Maya has alre­a­dy par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the »Kritikfenster« in 2021. She enjoy­ed the work­shop so much that she appli­ed for the jury this year. The fact that she likes to dis­cuss films and to meet new peo­p­le in the pro­cess is a per­fect fit. Maya has litt­le con­nec­tion to  films that cau­se con­fu­si­on. She pre­fers films that enter­tain, in which peo­p­le expe­ri­ence ups and downs or their trust is put to the test.

Anir is loo­king for­ward to the big screen at LUCAS. There he is not dis­tur­bed like at home by any dis­trac­tions. At the cine­ma he likes to watch action movies like UNCHARTED (US 2022. D: Ruben Fleischer) with his favo­ri­te actor Tom Holland. Good mafia movies from Italy also inspi­re him. Anir has often won­de­red what it’s like to rate films with others — at LUCAS he now has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to do so.

Moritz likes films that are based on a true sto­ry. such as ALS HITLER DAS ROSA KANINCHEN STAHL (DE/CH 2019, D: Caroline Link). At the same time, humor must not be negle­c­ted for him. Before the film beg­ins, Moritz is full of exci­te­ment and anti­ci­pa­ti­on. Especially when he goes to the cine­ma in such a cra­zy way as he did during one of his last vaca­ti­ons, when he was invi­ted to a small cine­ma under his hotel in Kiev.

Beate Völcker is a film dra­ma­tur­ge and screen­wri­ter spe­cia­li­zing in children’s film. She also works as a con­sul­tant for Film Education at the Berlin-Brandenburg State Institute for Schools and Media, whe­re she leads the Brandenburg Children’s Film Festival, among other things.

Rochus Wolff has stu­di­ed German and gen­der stu­dies in Bonn, Oxford and Berlin. For almost ten years, he has devo­ted hims­elf pri­ma­ri­ly to children’s film; he publishes, among others, at Kino-Zeit, in Filmdienst, Kinderfilmwelt, on the Kinder- und Jugendfilmportal as well as in his blog Kinderfilmblog.de. With “33 bes­te Kinderfilme” and “100 Kinder Filme für alle Tage”. Wolff has alre­a­dy published two books on children’s films.

Robert Scheffner works as an aut­hor, illus­tra­tor and film­ma­ker. Currently, he is with his short film MORTIMER UND DIE VERSCHWUNDENEN DINGE on a fes­ti­val tour, which he pro­du­ced tog­e­ther with the com­pa­ny PixelPEC. He wri­tes and illus­tra­tes children’s books, curr­ent­ly he is working  with the sin­ger Maite Kelly. Since 2014, Scheffner has been tea­ching at the European School of Design in Frankfurt.

When Vincent sits in the movie thea­ter and the lights go out, he feels like he’s in a trance. He also hopes for that uni­que fee­ling, good sto­rytel­ling and a lot of emo­ti­ons and exci­te­ment when he can watch the com­pe­ti­ti­on films of LUCAS in October. He won’t see his favo­ri­te actor Chris Evans the­re, but hop­eful­ly his fami­ly, with whom he other­wi­se loves to go to the movies.

Aaron loves films with a spe­cial aes­the­tic. The cine­ma of the DFF has alre­a­dy left a las­ting impres­si­on on him. When he saw LA DOLCE VITA (IT/ FR 1960. D: Federico Fellini) in the cine­ma, his favo­ri­te film was cer­tain. Especially the gre­at acting of Marcello Mastroianni con­vin­ced him. As a mem­ber of the LUCAS jury, he is loo­king for­ward to the lively exch­an­ge about the films of the com­pe­ti­ti­on 13+ and wants to eva­lua­te them with a “new” view.

Nina pays spe­cial atten­ti­on to the details that make a film uni­que. Her favo­ri­te film GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (US/DE 2014, D: Wes Anderson) falls exact­ly into this cate­go­ry. The sym­me­tri­cal struc­tu­re of the images real­ly impres­sed Nina. Although she wat­ches more movies at home, she feels that strea­ming can­not com­pe­te with going to the cine­ma. She would like to see more films that tell sto­ries about dif­fe­rent countries.

