The DFFB was rep­re­sent­ed with sev­er­al pro­duc­tions at this year’s Max Ophüls Prize in Saar­brück­en, one of the most impor­tant film fes­ti­vals for Ger­man-lan­guage new­com­er films — and was delight­ed to receive some remark­able awards.

UNGEDULD DES HERZENS: Best Fea­ture Film, two awards for Best Young Actor

Our copro­duc­tion with rbb and Schi­wa­go Film UNGEDULD DES HERZENS (D: Lau­ro Cress, S: Lau­ro Cress & Flo­ri­an Plumey­er, C: Jan David Gun­ther, P: Loren­zo Gan­dol­fo) won the main prize for Best Fea­ture Film, endowed with 36,000 euros.

The film tells the sto­ry of a sol­dier who is torn between his social role and his per­son­al feel­ings. In atmos­pher­i­cal­ly dense images, the film address­es ques­tions of class, iden­ti­ty and the pow­er of com­pas­sion.

In addi­tion, the lead­ing actors Giulio Brizzi and Lad­i­na von Frisching were each hon­oured with awards for Best New Act­ing for their out­stand­ing per­for­mances.

GARNELIUS: Best Medi­um Length Film

GARNELIUS (R/​B: Julia Ketel­hut, K: Rocío Díaz Freire, P: Melvyn Zeyns & Jonas Nemela) received the prize in the cat­e­go­ry Best Medi­um-Length Film, endowed with 5,000 euros.

The film com­bines mag­i­cal real­ism with a pro­found exam­i­na­tion of a dif­fi­cult father-son rela­tion­ship, gen­er­a­tional con­flicts and the search for iden­ti­ty in the after­math of Ger­man reuni­fi­ca­tion.

ROTE STERNE ÜBERM FELD: Film Crit­ics’ Award

In addi­tion to the DFFB pro­duc­tions, ROTE STERNE ÜBERM FELD (direc­tor: Lau­ra Laabs) was also a big suc­cess. The film, on which DFFB stu­dents Daria Wich­mann and Lisa Rol­ing worked, was award­ed the Film Crit­ics’ Prize for Best Fea­ture Film.

We are very pleased about the strong pres­ence of our stu­dents and alum­ni at the Max Ophüls Prize 2025. Con­grat­u­la­tions to all the award win­ners and the cre­ative teams behind the impres­sive works.

Our grad­u­a­tion film SCHWESTERHERHERZ (D: Sarah Miro Fis­ch­er, B: Sarah Miro Fis­ch­er & Agnes Maa­gard Petersen, C: Sel­ma von Pohlheim Gravesen, M: Ele­na Wei­he, P: Jan­na Fodor & Nina Sophie Bay­er-Seel) will cel­e­brate its world pre­miere as part of the Panora­ma pro­gramme of this years Berli­nale!

The fea­ture film SCHWESTERHERHERZ, which is inter­na­tion­al­ly known as THE GOOD SISTER, deals with the close rela­tion­ship Rose has with her old­er broth­er Sam. When Sam is accused of rape, Rose is asked to tes­ti­fy as a wit­ness. This puts both the sib­lings’ rela­tion­ship and Rose’s moral integri­ty to the test. The film focus­es on the com­plex human­i­ty of the char­ac­ters. They all have long­ings, desires and hurts, make mis­takes and push bound­aries. Nev­er­the­less, Sam’s act is no sim­ple mis­take. It is so pow­er­ful and so destruc­tive that the con­se­quences he caus­es go far beyond the char­ac­ters direct­ly affect­ed by the act. SCHWESTERHERZ is a film about sib­lings, inti­ma­cy and the ques­tion of what influ­ence our actions have on the peo­ple around us, direct­ly or indi­rect­ly.

The Berli­nale’s Panora­ma pro­gramme shows films that make peo­ple think about pol­i­tics, val­ues and soci­ety. As part of the selec­tion, SCHWESTERHERHERZ could win the Panora­ma Audi­ence Award as well as sev­er­al cross-sec­tion prizes. These include, for exam­ple, the Hein­er Carow Prize, the FIPRESCI Jury Prize and the CICAE Art Cin­e­ma Award.

