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 

TALES FROM THE BLUE BUS — GESCHICHTEN AUS ACCRA tells of the trag­ic jour­ney of sev­en strangers trav­el­ling in an old blue bus that has been cursed by a venge­ful god­dess. The African-Euro­pean web series was joint­ly devel­oped and pro­duced by stu­dents of the DFFB, the Nation­al Film and Tele­vi­sion Insti­tute (Ghana), and the Maisha Film Lab (Ugan­da).

This film explores the process­es of change in soci­ety and the asso­ci­at­ed per­son­al chal­lenges that young peo­ple in West Africa face. The themes of iso­la­tion and respon­si­bil­i­ty bind all the episodes togeth­er. But the film lan­guage is fresh and vis­cer­al and cre­ates an extra­or­di­nary view­ing expe­ri­ence far away from the con­ven­tions of estab­lished reportage and glossy pro­duc­tions.

Entwick­elt wurde die Serie von 15 stu­den­tis­chen Filmemacher*innen aus Deutsch­land, Ghana und Ostafri­ka. In mehreren Devel­op­ment-Work­shops in Ghana und Ugan­da hat das Team – beste­hend aus jun­gen Filmemacher*innen aus Accra, Kam­pala und Berlin – zusam­men die Geschicht­en weit­er­en­twick­elt. Für die Umset­zung war ein Showrun­ner aus Ugan­da zuständig; die Regie ver­ant­worteten Studierende aus Ghana und Berlin. Das Filmteam vor Ort umfasste ca. 50 Studierende des NAFTI. Unter­stützt und gefördert wurde die Gruppe vom Bun­desmin­is­teri­um für wirtschaftliche Zusam­me­nar­beit und Entwick­lung und der Deutschen Welle Akademie.

The series was devel­oped by 15 stu­dent film­mak­ers from Ger­many, Ghana, and East Africa. In sev­er­al devel­op­ment work­shops in Ghana and Ugan­da, the team—comprising young film­mak­ers from Accra, Kam­pala, and Berlin—developed the sto­ries togeth­er. The showrun­ner is from Ugan­da; the direc­tors are stu­dents from Ghana and Berlin. The film team on loca­tion con­sist­ed of about 50 NAFTI stu­dents. The group was sup­port­ed and fund­ed by the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Coop­er­a­tion and Devel­op­ment and the Deutsche Welle Acad­e­my.

Click here to view the series. Enjoy!

The 42nd edi­tion of the Max Ophüls Preis Film Fes­ti­val in Saar­brück­en end­ed yes­ter­day. The award cer­e­mo­ny on Sat­ur­day evening was a joy­ous one for both DFFB stu­dents and alum­ni:

DFFB stu­dent Sara Fazi­lat was award­ed the Max Ophüls Prize for Best Young Actress for her role in NICO (director/​screenwriter: Eline Gehring, cinematographer/​screenwriter: Fran­cy Fab­ritz, producer/​screenwriter: Sara Fazi­lat).

“Sara Fazi­lat is con­vinc­ing as Nico through her every breath, move­ment, thought, emo­tion. We always ful­ly believe in her char­ac­ter. When she expe­ri­ences an assault, she takes the audi­ence with her through her painful jour­ney. In her des­per­a­tion to armour her soul as a way to heal, her char­ac­ter touched us deeply. Sara Fazi­lat shares her character’s laugh­ter, hap­pi­ness, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, anger, and self-con­fi­dence  with ter­rif­ic ease,” said the jury state­ment. Con­grat­u­la­tions, dear Sara!

BORGA (direc­tor: York-Fabi­an Raabe, screen­writ­ers: York-Fabi­an Raabe and Toks Körn­er, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Tobias von dem Borne, pro­duc­er: Alexan­der Wadouh and Rox­ana Richters), in which many DFFB alum­ni par­tic­i­pat­ed, is the win­ner of the fes­ti­val with four awards! Not only did the project win Best Fea­ture Film Award, Ecu­meni­cal Jury Award, and the Audi­ence Fea­ture Film Award, asso­ciate pro­duc­er and actor Eugene Boateng was also award­ed the Max Ophüls Prize for the Most Social­ly Rel­e­vant Film for his per­for­mance.

What a fan­tas­tic fes­ti­val edi­tion! We warm­ly con­grat­u­late the win­ners and send them our best wish­es. Bra­vo!

The new year has just start­ed and the 42nd Max Ophüls Preis Film Fes­ti­val is already about to begin! In this year’s edi­tion, the films of young film­mak­ers will be screened online from Jan­u­ary 17 to Jan­u­ary 24 in the fea­ture film, doc­u­men­tary, medi­um-length film, and short film com­pe­ti­tions, as well as oth­er pro­gram series, such as the MOP Short­list.

The MOP in Saar­brück­en is the most impor­tant fes­ti­val for young Ger­man-lan­guage film and has stood for the dis­cov­ery of young tal­ent from Aus­tria, Ger­many, and Switzer­land for over 40 years.

