Stephen Daldry, Mark LeFanu

Considered today as one of the most interesting character-driven filmmakers from England, Stephen Daldry started his career in theatre. For his 1992 adaption of "An Inspector Calls" he was highly awarded on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1997 Daldry signed in as a film director with Working Title Films. Starting off with Eight, a short film on an eight-year old football fan, Daldry hit the international cinema screens with Billy Elliot in 2000. The film won the BAFTA award for the Best British Production and was nominated for an Oscar. For ­Paramount Pictures, Daldry went to Hollywood to direct The Hours ­staring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep. With his latest film being an American-German ­coproduction, Daldry came to Berlin for the shooting in 2007. Based on the successful novel "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink and set in postwar Germany, it tells the story of a man whose life has been shaped by an illicit affair during his youth. Stephen Daldry will converse with Mark LeFanu about the art of filmic adaptation of novels while retaining the emotional depth of the original material, and about the various ways of working with actors and actresses to capture the essence of the character portrals in his films.

John Akomfrah, Dominique Cabrera, Sandi DuBowski, Miroslav Janek, moderated by Mark LeFanu

Of late, documentaries are increasingly screened in movie theatres and festival slots which were traditionally, by unwritten law, reserved for "features only". Despite this fairly recent development, there is only a very fine line that distinguishes documentaries made for TV from those made for theatrical release. Opinions on the matter are highly ­controversial. Four masters of documentary filmmaking – Ghanaian-born John Akomfrah, jury member for the 2008 "Best First Feature Award" (endowed by GWFF) Dominique Cabrera, director Sandi DuBowski (producer of A Jihad For Love, featuring the Panorama), and Czech filmmaker Miroslav Janek – debate the issue using examples from their own production experience, and also reflect on the limits and ethics in documentary filmmaking, addressing questions on the "intrusion of privacy", and making documentaries on burning issues ­without stepping into the "current affairs" trap.

Ulrich Gregor, Mark LeFanu, Andrzej Wajda

Film and theatre director, script writer and set designer, ­Andrzej Wajda is a major figure of world and Central European cinema, and recipient of the Oscar Award for lifetime achievement and an honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement at the Berlinale 2006. A student of the Cracow‘s Academy of Fine Arts, he graduated from the National ­Higher School of Film in 1953, to make his debut movie, Pokolenie, two years later. Since then he has made around 40 films, his latest, Katyń, is screening at Berlinale Palast out of competition­ and is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2008 Academy Awards. Wajda has made his reputation as a sen­sitive and uncompromising chronicler of his country‘s political and social evolution. He is known for crafting an œuvre of work that devastates even as it informs. In conversation with Ulrich Gregor and Mark ­LeFanu, he will expound on the art of giving films the right mood and atmosphere of the period the film is set in, with particular reference to his latest film.

Adytia Assarat, Wolfgang Müller-Pietralla, moderated by Mark LeFanu

Aditya Assarat’s first feature Wonderful Town will serve as a case study to discuss multiple aspects relevant to the filmmaking of today and tomorrow. The young Thai director converses with futurist scientist, Wolfgang Müller-Pietralla from Volkswagen, for whom films are an important source of inspiration in identifying crucial global developments and key issues in the coming times. Wonderful Town narrates the love story of a hotel owner in a Southern province town and an architect from Bangkok. It uses the strange beauty of landscapes that are slowly recovering from the tsunami as a never-seen-before backdrop. The film can be regarded as a perfect example for exploring the potential of cinematographic narratives and aesthetics that are very different from mainstream cinema. The debate strives to address various ­issues that are of emotional, political, and social relevance to the filmmaking of today and tomorrow. Wonderful Town is selected as an official entry to this year’s Berlinale Forum.