Crew Unit­ed has launched the cen­tral plat­form “Film­mak­ers for Ukraine” for all Ukraini­ans affect­ed by the war. In par­tic­u­lar, those seek­ing help from Ukraine can find out about cur­rent and ver­i­fied offers of help from all over Europe. For peo­ple who want to get involved, the site also offers a good overview with numer­ous con­tact points.

In addi­tion, there are offers specif­i­cal­ly tai­lored to the film indus­try as well as a page curat­ed by film jour­nal­ists on impor­tant doc­u­men­taries and fea­ture films about Ukraine.

Togeth­er with indus­try part­ners, Crew Unit­ed has thus cre­at­ed a valu­able plat­form that pro­vides struc­tured infor­ma­tion for all those seek­ing help and those who would like to get involved.

The DFFB thanks Crew Unit­ed and its part­ners and joins them in spread­ing the word.

#film­mak­ers­forukraine

The Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin is shocked by Rus­si­a’s attack on Ukraine and is deeply dis­mayed by the events of the last few days. We strong­ly con­demn this mil­i­tary action and are deeply con­cerned for the peo­ple of the coun­try.

Our thoughts are with the peo­ple of Ukraine in these dif­fi­cult times, espe­cial­ly with our stu­dents with Ukrain­ian roots. They, their fam­i­lies and friends, deserve our full sol­i­dar­i­ty, sup­port and assis­tance.

We hope that the peo­ple of Ukraine will be able to get to safe­ty and that this war, which we did not believe pos­si­ble until recent­ly, will come to a quick end.

The Direc­torate of the DFFB

It’s that time again: The 71st Berlin Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val is about to begin. Due to the pan­dem­ic, this year’s fes­ti­val will be divid­ed into two parts: a vir­tu­al indus­try event in March and an audi­ence fes­ti­val in June. We are delight­ed that fan­tas­tic pro­duc­tions fea­tur­ing the par­tic­i­pa­tion of numer­ous DFFB alum­ni will screen in the var­i­ous sec­tions.

Sec­tion: Encoun­ters

12 films, includ­ing 7 debut films, were invit­ed to the Encoun­ters com­pe­ti­tion, which is held for the sec­ond time this year.

One of these films is BLOODSUCKERS by direc­tor Julian Radl­maier, which will have its world pre­miere at the fes­ti­val. Togeth­er with fel­low alum­ni Kir­ill Krasovs­ki (pro­duc­er) and Markus Koob (cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er), Radlmaier’s film won­der­ful­ly recounts the sto­ry of a pen­ni­less Sovi­et refugee who falls in love with a young, wealthy Ger­man vam­pire who spends the sum­mer by the sea with her awk­ward assis­tant. Alexan­dre Koberidze, direc­tor and recent DFFB grad­u­ate, stars in BLOODSUCKERS.

THE GIRL AND THE SPIDER by Ramon and Sil­van Zürcher, who both stud­ied with at the DFFB, is a film from Switzer­land that is in the run­ning for the Best Film Award, the Best Direc­tor Award, and the Spe­cial Jury Prize. Alexan­der Haßk­erl (cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er) cap­tured this tragi­com­ic poet­ic bal­lad about change and tran­sience.

Sec­tion: Panora­ma

In this sec­tion DFFB alum­nus Mar­tin Heisler pro­duced Hen­ri­ka Kul­l’s fea­ture film BLISS, which vivid­ly tells the love sto­ry of two sex work­ers. This film will debut the Berli­nale.

Sec­tion: Per­spec­tive Ger­man Cin­e­ma

The doc­u­men­tary WHEN A FARM GOES AFLAME by alum­nus Jide Tom Akin­leminu will cel­e­brate its world pre­miere in the Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino. The film tells the per­son­al sto­ry of a father‘s dou­ble life and sen­si­tive­ly accom­pa­nies the char­ac­ters on their jour­ney of emo­tion­al heal­ing.

JESUS EGON CHRIST by David and Saša Vaj­da will have its world pre­miere at the Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino. DFFB stu­dent Anto­nia Lange is the cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er of this inti­mate dra­ma about the lone­li­ness of psy­chosis and a group of junkies in with­draw­al.

We con­grat­u­late our stu­dents and alum­ni and very much hope to see all the films on the big screen very soon!

Pho­to Cred­it: WHEN A FARM GOES AFLAME © Jide Tom Akin­leminu