On 26 Sep­tem­ber, the clos­ing gala of the pres­ti­gious fes­ti­val took place in north­ern Spain, and the grad­u­a­tion film BODY OF GLASS (Dir./Writer: Naë­mi Ada, DoP: Sel­ma von Pohlheim Gravesen, Edi­tor: Ele­na Wei­he) was hon­oured with the Kutx­a­bank-New Direc­tors Award, which comes with prize mon­ey of EUR 50,000.

About the film: At its cen­tre is a young dancer try­ing to break free from a manip­u­la­tive rela­tion­ship. When she holds her part­ner cap­tive, the exist­ing pow­er dynam­ic shifts, open­ing up the pos­si­bil­i­ty of regain­ing con­trol over her own life. Along­side the dynam­ics of emo­tion­al depen­den­cy, the film explores the search for self-deter­mi­na­tion and agency.

The film is a co-pro­duc­tion with Soil­films and Sol­dats Fea­tures and was made as part of the Leucht­stoff ini­tia­tive by rbb and Medi­en­board Berlin-Bran­den­burg.

We con­grat­u­late the entire team around Naë­mi Ada on this won­der­ful award and look for­ward to the fur­ther fes­ti­val jour­ney of BODY OF GLASS.

How can film build bridges and invite dia­logue in polar­ized times, reach­ing beyond its usu­al audi­ence? From Octo­ber 14 to 16, 2026, the Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin (DFFB) invites inter­na­tion­al film­mak­ers and indus­try experts to a con­fer­ence at the Forum of its new cam­pus on Friedrich-Krause-Ufer. Over three days, pan­el dis­cus­sions, keynote talks, work­shop ses­sions, and exchanges with the audi­ence will explore the chal­lenges, poten­tial, and shared goals of artis­ti­cal­ly ambi­tious cin­e­ma.

More Infos here: Kon­ferenz “Reach­ing Out­side the Bub­ble” — DFFB60

Reg­is­tra­tion & Atten­dance

Admis­sion is free. The hall seats 80, so we ask that you reg­is­ter – day by day via pretix.

Reg­is­tered guests have pri­or­i­ty; remain­ing seats are giv­en out at the door start­ing 10 min­utes before the start.

Can’t make it after all? Please can­cel via the link in your con­fir­ma­tion email – your seat will then go to the wait­list.

Sold out? Join­ing the wait­list is still worth­while, as seats reg­u­lar­ly free up (auto­mat­ic noti­fi­ca­tion). For high-demand pro­gram items, we rec­om­mend arriv­ing ear­ly.

We are delight­ed to announce that BODY OF GLASS (Dir. Naë­mi Ada, Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Sel­ma von Pol­heim, Edit­ing: Ele­na Wei­he, Pro­duced by Lalise Mud­da) will cel­e­brate its world pre­miere at the 74th San Sebastián Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val. The DFFB grad­u­a­tion film has been select­ed for the pres­ti­gious New Direc­tors sec­tion, where it will com­pete for the Kutx­a­bank New Direc­tors Award.

BODY OF GLASS fol­lows Tian, a dancer who flees her life in Mar­seille after a vio­lent inci­dent. In her search for belong­ing, she becomes entan­gled in the cir­cle sur­round­ing a deceased stranger, while car­ry­ing a life-alter­ing secret of her own. The film explores themes of emo­tion­al depen­den­cy, grief, and self-deter­mi­na­tion.

The film was pro­duced as a co-pro­duc­tion with Soil­films and Sol­dat Fea­tures. The project received fund­ing through the Leucht­stoff ini­tia­tive of rbb and Medi­en­board Berlin-Bran­den­burg.

We warm­ly con­grat­u­late the entire BODY OF GLASS team on this selec­tion and wish them every suc­cess for their world pre­miere in San Sebastián.

We are delight­ed that I PLANT MY HAND IN THE GARDEN (direction/​screenplay: Hoda Taheri & Boris Hadži­ja, pro­duc­tion: Max­i­m­il­ian Feld­kamp) will have its world pre­miere at the 83rd Venice Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val (La Bien­nale di Venezia). Boris Hadži­ja’s DFFB grad­u­a­tion film has been invit­ed to the main com­pe­ti­tion of Gior­nate degli Autori (Venice Days), one of the fes­ti­val’s most pres­ti­gious sec­tions.

