WILD AT HEART: Community as Infrastructure in Queer Film Culture
Abschnitt Info
TEDDY events are defined by an atmosphere of rare intimacy. Filmmakers, programmers, producers and distributors from across the world return year after year to cultivate spaces of exchange – whether in cinema foyers, panel discussions or gatherings throughout the city – disrupting established structures with distinctly queer perspectives. These encounters underscore how queer cinema not only builds and sustains community spaces but also reshapes audiences, programming practices and the conversations that emerge around them. Arsenal, one of Germany’s most forward‑looking film institutions, has championed queer cinema from its earliest days. Among its founding members was Manfred Salzgeber – later the inaugural head of the Berlinale’s Panorama and co‑founder of the TEDDY Award – whose influence helped shape its commitment to queer film culture. In 1971, Rosa von Praunheim’s It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives premiered there, a watershed moment that reverberated across Germany and soon circulated through queer film communities and festivals worldwide. The act of gathering to watch films in which one’s own experiences are reflected has long defined the queer film festival as more than a screening venue. It is a communal space where representation becomes shared recognition, and where viewing together becomes an essential part of the cultural and political experience of queer cinema.
Date: Tuesday, 17 Febuary 2026
Venue: silent green Kulturquartier I Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin
Time: 11:00 am - 12:15 pm
Free admission
Moderation:
Ana David
Programmer, Berlinale Panorama
Pronouns: she/her
Ana David is a festival programmer and curator working between Berlin and Portugal. She’s been an advisor to the official program of the Berlinale since 2024, a member of the advisory board at Berlinale Panorama since 2017, and a programmer at Márgenes - Festival Internacional de Cine de Madrid. Between 2021-2024 she was curator at Batalha Centro de Cinema (Porto), where she co-curated the thematic programmes ‘Politics of Sci-Fi’, ‘Domesticities’ and ‘After Hours: Clubbing on Film’. Previous programming positions include IndieLisboa, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Oslo/Fusion, BFI London Film Festival, and Queer Lisboa, the latter as co-director. She has organized retrospectives dedicated to Angelo Madsen Minax, Claire Denis, Joanna Hogg, Luísa Homem, Annemarie Jacir, Mai Zetterling, and Jane Campion.
@anafdavid
Panelist:
Stefanie Schulte Strathaus
Artistic Director, Arsenal Filminstitut
Pronouns: she/her
Stefanie Schulte Strathaus is Artistic Director at Arsenal Filminstitut in Berlin. From 2001 to 2019, she was a member of the selection committee for the Berlinale Forum, and from 2006 to 2020, she was the founding director of the Berlinale section Forum Expanded. She has curated film exhibitions such as “LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! Five Flaming Days in A Rented World” (with Susanne Sachsse and Marc Siegel, Berlin 2009), “A Paradise Built in Hell” (with Bettina Steinbrügge, Hamburg 2014), and “From Behind the Screen” (Cairo, 2018), as well as research and exhibition projects such as “Living Archive – Archive Work as Contemporary Artistic and Curatorial Practice” (2010–2013) and “Archive Außer sich” (2017–2022). In 2021, she founded the biennial festival “Archival Assembly.” Schulte Strathaus is the editor of "The Memo Book. Films, Videos, and Installations by Matthias Müller“ (2005), ”Who Says Concrete Doesn't Burn, Have You Tried It? Film in West Berlin in the 1980s" (with Florian Wüst, 2008), and Accidental Archivism – Shaping Cinema's Futures with Remnants of the Past (with Vinzenz Hediger, 2023). She is a member of the boards of the FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives), the Harun Farocki Institute, and the Master's program Film Culture at the University of Jos, Nigeria.
