The Gramado Film Festival continues to open its doors to the world. In 2024, the possibilities for the Crystal Kikito Award will expand. The honor, traditionally given to big names in Ibero-American cinema, now has global status. Mariëtte Rissenbeek, Executive Director of the Berlin International Film Festival between 2019 and 2024, will be the first honoree of this new stage.
Born in the Netherlands in 1956, she studied German language and literature, theater studies and sociology at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht and the Freie Universität Berlin. After completing his master’s degree, he moved permanently to Berlin and started working at the public relations agency Löhlein & Schonert. In 1986, he joined the distribution company Tobis Film. In 1995, he began working in film production, working at Ziegler Film, where he produced several feature films for TV, as well as short and medium-length films. In 1998 she established her own production company in Hamburg and worked with Mika Kaurismäki. At the turn of the millennium, he began working at the production company Hofmann & Voges, based in Munich.
In 2003, Mariëtte became responsible for international festival relations and public relations at German Films, an organization for the international promotion of German cinema. She was appointed Deputy Director of German Films in 2006, becoming General Director in 2011. From 2019 onwards, she served as Executive Director of the Berlin International Film Festival – the first woman to hold the position – ending her collaboration with the German festival in its 74th edition.
“It’s a new phase for Gramado. We are soaring higher and higher. Being able to start this new stage of Kikito de Cristal with a tribute to Mariëtte, when German immigration completes two hundred years in our country, is very symbolic. A woman with a pioneering trajectory that culminates in the general direction of one of the largest film festivals in the world. We are honored to welcome you to this edition of the Festival”, comments Rosa Helena Volk, president of Gramadotur, the municipal authority responsible for events in the city of Rio Grande do Sul.
The honor will be presented during the 52nd Gramado Film Festival, which takes place between the 9th and 17th of August.
For reference: The Kikito de Cristal Trophy is dedicated to exponents of international cinema. The honor was awarded for the first time in 2007 to filmmaker Eduardo Coutinho. Filmmaker Ruy Guerra, actors Jean Pierre Noher, César Troncoso and Leonardo Sbaraglia and actresses Cecília Roth, Soledad Villamil and Alice Braga were other names honored.
