Matthias Brandt is the Juror for the Alfred Kerr Acting Award 2026
The Alfred Kerr Acting Award recognises the outstanding achievement by a young actor in one of the 10 most remarkable productions invited to Theatertreffen each year. This year’s juror is the actor, voice artist and author Matthias Brandt. The award comes with a sum of 5,000 Euro and will be presented on the closing day of the festival, Sunday 17 May 2026, in a public matinee at Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
The Alfred Kerr Acting Award was initiated in 1991 in memory of the Berlin theatre critic Alfred Kerr by his children Judith und Michael Kerr in conjunction with the Pressestiftung Tagesspiegel and Berliner Festspiele/Theatertreffen to recognise the outstanding achievement of a young actor in one of the 10 most remarkable productions invited to Theatertreffen. Each year a noted theatrical personality acts as the award’s juror. The award comes with a sum of 5,000 Euro and is offered by the AlfredKerr Foundation with support from Theatertreffen. Additional support is provided by Verlag Der Tagesspiegel, the Hartung family and Gustav Kiepenheuer Bühnenvertriebs-GmbH.
Matthias Brandt was born in Berlin in 1961 and is now regarded as one of Germany’s most prominent actors and voice artists. In his early acting career, he was an ensemble member at a series of theatres including Nationaltheater Mannheim, Schauspielhaus Zürich and Schauspielhaus Bochum. After a long break from the theatre, he is now a member of the Berliner Ensemble, where he performs the Max Frisch monologue Mein Name sei Gantenbein and Estragon in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. He regularly devises improvised collages of words and music together with the musician and performer Jens Thomas which they perform live.
For many years Matthias Brandt has specialised in working for film and television, for which he has won numerous awards. He became familiar to a broader television audience as the Munich detective Hanns von Meuffels in the crime series Polizeiruf 110 and in the role of August Benda in the series Babylon Berlin. He also enjoys an intensive working relationship with the auteur filmmaker Christian Petzold and was recently seen in his films Miroirs No. 3 (2025) and Afire (2023).
Brandt’s work also includes narrating audio books and acting in radio plays. In 2014 he won the Deutscher Hörbuchpreis for his reading of the Aldous Huxley novel Brave New World.
Matthias Brandt is also a published author: his volume of short stories Raumpatrouille, published in 2016, consists of autobiographical sketches from his childhood, and was followed in 2019 by his debut novel Blackbird. March 2026 will see the publication, also by Kiepenheuer & Witsch, of his essay Nein sagen. In light of the increasing threats to democracy from racism and xenophobia, Brandt recalls the legacy of resistance to the Nazis and the courage of those resistance fighters, who included his parents.
Matthias Brandt was awarded the Carl Zuckmayer Medal in 2024 and the Deutscher Sprachpreis in 2025.
Previous jurors include Edith Clever, Maren Eggert, Samuel Finzi, Martina Gedeck, Fabian Hinrichs, Marianne Hoppe, Nina Hoss, Imogen Kogge, Ursina Lardi, Eva Mattes, Ulrich Matthes, Bernhard Minetti, Ulrich Mühe, Franz Rogowski, Edgar Selge, Thomas Thieme, Valery Tscheplanowa, Gerd Wameling, Martin Wuttke and, most recently, Bettina Stucky in 2025.
Previous award winners include Kathrin Angerer, Lina Beckmann, Benny Claessens, August Diehl, Dominik Dos-Reis, Fritzi Haberlandt, Julia Häusermann, Fabian Hinrichs, Steffi Kühnert, Johannes Nussbaum, Wiebke Puls, Samouil Stoyanov, Devid Striesow, Valery Tscheplanowa, Johanna Wokalek and last year Carmen Steinert.
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To the Press photo Matthias Brandt © Jan Düfelsiek
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