Great news: Four DFFB grad­u­a­tion films have been nom­i­nat­ed this year for one of the pres­ti­gious FIRST STEPS Awards — in the cat­e­gories Fea­ture Length Film, Doc­u­men­tary Film, Screen­play, the Michael Ball­haus Award, and the Götz George New­com­er Award.

The fol­low­ing films are nom­i­nat­ed:

The fea­ture film THE GOOD SISTER by Sarah Miro Fis­ch­er has received nom­i­na­tions in three cat­e­gories: Fea­ture Length Film, Screen­play (Agnes Petersen), and the Michael Ball­haus Award for Best Cin­e­matog­ra­phy (Sel­ma von Pol­heim Gravesen). The film tells the sto­ry of the intense bond between Rose and her old­er broth­er Sam. When Sam is accused of rape and Rose is called to tes­ti­fy as a wit­ness, their sib­ling rela­tion­ship is put to a severe test — as is Rose’s moral com­pass.

THE GOOD SISTER cel­e­brat­ed its world pre­miere in the Panora­ma sec­tion of this year’s Berli­nale and is cur­rent­ly tour­ing suc­cess­ful­ly at inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals, includ­ing San Sebastián.

UNGEDULD DES HERZENS by Lau­ro Cress has been nom­i­nat­ed in the cat­e­gories Fea­ture Length Film and the Götz George New­com­er Award (Lad­i­na von Frisching). At its cen­ter is a young Bun­deswehr sol­dier who, out of shame, pity, and a deep need for recog­ni­tion, feigns roman­tic feel­ings for a par­a­lyzed woman — even giv­ing her hope of recov­ery. But as her grow­ing mis­trust clash­es with his increas­ing obses­sion to “save” her, they are drawn into a dan­ger­ous spi­ral that near­ly ends in tragedy.

The film, like THE GOOD SISTER, was pro­duced as part of the Leucht­stoff ini­tia­tive by rbb and Medi­en­board Berlin-Bran­den­burg. Already at the Max Ophüls Preis Film Fes­ti­val in Saar­brück­en, UNGEDULD DES HERZENS won the main award as well as both act­ing prizes.

The mul­ti-award-win­ning film ABODE OF DAWN by Kristi­na Shtu­bert, also a Leucht­stoff project, is nom­i­nat­ed in the Doc­u­men­tary Film cat­e­go­ry. The film fol­lows the dream of a new soci­ety deep in the Siber­ian taiga. It pre­miered at DOK Leipzig 2024 and went on to win the Next:Wave Award at CPH:DOX as well as the Ursu­la Bick­le Foun­da­tion Award at dokka:12 in Karl­sruhe.

Last but not least, MY BOYFRIEND EL FASCISTA by Matthias Lint­ner is also nom­i­nat­ed in the Doc­u­men­tary Film cat­e­go­ry. The film sheds light on how per­son­al rela­tion­ships can suf­fer under polit­i­cal ten­sions: when the direc­tor and his part­ner col­lide over their oppos­ing polit­i­cal views, their love is put to the ulti­mate test. This co-pro­duc­tion with Helios Sus­tain­able Films and Mariq­ui­tas Film has already screened at inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals such as Bolzano and Hot Docs Toron­to.

We are pleased to announce that the diplo­ma film THE GOOD SISTER (D: Sarah Miro Fis­ch­er, S: Sarah Miro Fis­ch­er & Agnes Maa­gard Petersen, DoP: Sel­ma von Pohlheim Gravesen, E: Ele­na Wei­he, P: Jan­na Fodor & Nina Sophie Bay­er-Seel) has been invit­ed to the pres­ti­gious Zabal­te­gi Tabakalera sec­tion of the 73rd San Sebastián Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val (Sep­tem­ber 20–28, 2025). This sec­tion is con­sid­ered the most open and for­mal­ly free cat­e­go­ry of the fes­ti­val and presents works that stand out for their artis­tic sig­na­ture and the­mat­ic rad­i­cal­ism.

