Part of a series of mini profiles on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and visitors.
Name & role: Sonja Heinen has 2 jobs at the Berlinale: Head of Berlinale Co-Production Market and Programme Manager, together with her colleague Vincenzo Bugno, at the World Cinema Fund. At the Berlinale Co-Production Market, she is responsible for matching 39 selected projects with 500 potential international co-producers and financiers. The World Cinema Fund is a small artistic film fund for filmmakers from countries which lack a constructive film infrastructure; it focuses on Latin America, Middle East, Central Asia, South East Asia and the Caucasus.
This is my 11 th Berlinale. I started at the festival in 2003 with the task to implement the Berlinale Co-Production segment. In addition to that, in my first year, I worked as a Line Producer for the Berlinale Talent Campus.
The most exciting co-pro country for me at Berlinale 2014: Columbia – because over the past few years this country has developed extremely and become very open. They are giving good incentives for international co-production.
German film or co-production I am most looking forward to seeing: "The Third Side of the River" by Celina Murga and "Historia del Miedo" by Benjamin Naishtat. Both Argentinean films with German co-producers which were funded by our World Cinema Fund. After having read the scripts quite some time ago, it is amazing that the films are finished now and made it into the Competition of the Berlinale. I cannot wait to see them. Also, we had supported a Turkish film which is in the Panorama and an Uzbek (!) film which will be screened in the Forum. I am all excited about those two, too.
interview by Jutta Brendemühl, Toronto
image: Sonja Heinen opens Berlinale 2013 Co-Production Market, photo Lydia Hesse c Berlinale 2013