Winners

Soleen Yusef was born in 1987 in the city of Duhok, in the Kurdish part of Iraq. She was nine years old when her family decided to flee to Germany for political reasons. From 2008, she studied film directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Her third-year film TRATTORIA premiered at the Berlinale in 2012 in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section. Soleen Yusef was awarded the Deutschlandstipendium 2012/2013 for her outstanding academic achievements at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. In 2013, she also took part in a five-week Film Academy workshop at UCLA in Los Angeles. Her debut film HAUS OHNE DACH, which Soleen Yusef shot in her hometown of Duhok in 2015, is also her diploma film at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy. Since then, the director has worked on several international series productions, including for Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+. Her passion project SIEGER SEIN (WINNERS) celebrated its world premiere in February 2024 in the Berlinale competition GENERATION KPLUS.

Filmography: Sieger sein (2024), SAM - A Saxon (2023), Deutschland’89 (2020), Skylines (2019), Meiberger – Im Kopf des Täters (2018), SOKO Leipzig (2018), Haus ohne Dach (2016), Trattoria (2012), NOS (auf dich) (2010)