Lec­tur­ers

Michael Baute is an author, lec­tur­er and media work­er from Berlin. He has been teach­ing cours­es and work­shops at uni­ver­si­ties and film schools since 2010 and has been a lec­tur­er in film his­to­ry at the Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin since 2016.

Ralph Eue, born 1953 in Blanken­burg /​ Harz. Stud­ied Ger­man, Romance lan­guages and lit­er­a­ture, polit­i­cal sci­ence and archi­tec­ture. Author, trans­la­tor and cura­tor. Lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vien­na and Berlin Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts (until 2017). Pro­gram­mer of the fes­ti­val DOK Leipzig (until 2021). Lives in Berlin.

Rena­ta Helk­er. Film schol­ar, author, cura­tor. Stud­ied the­ater and film stud­ies, Ger­man stud­ies and phi­los­o­phy at the FU Berlin. Teach­es at the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg KONRAD WOLD, the Berlin Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Film and Tele­vi­sion Munich. Areas of research and work focus: Film and act­ing aes­thet­ics, queer cin­e­ma, film his­to­ry. Lives in Berlin.

Friederike Horstmann writes, teach­es and research­es on art and cin­e­ma.

Jan Küne­mu­nd stud­ied lit­er­a­ture at the Ruhr Uni­ver­si­ty Bochum, has taught film (prac­ti­cal­ly at Salzge­ber, the­o­ret­i­cal­ly at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hildesheim), works as a jour­nal­ist and cura­tor (DOK Leipzig) and does pub­lic rela­tions work for the Gay Muse­um in Berlin.

Johan­na Falti­nat is a dra­maturge and project man­ag­er. She stud­ied Ger­man lan­guage and lit­er­a­ture, biol­o­gy and jour­nal­ism in Leipzig and Oslo. Cul­ture radio MDR. She works for the Fed­er­al Asso­ci­a­tion for Cul­tur­al Edu­ca­tion for Chil­dren and Young Peo­ple and the Acad­e­my for Children’s Media. She is on the board of the Fördervere­in Deutsch­er Kinder­film e.V., found­ed the BÜROS FÜR VIELFÄLTIGES ERZÄHLEN in 2019.

Ellis Free­man was born in Lon­don in 1964. He stud­ied med­ical sci­ence and phi­los­o­phy at Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty. Writer, script con­sul­tant, pro­duc­er who has been com­mis­sioned by the BFI, Chan­nel 4, The Film Coun­cil, Rai (Italy), Fox Search­light and the MEDIA pro­gramme. He co-wrote PRINCESA with Hen­rique Gold­man, which pre­miered at Sun­dance in 2001, and JANUARY 2ND for direc­tor Matt Winn.

Hannes Held, born 1979 in Gelsenkirchen, stud­ied per­form­ing arts at the Berlin Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts and screen­writ­ing at the DFFB, works as a screen­writer and accom­pa­nies authors and direc­tors as a dra­maturge for the BKM.

Cor­nelia Her­mann works as a free­lance dra­maturge, tutor and inter­na­tion­al script con­sul­tant, as a lec­tur­er and review­er for film schools, (inter)national film fund­ing and mate­r­i­al devel­op­ment ini­tia­tives such as the EU Media Pro­gramme, Robert Bosch Stiftung, SFDP Berlin/​Nairobi.

Lena Kam­mer­meier, born 1980 in Regens­burg and grew up in Berlin. Stud­ied screen­writ­ing and dra­matur­gy at the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg KONRAD WOLF and the Film Acad­e­my Vien­na. Screen­writer, dra­maturge and lit­er­ary scout in Berlin.

Klaus Krämer, born 1964 in Gosheim (Swabi­an Alb). Trained as a tech­ni­cal draughts­man. Com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice in Stuttgart. Stage light­ing tech­ni­cian at the Würt­tem­ber­gis­che Lan­des­bühne Esslin­gen. Assis­tant direc­tor at the Städtis­che Büh­nen Freiburg. Stud­ied at the Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin.

Chris­tine Lang (Dr phil.) works in the­o­ry and prac­tice as a film schol­ar, dra­maturge and film­mak­er. She stud­ied cul­tur­al stud­ies at the Hum­boldt Uni­ver­si­ty in Berlin and film direct­ing at the Acad­e­my of Media Arts Cologne. Doc­tor­ate at the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg KONRAD WOLF. 2024 Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor /​ Research Fel­low for Artis­tic Research there. 2017–23 Lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Music and The­atre ‘Mendelssohn Bartholdy’ in Leipzig. Since 2022 she has been giv­ing work­shops for the ZDF/​ZDFNeo edi­to­r­i­al offices. Active in screen­play research; numer­ous pub­li­ca­tions on film and series dra­matur­gy. 2023 pub­lished ‘Under­stand­ing Mul­hol­land Dri­ve. Visu­al sto­ry­telling and the dra­matur­gy of open form’ (tran­script, 2023)

Chris­tiane Lilge is a dra­maturge, author and direc­tor. Under the label lilge­droste film­dra­maturgie she works togeth­er with Willem Droste as a script con­sul­tant. She teach­es screen­writ­ing and script devel­op­ment at var­i­ous uni­ver­si­ties such as the DFFB, Darm­stadt Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences and Babels­berg Film Uni­ver­si­ty. Chris­tiane stud­ied film stud­ies and psy­chol­o­gy at the FU Berlin and film direct­ing at the DFFB. At the same time, she worked as a cast­er and in pro­duc­tion. Her award-win­ning films include MEXICO CITY and SCHWESTER INES.

Petra Lüschow, born in Buchholz/​Nordheide, MA at the FU Berlin and screen­play stud­ies at the HFF Kon­rad Wolf in Babels­berg, author, dra­maturge and direc­tor, lives in Berlin.