The fea­ture film THE GOOD SISTER tells the sto­ry of the intense bond between young Rose and her old­er broth­er Sam. When Sam is accused of rape, Rose finds her­self in an inner con­flict — she is asked to tes­ti­fy as a wit­ness and has to decide between loy­al­ty to her broth­er and her own moral stance. At the heart of the film is the mul­ti-lay­ered human­i­ty of the char­ac­ters: they are all char­ac­ter­ized by long­ing, pain and per­son­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, make momen­tous deci­sions and cross bound­aries. But Sam’s act is no ordi­nary mis­take — it is vio­lent and destruc­tive, with con­se­quences that reach far beyond the imme­di­ate envi­ron­ment.

The grad­u­a­tion film is a co-pro­duc­tion with Arkanum Pic­tures and Nephilim Pro­duc­ciones and was sup­port­ed by the Leucht­stoffe ini­tia­tive, a long-stand­ing part­ner­ship between Medi­en­board Berlin-Bran­den­burg and Rund­funk Berlin-Bran­den­burg. The project was also made pos­si­ble by Gap Financ­ing from the Young Tal­ent Foun­da­tion Berlin.

This year, the DFFB is rep­re­sent­ed at the renowned Locarno Film Fes­ti­val (August 6–16) with chi­nese film­mak­er Ruan Lan-Xi’s fea­ture film.

THE PLANT FROM THE CANARIES (DoP: Jonathan Steil) will cel­e­brate its world pre­miere in the Cineasti del pre­sente com­pe­ti­tion. The film tells the sto­ry of May, a Kore­an woman in her ear­ly thir­ties, who finds her­self alone in Berlin after a sud­den break-up. As she drifts through sleep­less days, mem­o­ries of her youth in Seoul emerge.

In addi­tion to direct­ing, Ruan Lan-Xi was also respon­si­ble for the screen­play, edit­ing and pro­duc­tion. THE PLANT FROM THE CANARIES is a co-pro­duc­tion with Chick­pea Enter­tain­ment and is also Ruan Lan-Xi’s grad­u­a­tion film at the DFFB.

The Locarno Film Fes­ti­val is con­sid­ered one of the most impor­tant plat­forms for inno­v­a­tive and inde­pen­dent cin­e­ma. The Cineasti del pre­sente sec­tion in par­tic­u­lar offers up-and-com­ing inter­na­tion­al direc­tors the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present their work to a wide audi­ence. In total, the film has the chance to win prize mon­ey of up to CHF 95,000.

Three films by and with DFFB alum­ni will cel­e­brate their world pre­miere in the Inter­na­tion­al Com­pe­ti­tion of the Locarno Film Fes­ti­val: DRY LEAF by Alexan­dre Koberidze, a pro­duc­tion by New­Mat­ter­Films Mari­am Shat­berashvili and Luise Hauschild, and SEHNSUCHT IN SANGERHAUSEN by Julian Radl­maier, the pro­duc­er is Kir­ill Krasovs­ki and DoP Faraz Fes­hara­ki. WHITE SNAIL by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter was co-pro­duced by DFFB alum­nus Heino Deck­ert.

BLEIFREI 95 will also be screened in the short film com­pe­ti­tion Par­di di Domani — a project co-direct­ed by DFFB stu­dent Emma Hütt, in which numer­ous oth­er DFFB tal­ents par­tic­i­pat­ed: Sha­di Farid, Lydia Leer­stelle, Elis­a­beth Hoschek, Parn­ian Ras­souli and Lalise Mud­daa.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to every­one involved!

Ange­li­ka Levi will take over the cre­ative lead­er­ship of the Acad­e­my start­ing in Octo­ber 2025. The Board of Trustees con­firmed her appoint­ment dur­ing its meet­ing on June 25, 2025 – fol­low­ing the rec­om­men­da­tion of the selec­tion com­mit­tee.

For Levi, it is a return to her old place of work: she her­self stud­ied at the DFFB from 1985 to 1991. Since then, she has been active as a film­mak­er, her works have screened at inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals, in exhi­bi­tions and in cin­e­mas — and have received numer­ous awards. Levi works across gen­res, with a strong focus on socio-polit­i­cal and his­tor­i­cal themes. Her sig­na­ture style is unmis­tak­able: com­plex mon­tages of dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives and mate­ri­als — includ­ing film, video, audio, pho­tog­ra­phy and texts, often from archives of var­i­ous ori­gins.

