TEDDY 40: Queer Cinema, Activism, and Cultural Impact
Abschnitt Info
To mark the 40th anniversary of the TEDDY Awards, this panel explores the origins of the TEDDY AWARD and its international impact on the film industry, with a particular focus on the film festival landscape. From an activist perspective, it highlights key impulses, the different contexts in which other queer film awards emerged, and their current fields of action.
Time: Friday 13 February 2026
Venue: Aquarium I Südblock, Admiralstraße 1-2, 10999 Berlin
Time: 7:30 - 9:00 pm
Free admission
Panelist:
Wieland Speck
Filmmaker, Author, Curator
Pronouns: he/him
In 1981, Speck directed his first short film, David, Montgomery and I, which he presented at the Berlinale. One year later, he took on organisational and artistic management of the festival's Panorama section as assistant to programme director Manfred Salzgeber. In 1985, alongside his work at the Berlinale, Speck made his first feature film, Westler.
In 1987, together with Salzgeber, Speck initiated the Teddy Award, the Berlinale’s queer film prize and the first such award to be presented by an A-list festival worldwide. In 1992, Speck became Panorama's programme director and a member of the Berlinale competition selection committee. In this position, he was committed to queer cinema for 25 years and put his own artistic career on hold for most of it.
His film Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story, a docufiction film co-directed with Andrea Weiss, was released in 2000.
After stepping down from his position at the Berlinale, Speck remains dedicated to the festival as a consultant and curator of special programs.
Aritz Dendategi
Photographer, Curator, Activist
Pronouns: he/him
Aritz Dendategi is part of the Sebastiane Award commission, the LGTBIAQ+ Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF) given by Gehitu (LGTBIAQ+ association of the Basque Country). After more than a decade of freelance work as a photographer archiving the evolution of the cinema industry, in 2014 he joined the team of one of the most antique LGTBIAQ+ awards in the world after the referential Teddy: The Sebastiane Award.
Since then, he's been working with the commission in the curation of the LGTBIAQ+ representation in cinema, all within an activist perspective. The Sebastiane Award is proud to showcase the queer cinema that better represents the different realities of the community within the SSIFF (Sebastiane Award) and within the Latin American premieres of the year (Sebastiane Latino Award). In addition, for the past 12 years the commission organizes a network of LGTBIAQ+ Festivals from both Spain and Latin America that offers a support system to festivals and creators in collaboration with the SSIFF.
@premiosebastiane
Bohdan Zhuk
Festivaldirector, Curator
Pronouns: he/him
Bohdan Zhuk is director of the SUNNY BUNNY LGBTQIA+ film festival, and a programmer for the Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist, Ukraine’s biggest and oldest film event (55th edition to take place October 24 - November 1, 2026). Born in Zboriv, Ukraine, in 1989. With education in linguistics and professional background as translator, journalist and radio host, he joined the Molodist team in 2014 as a press attaché (till 2015) and programmer. He programs competition and non-competition sections of Molodist and heads the queer festival SUNNY BUNNY, which was Ukraine’s oldest regular LGBT+themed event (since 2001) as part of Molodist, and became a standalone event, Ukraine’s first queer film festival, in 2023. Its fourth edition is planned for April 2026.
Zhuk also manages international events of Molodist dedicated to Ukrainian films: programs at festivals – Encounters (Bristol, UK), BEAST (Portugal), Jugendfilmtage (Zurich, Switzerland), Soura (Berlin), QueerScope festivals (Germany & Switzerland), image+nation (Montreal, Canada), as well as Ukrainian film days abroad (Munich, London, Paris, Porto, Prague etc.).
Worked in the selection team of the BEAST International Film Festival (Porto) and works as a freelance translator, in particular translating films for national releases and festival screenings.
Jury member at Teddy Awards (Berlinale), BEAST IFF (Porto), image+nation (Montreal), TLVFest (Tel-Aviv), Crime & Punishment IFF (Istanbul), Mezipatra QFF (Prague), 2ANNAS Riga Short Film Festival, Lovers Film Festival (Torino), Docudays UA Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (Kyiv), Kyiv International Short Film Festival, Finale Plzen (Czechia).
Member of the European Film Academy.
@bohdanzh
Moderation:
Gerrit Woltemath
Curator, cultural worker, activist
Pronouns: no pronouns I he/him
Gerrit Woltemath is a Berlin-based film curator, cultural worker, and activist, and a member of the Board of Directors of the TEDDY Foundation. He has worked with various cultural institutions, including Berlinale Panorama since 2014, and has been a member of the Panorama Advisory Selection Committee since 2022.