Letí­cia Milano, born in Brazil. Jour­nal­ist, author, off-the­atre direc­tor. She stud­ied screen­writ­ing at the DFFB in 1997/​98 and has worked on count­less Ger­man ser­i­al for­mats. Award­ed TOP:Talent at the Berli­nale 2016 for Exposé Wel­come in Ger­many. 2016/​17 schol­ar­ship hold­er at the Acad­e­my for Children’s Media with the Trans­me­dia Project. 2021 Devel­op­ment funding/​film fund­ing Meck­len­burg-Vor­pom­mern with co-author Otana Thiede for the series Der Riss. OFFICE FOR DIVERSE STORYTELLING.

Ruth Olshan was born into a Ukrain­ian-Lithuan­ian fam­i­ly in Moscow and grew up in Israel and Berlin. She stud­ied direct­ing and film pro­duc­tion in Leeds (UK) and Cologne. She lives in Ger­many and works as a writer and direc­tor for fea­ture and doc­u­men­tary films. She has been a pro­fes­sor of direct­ing at the ifs Cologne since 2018 and teach­es at oth­er uni­ver­si­ties in Ger­many and abroad (includ­ing Cisa Locarno, Film Uni­ver­si­ty Pots­dam-Babels­berg, HFF Munich).

Dr Chris­tine Otto has been writ­ing screen­plays for 20 years, prefer­ably series and seri­als (includ­ing the con­cept for the 3rd sea­son of the ARD series CHARITÉ). Cur­rent projects: With Elis­a­beth Her­rmann her 2nd TATORT for Radio Bre­men, with Dr Jakob Hein (psy­chi­a­trist, author) a film about men­tal health, in the Writ­ers’ Room with Mar­tin Rehbock, Ruth Olshan, Ralf Bauer an inter­na­tion­al Holo­caust thriller. Chris­tine has been teach­ing ser­i­al writ­ing for 10 years.

Franz Rodenkirchen, born in 1963, is an inter­na­tion­al script con­sul­tant and lec­tur­er. In addi­tion to indi­vid­ual dra­matur­gi­cal con­sult­ing, he works as a tutor for the Script Sta­tion of Berli­nale Tal­ents, CineLink Sara­je­vo, Mid­point and teach­es at the DFFB and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mal­ta. Script Devel­op­ment Work­shop with Françoise von Roy Script Cir­cle and the Script Con­sult­ing Train­ing Six Days of Prac­tice.

Anna Seifert. Dra­maturge with expe­ri­ence as an exec­u­tive pro­duc­er. Her clients are pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies, fund­ing organ­i­sa­tions and cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als. She runs the Script Devel­op­ment Diplo­ma at the Nation­al Film and Tele­vi­sion School in Lon­don and is a men­tor at the Berlin Tal­ents Short Form Sta­tion. Anna lives in Berlin and the UK.

Jan Wag­n­er, born in Hanover. Direc­tor, dra­maturge and author, grad­u­ate of the Screen­play Acad­e­my at the DFFB and the Master’s pro­gramme in Direct­ing at the Pol­ish State Film School in Lodz/​Poland, lives in Berlin.

Julia Will­mann, born 1973 in Freiburg, stud­ied direct­ing at the DFFB from 1999. Sub­se­quent­ly fea­ture film edi­tor and cre­ative pro­duc­er, since 2010 free­lance film dra­maturge for pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies, auteur film­mak­ers and BKM-fund­ed cin­e­ma projects. Lec­tur­er at the DFFB and oth­er film schools in Ger­many and Switzer­land. Writes prose for chil­dren and adults in par­al­lel to her work in the film indus­try.

Dr Josephine Schröder-Zebral­la, born 1955 in Berlin. Stud­ied Ger­man and Eng­lish lan­guage and lit­er­a­ture at the FU Berlin. From 1983 to 2021 edi­tor in the tele­vi­sion dra­ma depart­ment at SFB/​Rundfunk Berlin-Bran­den­burg for crime films (PETER STROHM and TATORT, among oth­ers). Free­lance dra­maturge since 2021.

Ulrike Zinke stud­ied scenog­ra­phy and media art in Karl­sruhe and was an assis­tant set design­er at the Schaus­piel­haus Bochum before dis­cov­er­ing her pas­sion for screen­writ­ing. She went on to study at the DFFB’s screen­writ­ing acad­e­my. Since 2003, Ulrike Zinke has realised numer­ous tele­vi­sion films, includ­ing DIE FISCHERIN and the cin­e­ma doc­u­men­tary GLÜCKSRITTERINNEN by Kat­ja Fed­ulo­va. She also works as a dra­maturge and trans­la­tor.

Katha­ri­na Bild­hauer, master’s degree at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cologne and Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don, doc­tor­ate at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Giessen, pub­li­ca­tion ‘Drehbuch Reloaded. Nar­ra­tion in the cin­e­ma of the 21st cen­tu­ry’. After work­ing on var­i­ous film sets, in TV stu­dios and pro­duc­tion offices, since 2003 at the Berli­nale (Co-Pro­duc­tion Mar­ket, Berli­nale Tal­ents, WCF), also pitch train­er, men­tor and mod­er­a­tor for inter­na­tion­al programmes/​festivals, DFFB guest lec­tur­er, lives in Berlin.

Sol Bondy, born 1979 in Lon­don. Stud­ied at the DFFB from 2004. Found­ed the film pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny One Two Films in 2010, which spe­cialis­es in inter­na­tion­al co-pro­duc­tions. Suc­cess­es include THE TALE (Sun­dance 2018), HOLY SPIDER (Cannes 2022) and ARMAND (Cannes 2024). Sol is a mem­ber of the Ger­man and Euro­pean Film Acad­e­my and was hon­oured by SCREEN (‘Future Leader’ 2013) and VARIETY (‘Pro­duc­er to Watch, 2018’). He lec­tures at the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg, HFF Munich, FAMU Prague and DFFB, among oth­ers.

