DFFB films at the achtung berlin film fes­ti­val

Journal,

Sev­er­al stu­dent films are fea­tured at this year’s achtung berlin film­fes­ti­val (15–22 April 2026). Every year, the fes­ti­val show­cas­es the lat­est film pro­duc­tions from Berlin and Bran­den­burg – high­light­ing the diver­si­ty and artis­tic strength of region­al film­mak­ing.

The fes­ti­val kicks off with the DFFB grad­u­a­tion film MAMBO MATERNICA by Bor­bála Nagy (DoP: Moritz Friese, E: Lás­zló Dunai, P: Mar­gari­ta Amine­va-Jester, Daria Wich­mann): it cel­e­brates its Ger­man pre­miere on 15 April at the Colos­se­um cin­e­ma – there­by offi­cial­ly open­ing the fes­ti­val. In the fea­ture film com­pe­ti­tion, the film tells the sto­ry of three women in Europe who are at turn­ing points in their lives and are seek­ing their own path to self-deter­mi­na­tion amidst the desire to have chil­dren, preg­nan­cy and soci­etal expec­ta­tions.

The DFFB is also strong­ly rep­re­sent­ed in the doc­u­men­tary film sec­tion: A JEWISH PROBLEM von Ron Roth­schild (DoP: Ron Roth­schild, Julien May­er, Fion Mutert, Masha Biller, Sina Aghaz­adeh, E: Astrid Hohle Hansen, P: Yusuf Celik) explores the ques­tion of Jew­ish iden­ti­ty in the present day and exam­ines both per­son­al and soci­etal per­spec­tives. Klara Hard­en takes an inti­mate approach to the theme of moth­er­hood in WOMAN/​MOTHER which brings to light indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences caught between con­flict­ing social expec­ta­tions.

Three fur­ther works are com­pet­ing in the short film com­pe­ti­tion – and demon­strate the breadth of cin­e­mat­ic approach­es: EVERYTHING WE WANT TO KNOW (D/​S: Julia Ketel­hut, DoP: Julien May­er, P: Julia Ketel­hut, Julien May­er) explores ques­tions of knowl­edge, per­cep­tion and per­son­al ori­en­ta­tion in every­day life. In THE BRACELET (D/​S: Ari­na Cher­no­va, Jer­ri Baza­ta, DoP: Masha Biller, P: Jer­ri Baza­ta, Ari­na Cher­no­va, E: Robert Franz, Ari­na Cher­no­va), a seem­ing­ly small object becomes the start­ing point for a sto­ry about mem­o­ry, rela­tion­ships and hid­den mean­ings. And PROTAGONIST (D/​S: Nathalie Sei­dl, DoP: Ari Salazar, P: Tanya Tsygano­va, E: Celine Jünger) explores iden­ti­ty as a play between per­for­mance and real­i­ty.

Posi­tioned between these for­mats, THE PLANT FROM THE CANARIES (D: Ruan Lan-Xi, DoP: Jonathan Steil) fea­tures in the com­pe­ti­tion for medi­um-length films. Through poet­ic imagery, the film explores migra­tion, belong­ing and the search for iden­ti­ty.

Grad­u­ate pro­duc­tions in the fes­ti­val pro­gramme

Not only cur­rent stu­dents but also DFFB grad­u­ates are shap­ing this year’s pro­gramme: In the fea­ture film com­pe­ti­tion, SOLO SHOW (S: Julia Rose Gostyn­s­ki) is screen­ing, a film about frag­ile self-images and their grad­ual shat­ter­ing. In the medi­um-length for­mat, DIE UNVERZICHTBAREN (D/​S: Flo­ri­an Hoff­mann) turns its gaze towards those whose often invis­i­ble work under­pins the fab­ric of soci­ety. And in the short film DADDY, KOMPLEX (D/​S: Mireya Hei­der de Jahnsen), the focus is on fam­i­ly influ­ences, author­i­ty and emo­tion­al depen­den­cies. The Berlin Spot­lights sec­tion also fea­tures BALANCE (S/​P: Ina-Lene Dinse), which tells the sto­ry of a father-daugh­ter encounter in which close­ness, dis­tance and unspo­ken con­flicts col­lide.

This cre­ates a mul­ti­fac­eted pic­ture of the Academy’s work: doc­u­men­tary and fic­tion­al, focused and exper­i­men­tal – and close­ly linked to the Berlin film scene, which it sig­nif­i­cant­ly shapes.

The DFFB con­grat­u­lates all the film­mak­ers involved on their invi­ta­tion and wish­es the films every suc­cess at the fes­ti­val!