We’re once again proud to be a partner in the European Film Promotion’s celebration of the very best of European talent with the announcement of the 2024 EFP European Shooting Stars.
It has been a pleasure to highlight and get to know some of the brightest new stars in the sky. As before, we will look to catch up with the entire cohort to get to know them better at the 74th Berlinale next year, so check back for those interviews.
Until then, here’s a closer look at the ten Shooting Stars for 2024.
Éanna Hardwicke / Ireland
Éanna Hardwicke’s first professional credit was as a child actor in Conor McPherson’s 2009 horror film The Eclipse. Before graduating from The Lír Academy in 2018 he was cast in Vivarium, which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week 2019. In 2023, a busy year for Hardwicke, he was named a Screen International Rising Star in the publication’s inaugural Irish edition, was nominated for Best Actor in a Lead Role – Film, IFTA for Lakelands and performed in BBC1’s The Sixth Commandment. He can currently be seen in The Doll Factory for Paramount+. His next role will be in the limited series A Very Royal Scandal directed by Julian Jarrold.
Valentina Bellè / Italy
Valentina Bellè studied acting at NY’s Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute and Italy’s National Film School (CSC). She has appeared in several Taviani Brothers’ films including Wondrous Boccaccio and Rainbow: A Private Affair which screened in the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2023 Valentina was in two films in competition at the Venice Film Festival: Ferrari and Lubo. Her many TV roles include Genius: Picasso with Antonio Banderas; Medici: Masters of Florence; Catch-22 miniseries by George Clooney and The Good Mothers for which she won the Italian Nastro D’Argento award for supporting actress in 2023. Her next project is La Vita Accanto by Marco Tullio Giordana.
Katharina Stark / Germany
Katharina Stark is a 2022 graduate of the Drama School Otto Falckenberg. Throughout her studies, she appeared in numerous films, television shows and plays, often at the award-winning Theatre Münchner Kammerspiele. On the big screen, she played a lead role in Dead Girls Dancing which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival 2022 and in the German Disney+ Original The Interpreter of Silence, which premiered in November 2023. Other recent leading roles include the film Sturm und Drang and the ARTE/ZDF episodic film I am the greatest. Her current project has her cast in the lead role in the debut feature film December Evening by Mathias Kreter.
Salome Demuria / Georgia
Salome Demuria is a graduate of the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University. She made her film debut in the 2012 feature Seagull winning several best actress awards including the Titano d’Oro at San Marino International Film Festival. Her further credits include Steppe Man, The Summer of Frozen Fountains, House of Others, for which she won the Golden Arena for Best Acting Performance at Pula International Film Festival and her latest film The Antique. For her performance in the film Inhale-Exhale Demuria was hounored as best actress at Shanghai International Film Festival, Almaty Independent Film Festival and Minsk International Film Festival.
Margarita Stoykova / Bulgaria
Margarita Stoykova began her professional journey with small steps at age 6 as a dancer and went on to win multiple European titles. She was just 18 when she began shooting her first lead role for the big screen in Yana Titova’s second feature film Dyad (2023), which had its world premiere in competition at Warsaw International Film Festival. Dyad won numerous awards, including Best Film U 18 at Cottbus Film Festival, Grand Prix at Just Film Festival, and 4 awards at the Golden Rose Film Festival, including Best Film and the City of Varna Award for Margarita’s performance.
Kamila Urzędowska / Poland
Kamila Urzędowska graduated from Wroclav Theater School in 2020. While still studying, she made her debut in the main role in the series Żmijowisko directed by Łukasz Palkowski for Canal+. Kamila subsequently starred in the award-winning film 25 Years of Innocence directed by Jan Holoubek. Her career took off and garnered international attention when she was cast in the main role in the film The Peasants directed by Oscar winners DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was selected as the Polish candidate for the Academy Award as Best International Feature Film.
Asta Kamma August / Sweden
Asta Kamma August graduated from The Danish National School of Performing Arts in 2017. She had leading roles in Kalak, winner of two awards at San Sebastian Film Festival, and The Hypnosis which premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2023. She has worked with acclaimed Danish directors Bille August (The Pact) and Lars von Trier (The Kingdom). In Burn All My Letters (2022) she shared the screen with former Shooting Stars Bill Skarsgård and Gustav Lindh. On television, Asta appeared in Blackwater (2023). Next is Thomas Vinterberg’s highly anticipated series Families Like Ours.
Džiugas Grinys / Lithuania
Džiugas Grinys graduated with a Theatre Art degree from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Over the course of a wide-ranging five-year career in theatre, Džiugas Grinys has worked with acclaimed theatre director Oskaras Koršunovas, and has represented Lithuanian theatre on the international stage, participating in various theatre festivals worldwide. On the big screen, his debut in a leading role was as Rimants in Ignas Miškinis’ Southern Chronicles. Further film credits include: Algimantas Puipa’s Cinephilia, (2021) and Kristijonas Vildžiūnas’ Songs for a Fox (2021). His most recent film is Robertas Kuliūnas’ Aš Gyvas, (2023).
Suzy Bemba / France
Suzy Bemba was cast in her first film in 2019, and it was just one year later that she won her breakthrough lead role in Kandisha by the French director Alexandre Bustillo. She then went on to play the role of Flora, a ballerina in the corps de ballet, opposite Ariane Labed in L’Opera. Her 2023 films include: Yorgos Lanthimos’ critically acclaimed film Poor Things, winner of the Golden Lion at the 2023 Venice Film Festival; Drift, a Sundance Film Festival 2023 premiere and Catherine Corsini’s film Homecoming which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 in competition for the Palme d’Or.
Thibaud Dooms / Belgium
Thibaud Dooms trained at the Academy of Theatre and Dance, where he received his Bachelor’s in Acting in 2023 and was the recent recipient of the Top Naeff Prize, a distinguished theatre prize for graduate students. On screen Dooms can be seen in the short films Jules et Jeremy and Elagabalus. He starred in the 2022 feature film Zeevonk which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. He plays the lead role of Liam in Koen Mortier‘s 2023 feature film Skunk which had its world premiere at Just Film Festival where it was awarded with the Jury Prize. Dooms recently filmed God Lives in Texas as a director and he played all male and female roles.
