News |Villa Aurora Fellows 2025
These are the 2025 Villa Aurora Fellows for the Villa's 30th anniversary
Berlin/Los Angeles, October 9th, 2024 – The 2025 Fellows for the Villa Aurora have been selected. To mark the 30th anniversary of the residency program, the juries of the Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House and its partners have awarded 19 fellowships for a three-month stay in Los Angeles.
Literature
In the Literature section, Birgit Kreipe ("aire,“ 2021), Ilija Matusko ("Verdunstung in der Randzone,“ 2023), and Saskia Warzecha ("Farbleib,“ 2024) were selected for 2025.
The literary jury included Tanja Graf (Literaturhaus München), Enis Maci (Villa Aurora Alumna), Christian Metz (Literatury Critic), Senthuran Varatharajah (Villa Aurora Alumnus), and Beate Tröger (Literary Critic).
Film
In the Film section, Rand Beiruty ("Tell Them About Us,“ 2024), Dieu Hao Do ("Hao Are You,“ 2023), and Feras Fayyad ("The Cave,“ 2019) were selected. In addition, the jury decided to award the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg-funded scholarship to İlker Çatak and Johannes Duncker ("Das Lehrerzimmer," 2020).
The film jury consisted of Uisenma Borchu (Villa Aurora-Alumna), Veronika Grob (Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg), Malte Grunert (Film Producer), Verena Lueken (Film Critic), and Burhan Qurbani (Villa Aurora Alumnus).
The Ballhaus Fellowship for 2025 was awarded to Benedict Neuenfels ("Hinterland,“ 2023).
The film jury for the Ballhaus Fellowship consisted of Sherry Hormann (Film Director), Anne Leppin (Deutsche Filmakademie), Björn Böhning (Produktionsallianz) und Silke Fischer (Villa Aurora Alumna). Die Vor-Jury bestand aus Maria Schrader (Villa Aurora Alumna), Maren Ade (Villa Aurora Alumna) und Christian Goldbeck (Set Designer).
Composition / Music
In the Composition/Music section, Christina Köhler (Tintin Patrone) ("Pet Music,“ 2023), Philip Venables ("The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions,” 2023), and Ying Wang ("528HZ,“ 2021/22) were selected
The music jury consisted of Dahlia Borsche (DAAD Artists' Program), Joy Calico (UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, L.A.), Ebow (Villa Aurora Alumna), Cathy Milliken (Villa Aurora Alumna), and Alex Ross (Music Critic).
The Musicboard Fellowship for 2025 was awarded to Andaç Berkan Akbiyik (BRKN) ("Drama,“ 2021).
Visual Arts
In the Visual Arts section, the jury selected Annette Kelm ("Die Bücher,“ 2022) back in 2022 for a residency in 2025. Additionally, the jury selected Jeewi Lee ("Palimpsest, Segmente des Wiederbeschreibens,“ 2023), and Sung Tieu ("One Thousand Times,“ 2023/2024)
The jury in the visual arts section included Elena Agudio (Villa Romana Florenz), Stephan Berg (Art Museum Bonn), Ann Mbuti (Journalist for Arts and Culture), Susan Philipsz (Villa Aurora Alumna), and Julian Rosefeldt (Villa Aurora Alumnus).
Additional scholarships in the visual arts section were awarded to Harry Hachmeister ("Selbstporträt in Hausschuhen,“ 2024) and Shirin Sabahi ("Matter of Days,“ 2024), whose fellowships are sponsored by the Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt.
The fellowship awarded by KunstSalon Köln goes to Rebecca Racine Ramershoven ("Me & Mr. Jones,“ 2020), selected by the jury of KunstSalon Köln.
→ To the fellows' biographies and projects.
Today's artist residency Villa Aurora is the former exile home of the German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger and the salonist Marta Feuchtwanger in Los Angeles. Every year, Villa Aurora awards scholarships to artists in the fields of visual arts, composition, film, and literature for a three-month stay at the villa.
The residency program at Villa Aurora is funded by the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