Among these tal­ents in this year’s pro­gram are the DFFB films I WANT TO RETURN RETURN RETURN (director/​screenwriter: Elsa Rosen­gren, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Giu­lia Schel­has, pro­duc­er: Mar­gari­ta Amine­va) , NICO (director/​screenwriter: Eline Gehring, cinematographer/​screenwriter: Fran­cy Fab­ritz, producer/​screenwriter: Sara Fazi­lat), which will run in com­pe­ti­tion, and LEIB (director/​screenwriter: Mar­i­jana Ver­hoef, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Ley­la Hoppe, pro­duc­er: Ele­na Zur­buch & Elis­a­beth Köller), which will be fea­tured in the MOP short­list.

With BORGA (direc­tor: York-Fabi­an Raabe, screen­writ­ers: York-Fabi­an Raabe and Toks Körn­er, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Tobias von dem Borne, pro­duc­er: Alexan­der Wadouh and Rox­ana Richters), and DAS MASSAKER VON ANRÖCHTE (cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Jesse Mazuch) oth­er stu­dents and alum­ni of the DFFB are also rep­re­sent­ed in Saar­brück­en. We are also keep­ing our fin­gers crossed for DFFB stu­dent Sara Fazi­lat, who is nom­i­nat­ed for the Max Ophüls Best Young Actress Award.

We wish every­one good luck and a great fes­ti­val sea­son!

Pho­to Cred­it: Max Ophüls Preis Film Fes­ti­val

On Wednes­day, Novem­ber 25, 2020, at 8 pm the Gold­en Lola will be award­ed to young film­mak­ers by the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment Com­mis­sion­er for Cul­ture and the Media, Min­is­ter of State Prof. Moni­ka Grüt­ters, as part of the Ger­man Short Film Award. This is the most impor­tant award for short film in Ger­many.

This year, the award cer­e­mo­ny will take place online in a new set­ting: In a fes­tive, vir­tu­al award cer­e­mo­ny tak­ing place in Kino Inter­na­tion­al Berlin, the award win­ners will be hon­oured for their out­stand­ing achieve­ments in the pro­duc­tion of short films. The event will be mod­er­at­ed by actor and DFFB grad­u­ate Tim Oliv­er Schultz and musi­cal­ly accom­pa­nied by the band Die Höch­ste Eisen­bahn and excit­ing pre­sen­ters, includ­ing Emi­ly Atef, Lars Kraume, Anni­ka Pinske, and Anna Thal­bach, who will join us through livestream. Thanks to the livestream, the audi­ence will also have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to attend the event in real time.

After the cer­e­mo­ny, in the LOLA LOUNGE, guests, award win­ners, and nom­i­nees will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to chat and toast each oth­er, while DIE HÖCHSTE EISENBAHN will pro­vide back­ground music. Press rep­re­sen­ta­tives will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­duct inter­views with the award win­ners and par­tic­i­pants by pri­or appoint­ment.

The DFFB is delight­ed that it has two pro­duc­tions that are nom­i­nat­ed IN DEN BINSEN and LAND OF GLORY. We are keep­ing our fin­gers crossed!

We look for­ward to an excit­ing and enter­tain­ing event. With your par­tic­i­pa­tion in the livestream, the Ger­man Short Film Award 2020 will be a joy­ful place to meet despite adverse cir­cum­stances. Cul­ture will tri­umph over cri­sis!

The 54th Inter­na­tion­al Hofer Film Fes­ti­val has come to an end, and once again there were many offer­ings from the DFFB. “Home of Films” is the mot­to of the fes­ti­val, and it describes the suc­cess of our stu­dents and alum­ni well.

Two of our stu­dent films cel­e­brat­ed their world pre­miere at this fes­ti­val:

BABY BITCHKA (D: Anna Maria Roznows­ka, S: Anna Maria Roznows­ka & Tama­ra Erbe, C: Malte Siepen, P: Tama­ra Erbe) tells the sto­ry of Sascha (crazy, sexy, alco­holic, 23) who falls in love with Alexan­der (crazy, sexy, alco­holic, 60). It is the sto­ry of two peo­ple who fall in love with their alter egos.

DUC NGUYEN (D: Clara Zoe My-Linh von Arn­im, S: Sebas­t­ian Lad­wig, C: Raban Jakob Friedrich, P: Lucas Thiem & Jan­na Fodor) tells the sto­ry of three Ger­man-Viet­namese teenagers on a noc­tur­nal search for a motor­bike-rid­ing phan­tom who is cre­at­ing hav­oc on Berlin’s motor­ways…

LEIB (D/​S: Mar­i­jana Ver­hoef, C: Ley­la Hoppe, P: Ele­na Zur­buch & Elis­a­beth Köller) cel­e­brat­ed its Ger­man pre­miere in Hof. The film tells the sto­ry of a mys­te­ri­ous crea­ture who, as a farm­hand, appears in the life of an old wid­ow­er to help her on her farm. How­ev­er, when the crea­ture begins to devel­op human feel­ings, their lives take a dif­fer­ent turn.

DFFB alum­na and pro­duc­er Lena Vur­ma was award­ed the VGF’s high­est-endowed Ger­man prize for young pro­duc­ers, the VGF Young Pro­duc­er Award, worth 60,000 euros, for the pro­duc­tion of the fea­ture film ADVENTURES OF A MATHEMATICIAN.

DFFB alum­nus Mar­cus Lenz scored anoth­er suc­cess with his film RIVALE, which received the Förder­preis Neues Deutsches Kino for Best Film.

And last but not least, direc­tor Emi­ly Atef, also an alum­na of the DFFB, was award­ed the Hans-Vogt Film Prize from the city of Rehau, endowed with 5000 Euros. This prize is award­ed to film­mak­ers whose works are dis­tin­guished by their qual­i­ty and sig­nif­i­cance and that use film music in a unique way.

We are thrilled and warm­ly con­grat­u­late each of them!

This year the Wim Wen­ders Schol­ar­ship was award­ed for the 7th time by the Film- und Medi­en­s­tiftung NRW and the Düs­sel­dorf Wim Wen­ders Foun­da­tion. The renowned schol­ar­ship assists young film­mak­ers who endeav­our to tell their sto­ries in new ways and to devel­op their projects inde­pen­dent­ly. To this end, the schol­ar­ship hold­ers pro­vide a total of 100,000 euros. In select­ing the projects to be fund­ed, spe­cial atten­tion was paid to orig­i­nal­i­ty and to a strong visu­al con­cept.
Six projects were select­ed for fund­ing from a total of 33 appli­ca­tions. Among the suc­cess­ful appli­cants is a project by two alum­ni of the DFFB: Eliza Petko­va and Con­stanze Schmitt received a schol­ar­ship of 10,000 euros for their film STILLE BEOBACHTER. What is spe­cial about this project is that it tells the sto­ry of ani­mals observ­ing peo­ple, and not the oth­er way around, which gives us an insight into how ani­mals view us humans.
The awardees will stay in con­tact with each oth­er and, above all, with the jury and Wim Wen­ders through reg­u­lar col­lo­quia to com­mu­ni­cate their project’s progress and to sup­port one anoth­er in this devel­op­ment phase.
Wim Wen­ders con­cludes by explain­ing the film indus­try and the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion: “I’m delight­ed that we are using the schol­ar­ship to give these film­mak­ers the time and sup­port they need to devel­op their projects. Espe­cial­ly giv­en these dif­fi­cult times for cin­e­ma, a medi­um so close­ly linked to social inter­ac­tion. More than ever, cin­e­ma needs new forms and cer­tain­ly oth­er forms of pre­sen­ta­tion to strength­en the medium’s col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence.”
Our warmest con­grat­u­la­tions go to Eliza and Constanze—we are very excit­ed about this oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op your project!

It is with a heavy heart that the DFFB says good­bye to its alum­nus and for­mer lec­tur­er David Sla­ma. The film­mak­er died on Octo­ber 15 at the age of 74.

After study­ing with Michael Ball­haus and Peter Stein at the DFFB in Berlin, David Sla­ma worked as a cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er on more than 80 fea­ture and tele­vi­sion films, col­lab­o­rat­ing with Luc Bondy, Rein­hard Hauff, Harun Faroc­ki, and Mar­tin Scors­ese, among oth­ers. He is right­ly con­sid­ered one of the most impor­tant cin­e­matog­ra­phers in Ger­man-lan­guage film.

Par­al­lel to his artis­tic work, David Sla­ma taught at the DFFB, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ham­burg, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences Dort­mund, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences Han­nover. In 2010, he was appoint­ed cin­e­matog­ra­phy pro­fes­sor at IFS Cologne. He was a mem­ber of the Ger­man Film Acad­e­my.

His enthu­si­asm for film­mak­ing and his great com­mit­ment to young film­mak­ers will be sore­ly missed.

In the com­ing aca­d­e­m­ic year, we will accept the new stu­dents who are cur­rent­ly under­go­ing the selec­tion process. This is part of the 2019 appli­ca­tion process, which had to be inter­rupt­ed due to the Coro­na Pan­dem­ic.

As a medi­um-term effect of the pan­dem­ic, there will be no appli­ca­tion pro­ce­dure at the DFFB in 2020.

Those who intend to study at the DFFB will find the appli­ca­tion mate­r­i­al for the fall 2022 pro­gramme on our web­site from Sep­tem­ber 2021.

To give you an idea of the DFFB in advance, we invite you to a dig­i­tal info day this autumn: date and pro­gramme will be announced short­ly.

Thank you very much for your under­stand­ing!