The film tells the sto­ry of Hoda, an Iran­ian refugee liv­ing in Berlin, and Boris, a queer man from Ser­bia. Togeth­er they decide to mar­ry and raise a child. As fam­i­ly expec­ta­tions, bureau­crat­ic hur­dles and per­son­al expe­ri­ences increas­ing­ly shape their plans for the future, they begin to ques­tion what fam­i­ly actu­al­ly means and whether new ways of liv­ing togeth­er beyond soci­etal norms are pos­si­ble.

Hoda Taheri and Boris Hadži­ja met at the DFFB. Dur­ing their stud­ies, they made a num­ber of short films togeth­er, which screened at the Locarno Film Fes­ti­val and the Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val Rot­ter­dam, among oth­ers. I PLANT MY HAND IN THE GARDEN is their fea­ture debut.

Draw­ing on auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal expe­ri­ences, I PLANT MY HAND IN THE GARDEN moves along the bor­der between fic­tion and real­i­ty. The film explores ques­tions of belong­ing, fam­i­ly and iden­ti­ty, and turns its atten­tion to peo­ple who have to rede­fine their place with­in exist­ing soci­etal struc­tures.

We warm­ly con­grat­u­late the entire team on this extra­or­di­nary invi­ta­tion and wish the film a suc­cess­ful world pre­miere in Venice.

We warm­ly con­grat­u­late alum­nus Francesco Sos­sai and alum­na Cecil­ia Trautvet­ter on the extra­or­di­nary suc­cess of their lat­est fea­ture film LE CITTÀ DI PIANURA (THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD) at Italy’s pre­mier film awards, the David di Donatel­lo Awards 2026.

As the evening’s major win­ner, the film received a total of eight awards, includ­ing the top hon­ors for Best Film and Best Direc­tor for Francesco Sos­sai. Addi­tion­al awards includ­ed Best Pro­duc­tion for Cecil­ia Trautvet­ter and the pro­duc­ing team, Best Screen­play, Best Edit­ing, and Best Lead­ing Actor for Ser­gio Romano, among oth­ers. Enter­ing the cer­e­mo­ny with an impres­sive 16 nom­i­na­tions, LE CITTÀ DI PIANURA more than lived up to its sta­tus as one of the most cel­e­brat­ed Ital­ian films of the year.

Fol­low­ing its acclaimed pre­miere in the Un Cer­tain Regard sec­tion at the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, the film has con­tin­ued to cap­ti­vate audi­ences and crit­ics alike. Set against the back­drop of rur­al Vene­to, this poet­ic and inti­mate road movie cap­tures the atmos­phere, rhythms, and emo­tion­al land­scapes of life in the Ital­ian provinces with remark­able sen­si­tiv­i­ty.

Francesco Sossai’s suc­cess is a pow­er­ful tes­ta­ment to his sin­gu­lar artis­tic voice and to the bold, inter­na­tion­al­ly mind­ed film cul­ture that DFFB is proud to fos­ter. In recent years, Francesco has estab­lished him­self as one of the most excit­ing new voic­es in Euro­pean cin­e­ma — this recog­ni­tion marks anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in an excep­tion­al career.

Con­grat­u­la­tions!

The Arse­nal Filmin­sti­tut e.V., the Deutsche Kine­math­ek – Muse­um für Film und Fernse­hen and the Deutsche Film- und Fernse­hakademie Berlin (DFFB) are fur­ther expand­ing their col­lab­o­ra­tion. In the future premis­es of the DFFB, the lead­er­ship of the three insti­tu­tions signed an agree­ment that builds on their suc­cess­ful coop­er­a­tion at the for­mer Filmhaus at Pots­damer Platz.

The aim is to sus­tain­ably rein­force Berlin’s film cul­ture, fos­ter exchange between film­mak­ers, audi­ences and insti­tu­tions, and enhance the vis­i­bil­i­ty of audio­vi­su­al her­itage. Despite oper­at­ing from sep­a­rate loca­tions in the future—Arsenal at silent green, the Deutsche Kine­math­ek at E‑Werk, and the DFFB from August at the Berlin Decks campus—the part­ners will con­tin­ue and expand their close coop­er­a­tion.

Planned ini­tia­tives include joint projects and events, sup­port for emerg­ing tal­ent, and clos­er col­lab­o­ra­tion in teach­ing, research and archival work. With this agree­ment, the three insti­tu­tions reaf­firm their com­mit­ment to a vibrant, diverse and for­ward-look­ing film cul­ture in Berlin.

Sev­er­al stu­dent films are fea­tured at this year’s achtung berlin film­fes­ti­val (15–22 April 2026). Every year, the fes­ti­val show­cas­es the lat­est film pro­duc­tions from Berlin and Bran­den­burg – high­light­ing the diver­si­ty and artis­tic strength of region­al film­mak­ing.

