TORN SKY (D/​S: Joze­fien van der Aelst, DoP: Edoar­do Scus­sel, P: Daniel Ruprech) was nom­i­nat­ed yes­ter­day for the Ger­man Short Film Award 2026 in the Exper­i­men­tal Film cat­e­go­ry.

The nom­i­na­tion alone comes with a grant of 15,000 euros, which can be used for the devel­op­ment of new film projects. A win at the cer­e­mo­ny on Novem­ber 16 in Ham­burg would add anoth­er 30,000 euros. The award is the most high­ly endowed dis­tinc­tion for short films in Ger­many.

DFFB stu­dent Emma Hütt is also nom­i­nat­ed for her film BLEIFREI 95 in the cat­e­go­ry Fea­ture Film over 15 min­utes up to 30 min­utes. Alum­nus Kir­ill Krasovs­ki, who pro­duced the film INFLATABLE BEAR, HOURLY, can look for­ward to a nom­i­na­tion in the cat­e­go­ry Fea­ture Film up to 15 min­utes.

We con­grat­u­late all teams and are already keep­ing our fin­gers crossed for the award cer­e­mo­ny!

Big news from War­saw: A LETTER TO HOME (R/​B/​P: Sina Aghaz­adeh, K: Dorothea Pilz, M: Juan Car­los Bautista & Sina Aghaz­adeh) won the award for Best Doc­u­men­tary Short Film at the War­saw Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val.

And here’s the spe­cial part: War­saw is an offi­cial Acad­e­my Award qual­i­fy­ing fes­ti­val. This win opens the door to the Oscars for “A LETTER TO HOME”.

Huge con­grat­u­la­tions to the entire team on this incred­i­ble suc­cess!

To mark 60 years of the DFFB, a film series explores con­nec­tions between the acad­e­my’s past and present. Three spot­lights, fem­i­nist, migrant and queer, bring into focus per­spec­tives that still have to fight for vis­i­bil­i­ty today: women who cam­paigned for equal­i­ty, stu­dents with migrant and inter­na­tion­al biogra­phies, and a queer cin­e­ma that con­tin­ues to rene­go­ti­ate its own def­i­n­i­tion.

Nine pro­grams with films from the past and present of the DFFB will be shown at three venues:

Sine­ma Transtopia
Octo­ber 29–30, 2026

Deutsche Kine­math­ek
Novem­ber 12–13, 2026

Kino Arse­nal
Novem­ber 26–27, 2026

The full pro­gram is avail­able here

Do you have ques­tions about apply­ing to the DFFB? We’re offer­ing online con­sul­ta­tions to help you with the appli­ca­tion tasks, your mate­ri­als, or find­ing the right pro­gram for you.

The con­sul­ta­tions take place on 02.11.2026 at 16:00 (CEST) and 20.11.2026 at 14:00 (CEST). The Zoom link for both days is avail­able here

We are pleased to announce that the doc­u­men­tary FREE ZONE by Jas­mine Alakari will have its world pre­miere in the Ger­man Com­pe­ti­tion Doc­u­men­tary of the renowned DOK Leipzig Film Fes­ti­val. The invi­ta­tion is a spe­cial dis­tinc­tion for the film, which is Jas­mine Alakar­i’s grad­u­a­tion film at DFFB.

In Athens, the young Iran­ian activist Abtin Parsa occu­pies hous­es for refugees in the semi-autonomous neigh­bour­hood of Exarcheia. Marked by the trau­ma of his own per­se­cu­tion, he becomes a cen­tral fig­ure of the resis­tance. Myr­to, a Greek woman with whom he falls in love, urges him to con­front his anger. When a new right-wing gov­ern­ment comes to pow­er and sets out to “cleanse” the neigh­bour­hood, vio­lent mass evic­tions begin. Abtin declares war on the state.

FREE ZONE (D/​W: Jas­mine Alakari, DoP: Agnesh Pakoz­di, Ben Bern­hard, P: Jas­mine Alakari, Ben Bern­har­di) was made over the course of a year and sev­er­al encoun­ters. The film is not only the por­trait of a man who fights by all means for his rights, but also the direc­tor’s exam­i­na­tion of her own posi­tion: what right does she have to turn anoth­er per­son­’s suf­fer­ing into an image, while she can leave the place of events at any time? In this way, FREE ZONE also invites the audi­ence to ask what respon­si­bil­i­ty we bear when we watch.

The grad­u­a­tion film was pro­duced with­in the Leucht­stoff Ini­tia­tive and fund­ed by Medi­en­board Berlin-Bran­den­burg and Rund­funk Berlin-Bran­den­burg, in co-pro­duc­tion with Jas­mine Alakari and Agnesh Pakoz­di. Already in its devel­op­ment phase, the project won the Pitch Award at DOK.fest München 2020.

We con­grat­u­late every­one involved on this invi­ta­tion and wish the film a suc­cess­ful world pre­miere in Leipzig.

On 26 Sep­tem­ber, the clos­ing gala of the pres­ti­gious fes­ti­val took place in north­ern Spain, and the grad­u­a­tion film BODY OF GLASS (Dir./Writer: Naë­mi Ada, DoP: Sel­ma von Pohlheim Gravesen, Edi­tor: Ele­na Wei­he) was hon­oured with the Kutx­a­bank-New Direc­tors Award, which comes with prize mon­ey of EUR 50,000.

About the film: At its cen­tre is a young dancer try­ing to break free from a manip­u­la­tive rela­tion­ship. When she holds her part­ner cap­tive, the exist­ing pow­er dynam­ic shifts, open­ing up the pos­si­bil­i­ty of regain­ing con­trol over her own life. Along­side the dynam­ics of emo­tion­al depen­den­cy, the film explores the search for self-deter­mi­na­tion and agency.

The film is a co-pro­duc­tion with Soil­films and Sol­dats Fea­tures and was made as part of the Leucht­stoff ini­tia­tive by rbb and Medi­en­board Berlin-Bran­den­burg.

We con­grat­u­late the entire team around Naë­mi Ada on this won­der­ful award and look for­ward to the fur­ther fes­ti­val jour­ney of BODY OF GLASS.

How can film build bridges and invite dia­logue in polar­ized times, reach­ing beyond its usu­al audi­ence? From Octo­ber 14 to 16, 2026, the Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin (DFFB) invites inter­na­tion­al film­mak­ers and indus­try experts to a con­fer­ence at the Forum of its new cam­pus on Friedrich-Krause-Ufer. Over three days, pan­el dis­cus­sions, keynote talks, work­shop ses­sions, and exchanges with the audi­ence will explore the chal­lenges, poten­tial, and shared goals of artis­ti­cal­ly ambi­tious cin­e­ma.

More Infos here: Kon­ferenz “Reach­ing Out­side the Bub­ble” — DFFB60

Reg­is­tra­tion & Atten­dance

Admis­sion is free. The hall seats 80, so we ask that you reg­is­ter – day by day via pretix.

Reg­is­tered guests have pri­or­i­ty; remain­ing seats are giv­en out at the door start­ing 10 min­utes before the start.

Can’t make it after all? Please can­cel via the link in your con­fir­ma­tion email – your seat will then go to the wait­list.

Sold out? Join­ing the wait­list is still worth­while, as seats reg­u­lar­ly free up (auto­mat­ic noti­fi­ca­tion). For high-demand pro­gram items, we rec­om­mend arriv­ing ear­ly.

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.