PAN Veranstaltungslogistik und Kulturgastronomie GmbH Dresden event and catering company at the Film Nights on the Banks of the Elbe events. This was followed by several years with the German Short Film Association and various freelance positions such as for instance as a curator for Filmfest Dresden and the Dresden State Art Collections. Since 2006 Simone Lade has been a member of the film viewing and selection committee at Filmfest Dresden, while since 2007 she has worked as a freelance culture and event manager.

Jörg Polenz - Not only is Jörg Polenz a natural born Dresdener, he was also one of the "founding fathers" of Filmfest Dresden. Following his technical college culture studies, already in 1988 with the establishment of Filmfest Dresden and as a member of Filminitiative Dresden e.V. – the non-profit organisation that arranges the festival – he laid the foundation stone so-to-speak for Europe's most endowed short film festival. The activities he undertook here in the areas of film production and distribution as well as for the various cinema events led him one year later to become a co-founder of the Film Nights on the Banks of the Elbe event, which he has prepared and co-organised up to the present day. In addition since the mid 1990s he has been involved in various gastronomic facilities and in co-responsible for founding the Palais Sommer events in Dresden.