Maria-Christina Villaseñor is pro­gram direc­tor of the New York International Children’s Film Festival. For the Guggenheim Museums in New York, Berlin and Bilbao, she has cura­ted film and media art exhi­bi­ti­ons. She has also ser­ved on num­e­rous juries, among others at the film fes­ti­vals DOK Leipzig and Cinekid in Amsterdam.

Becky Parry is a lec­tu­rer at the University of Sheffield. There she crea­ted the master’s pro­gram Digital Literacies, Culture and Education in the Department of Education. Parry’s rese­arch focus is on the media cul­tures of child­ren. She also works as an inde­pen­dent art edu­ca­tor and is a mem­ber of the ECFA board.

Federico Ferrari stu­di­ed histo­ry and works as a jour­na­list. After his stu­dies he con­cen­tra­ted his rese­arch on the inte­gra­ti­on of audio­vi­su­al media into the tra­di­tio­nal school cur­ri­cu­lum. Until 2021 he work­ed for the Italian youth orga­niza­ti­on of the UNESCO in the are­as of Education, Science, cul­tu­re and com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on. Ferrari is foun­der and artis­tic direc­tor of the Ennesimo Film Festival.

Daria can immer­se hers­elf in the world of film and be enchan­ted by the moving images. The pia­no play­er pays spe­cial atten­ti­on to an inte­res­t­ing plot, the cha­rac­ters and the music in film.  In her free time, Daria is acti­ve in thea­ter. She can ima­gi­ne tur­ning her hob­by into a pro­fes­si­on. As a jury mem­ber, she looks for­ward to mee­ting new peo­p­le and exchan­ging ide­as about films.

Marisofi hopes to have an unfor­gettable time at LUCAS with peo­p­le who share her inte­rests. Why do films play an important role for her? From From her point of view, they help, espe­ci­al­ly, child­ren and young peo­p­le in their self-dis­­co­­very. Films like TO THE BONE (US 2017, D: Marti Noxon), which are based on true events stick in her memo­ries the lon­gest. Marisofi is also fond of roman­tic films.

When he is not wat­ching them, Leo thinks about films that could still be could be pro­du­ced. Thanks to TWIN PEAKS (US 1990/91. D: David Lynch) and PARASITE (KR 2019, R: Bong Joon-ho) he takes on films in a new way. The coo­le­st sen­tence in film histo­ry? For Leo defi­ni­te­ly ‘I have come here to chew bubble­gum and kick ass — and now I’m all out of bubble gum’ from John Carpenter’s THEY LIVE (US 1988).

Addicted to film? Franes par­ents at least have the impres­si­on that their son can’t get enough of good film mate­ri­al. Almost every day he wat­ches one or two movies. Whether it’s new or old, it does­n’t mat­ter. Much more important are the emo­ti­ons that the film con­veys. However, Frane thinks not only about what he has seen, but also makes short docu­men­ta­ries about peo­p­le from his home­town Pula.

When Ivan dis­co­ver­ed Ingmar Bergman’s PERSONA (SE 1966), it spark­ed his love for cine­ma­to­gra­phy. And yet he is not only inte­res­ted in a cer­tain kind of film. Every now and then he wat­ches films that he nor­mal­ly would not like, to get out of his com­fort zone out and broa­den his tas­te in movies. Ultimately, it’s about losing yours­elf in the film and almost for­get­ting that you’­re wat­ching a movie.

After a stressful day at school, for Anda the cine­ma is just the right place to switch off at. If a good plot with extra­or­di­na­ry per­for­man­ces is wai­ting for her, the evening is then saved. Cinema, from Anda’s point of view,  can draw atten­ti­on to cer­tain pro­blems in socie­ty and give young peo­p­le the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get to know new cul­tures and other points of view.