Sophie Coc­co, born Stäglich, stud­ied at the HFF KONRAD WOLF and grad­u­at­ed in film and tele­vi­sion pro­duc­tion in 2012 with her high­ly acclaimed diplo­ma film KRIEGERIN (D 2011, dir: David Wendt). Since 2012, Sophie Coc­co has been work­ing as a pro­duc­er, pro­duc­tion man­ag­er and pro­duc­tion con­sul­tant for nation­al and inter­na­tion­al fea­ture films, includ­ing HERBERT and IN DEN GÄNGEN and DIE STILLEN TRABANTEN (D: Thomas Stu­ber), KEIN TIER. SO WILD and BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (D: Burhan Qur­bani).

Ben von Dobe­neck has been with Kom­plizen Film since 2007. From 2008–2012 he stud­ied pro­duc­tion at the DFFB and was simul­ta­ne­ous­ly head of pro­duc­tion at Kom­plizen Film. He com­plet­ed his stud­ies with the fea­ture films STAUB AUF UNSEREN HERZEN (2012, dir: Han­na Doose) and LIMBO (2014, dir: Anna Sofie Hart­mann). Pro­duc­tion man­ag­er since Novem­ber 2012, from April 2017 to 2023 Dobe­neck was Man­ag­ing Direc­tor at Kom­plizen Film togeth­er with Jonas Dorn­bach.

Nicole Ger­hards stud­ied pro­duc­tion at the DFFB in Berlin. With her com­pa­ny NiKo Film (co)-founded in 2006, she has pro­duced 27 inter­na­tion­al and mul­ti­ple award-win­ning films such as YALDA by Mas­soud Bakhshi (Grand Jury Prize — Sun­dance 2020), AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Mak­bul Mubarak (Fipresci Prize Venice — Oriz­zon­ti 2022), MORE THAN EVER by Emi­ly Atef (Un Cer­tain Regard 2022), DÉSERTS by Faouzi Ben­saï­di (QUINZAINES DES CINÉASTES 2023) and THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE by Mo Harawe (Un Cer­tain Regard 2022).

Jochen Hick is a grad­u­ate of the film class at the Hochschule für Bildende Kün­ste Ham­burg and has been work­ing as a writer, direc­tor and pro­duc­er for tele­vi­sion and cin­e­ma for over 30 years. He received the Berli­nale Ted­dy Award in 2003 for ICH KENN KEINEN — ALLEIN UNTER HETEROS. From 2007–2010, Hick worked as edi­tor-in-chief, pro­gramme buy­er and deputy pro­gramme direc­tor for the TV chan­nel TIMM. Hick has also worked as an author and pro­duc­er for var­i­ous doc­u­men­tary and polit­i­cal for­mats for var­i­ous broad­cast­ers. Hick was the found­ing direc­tor of the docfilm42 doc­u­men­tary por­tal.

Alexan­dra Hölz­er has been an inde­pen­dent lawyer at the Hölz­er law firm in Berlin since 2001, spe­cial­is­ing in copy­right and media law, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the film sec­tor. She was also co-legal advi­sor to the Direc­tors’ Asso­ci­a­tion for five years. She teach­es copy­right and media law at the DFFB, the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg, the ISFF Berlin, the Bauhaus Uni­ver­si­ty Weimar and oth­er insti­tu­tions.

Zsuzsan­na Kirà­ly stud­ied com­mu­ni­ca­tion sci­ences in Vien­na and Berlin. From 2009 to 2020 she worked at Kom­plizen Film as Head of Devel­op­ment. Since 2017 she has been pro­duc­ing artis­tic films with her own com­pa­ny Fla­neur Films, e.g. ‘After­wa­ter’ and ‘The Gar­den Cadences’ by Dane Koml­jen, ‘Two Min­utes to Mid­night’ by Yael Bar­tana, and many more. Zsuzsan­na is a mem­ber of ‘Revolver, Zeitschrift für Film’, the com­mit­tee of the South Tyrolean Film Fund and the jury of the Ger­man Short Film Award II.

Nor­bert Klingn­er has been a lawyer since 1998, ini­tial­ly as an in-house lawyer at Bavaria Film, and since 2002 as a part­ner at the law firm SKW Schwarz, spe­cial­is­ing in pro­vid­ing legal advice to pro­duc­ers, film dis­trib­u­tors and film sales agents. He is a guest lec­tur­er at the Munich Film Acad­e­my, the ifs inter­na­tion­al film school in Cologne, the Lud­wigs­burg Film Acad­e­my, the Mainz Media Insti­tute, the DFFB and co-author of the film law hand­book.

Susanne Mann, born 1979 in Dres­den, lived in Eng­land. Lives in Berlin, stud­ied pro­duc­tion at the DFFB, since 2000 stud­ied gen­er­al lin­guis­tics and com­mu­ni­ca­tion sci­ences. Pro­duc­er and man­ag­ing direc­tor at zis­chler­mann film­pro­duk­tion in Berlin and Lübeck since 2009. Pro­duc­tion assis­tant, dia­logue coach, film and fes­ti­val coor­di­na­tor, pro­duc­tion man­ag­er and pro­duc­er in Ger­many and abroad.

Rox­ana Richters, born 1989 in Bre­men, BA in Film and The­atre Stud­ies at the Free Uni­ver­si­ty of Berlin /​ Trin­i­ty Col­lege Dublin and stud­ied Film Pro­duc­tion at the DFFB, film pro­duc­er, lives and works in Berlin.

Jami­la Wenske has been man­ag­ing part­ner and pro­duc­er of Achtung Pan­da! Media GmbH. She reg­u­lar­ly teach­es at the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Pots­dam-Babels­berg, the Fil­makademie Lud­wigs­burg and the DFFB, where she advis­es young pro­duc­ers as a men­tor as part of the VGF Pro­duc­ers Pro­gramme. She is a mem­ber of the Inde­pen­dent Pro­duc­ers Asso­ci­a­tion, the EFA and the DFA.

