Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus are set to face competition between a string of films and a qualified team of Jury will decide their fate.

The Dutch-Belgian co-production Knor by Mascha Halberstad opens the Generation Kplus competition. The stop-motion film, which was created in more than 200 days of shooting, tells the story of nine-year-old Babs in elaborate, detailed animation. Her grandfather gave her a pig with the ulterior motive of secretly using it for his comeback as Sausage King. Fast-paced, funny and simultaneously complex and profoundly told.

The film Allons enfants by Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai will kick off the Generation 14plus competition. The documentary accompanies young people from various social backgrounds during their first year at the Paris Lycée Turgot, where they are being trained in hip-hop dance. The film succeeds in combining institutional film and group portraits and inspires with dance sequences in which the young people discover their outlet and expression in movement.

Both competition openings will take place in the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, to which Generation is returning again this festival year.

The three jurors of the two international juries each award the Grand Prix for the Best Film (worth 7,500 euros) and the Special Prize for the Best Short Film (worth 2,500 Euros). The prize in the 14plus competition is provided by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung), in the Kplus competition the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk (The Children’s Charity of Germany) is the sponsor.

The Members of the International Jury of Generation Kplus are Daniela Cajias, Nicola Jones and Samuel Kishi Leopo.

Bolivia-born cinematographer Daniela Cajias became the first woman to receive the Spanish film award Goya in 2021 for her work on Pilar Palomero’s award-winning feature debut Las niñas. The film celebrated its world premiere in 2020 in the Generation Kplus competition. Daniela Cajías was also represented at Generation with As duas Irenes (2017) and La eterna noche de las doce lunas (2013) – two films that were successful at international festivals and received numerous awards.

Born in Halle/Saale, with stations in Leipzig, Munich and Berlin, Nicola Jones worked as a consultant and speaker in the area of film funding as well as international film relations and EU film policy. In 2016, she took over the direction of the German Children’s Media Festival Goldener Spatz. As managing director of the Children’s Media Foundation of the same name, she remains active at European level with the KIDS Regio initiative.

Born in Mexico, the director, screenwriter and editor studied audiovisual arts in Guadalajara and made numerous short films before presenting his feature film debut Somos Mari Pepa at Generation in 2014. In 2020, he was awarded the Grand Prix of the International Jury Generation Kplus with Los Lobos and the Peace Film Prize which is awarded during the Berlinale. Samuel Kishi Leopo has been the Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Organization for Migration (IOM) since 2021.

The Members of the International Jury of Generation 14plus are Paolo Bertolin, Rubika Shah and Dash Shaw.

Film critic and historian Paolo Bertolin works prolifically as a festival programmer and curator for the Venice International Film Festival and the international Festival de Cannes and as an artistic consultant for various international film festivals and institutions. As a producer, the native Italian has already been represented in the Berlinale Competition several times with films (Cha và con và, Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis, Chitrashala).

Rubika Shah, an award-winning British-Australian director, screenwriter and winner of the BAFTA Breakthrough 2020 made her debut in the Generation 14plus competition in 2015 with Let’s Dance: Bowie Down Under. In 2017, she presented her short film White Riot: London to the Berlinale audience. In 2020, she returned to Berlin with the long documentary work White Riot and received the Special Mention of the Generation Youth Jury. Rubika Shah is currently working on A Saudi Tale for BBC Film.

With his debut film My Entire Highschool Sinking into the Sea, comic book author and animator Dash Shaw made his first guest appearance at Generation in 2017. His second feature film, Cryptozoo, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the NEXT Innovator Award. At the 71st Berlinale, the animated film received a special mention in the 14plus competition from Generation’s International Jury. The American is the author of several graphic novels, most recently “Discipline” was published by New York Review Comics.

Meanwhile, the youngest official Berlinale juries are staffed by seven Berlin children aged eleven to 14 for the Generation Kplus competition and five young people for the Generation 14plus competition. Independently of the international juries, they award the Crystal Bears for the best short and long films. All young festival visitors who have shared their thoughts and comments on Generation films via the film questionnaires can qualify for participation in the Children’s or Youth Jury.

After the first appearance at the 70th Berlinale 2020, the independent jury of the AG Kino Gilde e.V. has returned: Together with the cinema association, Generation is committed to strengthening innovative cinema for young people – even beyond the festival.