On 20 Novem­ber 2025, Min­is­ter of State for Cul­ture and Media Wol­fram Weimer will present the Ger­man Short Film Award in Ham­burg. We are delight­ed to have received one award and two fur­ther nom­i­na­tions that are still in the run­ning for a Gold­en Lola.

The Ger­man Short Film Award 2025 in the cat­e­go­ry Medi­um-Length Film (30 to 78 min­utes run­ning time) goes to GARNELIUS by direc­tor and screen­writer Julia Ketel­hut (P: Melvyn Zeyns and Jonas Nemela, C: Rocío Díaz Freire) – a work of sub­tle sym­bol­ism and emo­tion­al clar­i­ty. Karl, who can hard­ly bear his father’s absence, seeks close­ness in his rela­tion­ship with his broth­er David. When an inex­plic­a­ble event upsets the fam­i­ly order, the bound­aries between real­i­ty and metaphor become blurred. GARNELIUS tells with poet­ic pre­ci­sion of long­ing, belong­ing and the qui­et pow­er that lies in fam­i­ly break­downs.

In the fea­ture film cat­e­go­ry with a run­ning time of up to 15 min­utes, MOTHER IS A NATURAL SINNER by Hoda Taheri and Boris Hadži­ja is in the run­ning for the Ger­man Short Film Award 2025. The con­clu­sion of their acclaimed tril­o­gy is ded­i­cat­ed to a woman who is forced by an unex­pect­ed preg­nan­cy to ques­tion her ideas of fem­i­nin­i­ty and self-deter­mi­na­tion. With ten­der inti­ma­cy and ana­lyt­i­cal acu­ity, Taheri and Hadži­ja cre­ate a cin­e­mat­ic state­ment about the body, guilt and free­dom – and how con­trol can be trans­formed into self-empow­er­ment.

Also nom­i­nat­ed for the Ger­man Short Film Award 2025, in the cat­e­go­ry of fea­ture films between 15 and 30 min­utes in length, is ICEBERGS by direc­tor Car­los Pereira – a qui­et, deeply mov­ing work about lone­li­ness and the search for close­ness. Theo, 66, lives in a world that bare­ly touch­es him any­more. Between the steam of a ham­mam and the dark­ness of an old cin­e­ma, he search­es for moments of human con­nec­tion. Only his encounter with Ida brings move­ment to his rigid­i­ty. With great calm and emo­tion­al pre­ci­sion, ICEBERGS paints the por­trait of a man who is slow­ly learn­ing to feel again.

The Ger­man Short Film Award is the most impor­tant and most high­ly endowed award for short films in Ger­many. With this award, the Ger­man gov­ern­ment hon­ours film­mak­ers for their courage in pro­duc­ing artis­ti­cal­ly ambi­tious works in short for­mat and encour­ages them to con­tin­ue on this path.

On Sat­ur­day, 22 Novem­ber 2025, we will open our doors to any­one inter­est­ed in study­ing film or want­i­ng to find out more about our acad­e­my.

The Open House offers the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to gain an insight into our cours­es, the acad­e­my itself, and the peo­ple behind it. Vis­i­tors can find out about the var­i­ous depart­ments, take part in open events, and speak to lec­tur­ers, staff, and stu­dents.

Whether you are just start­ing out or prepar­ing specif­i­cal­ly for an appli­ca­tion, the day will pro­vide valu­able insights into study­ing at the DFFB.

You can find the detailed pro­gramme here.

We are delight­ed to announce that the DFFB doc­u­men­tary film A JEWISH PROBLEM by direc­tor Ron Roth­schild will cel­e­brate its world pre­miere in the Ger­man Doc­u­men­tary Com­pe­ti­tion at the renowned DOK Leipzig. The invi­ta­tion is a spe­cial hon­our for the work, which was cre­at­ed as part of the DFF­B’s doc­u­men­tary film work­shop under the direc­tion of Andres Veiel.

In his film, Roth­schild embarks on a per­son­al search for clues: A JEWISH PROBLEM is a doc­u­men­tary self-por­trait, told through con­ver­sa­tions with his grand­moth­er Ruth, pri­vate archive footage and video mate­r­i­al from his time as a mil­i­tary cam­era­man in the occu­pied Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries. The film links dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ences of exile – those of his grand­moth­er, his own and those of the Pales­tini­ans – and places them in the con­text of col­lec­tive his­to­ry.

“This film is an attempt to trace the links between the Holo­caust and the Nak­ba through the lens of my own fam­i­ly his­to­ry”, explains direc­tor Ron Roth­schild.

From 2007 to 2010, he served as a cam­era­man in the Israeli army. Today, he lives in Berlin – geo­graph­i­cal­ly far away, but marked by his expe­ri­ences, the images and the inevitable echo of vio­lence.

A JEWISH PROBLEM fits seam­less­ly into this year’s DOK Leipzig pro­gramme, which com­bines polit­i­cal rel­e­vance with artis­tic diver­si­ty. With its explo­ration of mem­o­ry, iden­ti­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty, the film is an impres­sive con­tri­bu­tion to inter­na­tion­al doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ing.