Paul Zis­chler, born 1981 in Berlin, stud­ied at the DFFB, pro­duc­er for com­mer­cials and image films, before found­ing zis­chler­mann film­pro­duk­tion in Berlin and Lübeck togeth­er with Susanne Mann in 2009. He also works as a free­lance pro­duc­tion manager/​line pro­duc­er. zis­chler­mann film­pro­duk­tion pri­mar­i­ly pro­duces inter­na­tion­al fea­ture film projects and doc­u­men­taries. Fes­ti­vals & awards at the Berli­nale, Sun­dance, Venice, Toron­to, Locarno, IDFA, etc. Nom­i­nat­ed for the Euro­pean and Ger­man Film Awards and win­ner of the Inter­na­tion­al Emmy.

Ute Aurand, born 1957 in Frankfurt/​Main, DFFB 1979–85; own films since 1985, lives and works in Berlin.

Lisa Bier­wirth, born 1983 in Hes­sisch Licht­e­nau. Stud­ied direct­ing at the DFFB. 2013–2016 artis­tic assis­tant and dra­matur­gi­cal advi­sor to Vales­ka Grise­bach. Her debut film LE PRINCE pre­miered in com­pe­ti­tion at the Karlovy Vary Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val 2021. She lives and works in Berlin.

Maria Tere­sa Camoglio, born in Sas­sari, Sar­dinia /​ Italy. Stud­ied graph­ics and pho­tog­ra­phy at the Sas­sari Art Insti­tute and direct­ing at the DFFB. Direc­tor, author and pro­duc­er of numer­ous fea­ture and doc­u­men­tary films, most recent­ly DIE DÜNNEN MÄDCHEN and CHOICE. Camoglio lives in Berlin.

Han­na Doose, born 1979 in Cologne, stud­ied direct­ing at the DFFB, author and direc­tor, lives in Berlin. She received the Förder­preis Neues Deutsches Kino with her grad­u­a­tion film STAUB AUF UNSEREN HERZEN (2012), her last film WANN KOMMST DU MEINE WUNDEN KÜSSEN received the Audi­ence Award at Film­fest München 2022.

Tebo­ho Edkins, born in 1980 in Ten­nessee (USA), grew up in south­ern Africa and lives and works in Berlin. He stud­ied Fine Arts at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cape Town, South Africa, and Film at Le Fres­noy, Stu­dio Nation­al des Arts Con­tem­po­rains in France. This was fol­lowed by a degree in direct­ing at the DFFB in 2006. Tebo­ho Edkins’ doc­u­men­tary films have been shown at many fes­ti­vals, in group and solo exhi­bi­tions, includ­ing the Cen­tre Pom­pi­dou, Tate Mod­ern, Muse­um of Mod­ern Art as well as the Berli­nale, the Inter­na­tion­al Short Film Fes­ti­val Ober­hausen and the Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val in Rot­ter­dam.

Nana Ekv­timishvili, born 1978 in Tbil­isi, Geor­gia. Stud­ied phi­los­o­phy and jour­nal­ism in Tbil­isi. Stud­ied screen­writ­ing at the HFF Kon­rad Wolf Pots­dam-Babels­berg. Direc­tor and writer. Lives in Berlin.

Vales­ka Grise­bach, born in 1968, is a Ger­man film direc­tor. After study­ing Ger­man and phi­los­o­phy in Berlin, Munich and Vien­na, she began study­ing film in Vien­na. Her grad­u­a­tion film MEIN STERN was nom­i­nat­ed for the Adolf Grimme Award in 2002 and won the Crit­ics’ Award at the Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val as well as the main prize at the Tori­no Film Fes­ti­val. In 2006, she pre­sent­ed her sec­ond fea­ture film SEHNSUCHT in com­pe­ti­tion at the Berlin Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val.

Lil­ly Grote, born in Bad Ben­theim /​ Low­er Sax­ony. 1970–1975 Stud­ied paint­ing and art as a teacher at the Hochschule für Bildende Kün­ste in Kas­sel. 1975–1977 Sec­ond state exam­i­na­tion in Frank­furt am Main. Works as a free­lance pho­tog­ra­ph­er. 1977 Stud­ies at the DFFB. 1982 grad­u­a­tion film ODER WAS SONST NOCH GESCHAH. Lil­ly Grote lives and works in Berlin as a direc­tor, artist and film sound recordist.

Carl Hege­mann, born 1949 in Pader­born. 1969–1978 stud­ied phi­los­o­phy, soci­ol­o­gy and lit­er­a­ture in Frank­furt am Main. 1996 — 1998 worked in the director’s office of the Berlin­er Ensem­ble. 1992 — 2017 at the VOLKSBÜHNE in Berlin, where he devel­oped for­ma­tive work­ing rela­tion­ships with the direc­tors Frank Cas­torf, Christoph Schlin­gen­sief, René Pollesch, Her­bert Fritsch, the set design­er Bert Neu­mann and the philoso­phers and cul­tur­al the­o­rists Slavoy Zizek, Boris Groys, Navid Ker­mani and Christoph Menke.

Susanne Hein­rich, who grew up in East Ger­many, wrote four books between the ages of 19 and 25 and received numer­ous awards for her lit­er­ary work, includ­ing the Inge­borg Bach­mann Prize, res­i­den­cy schol­ar­ships at Vil­la Auro­ra Los Ange­les, Casa Bal­di Ole­vano Romano and Schloss Soli­tude Stuttgart. From 2012–2019 she stud­ied direct­ing at the DFFB. Her grad­u­a­tion film DAS MELANCHOLISCHE MÄDCHEN won the Max Ophüls Award for Best Film in 2019. Hein­rich lives with her daugh­ter in Leipzig.

