İlker Çatak - Artists need to be free of existential worries

Director İlker Çatak (The Teachers' Lounge) has known from his early youth he wanted to do nothing but make films - even though this did not bring success or prosperity for a long time. In our interview, he reflects on this challenging time for him as an artist, explains how his perspective on short films has recently changed and why he believes that filmmaking, as well as cinema itself, can have a profoundly healing effect on us humans.

Jennifer Reeder - Short films are people, too

Nine years after our first interview, we're excited to welcome Jennifer Reeder back to Short Talks, and also to Berlin where she's been serving on the jury for Berlinale Shorts 2024. As a filmmaker, Reeder has made her mark at prestigious festivals like Berlinale, Sundance, and the Chicago Underground Festival, racking up awards for both her shorts and feature films.

Francisco Lezama - Weird results of human investigation

Argentinian director Francisco Lezama (Un movimiento extraño / An Odd Turn) met with Short Talks a day before winning the Golden Bear at Berlinale 2024 to share his views on film history and his life as a passionate artist who still has to earn money without betraying his artistic values.

Matthew Thorne & Derik Lynch - Ngapartji Ngapartji

With Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black), the two Australian directors Derik Lynch and Matthew Thorne not only won the Silver Bear in the short film section at the Berlinale 2023, but also a Teddy Award as the festival's best LGBTQ short film.

Kevin Contento - There's something powerful in the ordinary

Kevin Contento's Berlinale 2023 nominated short film From Fish to Moon puts audiences in a small, remote American supermarket where they listen to everyday conversations of its employees and not least some poetry. Contento shot the film at an actual local grocery store in Pahokee, which he had always found to be visually captivating.

Donatienne Berthereau - If we want to be sincere, we have to be in the present moment

Director Donatienne Berthereau did not want to leave the collective memory of the end of the close 2022 presidential election in France solely to the usual media coverage. Her film Nuits blanches shows a fictional story about a young woman feeling lost, drifting through that night that seemed to take the whole country's breath away.

Axel Danielson & Maximilien Van Aertryck - A push for more media literacy

When we first interviewed them for Short Talks in 2016, the two Swedish directors Axel Danielson & Maximilien Van Aertryck already described to us the core concept and even entire scenes that would later grow into their feature-length film And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine.