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 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.

A fan­tas­tic night for the DFFB: At this year’s Ger­man Short Film Awards, two of our pro­duc­tions received a Gold­en Lola. GARNELIUS by Julia Ketel­hut won in the Medi­um-Length Film cat­e­go­ry, while MOTHER IS A NATURAL SINNER by Hoda Taheri and Boris Hadži­ja was award­ed Best Short Film up to 15 min­utes.

The jury praised GARNELIUS as a “dis­turbing­ly beau­ti­ful work” marked by emo­tion­al pre­ci­sion and calm inten­si­ty. MOTHER IS A NATURAL SINNER impressed with its ana­lyt­i­cal clar­i­ty, poet­ic inti­ma­cy, and strik­ing cin­e­matog­ra­phy.

ICEBERGS by Car­los Pereira was also nom­i­nat­ed – a recog­ni­tion that is already con­sid­ered a major achieve­ment and comes with a €15,000 nom­i­na­tion prize.

We warm­ly con­grat­u­late all film­mak­ers involved!

All nom­i­nat­ed and win­ning films will be screened across Ger­many next year as part of the KURZ.FILM.TOUR in munic­i­pal cin­e­mas — don’t miss out!

In a state­ment issued fol­low­ing a con­fer­ence under the title “The Arts and Migration(s): Reflec­tions and Respon­si­bil­i­ties”, which was held in Valletta/​Malta upon invi­ta­tion of the Arts Coun­cil Mal­ta from 27 to 29 Octo­ber 2025, the Euro­pean Alliance of Acad­e­mies express­es its deep con­cern about the increas­ing trans­for­ma­tion of Europe into a fortress where migrants in their strug­gle for a safer life risk rejec­tion, hos­til­i­ty, and death.

The Euro­pean Alliance of Acad­e­mies, which was found­ed five years ago to pro­mote and defend artis­tic free­dom and free­dom of speech, urges the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to recog­nise the rights of peo­ple leav­ing their coun­tries, and to con­sid­er migra­tion essen­tial to our com­mon his­to­ry, vital to the sto­ry of humankind.

Mil­lions of peo­ple are forced to leave their coun­tries because of eco­nom­ic inequal­i­ty, war, per­se­cu­tion, flood and drought. There is no migra­tion cri­sis as we hear too often, but there is a polit­i­cal cri­sis where more and more coun­tries blame migra­tion for the prob­lems they face. There is a cli­mate cri­sis and there is a moral cri­sis as we are liv­ing in a world in which wel­come and hos­pi­tal­i­ty must be re-intro­duced: We have to re-find our civil­i­ty.

Art and cul­ture rely upon the free cir­cu­la­tion of peo­ple and ideas – restric­tion to nation­al bound­aries makes us nar­row-mind­ed and one-sided. Instead of clos­ing our eyes to increas­ing prej­u­dice and mis­in­for­ma­tion we must open our win­dows and doors. Indeed, we must recog­nise migrants for all they bring to our soci­eties – their life sto­ries, knowl­edge and cul­ture.

Euro­pean Alliance of Acad­e­mies
Mal­ta State­ment
Pho­to Cred­it: Dar­ren Agius

Since the begin­ning of this semes­ter, the DFFB has been a mem­ber of studieren­den­WERK BERLIN, which offers stu­dents from all part­ner uni­ver­si­ties a wide range of ser­vices relat­ed to study­ing and liv­ing in Berlin.

Our stu­dents can ben­e­fit from the use of can­teens and dor­mi­to­ries, numer­ous advi­so­ry ser­vices (includ­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal coun­sel­ing, stu­dent financ­ing, job oppor­tu­ni­ties and inter­na­tion­al affairs) as well as day­care places, sports activ­i­ties, cul­tur­al events and a diverse work­shop pro­gram.

We are very pleased about the coop­er­a­tion and want to encour­age all our stu­dents to take advan­tage of this great offer!

You can find an overview of all ser­vices on the web­site: https://​www​.stw​.berlin/​en/

film pro­gram with exhi­bi­tion and work­shops

Between Novem­ber 7 and 12, 2023, fem­i­nist else­wheres will cel­e­brate over 50 years of fem­i­nist film work in six days with a com­pre­hen­sive film pro­gram, work­shops and an exhi­bi­tion.

fem­i­nist else­wheres draws on two events that took place at the Arse­nal cin­e­ma in Berlin: the First Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Film Sem­i­nar of 1973, which is con­sid­ered the start­ing point of the fem­i­nist film move­ment in West Ger­many and was orga­nized by Clau­dia von Ale­mann and Helke Sander with the sup­port of Eri­ka Gre­gor, among oth­ers. In 1997, a revis­i­ta­tion of the Women’s Film Sem­i­nar titled … the point is to change it. Films, Fes­ti­vals, Fem­i­nism took place, to which, under the cura­tion of then cin­e­ma direc­tor Ste­fanie Schulte Strathaus, as well as Madeleine Bern­storff, Bir­git Kohler, Sil­via Hal­lensleben, and Regi­na Holzkamp, all part of Blick­pi­lotin e.V., five fem­i­nist film fes­ti­vals from all over Europe were invit­ed. 