Athana­sios Karaniko­las, born 1967 in Thes­sa­loni­ki /​ Greece, Applied Sci­ence Degree in Pho­tog­ra­phy, Par­sons School NY, Acad­e­my Diplo­ma from the Kun­stakademie Düs­sel­dorf, and Direct­ing Diplo­ma from the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg KONRAD WOLF, Post-Grad­u­ate Degree in High­er Aca­d­e­m­ic Edu­ca­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of West Lon­don, direc­tor and writer, lives in Berlin.

Fred Kele­men. After study­ing music and paint­ing, as well as phi­los­o­phy, com­par­a­tive reli­gious stud­ies and the­atre and film stud­ies, Fred Kele­men stud­ied direct­ing and cin­e­matog­ra­phy at the DFFB. Since then, he has worked as a direc­tor and screen­writer on fea­ture films that have won awards world­wide (e.g. the Ger­man Film Prize), as well as a cam­era­man on fea­ture and doc­u­men­tary films both nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly. He has also direct­ed pro­duc­tions at Ger­man the­atres and pro­duced fea­ture films and doc­u­men­taries inter­na­tion­al­ly. Since 1995, lec­tures, lec­ture­ships and pro­fes­sor­ships at film schools and art acad­e­mies in Ger­many and world­wide. Mem­ber of the Acad­e­my of Motion Pic­ture Arts and Sci­ences (AMPAS) /​ USA and the Ger­man Film Acad­e­my, among oth­ers.

Réka Kinc­ses was born in Tran­syl­va­nia, Roma­nia, as part of the Hun­gar­i­an minor­i­ty. She is a film and the­atre direc­tor. She usu­al­ly writes her own texts and has com­plet­ed many years of ther­a­peu­tic train­ing. She lives and works in Berlin and Bran­den­burg as well as in Budapest and Tran­syl­va­nia.

Anna Koch stud­ied direct­ing at the DFFB until 2016. Since then she has worked as a direct­ing duo with Julia Lemke.

Michael Koch, born 1982 in Lucerne /​ Switzer­land. 2003- 2008 he stud­ied at the Acad­e­my of Media Arts Cologne, direc­tor and author for the­atre and film. MARIJA, his debut cel­e­brat­ed its pre­miere at the Locarno Film Fes­ti­val in 2016. His sec­ond fea­ture film DRII WINTER (A Piece Of Sky) was invit­ed to the com­pe­ti­tion of the BERLINALE and hon­oured with a Spe­cial Men­tion. He lives and works in Berlin and Basel.

Julia Lang­hof, born 1981 in Berlin. 2001–2003 stud­ied act­ing at San­ford Meisner’s Neigh­bour­hood Play­house School of the The­atre, New York. Assis­tant direc­tor at the the­atre. 2006 Stud­ied direct­ing at the DFFB. Cin­e­ma debut with LOMO — THE LANGUAGE OF MANY OTHERS (pro­duc­tion: Flare Film), hon­oured with the Förder­preis Neues Deutsches Kino, First Steps Awards, the Bay­erisch­er Film­preis, nom­i­nat­ed for best fea­ture film at the Stu­dio Ham­burg Nach­wuch­spreis, First Steps Award, among oth­ers. In 2021 Julia Lang­hof is shoot­ing the crime scene UNTEN IM TAL and is work­ing on SHIP OF FOOLS (AT) with Flare Enter­tain­ment.

Max Linz is an author and direc­tor. Stud­ied phi­los­o­phy and film stud­ies at the Freie Uni­ver­sität Berlin and the Sor­bonne Nou­velle Paris 3 as well as film direct­ing at the DFFB. 2019–2021 guest pro­fes­sor for stage space at the UdK Berlin; cin­e­ma films: L’ÉTAT ET MOI — DER STAAT UND ICH (D 2022); WEITERMACHEN SANSSOUCI (D 2019); ICH WILL MICH NICHT KÜNSTLICH AUFREGEN (D 2014).

Katin­ka Nar­jes, born 1982 in Frank­furt /​ Main, BA Media Cul­ture with a focus on Film and Tele­vi­sion Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ham­burg, stud­ied direct­ing at the DFFB, film­mak­er, films (selec­tion): XXO, PORZELLAN, HISTERIA, NIXEN, lives in Berlin.

Ayşe Polat, born 1970 in Malatya, grew up in Ham­burg, self-taught screen­writer, direc­tor and pro­duc­er, lives in Berlin. Her last fea­ture film IM TOTEN WINKEL (2023) won the Ger­man Film Award in bronze in 2024.

Aslı Özge born 1975 in Istan­bul, stud­ied direct­ing at Mar­mara Uni­ver­si­ty Film Acad­e­my, lives in Berlin. Her fea­ture film debut MEN ON THE BRIDGE pre­miered at the Locarno and Toron­to film fes­ti­vals and was award­ed Best Film at var­i­ous fes­ti­vals. Özge wrote and direct­ed LIFELONG in 2013 and her first Ger­man-lan­guage film AUF EINMAL in 2016, both of which pre­miered at the Berli­nale Panora­ma. In 2023, her film BLACK BOX opened the New Ger­man Cin­e­ma sec­tion at the Munich Fes­ti­val and won the Best Screen­play Award at the Rome Film Fes­ti­val. Her lat­est film FARUK pre­miered in 2024 in the Berli­nale Panora­ma and won the Fipresci Award.