DOK Leipzig is the old­est doc­u­men­tary film fes­ti­val in the world and is con­sid­ered one of the most impor­tant forums for inno­v­a­tive and engag­ing doc­u­men­tary film. The 68th edi­tion of the fes­ti­val will take place in Leipzig from Octo­ber 27th to Novem­ber 2nd 2025.

The DFFB cel­e­brat­ed a major suc­cess at the FIRST STEPS Awards 2025. Last night (6 Octo­ber 2025), three of our films received awards in the main cat­e­gories of fea­ture film, doc­u­men­tary film and act­ing. The film­mak­ers received a total of €45,000 in prize mon­ey.

The FIRST STEPS Awards are con­sid­ered the most pres­ti­gious awards for grad­u­a­tion films from film schools in Ger­man-speak­ing coun­tries and are an impor­tant sig­nal for the indus­try.

Best Fea­ture Film: THE GOOD SISTER

The fea­ture film THE GOOD SISTER (Direc­tor: Sarah Miro Fis­ch­er, Screen­play: Sarah Miro Fis­ch­er & Agnes Maa­gard Petersen, Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Sel­ma von Pohlheim Gravesen, M: Ele­na Wei­he, P: Jan­na Fodor & Nina Sophie Bay­er-Seel) was award­ed the prize for fea­ture-length film, worth €20,000.

The grad­u­a­tion film is a co-pro­duc­tion with Arkanum Pic­tures and rbb and was sup­port­ed by, among oth­ers, the long-stand­ing part­ners of the Leucht­stoff ini­tia­tive from the Medi­en­board Berlin-Bran­den­burg and the Young Tal­ent Foun­da­tion Berlin.

‘Between close­ness and con­flict, a sto­ry unfolds that qui­et­ly but pow­er­ful­ly tells of loy­al­ty and jus­tice. THE GOOD SISTER cap­ti­vates with its nuanced explo­ration of com­plex fam­i­ly ties and a moral dilem­ma […] An impres­sive, intel­li­gent work with great dra­matur­gi­cal­ly pow­er,’ said the jury.

Best Doc­u­men­tary Film: MY BOYFRIEND EL FASCISTA

Matthias Lint­ner’s work impressed in the doc­u­men­tary film cat­e­go­ry and received a cash prize of €15,000 with the doc­u­men­tary film award. The film, pro­duced by Helios Sus­tain­able Films and Mariq­ui­tas Film, impres­sive­ly high­lights how a roman­tic rela­tion­ship is shak­en by polit­i­cal ten­sions.

The jury state­ment empha­sised the fol­low­ing in par­tic­u­lar:

“With great sen­si­tiv­i­ty and deter­mi­na­tion, MY BOYFRIEND EL FASCISTA takes us on an intense jour­ney full of nuances and con­tra­dic­to­ry feel­ings. The inward-look­ing cam­era makes it strik­ing­ly clear how quick­ly dis­ap­point­ment, frus­tra­tion and ide­o­log­i­cal crit­i­cism can lead to rad­i­cal­ism […]. […] The result is an out­stand­ing, enter­tain­ing doc­u­men­tary that leaves room for nuances, fric­tion and irre­solv­able con­tra­dic­tions.”

Götz George Young Tal­ent Award: Lad­i­na von Frisching

The Götz George Young Tal­ent Award for act­ing, worth €10,000, went to Lad­i­na von Frisching for her out­stand­ing per­for­mance in IMPATIENCE OF THE HEART by direc­tor Lau­ro Cress. The film, a co-pro­duc­tion with rbb, tells the sto­ry of a young sol­dier’s fate­ful rela­tion­ship with a paral­ysed woman.

The jury was impressed by the young actress’s pres­ence:

“With impres­sive nat­u­ral­ness and restrained inten­si­ty, Lad­i­na von Frisching cre­ates a haunt­ing char­ac­ter who touch­es the view­er deeply. Her por­tray­al of Edith in IMPATIENCE OF THE HEART skil­ful­ly bal­ances sen­si­tiv­i­ty and deter­mi­na­tion and demon­strates Lad­i­na’s empa­thet­ic intu­ition for com­plex emo­tions. An extra­or­di­nary young actress whose tal­ent and pres­ence already stand out.”

Con­grat­u­la­tions to all the win­ners on this out­stand­ing achieve­ment!

It is with great sad­ness that we must say farewell to Hart­mut Bit­o­m­sky. He was a stu­dent of the very first cohort of the DFFB, at first com­pelled to leave after one year, grad­u­at­ing in 1970 and ulti­mate­ly return­ing as direc­tor of the DFFB from 2006 to 2009. A doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er („Der VW Kom­plex“, „Reich­sauto­bahn“, „High­way 40 West“, „Das Kino und der Tod“ or „Staub“, to name a few), film the­o­rist and author (“Die Röte des Rots von Tech­ni­col­or”), and an excep­tion­al­ly keen observ­er of the world.

The DFFB owes Hart­mut Bit­o­m­sky an immense debt of grat­i­tude. Over the years, he shaped and inspired count­less stu­dents and film­mak­ers, always approach­ing their work with open­ness and curios­i­ty.

Hart­mut Bit­o­m­sky has passed away at the age of 83. Our heart­felt con­do­lences go to his fam­i­ly and all those who shared his jour­ney.

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!