The talented German Hannah Herzsprung will be a member of this year’s Best First Feature Jury.

“I’m very pleased that Hannah Herzsprung will be coming to the Berlinale not only to present her films, but also to join the Jury in its quest for the Best First Feature”, says Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.

At this year’s Berlinale, Hannah Herzsprung can be seen in three films: Stephen Daldry’s The Reader in the Competition, Rudolph Thome’s Pink in the Berlinale Special, and Nicolai Rohde’s 10 Sekunden (10 Seconds) in German Cinema.

Born in Hamburg in 1981, Hannah Herzsprung has received much acclaim from both critics and audiences for her powerful performances – e.g., as prison inmate and talented pianist in the award-winning drama Vier Minuten (Four Minutes) by Chris Krauss; or as Florina, the rebellious girl next door, in Das wahre Leben (Life Actually) by Alain Gsponer. She won the Bavarian Film Award as Best Young Actress for her role in Vier Minuten in 2006. This was followed in 2007 by the German Film Award as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Das wahre Leben. She starred in Uli Edel’s Baader Meinhof Komplex (The Baader Meinhof Complex) in 2008. Hannah Herzsprung’s next projects include roles in Alain Gsponer’s screen adaptation of Martin Suter’s novel Lila, Lila and Margarethe von Trotta’s film Vision - Hildegard von Bingen.

The three-person Best First Feature Jury selects the best directorial debut from the following sections: Competition, Panorama, Generation Kplus and 14plus, as well as Forum. The award is endowed with 50,000 euros, donated by the GWWF (Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten), an association dedicated to safeguarding film and television rights. Diablo Cody, who was initially to be a member of the Best First Feature Jury, cannot participate on the Berlinale jury due to last-minute changes in her schedule. The other members of this year’s jury are producer In-Ah Lee (Germany) and Iranian director Rafi Pitts.