Isabelle Stev­er, born 1963, 1994 Diplo­ma in Math­e­mat­ics. 2002 Diplo­ma in direct­ing at the DFFB. Her debut film GISELA pre­miered at the 2005 Locarno Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val. In 2009 she con­tributed a short film to DEUTSCHLAND 09. The omnibus film, realised by the ‘Ger­man direct­ing elite’ accord­ing to ‘Der Spiegel’, pre­mieres in com­pe­ti­tion at the Berli­nale. 2010 GLÜCKLICHE FÜGUNG pre­mieres at the Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val, 2016 THE WEATHER IN CLOSED SPACES (dra­matur­gy Harun Faroc­ki) is shown at the Busan Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val, among oth­ers, and wins the awards for Best Per­for­mance and Best Sto­ry at the 2morrow Film Fes­ti­val. 2022 GRAND JETÉ pre­mieres in the Panora­ma of the Berlin Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val 2023 she was appoint­ed to the jury of the Berli­nale Shorts. Isabelle Stev­er lives in Berlin, works as a direc­tor and writer, and has also been a free­lance lec­tur­er at the Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin since 2006.

Andres Veiel, born in Stuttgart in 1959, is a film and the­atre direc­tor and writer. Veiel, whose works often address the back­grounds and con­texts of bio­graph­i­cal and his­tor­i­cal vio­lence and oper­ate on the bor­der­line between fic­tion and real­i­ty, is regard­ed as one of the most promi­nent rep­re­sen­ta­tives of polit­i­cal­ly com­mit­ted art. A spe­cial fea­ture of Veiel’s work­ing method is the inten­sive, some­times mul­ti-year research that forms the basis for his projects. Andres Veiel lives in Berlin.

Nico­las Wacker­barth, born in 1973, is a film­mak­er, author and co-edi­tor of the film mag­a­zine REVOLVER. After study­ing at the DFFB, he made sev­er­al fea­ture films, most recent­ly CASTING (2017, Berli­nale Forum). Like his oth­er films HALBSCHATTEN (2013, Berli­nale Forum) and UNTEN MITTE KINN (2011, Munich Film Fes­ti­val), it was shown at inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals world­wide. Nico­las Wacker­barth teach­es at art and film schools and was a guest pro­fes­sor in the Nar­ra­tive Film class at the Berlin Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts. After train­ing as an actor, he appeared on stage at the Schaus­piel­haus Frank­furt and the Städtis­che Büh­nen Köln (1997–2000 ensem­ble mem­ber).

Chris Wright is a free­lance doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er, edi­tor and edit­ing con­sul­tant for doc­u­men­taries and fea­ture films. He comes from the north of Eng­land, stud­ied in Cam­bridge and at the KONRAD WOLF Film Acad­e­my in Pots­dam-Babels­berg and has lived in Berlin since the mid-1990s. Since then he has been shoot­ing togeth­er with Ste­fan Kolbe — their last film was ANMASSUNG (2021, Berli­nale Forum). He edit­ed Salomé Jashi’s TAMING THE GARDEN (Sun­dance, Berli­nale Forum 2021) and Thomas Heise’s HEIMAT IST EIN RAUM AUS ZEIT (Berli­nale Forum 2019, awards world­wide), among oth­ers. In 2020 he was nom­i­nat­ed for the VG Bild­kun­st edit­ing prize.

Frank Amann, born 1961 in Wies­baden, master’s degree at the Johann-Wolf­gang-Goethe-Uni­ver­si­ty Frank­furt am Main and cam­era stud­ies at the DFFB and NFTS Lon­don, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er — DOP, lives in Berlin.

Michael Bertl, born 1963 in Weil­heim, stud­ied archi­tec­ture in Munich Berlin, grad­u­at­ed as an archi­tect, stud­ied at the DFFB, mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Cin­e­matog­ra­phers and the Euro­pean Film Acad­e­my. Author, pro­duc­er, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er, lec­tur­er in cin­e­matog­ra­phy at the DFFB since 2011. Over 30 fea­ture and doc­u­men­tary films, nom­i­nat­ed for the Ger­man Film Award 2014 Best Cin­e­matog­ra­phy MR MORGANS LAST LOVE.

Isabelle Casez, born 1964 in France. Bachelor’s degree in Sor­bonne Nou­velle Film and Lit­er­a­ture, Master’s degree in Ecole Nationale Louis Lumière, DOP. Lives in Berlin.

Julia Daschn­er, born 1980 in Munich. Image design­er. Stud­ied Audio­vi­su­al Media at the Acad­e­my of Media Arts Cologne. Lives in Berlin and Munich.

Sebas­t­ian Edschmid was born in Darm­stadt and stud­ied at the DFFB in 1992. He is a free­lance cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er and has worked on SAUERKRAUTKOMME (2018), MÄNNERTREU (2014) and TEUFELSBRATEN (2009), among oth­ers, and has received numer­ous Grimme Awards.

Emre Erk­men, born 1975 in Istan­bul. Stud­ied cin­e­matog­ra­phy at the DFFB, image design­er, lives in Berlin. He has made sev­er­al films and series with Asli Özge, includ­ing FARUK (2024), BLACK BOX (2022) and DUNKELSTADT (ZDF series 2020).

Hans Fromm was born in Munich in 1961 and has been work­ing as a cam­era­man (DOP) since 1987. He has designed the images for numer­ous award-win­ning fea­ture and tele­vi­sion films, includ­ing all of Chris­t­ian Petzold’s fea­ture films since grad­u­at­ing in film at the DFFB in 1993/​4.

Alexan­der Ghe­o­rghiu, born 1974 in Bucharest, grad­u­at­ed in cin­e­matog­ra­phy at the HFF Kon­rad Wolf in Pots­dam Babels­berg and stud­ied pho­tog­ra­phy at the Ecole Nationale Louis Lumière in Paris. Cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er and pho­tog­ra­ph­er, lives in Berlin and Leipzig.

Bir­git Gud­jons­dot­tir, born 1962 in Reyk­javik, Ice­land. Stud­ied at the Graphis­che Lehr- und Ver­such­sanstalt in Vien­na, pho­tog­ra­phy depart­ment. DOP since 1991. Lives in Berlin and Ice­land.

