An international jury of experts, including the Romanian director and screenwriter Radu Muntean, the Swedish casting director Pauline Hansson, the Swiss producer Amel Soudani, the French actress and former shooting star Ludivine Sagnier and the Montenegrin journalist and curator Vuk Perović, selected the ten exceptional talents. These five experts praised the remarkable potential of the talents for an international career. Several factors speak for all of them, but especially of course their outstanding work in the feature films and series submitted for their nomination.

The EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS 2025 are Maria Makris (Cyprus), Besir Zeciri (Denmark), Maarja Johanna Mägi (Estonia), Devrim Lingnau (Germany), Elín Hall (Iceland), Kārlis Arnolds Avots (Latvia), Šarūnas Zenkevičius (Lithuania), Lidija Kordić (Montenegro), Vicente Wallenstein (Portugal) and Frida Gustavsson (Sweden).

The German Shooting Star Devrim Lingnau was born in Mannheim to a Turkish father, and a German mother. With a passion for the arts, and a promising international career already underway, Lingnau impressed in British horror flick CARMILLA (2019), where she starred alongside Jessica Raine and Tobias Menzies. She is also the face of The Emmy-winning Netflix drama series THE EMPRESS (2022), which won her the Best Newcomer award at the German Screen Actor Awards. Her next major role is in Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s psychological, and pertinent thriller HYSTERIA (2025).

The European Shooting Stars jury explained their decision in favor of Devrim Lingngau as follows: “German star Devrim Lingnau is an outstanding candidate. In HYSTERIA she is so involved in the character and yet you don’t see any tools, or techniques, it’s as if she is living in the moment, like she hasn’t read a script, just embedded in the truth of the story. She manages to keep the audience curious, she is a mystery, and yet maintains a transparency. Despite her delicate, minimalistic approach, she tells us so much. She will be a star, for sure."

Devrim Lingnau on her selection as a Shooting Star: “Being selected as a European Shooting Star 2025 makes me very happy! I see the program as a warm invitation to exchange ideas with artists and filmmakers and to discover common interests. 
The election gives me the strengthening feeling that I am meant and wanted as an actress - even with the topics that concern me!"

Previous German EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS have included Katharina Stark (2024), Leonie Benesch (2023), Emilio Sakraya (2022), Albrecht Schuch (2021), Jonas Dassler (2020), Emma Drogunova (2019), Franz Rogowski (2018), Louis Hofmann (2017), Jella Haase (2016) and Jannis Niewöhner (2015).

The European Film Promotion (EFP) will present the EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS 2025 to the international film world during the Berlinale (February 13 - 23, 2025). The European talents will be presented to international casting directors, agents, directors, producers and the media in various events and workshops over four days. The program will culminate in a glamorous award ceremony at the Berlinale Palast on Monday, February 17, 2025, where each actor and actress will receive the EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS Award.

EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS is made possible thanks to the support of Creative Europe – the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the German Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, the Berlin International Film Festival, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Spotlight, as well as the national film promotion institutes and film centres from the Shooting Stars’ home countries (EFP’s member organisations).

German Films is a founding member of EFP (European Film Promotion) which is organising the EUROPEAN SHOOTING STARS selection and presentation for the 28th time this year.