@stefanieschultestrathaus
Sarnt Utamachote
Artist, Curator, Film Programmer, XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin / Sinema Transtopia
Pronouns: they/them
Sarnt Utamachote is a Southeast Asian nonbinary filmmaker and curator based in Berlin. Their works span researches in migration, communities, archives, and notions of queerness, shifting between mediums of cinema, visual arts, and writing. They are part of collectives such as un.thai.tled and Cruising Curators. Their ongoing exhibition In Nobody’s Service took place at Galerie Wedding Berlin (2024), Thailand Biennale in Phuket (2025), and Goethe-Institut Southeast Asia's Dealing In Distance (2026). Their short film I don’t want to be just a memory (2022–24) had its premiere at 74th Berlinale Forum Expanded. With Sinema Transtopia, they have been curating film programs, such as "The past is not another country" (in collaboration with German Film Museum Frankfurt), which looks as alternative ways to deal with film archives. They work as film programmer for XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin, Short Film Festival Hamburg, and is guest programmer for CinemAsia Amsterdam 2026. They have served as jury for Fantouche, MIXCPH, London Short Film Festival, and more. Currently they are a fellow resident at Braunschweig Projects of HBK (2026-27).
@sarntolstice
Manuela Kay
Journalist, Author, Activist, Curator, Porn Film Festival Berlin, Publisher, Siegessäule, L-Mag
Pronouns: she/her
Manuela is a born and bread Westberliner, a journalist, author, activist and film lover. She started working for Berlinale in the mid 90s in the Panorama section and helped re-organizing and shaping the Teddy and the Teddy jury as we know it today.
She co-published the queer cinema guide OUT IM KINO and has been curating and organizing the Pornfilmfestival for the last 20 years
She’s a publisher of the queer magazines SIEGESSÄULE and L-MAG and is still working on the lower decks Berlinale during the festival.
Kanakan-Balintagos
Director, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, TEDDY 40
Pronouns: he/him
Auraeus Solito, also known as Kanakan-Balintagos, is a Filipino filmmaker and indigenous peoples rights advocate who comes from a lineage of shaman-kings from the Palaw'an tribe. He was one of the first to be born outside of his tribal land of South Palawan. He was born in Manila and, after graduating from the Philippine Science High School, studied theater at the University of the Philippines, where he received a degree in Theater Arts. One of the leading independent filmmakers in the Philippines, he was chosen as part of in Take 100, The Future of Film in 2010. This book, published by Phaidon Press, New York, is a survey featuring 100 emerging film directors from around the world who have been selected by 10 internationally prominent film festival directors.
His first feature film, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros won 15 international awards including 3 awards at the Berlinale (The Teddy award, International Jury Prize at the Kinderfest and Special Mention from the Children's Jury of the Kinderfest). It is also the first Philippine film nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards in the US, and has been shown in more than 50 film festivals around the world.
Circumcision, his second feature film, won Best Picture and Best Director at the Digital Competition at the 2005 CineManila film festival; won the NETPAC Jury Prize at the Berlinale, International Forum for New Cinema and the Best International Feature Film at Outfest in Los Angeles. Solito is the first Filipino to make it to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA, two years in a row (with The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros and Circumcision). His films have been screened in other major festivals around the world including Montreal, Busan, Toronto and Rotterdam.
His film Palawan Fate was selected at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight in 2011, and it was awarded Best Director, Best Sound Design, and Best Original Music Score at Cinemalaya 2011. It was also shown at the 2012 National Geographic All Roads Film Festival in Washington, D.C., where it was awarded Grand Prize, the Merata Mita "Best of Stories" Award.
In 2013 he adopted his tribal-spirit name Kanakan-Balintagos after his uncle, who is a shaman in Palawan, dreamt about him. He said in an interview, "In his dream, he saw me in the middle of a sandbar holding a camera that turned into a blowgun. I became a kanakan … a hunter. Suddenly, great waves appeared from both sides of the sandbar, but I remained unharmed, untouched."
In 2014 his film Esprit de Corps, based on the play he wrote when he was seventeen, won three awards at the Cinema One Originals Film Festival, including Best Director.
In 2015 he was awarded 1st Prize in the prestigious Palanca Awards, Filipino Division, Dulang Ganap Ang Haba (Full Length Play in Filipino), for his literary work Mga Buhay na Apoy.
In 2017, he was one of the recipients of the Outstanding Manilan Award.
Also in 2018, he stated that he has returned to using Kanakan-Balintagos for all of his professional work.