Andreas Köfer was born in Berlin, stud­ied cin­e­matog­ra­phy at the Babels­berg Film Uni­ver­si­ty from 1968 to 1972, mas­ter stu­dent from 1975 to 1978, cam­era­man at the DEFA Stu­dio for Fea­ture Films until 1990, free­lance cam­era­man since 1991, DoP on over sev­en­ty fea­ture and doc­u­men­tary films, three years as guest pro­fes­sor at the Babels­berg Film Uni­ver­si­ty, free­lance lec­tur­er at the DFFB since 1993, lives in Nieder­lausitz and Berlin.

Michael Kotschi, born in Wein­heim in 1974 and has almost always lived in Berlin, after train­ing as a car­pen­ter and work­ing as an archi­tec­tur­al pho­tog­ra­ph­er, stud­ied at the DFFB, Direc­tor of Pho­tog­ra­phy since 2003.

Julia Lemke stud­ied cin­e­matog­ra­phy at the DFFB until 2016. Since then she has worked as a free­lance cam­er­a­woman and as a direct­ing duo with Anna Koch.

Dirk Meier, BVK CSI, co-founder of the com­pa­ny director’s friend, which enabled and super­vised the dig­i­tal record­ing of the one-take fea­ture film RUSSIAN ARK by Alek­sander Sokurov in 2001. Since 2005 col­orist for com­pa­nies in Ger­many and abroad, includ­ing ANTICHRIST, A FANTASTIC WOMAN, HAPPY AS LAZZARO and ABOUT ENDLESSNESS. Since 1998, he has taught at Ger­man and Scan­di­na­vian film schools, fur­ther edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions and at the Berli­nale Tal­ents. From 2015–2019, he designed and direct­ed UP.GRADE, the world’s first full-time train­ing pro­gram for col­orists at the DFFB.

Jut­ta Pohlmann, 1991–1996 stud­ied cin­e­matog­ra­phy and direct­ing at the Acad­e­my of Dra­ma and Film in Budapest, Hun­gary. Since 1995 cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er for fea­ture films, TV films, com­mer­cials, music videos and exhi­bi­tion films for artists. She has received sev­er­al awards for her work. Jut­ta Pohlmann teach­es at var­i­ous film schools. Pro­fes­sor of Fea­ture Film Cin­e­matog­ra­phy at the Inter­na­tion­al Film School (IFS) in Cologne since the begin­ning of 2020. She lives in Berlin.

Car­men Tre­ichl, born 1985 in Tyrol/​Austria, master’s degree in Mul­ti Media Art at the FH Salzburg and cam­era stud­ies at the DFFB, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er for fea­ture films and doc­u­men­taries, lives in Berlin and Tyrol.

Rali Raltchev, born 1957 in Bul­gar­ia, stud­ied cin­e­matog­ra­phy at the Nation­al Film and The­ater Acad­e­my Sofia, 1977–1982, Direc­tor of Pho­tog­ra­phy since 1985, over 40 fea­ture and doc­u­men­tary films. He has also worked as a lec­tur­er since 1995. Lives in Sofia.

Jen­ny Lou Ziegel, born 1979 in Frank­furt /​ Main, CAMERA stud­ies at the DFFB until 2011, since then works as a free­lance image design­er. She lives in Berlin.

Hannes Bru­un works as a free­lance film edi­tor in Berlin. He was born in Mün­ster in 1985 and stud­ied at the Baden-Würt­tem­berg Film Acad­e­my. The fea­ture and doc­u­men­tary films he has edit­ed have won awards at numer­ous fes­ti­vals, includ­ing Venice, Locarno and Berlin. For THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN he was award­ed “Best Artis­tic Edit­ing Fea­ture Film” at the Diag­o­nale 2020. He is a mem­ber of the Ger­man Fed­er­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Film Edi­tors, the Ger­man Film Acad­e­my and the Euro­pean Film Acad­e­my.

Juan Gal­va, born 1987 in Gali­cia, Spain. After com­plet­ing his Bach­e­lor in Audio­vi­su­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of San­ti­a­go de Com­postela, he worked as an Avid Edi­tor, VFX Artist and Col­orist. He cur­rent­ly lives in Berlin and works as a post-pro­duc­tion super­vi­sor at Match Fac­to­ry Pro­duc­tions.

John Gürtler lives in Berlin. Com­pos­er for film music. Sound­tracks, elec­tron­ic music, songs and orches­tral works. Ger­man Film Music Award 2014, DOK.fest Munich 2015, the Camille Award 2021, Euro­pean Film Award 2019 for SYSTEMSPRENGER (dir: Nora Fin­gschei­dt). Free­lance lec­tur­er at the Fil­makademie Baden-Würt­tem­berg, the Fil­mu­ni­ver­sität Babels­berg KONRAD WOLF and the DFFB.

Eti­enne Haug is a French sound engi­neer based in Berlin. He start­ed work­ing with set sound in 2007 after grad­u­at­ing from ENSLL Nation­al Film School with a Master’s degree in sound — spe­cial­iz­ing in sur­round sound. He has assist­ed on world-renowned films such as Ter­rence Malick’s A HIDDEN LIFE (2018), Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Palme d’or win­ning WINTER SLEEP (2013) and THE WILD PEAR TREE (2018), Maria Schrader’s UNORTHODOX (2020). With this sol­id expe­ri­ence, he then worked as a sound mix­er on inter­na­tion­al films such as ZEITVERBRECHEN (2023) from Para­mount.

Mar­tin Herold is a free­lance film edi­tor in Berlin. He stud­ied edit­ing at the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg KONRAD WOLF. He edit­ed films such as SOMMERREBELLEN (2020), ICH, ICH, ICH (2021) and SAM, EIN SACHSE, DIE DOKU (2023).