The fes­ti­val kicks off with the DFFB grad­u­a­tion film MAMBO MATERNICA by Bor­bála Nagy (DoP: Moritz Friese, E: Lás­zló Dunai, P: Mar­gari­ta Amine­va-Jester, Daria Wich­mann): it cel­e­brates its Ger­man pre­miere on 15 April at the Colos­se­um cin­e­ma – there­by offi­cial­ly open­ing the fes­ti­val. In the fea­ture film com­pe­ti­tion, the film tells the sto­ry of three women in Europe who are at turn­ing points in their lives and are seek­ing their own path to self-deter­mi­na­tion amidst the desire to have chil­dren, preg­nan­cy and soci­etal expec­ta­tions.

The DFFB is also strong­ly rep­re­sent­ed in the doc­u­men­tary film sec­tion: A JEWISH PROBLEM von Ron Roth­schild (DoP: Ron Roth­schild, Julien May­er, Fion Mutert, Masha Biller, Sina Aghaz­adeh, E: Astrid Hohle Hansen, P: Yusuf Celik) explores the ques­tion of Jew­ish iden­ti­ty in the present day and exam­ines both per­son­al and soci­etal per­spec­tives. Klara Hard­en takes an inti­mate approach to the theme of moth­er­hood in WOMAN/​MOTHER which brings to light indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences caught between con­flict­ing social expec­ta­tions.

Four fur­ther works are com­pet­ing in the short film com­pe­ti­tion – and demon­strate the breadth of cin­e­mat­ic approach­es: EVERYTHING WE WANT TO KNOW (D/​S: Julia Ketel­hut, DoP: Julien May­er, P: Julia Ketel­hut, Julien May­er) explores ques­tions of knowl­edge, per­cep­tion and per­son­al ori­en­ta­tion in every­day life. In THE BRACELET (D/​S: Ari­na Cher­no­va, Jer­ri Baza­ta, DoP: Masha Biller, P: Jer­ri Baza­ta, Ari­na Cher­no­va, E: Robert Franz, Ari­na Cher­no­va), a seem­ing­ly small object becomes the start­ing point for a sto­ry about mem­o­ry, rela­tion­ships and hid­den mean­ings. And PROTAGONIST (D/​S: Nathalie Sei­dl, DoP: Ari Salazar, P: Tanya Tsygano­va, E: Celine Jünger) explores iden­ti­ty as a play between per­for­mance and real­i­ty. AN ARM IS AN ARM IS AN ARM (D/​S/​M/​P: Bas­t­ian Gascho, DoP: Sel­ma von Pol­heim Gravesen) links a con­ver­sa­tion between two friends about bod­i­ly per­cep­tion and loss to a qui­et image of tran­sience.

Posi­tioned between these for­mats, THE PLANT FROM THE CANARIES (D: Ruan Lan-Xi, DoP: Jonathan Steil) fea­tures in the com­pe­ti­tion for medi­um-length films. Through poet­ic imagery, the film explores migra­tion, belong­ing and the search for iden­ti­ty.

Grad­u­ate pro­duc­tions in the fes­ti­val pro­gramme

Not only cur­rent stu­dents but also DFFB grad­u­ates are shap­ing this year’s pro­gramme: In the fea­ture film com­pe­ti­tion, SOLO SHOW (S: Julia Rose Gostyn­s­ki) is screen­ing, a film about frag­ile self-images and their grad­ual shat­ter­ing. In the medi­um-length for­mat, DIE UNVERZICHTBAREN (D/​S: Flo­ri­an Hoff­mann) turns its gaze towards those whose often invis­i­ble work under­pins the fab­ric of soci­ety. And in the short film DADDY, KOMPLEX (D/​S: Mireya Hei­der de Jahnsen), the focus is on fam­i­ly influ­ences, author­i­ty and emo­tion­al depen­den­cies. The Berlin Spot­lights sec­tion also fea­tures BALANCE (S/​P: Ina-Lene Dinse), which tells the sto­ry of a father-daugh­ter encounter in which close­ness, dis­tance and unspo­ken con­flicts col­lide.

This cre­ates a mul­ti­fac­eted pic­ture of the Academy’s work: doc­u­men­tary and fic­tion­al, focused and exper­i­men­tal – and close­ly linked to the Berlin film scene, which it sig­nif­i­cant­ly shapes.

The DFFB con­grat­u­lates all the film­mak­ers involved on their invi­ta­tion and wish­es the films every suc­cess at the fes­ti­val!