Ange­li­ka Levi has been a pro­fes­sor of film at the Hochschule für Gestal­tung in Offen­bach am Main since 2022.

The deci­sion to estab­lish an Artis­tic Direc­tor­ship at the DFFB with­out exec­u­tive man­age­ment respon­si­bil­i­ties was made by the Board of Trustees in Decem­ber 2024. The posi­tion was pub­licly adver­tised in Feb­ru­ary 2025, and the appli­ca­tion process ran until mid-March. A sev­en-mem­ber selec­tion com­mit­tee – con­sist­ing of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Board of Trustees, lec­tur­ers, stu­dents, staff, and the man­ag­ing direc­tor – reviewed a wide range of high­ly qual­i­fied appli­ca­tions. Through a mul­ti-stage process involv­ing pre­sen­ta­tions and inter­views, Ange­li­ka Levi ulti­mate­ly impressed the com­mit­tee.

We warm­ly wel­come her and are very much look­ing for­ward to work­ing togeth­er!

As part of the 42nd FILMFEST MÜNCHEN, the Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin (Deutsche Film und Fernse­hen Akademie Berlin), togeth­er with five oth­er Ger­man film schools, orga­nized a pan­el dis­cus­sion on diver­si­ty in the film indus­try on June 30.

The Project “Boost­ing the Next Gen­er­a­tion” was ini­ti­at­ed by the MaL­isa Foun­da­tion, Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg KONRAD WOLF, Uni­ver­si­ty of Tele­vi­sion and Film Munich (HFF), Film Acad­e­my Baden-Würt­tem­berg, Acad­e­my of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), Inter­na­tion­al Film School Cologne (ifs), Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin and sup­port­ed by Net­flix.

Fol­low­ing a keynote speech by Sasha Büh­ler, Direc­tor of Film DACH at Net­flix, and Maria Furtwän­gler, film­mak­er and co-founder of the MaL­isa Foun­da­tion, strate­gies for pro­mot­ing diver­si­ty in the film indus­try were dis­cussed. Yugen Yah, film­mak­er and pod­cast­er, mod­er­at­ed the dis­cus­sion. The pan­el includ­ed Susanne Stürmer, Pres­i­dent of the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg KONRAD WOLF, direc­tor and author Mer­le Grimme, Yelyza­ve­ta Davy­denko, a stu­dent at the Ani­ma­tion Insti­tute of the Film Acad­e­my Baden-Würt­tem­berg, and Sinem Gökser, Diver­si­ty and Inclu­sion Offi­cer. Togeth­er with uni­ver­si­ty mem­bers, film­mak­ers, and stu­dents in atten­dance, the par­tic­i­pants dis­cussed the impor­tance of diver­si­ty in mod­ern film pro­duc­tion and the best pos­si­ble meth­ods of pro­mo­tion.

The joined forces of the uni­ver­si­ties and the sup­port pro­vid­ed by Net­flix have advanced diver­si­ty work in impor­tant areas and enabled it to become more pro­fes­sion­al. One exam­ple is the devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of a cross-uni­ver­si­ty con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion pro­gram on diver­si­ty that is specif­i­cal­ly tai­lored to the inter­sec­tion of film and teach­ing. If diver­si­ty-ori­ent­ed per­spec­tives and work­ing meth­ods are taught as a mat­ter of course dur­ing train­ing, stu­dents are more like­ly to take these with them into the indus­try as stan­dards. Com­mit­ted teach­ers from all six uni­ver­si­ties are par­tic­i­pat­ing, and the feed­back has been pos­i­tive.

One thing was made clear through the dis­cus­sion: Diver­si­ty is not an option­al extra, but an essenci­tal part of film study and pro­duc­tion. The par­tic­i­pants empha­sized the need to cre­ate sus­tain­able stan­darts and struc­tures so that respon­si­bil­i­ty for diver­si­ty does not fall soley on indi­vid­u­als.

