13/11/2002 - Greek Festival is latest date on the promotional tour of the young talents selected by European Film Promotion

“Shooting Stars” takes place every year during the Berlin Film Festival in February, with offshoots at a variety of European film events. It was created five years ago by the EFP (European Film Academy) as a way of introducing Europe’s most promising young acting talents to the film and audiovisual industries, international press and public by means of workshops, press conferences, interview and other events. Since its inception, “Shooting Stars” has showcased almost 100 young European talents and the event is supported by the EU’s Media Programme.
In 2002, the EFP widened the scope of “Shooting Stars” when it introduced the self-explanatory “Shooting Stars Touring Film Programme” whereby a group of young European acting talents visited three prestigious international film festivals. The first stopover was at the 30th edition of Norway’s Haugesund Festival, followed by EuropaCinema in Viareggio. The next stop is Thessaloniki in Greece, where the following actors will be “on show”, Enrique Alcides the star of Piedras (Stones) by Ramon Salazar; Michael Finger and Stefan Haupt’s Utopia Blues; Italy’s Fabrizio Gifuni for Sole negli Occhi (Empty Eyes) by Andrea Porporati; Athena Maximou (Greece) and To Mistiko tou Noemvri (November's Secret) by Takis Papagiannidis, Denmark’s Maria Würgler Rich and Annette K. Olesen’s Sma Ulykker and Portugal’s Carla Bolito for Fernardo (Portugal) in „O Gotejar da Luz“ (Light Drops) by Fernando Vendrell.
The films featured in “Shooting Stars” are selected by the festival organisers in close collaboration with EFP, to ensure the strongest possible launch pad for the rising stars. The aim of these sidebar events is to build on the momentum and interest generated at the main annual event in Berlin, and to offer Europe’s finest new talents continuous exposure.