WILD AT HEART: Embedding Queer Cinema in Industry Structures
Abschnitt Info
Create alliances for the practice of development, build bridges for the market to extend: queer cinema has always been rooted in community, defined by mutual aid among filmmakers and programmers, sustained by hybridity and expansion as essential artistic strategies. Against this backdrop, the question emerges: How has the TEDDY constructed its own bridges and forged alliances to inscribe queer cinema more firmly within the market’s structures? As the TEDDY Foundation grew, so did its production efforts, expanding into publications, interviews and a sustained digital presence through its blog and social media channels. The European Film Market’s decision to integrate the TEDDY annual pitching sessions and industry reception into its home at the Gropius Bau marked a decisive shift – an acknowledgment that queer cinema belonged at the centre of industry activity rather than at its margins. This format, in its conceptual DNA, echoes the earliest meetings of queer programmers at the queer book store Prinz Eisenherz, from which the TEDDY first emerged. Building on this momentum, the TEDDY broadened its alliances, partnering with Berlinale Talents to launch the TEDDY Talents Talks and embedding its directors’ exchanges within the Berlinale HUB. Through these collaborations, the TEDDY has not only amplified queer voices but also actively shaped the professional ecosystems through which queer cinema circulates.
Date: Thursday, 19 Febrary 2026
Venue: Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen I Mauerstraße 79, 10117 Berlin
Time: 11:00 am - 12:15 pm
Free admission
Moderation:
Bartholomew Sammut
Panorama Programme Manager, Senior Programmer & TEDDY Award Coordinator
Pronouns: they/them
Is a Maltese-Australian, non-binary film programmer who founded the XPOSED Queer Film Festival, which they directed until 2021 also establishing the Queer Short Film Fund. They joined Panorama in 2009 and since 2019 work as both Program Manager and member of the Programming Advisory Committee.
Panelist:
Cerise Howard
Co-curator, Melbourne Cinémathèque
former Program Director, Melbourne Queer Film Festival
Pronouns: she/her
Hailing from Aotearoa New Zealand, Cerise Howard is a co-curator of the Melbourne Cinémathèque. She is a former Program Director of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival (2023-2024), was the co-founding Artistic Director of the Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia (2013-2018) and was a co-founder in 2014 of Tilde – Melbourne Trans & Gender Diverse Film Festival. A Studio Leader at RMIT University specialising in incubating media festivals and interrogating the shortcomings of the canon, her commentary on film can be found across a wide array of outlets, variously in print, online (e.g., at Senses of Cinema) or integrated within home theatrical releases. She’s a regular on film festival juries – most recently at the Berlinale in 2024 (Teddy jury) and 2025 (FIPRESCI jury: Panorama), was a member of the International Jury Board of the East-West: Golden Arch Awards, celebrating Eurasian cinema, between 2018 and 2021, and has talked film on Melbourne radio station 3RRR since 2006. She plays a mean bass guitar for Queen Kong and the HOMOsapiens (visual album coming soon…) and the emerging Age of Monotremes.
@cerise.howard
Christina Just
Programme Development & Organisation, Berlinale Talents
Pronouns: she/her
Christina Just studied European Literatures and Scandinavian Studies. Between 2016 and 2019, she worked for the Berlinale special series NATIVe – A Journey into Indigenous Cinema. She joined the Berlinale Talents Team in 2019 where is responsible for Programme Development & Organisation. With her background in theatre, she has recently supported the Norwegian off-theatre CORPUS with archival research and translations. During summer time, she works as a stage manager at Salzburg Festival.
Lu Linares
Festival Manager, Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival
Pronouns: they/them
Lu Linares is a programmer and arts administrator born in Peru and based in Toronto. Their work is deeply shaped by their experiences as a queer immigrant and centers on championing new queer and trans voices in film. Lu has programmed and worked with festivals including imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, aluCine Latin Film and Media Arts Festival, Toronto Queer Film Festival, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Urbanworld Film Festival, and Breakthroughs Film Festival, and has served as a reviewer for the Chicken and Egg Pictures (Egg)celerator Lab and the Firelight Media Fund.
They are currently the Festival Manager at the Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival, where they focus on spotlighting emerging talent and supporting filmmaker development. In 2021, Lu received the Queer Emerging Artist Award from Buddies in Bad Times Theatre for their contributions to film and theatre, and most recently developed and launched Inside Out’s REFocus Residency supporting women and gender diverse creators through mentorship and industry workshops.
Most importantly, they’re one third of Boyband The Boyband, a Latinx drag king boyband, and a proud Virgo.
@ml_llama
Matthijs Wouter Knol
CEO and Director, European Film Academy
Pronouns: he/him
Since 2021, Dutch-born Matthijs Wouter Knol is the CEO and Director of the European Film Academy. He is responsible for the executive management, the vision and all related programming of current and future activities of the Academy, including brand and audience development, knowledge sharing and film heritage projects, and the annual European Film Awards. Before reading and graduating with an MA in Contemporary History at Leiden University (the Netherlands) and the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (Italy), he worked as a magazine editor and journalist. From 2001 onwards, he worked in Amsterdam as creative and associate producer on 30 award-winning documentary films, with renowned directors such as Heddy Honigmann, Maria Augusta Ramos, and Mani Kaul. For ARTE, he co-produced a digital edition of 40 re-mastered works of Dutch documentarian Johan van der Keuken, which was awarded the Prix Cahiers du Cinéma (2006). After a short stint at IDFA (2007-2008), he formed for 12 years part of the senior Berlinale team, first as Head of Programming of Berlinale Talents (2008-2014), then as Director of the European Film Market (2014-2020). Apart from launching several new training and industry platforms over the course of his career, Matthijs is an advocate for more diversity, equity and inclusion, introducing schemes to support this at Berlinale Talents, EFM and the European Film Academy. He teaches and coaches at various film schools and is a regular moderator and speaker at international film industry events. Matthijs has been part of the main jury at the festivals of Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, Istanbul, and Locarno. He speaks Dutch, English and German fluently, can converse in French and Italian and is improving his Spanish and Portuguese language skills.
@matthijswk
Raul Niño Zambrano
Creative Director, Sheffield DocFest
Pronouns: he/him
Raul Niño Zambrano has been the Creative Director of Sheffield DocFest since 2023, a position earned after successfully delivering the festival’s 29th edition as Head of Film Programmes in 2022. Prior to this, he served as a Senior Programmer at IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), where his journey began in 2008. Over his thirteen-year tenure at IDFA, Raul conducted the pioneering study The Female Gaze (2014), exploring the role of women in documentary filmmaking, and launched the IDFA Queer Day in 2013.
At Sheffield DocFest, Raul has led the introduction of TV documentary series premieres, the innovative Podcast Pitch, and most recently, the creation of the Queer Realities Director’s Lab, designed to inspire and push creative boundaries in queer non-fiction storytelling.
As an active member of the documentary film community, Raul has served as a juror for renowned international festivals, including Hot Docs, Nordisk Panorama, the Morelia International Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, and the Taiwan International Documentary Festival. He has also shared his expertise as a tutor and industry mentor at prestigious events such as Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days, FESPACO, DMZ, and the Bogotá Audiovisual Market.
@raulninoz @sheffdocfest