Jan­i­na Her­hof­fer, born in Hei­del­berg, com­plet­ed fur­ther train­ing in edit­ing at the IFS. Stud­ied edit­ing at the HFF Pots­dam until 2009. Grad­u­a­tion film & direc­tor ES SIND NOCH BERGE DRAUßEN pre­miere at the Duis­burg­er Film­woche. FREIE ZEITEN, direc­tor Pre­miere 2015 in the Forum of the BERLINALE. She has been work­ing as a free­lance edi­tor and dra­matur­gi­cal con­sul­tant since 2001.

Niklas Kam­mertöns, born 1978 in Bonn. In 2000 he stud­ied sound engi­neer­ing at the SAE Berlin and has since worked as a free­lance sound design­er and sound engi­neer in the fields of film, music and con­sumer elec­tron­ics.

Car­lot­ta Kit­tel works as a free­lance film edi­tor, film­mak­er and mon­tage lec­tur­er in Berlin. She stud­ied edit­ing at the Babels­berg Film Uni­ver­si­ty. Kit­tel teach­es as a free­lance lec­tur­er at var­i­ous Ger­man film schools, includ­ing the DFFB, the HFF Munich, the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hildesheim. From 2020–24 she was a mem­ber of the board of the Fed­er­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Film Edi­tors (BFS). She is also a mem­ber of AG DOK, the Pro­Quote Film asso­ci­a­tion and the Ger­man Film Acad­e­my.

Ulla Kösterke, born 1956 in Mönchenglad­bach. Stud­ied jour­nal­ism, Ger­man stud­ies and soci­ol­o­gy at the Free Uni­ver­si­ty of Berlin, from 1983 she stud­ied at the DFFB, where she spe­cial­ized in sound. Since 1989 she has been a sound recordist and has record­ed the sound for well over 100 pro­duc­tions all over the world. Many of her pro­duc­tions have won prizes at fes­ti­vals, received Grimme awards or nom­i­na­tions for the Ger­man or Euro­pean Film Awards. Ulla Kösterke teach­es at the DFFB and the Met Film School Berlin, among oth­ers. She is a mem­ber of the Deutsche Fil­makademie e.V., VDT e.V., Pro­Quote­Film e.V. and Film­ton­frauen e.V.

Cem Bahadir Mete, born 1976 in Berlin. Direc­tor, cam­era­man, col­orist and edi­tor for var­i­ous doc­u­men­taries, short films, music videos and con­cert record­ings. He also works as a media train­er at the Schnitt-Akademie and Deutsche Welle, among oth­ers.

Sab­ri­na Nau­mann com­plet­ed her first intern­ship at Babels­berg Film Stu­dios in 1999. She then worked first as a Foley edi­tor and then, after anoth­er intern­ship, as a free­lance dia­log edi­tor. After a few brief detours into sound design, she decid­ed rel­a­tive­ly quick­ly to spe­cial­ize in orig­i­nal sound and ADR edit­ing. Over the years, she gained a lot of expe­ri­ence. Since the end of 2012, she has been work­ing as a per­ma­nent employ­ee at The Post Repub­lic and as a guest lec­tur­er at the DFFB.

Han­nah Schwegel, mon­tage artist, M.A. Jew­ish Stud­ies, Phi­los­o­phy and Mod­ern His­to­ry, she stud­ied for sev­er­al years at the Hebrew Uni­ver­si­ty in Jerusalem. This was fol­lowed by film col­lab­o­ra­tions, includ­ing with the action artist John Bock. Her works have been shown in New York, Vien­na and many oth­er places. Cin­e­ma for­mats edit­ed by her have been shown in San Sebas­t­ian, Shang­hai and at the Berli­nale. As a sub­sti­tute pro­fes­sor, she taught film design at the Hanover Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences and Arts and for the Euro­pean Mas­ter­class Mon­tage at the FAMU in Prague. She has been teach­ing at the DFFB for sev­er­al years.

Ben­jamin Simon, born 1984 in Eich­stätt. Stud­ied sound and image tech­nol­o­gy at the Robert-Schu­mann-Hochschule and the FH Düs­sel­dorf. Film sound engi­neer and boom oper­a­tor for fea­ture films and doc­u­men­taries.

Mau­r­iz­ius Staerkle Drux is a Ger­man-Swiss dual cit­i­zen born in Cologne in 1988. He works as a free­lance sound design­er (EUROPE SHE LOVES by Jan Gassmann, MARIJA by Michael Koch or CHERRY PIE by Lorenz Merz and many more), as a film­mak­er (DIE BÖHMS, DIE KUNST DER STILLE) and co-founder of the pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny Ensem­ble Film GmbH (DIE ANHÖRUNG by Lisa Gerig, LOVING HIGHSMITH by Eva Viti­ja). He shares his pas­sion for film­mak­ing as a lec­tur­er at the Zurich Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts. He is a mem­ber of the Swiss and Euro­pean Film Acad­e­my and lives with his fam­i­ly in Zurich.

Niko Remus, born 1966 in Baden-Baden. Stud­ied the­ater, film and tele­vi­sion stud­ies in Cologne. Cur­rent pro­fes­sions: Post-Pro­duc­tion Super­vi­sor, Cologne /​ Head of Stud­ies for APos­t­Lab, Ams­ter­dam.

Moritz Peters has been work­ing in film post-pro­duc­tion since 1990. He has worked on films such as DIE MACHT DER BILDER/​ LENI RIEFENSTAHL as assis­tant edi­tor and GOOD BYE LENIN as VFX com­pos­i­tor. He has been work­ing as a col­orist since 2004. He was involved in films such as PINA, HILDE, FATHERS&SONS, BEYOND PUNISHMENT and LEBEN NACH BUTSCHA. Lives in Berlin.

Patrick Veigel, born 1976, film sound engi­neer for fea­ture films and doc­u­men­taries. Most recent­ly he worked on UNORTHODOX (2019), WIR SIND DANN WOHL DIE ANGEHÖRIGEN (2021) and EXIT (2019). He reg­u­lar­ly teach­es set sound at the DFFB.