The “Boost­ing the Next Gen­er­a­tion” project exem­pli­fies that diver­si­ty and anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion work is effec­tive when it is struc­tural­ly con­ceived and approached col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly. The dis­cus­sion end­ed with a call for the indus­try, fund­ing insti­tu­tions, and polo­cy­mak­ers to take tar­get­ed action to estab­lish dis­ver­si­ty and dis­crim­i­na­tion as bind­ing stan­dards. There were also some pos­i­tive news: The paric­i­pat­ing film schools will con­tin­ue work­ing togeth­er. The Ham­burg Media School (HMS) has now joined the group­ing as well.

On 15 May 2025, the twelve par­tic­i­pants of Ser­i­al Eyes #12 pre­sent­ed their orig­i­nal series con­cepts at the pro­gram­me’s Final Pitch at SoHo House in Berlin. This closed indus­try event marks the cul­mi­na­tion of Europe’s lead­ing post­grad­u­ate train­ing pro­gramme for tele­vi­sion writ­ers and showrun­ners.

Over the course of eight inten­sive months, these twelve aspir­ing writ­ers from around the world have devel­oped bold, orig­i­nal series, hon­ing their col­lab­o­ra­tive and cre­ative skills in a writ­ers’ work­shop. Under the guid­ance of inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised showrun­ners, pro­duc­ers and writ­ers, the par­tic­i­pants have explored the entire devel­op­ment cycle of a series — from con­cept cre­ation to pitch­ing and beyond.

The par­tic­i­pants of the Ser­i­al Eyes cohort of 2025:

Anni­ka Cizek, Ger­many

Kri­ti Kapoor, India

Adrien Mabile, France

Lud­mi­la Naves, Brazil

Thùy Trang Nguyễn, Ger­many

Lara Panah-Iza­di, France /​ USA

Kate­ri­na Papanas­tasatou, Greece

Nuno Sol­er, Por­tu­gal

Lara Sper­ber, Ger­many

Pan­ni Szur­di, Hun­gary

Alex Tibu, Roma­nia

Juliana Yling Tu, Por­tu­gal /​ Brasil

We look for­ward to shar­ing their future suc­cess­es with you. If you’d like more impres­sions of this year’s final pitch, fol­low us on social media or con­tact us for the pitch book­let: info@​serial-​eyes.​de

This year’s pitch­ing event DFFB Con­nect took place on 8 April 2025 in the Säälchen am Holz­markt. Stu­dents pitched their (grad­u­a­tion) projects, a doc­u­men­tary film and a series.

After­wards, there were quick, sev­en-minute round table dis­cus­sions with the pro­duc­ers, edi­tors and agents present, who got to know all the stu­dents and their projects even bet­ter.

Any­one inter­est­ed in the projects pre­sent­ed is wel­come to get in touch at presse@​dffb.​de.

Our post­grad­u­ate train­ing pro­gramme Ser­i­al Eyes, as part of the STREAM net­work, has demon­strat­ed fur­ther com­mit­ment to improv­ing and expand­ing the Euro­pean series land­scape.

STREAM (Series Train­ing Resources, Engage­ment and Media) con­sists of 10 of Europe’s lead­ing insti­tu­tions for fur­ther edu­ca­tion in the series indus­try. Through shared val­ues and goals, the ini­tia­tive pro­motes col­lab­o­ra­tion, knowl­edge shar­ing and inno­va­tion in the Euro­pean series land­scape to fos­ter the next gen­er­a­tion of the indus­try.

Dur­ing this year’s Series Mania Fes­ti­val in Lille, the insti­tu­tions (Series Mania Insti­tute, Den Danske Film­skole, ECAM, Inter­na­tionale Film­schule Köln, Il Cen­tro Sper­i­men­tale di Cin­e­matografia, La Fémis, Lodz Film School, MIDPOINT Insti­tute, Tori­no Film Lab, Ser­i­al Eyes), led by the French Series Mania Insti­tute, agreed on a com­mon char­ter. The val­ues and objec­tives con­tained there­in, such as a strong Euro­pean iden­ti­ty, com­mit­ment to an eth­i­cal and sus­tain­able indus­try and the strength­en­ing of inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion, are intend­ed to fur­ther pro­mote coop­er­a­tion and exchange with­in the Euro­pean series indus­try.