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

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!