We are keep­ing our fin­gers crossed for the entire team

It is with great sad­ness that we bid farewell to alum­nus Wolf­gang Beck­er, who passed away on 13 Decem­ber at the age of 70. He was best known for his film GOOD BYE LENIN!, which was not only an inter­na­tion­al suc­cess, but also shaped the image of an entire gen­er­a­tion.

Wolf­gang Beck­er was born in Hemer in 1954 and devel­oped a pas­sion for film­mak­ing at an ear­ly age. After begin­ning his stud­ies at the Free Uni­ver­si­ty of Berlin, he trans­ferred to the DFFB in 1981. He won the Stu­dent Acad­e­my Award and the Gold­en Leop­ard in Locarno with his grad­u­a­tion film BUTTERFLIES.

Beck­er’s influ­ence on the Ger­man film land­scape is unde­ni­able. He has set stan­dards not only with his tal­ent, but also with his abil­i­ty to com­bine com­plex emo­tions and his­tor­i­cal con­texts. His work was char­ac­terised by sub­tle humour and a pro­found exam­i­na­tion of social issues.

He was a found­ing mem­ber of the Ger­man Film Acad­e­my and the Berlin pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny X Filme.

His death leaves a huge gap in the world of film. We will remem­ber Wolf­gang Beck­er as a cre­ative mind and sen­si­tive sto­ry­teller. Our sym­pa­thies go out to his fam­i­ly, his friends and the team at X Filme.

Foto Copy­right: Flo­ri­an Schnei­der

The doc­u­men­tary film SONNENSTADT by direc­tor Kristi­na Shtu­bert (C: Han­na Mayser) cel­e­brates its world pre­miere in the Ger­man Doc­u­men­tary Com­pe­ti­tion of the renowned DOK Leipzig.

The DFFB grad­u­a­tion film, sup­port­ed by Leucht­stoff sup­port in coop­er­a­tion with rbb and Medi­en­board Berlin-Bran­den­burg, fol­lows a group of peo­ple who found a utopi­an soci­ety in the seclu­sion of the Siber­ian taiga under the lead­er­ship of the self-pro­claimed mes­si­ah Vis­sar­i­on. It sheds light on the search for a new way of life in a world that is per­ceived as increas­ing­ly con­fus­ing and threat­en­ing. With no clear judge­ment, SONNENSTADT leaves room for the audi­ence to form their own opin­ion of the strengths and weak­ness­es of this utopia.

The film has been nom­i­nat­ed for sev­er­al awards, includ­ing the ver.di Prize for Sol­i­dar­i­ty, Human­i­ty and Fair­ness and the MDR Film Prize.

We wish you good screen­ings and keep our fin­gers crossed for the award cer­e­mo­ny!

We recent­ly moved to our new loca­tion in Berlin Adler­shof. Our tem­po­rary home is now at Stu­dio 16 in 12489 Berlin, while indi­vid­ual depart­ments, includ­ing post-pro­duc­tion and Ser­i­al Eyes, will remain at the old loca­tion at Pots­damer Platz until the end of the year.

The move to Adler­shof marks an impor­tant step for the DFFB. Despite lim­it­ed office and sem­i­nar space, the change of loca­tion offers us numer­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties. In par­tic­u­lar, the spa­cious tele­vi­sion stu­dio, which we use as an audi­to­ri­um, will become the new cen­tre for aca­d­e­m­ic events and exchanges between stu­dents, lec­tur­ers and staff mem­bers.

One high­light is the revi­tal­i­sa­tion of our Acad­e­my Mon­day, when we offer open, cross-year sem­i­nars and dis­cus­sion groups. These meet­ings are intend­ed to strength­en the sense of com­mu­ni­ty and pro­vide space for cre­ative and polit­i­cal dia­logue.

The tech­ni­cal equip­ment has also been large­ly relo­cat­ed to the new site so that we can con­tin­ue to offer a well-found­ed and prac­tice-ori­en­tat­ed edu­ca­tion. There are also col­lab­o­ra­tions with local part­ners, includ­ing a cin­e­ma for film view­ings.

Until we move to our future home “Berlin Decks” in Moabit, which is planned for the end of 2025, we are look­ing for­ward to using the com­ing months to be pro­duc­tive in Adler­shof and mak­ing new con­tacts in the media land­scape and with the imme­di­ate neigh­bour­hood!