Carlos Leal – 2006 Swiss Shooting Star at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival
08.12.2005
Carlos Leal is the Swiss Shooting Star for 2006. For his outstanding achievement in Samir’s feature film “Snow White” (Production: Dschoint Ventschr, Zurich), European Film Promotion member SWISS FILMS has nominated the up-and-coming actor Carlos Leal as the Swiss Shooting Star. His presence is impressive in the movie’s main role, in addition to having proven himself repeatedly as an actor. He is also one of the three nominees for “Best Actor” for the 2006 Swiss Film Prize. With 85,000 movie tickets sold, “Snow White” is the second most successful Swiss film of the year. Some 20 European acting talents will be in the limelight of the Berlinale from 11 – 13 February. In its 9th year, the event receives much attention and gives the actors and actresses a chance to present themselves to the audience, the media, and the international film industry. Also nominated is German actress Johanna Wokalek.
From “Sens Unik” to Cinema Actor
Carlos Leal began his movie career in parallel with his music career in the Rap group “Sens Unik”, which he co-founded in the early 90s. In 1993, Leal appeared on the movie screen for the first time in the documentary film “Babylon 2” by Samir. The experience of working on numerous video clips in conjunction with “Sense Unik” awakened his interest in acting. Beginning in 2000, he performed several theatrical roles, among them “La Vénus des lavabos”, a play by Pedro Almadovar and produced by Gianni Schneider (2000). As the “Sens Unik” singer discovered his passion for cinema, he trained at the “Actors studio” in Paris under the direction of Jack Garfein. Soon thereafter the 36-year-old appeared in several main roles in Swiss and French productions (see CV), among them the short film “Visite médicale” by Felix v. Muralt (Production: Waka Films, Pregassona), and in “Trivinel” by Hubert Woroniecky; he was awarded “Best Actor” for his role of Paco in “Snow White” at the Tamil Nadu Film Festival in India, and recently finished production on “Le monde à l’envers” (Director: Julien Reininger, France). The dual citizen Carlos Leal (Switzerland/Spain) lives in Paris, France.
Europe’s New Acting Talents
Since 1998, the European Film Promotion (EFP), an umbrella organization of national film promotion agencies (with significant support from the MEDIA program by the European Union), has organized the unique Shooting Stars event to present Europe’s next generation of acting talents. Actors and actresses are nominated by their country’s membership organization of EFP and will attend meetings with international film producers, casting agencies, and other members of the film industry in Berlin. The talents will have a chance to introduce themselves to the media and will be awarded a “Shooting Star” at the Berlinale Palace by festival director Dieter Kosslick during a competition screening. After the Shooting Star event, actors and actresses will be invited to attend various European film festivals.
Swiss Shooting Stars
Recent actresses and actors representing Switzerland as Shooting Stars were: Johanna Bantzer (“Straehl”) in 2005, Michael Koch (“Ready, Steady, Charlie!”) in 2004, Mona Fueter “Füür oder Flamme” in 2003, Michael Finger (“Utopia Blues”) in 2002, Anne-Schlomit Deonna (“Potlach”) in 2001, Martin Rapold (“Exklusiv”) in 2000, and Soray Gomaa (“Full Moon”) in 1999.
Zurich, December 8, 2005
filmography
biography
Shooting star