fem­i­nist else­wheres is put togeth­er by Arisa Purkpong, Sophie Holzberg­er, Char­lotte Eit­el­bach, Fiona Berg and Ele­na Baumeis­ter. Cen­tral to the cura­to­r­i­al process was the dia­logue between his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary cin­e­mat­ic fem­i­nisms. There­fore, fem­i­nist else­wheres com­bines restora­tions and pre­mieres and brings into con­ver­sa­tion pro­tag­o­nists of film move­ments since the 1960s with con­tem­po­rary activists.

Here, you can find all infor­ma­tion about the pro­gram: Arse­nal Berlin

We would like to inform you about an impor­tant devel­op­ment at the DDFB: We will not be admit­ting any new stu­dents dur­ing the win­ter semes­ter of 2024/​25. This means that there will not be an appli­ca­tion process start­ing this fall. We under­stand that this news comes as a sur­prise to many, but we made this deci­sion for the good of all cur­rent and future stu­dents.

               Plan­ning ahead for a bet­ter Study Expe­ri­ence

The DFFB has big plans: In 2025, we are sched­uled to move to our new premis­es in the Berlin Decks in Moabit. These premis­es will offer us gen­er­ous office and sem­i­nar spaces, two cin­e­mas, two stu­dios, a large tech­ni­cal ware­house, and mod­ern post-pro­duc­tion work­sta­tions. Study­ing and mak­ing films at the DFFB will be a whole new expe­ri­ence!

Our deci­sion to delay appli­ca­tions was made with a lot of thought. The first year of study at the DFFB is very inten­sive. Each stu­dent cre­ates a short film in spring/​summer, and a total of 32 short films are pro­duced. The suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of these first-year films is foun­da­tion­al – what stu­dents learn dur­ing this time forms the basis for the rest of their DFFB stud­ies. For this first year to be suc­cess­ful, we need opti­mal con­di­tions for film­ing and post-pro­duc­tion. Because of this large move, we can­not guar­an­tee stu­dents an opti­mal envi­ron­ment for the smooth pre-pro­duc­tion, pro­duc­tion, and post-pro­duc­tion of their films.

It is very impor­tant to us to not com­prise on our high edu­ca­tion­al stan­dards. These stan­dards are exem­pli­fied by the DFFB stu­dents’ par­tic­i­pa­tion is many inter­na­tion­al film fes­ti­vals in 2023, such as the Berli­nale (GERANIEN by Tan­ja Egen), Cannes (IL COMPLEANNO DI ENRICO by Francesco Sos­sai), Locarno (AS IF MOTHER CRIED THAT NIGHT by Hoda Taheri and SLIMANE by Car­los Pereira), Venice (SENTIMENTAL STORIES by Xan­dra Popes­cu) and Toron­to (ARTHUR & DIANA by Sara Sum­ma).

               Next Appli­ca­tion Oppor­tu­ni­ty

The appli­ca­tion process at the DFFB takes sev­er­al months. This process usu­al­ly begins in the fall; suc­cess­ful appli­cants then begin their stud­ies the fol­low­ing win­ter semes­ter. To ensure that the next gen­er­a­tion of young and tal­ent­ed film­mak­ers has a suc­cess­ful first year at the DFFB, we are open­ing our next appli­ca­tion peri­od in the fall of 2024. This means that incom­ing stu­dents for the win­ter semes­ter of 2025/​26 will be able to begin their DFFB careers at our won­der­ful new cam­pus!

We would like to sin­cere­ly thank you for your under­stand­ing. Togeth­er, we are shap­ing a promis­ing future for the DFFB!

               Open House Day

The upcom­ing Open House will take place on Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 18, 2023, and will be an oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn more about the DFFB. We are sure that a vis­it to the DFFB will be worth­while, even if the appli­ca­tion process only takes place the fol­low­ing year.

• Film Pro­gram: Come by and watch a pro­gram of DFFB short and fea­ture films in our cin­e­ma!
• Stu­dent Advis­ing: Get to know our lec­tur­ers at the stu­dent advis­ing ses­sions!
• Q&A: Get insights into the cre­ative work of our alum­ni and their expe­ri­ences at the DFFB dur­ing mod­er­at­ed talks!
• Net­work­ing: Get to know our stu­dents, fac­ul­ty, and staff. Learn first-hand what sets our acad­e­my apart and what oppor­tu­ni­ties it can offer you!
• Pre­view: Get a pre­view of our new space and your future school!

If you have any ques­tions, please con­tact our sup­port at bewerbung.​support@​dffb.​de.