Alisa Berger was born 1987 in Makhachkala (Republic of Dagestan, Russia) and raised in Lviv (Ukraine) and Essen (Germany). She studied film and fine arts at the Academy of Media Art Cologne (KHM) and at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Bogotá. With her 2017 KHM diploma film, she was nominated for the Max Ophüls Prize and for the FIRST STEPS Award of the Deutsche Filmakademie. She was also the recipient of the Best Film Award for New Directors at Int. Film Festival Uruguay and the Screenplay Award of H.W. Geißendörfer. 2018 - 2022 she lived in Tokyo and studied Butoh. Since 2022 she enrolled in the program of Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, where she realized her new film INVISIBLE PEOPLE and received the Studio Collector Prize at Jeu de Paume, awarded by Isabelle & Jean-Conrad Lemaître and Haro Cumbusyan and the Analix Forever Prize, awarded by Barbara Polla (Galerie Analix Forever, Geneve/Paris) and Marta Ponsa (Jeu de Paume, Paris) for Invisible People.

Her work often deals with a search for the spiritual, non-rational drive in our world, cultures whose practices of knowledge acquisition are related to religious ideologies, mortuary cults or futuristic concepts of these believes.

education
2010 Psychology at the University of Hagen
2010 - 2016 "Media Art" at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
2013 "Artes Plasticas" at Universidad Nacional de Colombia

public collections
Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen, DE

scholarships / grants
2021 Research Scholarship of the City Council of Essen
2021 Film- und Medienstiftung NRW script development grant
2021 Artist Scholarship of Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
2020 Micro-Scholarship of Frauenkulturbüro NRW e.V.
2020 Artist Scholarship of Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
2019 Film- und Medienstiftung NRW project grant for development of two film projects
2019 Export grant of Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia for Nakanojo Biennale
2019 Asia Europe Foundation - ASEF Mobility First Grant
2019 Film-Labor Scholarship, Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf
2019 Mediengründerzentrum NRW development grant for “FORTIS FEM FILM”
2018 Danish Arts Foundation (project grant for BERGERNISSEN’s exhibition SURVIVING THE FITNESS)
2017 Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film script Grant for talented film
2017 Studio grant of Bonner Kunstverein
2017 DAAD Scholarship for international exchange to Tokyo, Japan / research at Kazuo Ohno Dance studio
2016 NRW KulturSekretariat - PerformAktiv, project grant for Awakening Future at KAI 10 | Arthena Foundation with BERGERNISSEN
2015 Film- und Medienstiftung NRW project grant for Die Körper der Astronauten
2013 Stipendium des Freundeskreis der Kunsthochschule für Medien, Köln
2013 D​AAD​ Scholarship for the international exchange to Bogota, Colombia

artist-in-residence
2022 Cannes Film Festival ImpACT Lab, France
2022 IFFR Rotterdam Lab, Netherlands
2021 Light Cone Paris Atelier 105 Residency, Paris, France
2019 Seoul Geumcheon Art Space Residency, Seoul, Korea
2017 Grant of Frauenkulturbüro NRW e.V. - International Artist Exchange to Georgia and Armenia.
2013 Residency at lugar a dudas with BERGERNISSEN, Cali, Colombia

awards / prizes (selection)
2019 Best of Festival Feature Film Award at Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin for Die Körper der Astronauten
2018 Best Feature Film Award at Strasburg Film Festival for Die Körper der Astronauten
2018 Special Mention at 32. Cineuropa Compostela Film Festival for Die Körper der Astronauten
2018 Golden Star Award at Central Java Film Festival Indonesien for Die Körper der Astronauten
2018 Best Film Award at International Film Festival of Uruguay “New Directors” for Die Körper der Astronauten
2017 Best Screenplay Award (H.W.Geißendörfer Drehbuchpreis) at Kinofest Lünen for Die Körper der Astronauten
2017 Best Narrative Feature Film Award at Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival for Die Körper der Astronauten
2015 Best Super-8-Film Award at Artifact Film Festival Calgary for Island Story

selected bibliography
2020 “Contamination: Cross disciplinary identities” (Text: Lorna Tiller) MADE IN BED Magazine ISSUE 01: 20/20 VISION
2018 “Artist Portrait: Alisa Berger” (​​text: Thibaut de Ruyter) art press 2, ISSN 0245-5676, n° 460, novembre 2018, pp. 18-21
2018 And she was like BÄM, Strzelecki Books

distribution
2019 CFMDC Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre is distributing a majority of recent films
2021 Light Cone Paris is distributing “Retrodreaming”