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.

Madeleine Bern­storff works as a cura­tor of film programs—often in collaboration—as well as an author, lec­tur­er, cul­tur­al pro­duc­er, and Super 8 film­mak­er. Since Jan­u­ary 2025, she has been the Artis­tic Direc­tor of the Inter­na­tion­al Short Film Fes­ti­val Ober­hausen.

Esther Buss is a film crit­ic based in Berlin. In 2025, her book From the First Per­son: Filmic Auto­bi­ogra­phies /​ Aut­ofic­tion was pub­lished.

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.

Sul­gi Lie, born in 1977, is a film schol­ar and the­o­rist who teach­es in the Depart­ment of Film and Media Stud­ies at Bauhaus Uni­ver­si­ty Weimar.

Markus Nech­le­ba, born in 1966, stud­ied phi­los­o­phy and at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tele­vi­sion and Film Munich. He has been teach­ing film his­to­ry, aes­thet­ics, and the­o­ry since 2002. Most recent­ly, he co-edit­ed the writ­ings of Huillet/​Straub. He lives in Berlin.

Judith Anger­bauer has been writ­ing screen­plays for 20 years, includ­ing as co-author of DER FREIE WILLE. She went on to write for TATORT, col­lab­o­rat­ing with direc­tors Edward Berg­er and Lars Kraume. Togeth­er with Kraume, she cre­at­ed the series DIE NEUE ZEIT. Anger­bauer has worked for the inter­na­tion­al series depart­ment of Bavaria Fic­tion, writ­ten scripts for DAS BOOT, served as head writer for the ZDF­neo series WAS WIR FÜRCHTEN, and con­tributed to UNCIVILIZED. Her fea­ture direc­to­r­i­al debut, SABBATICAL, had its world pre­miere at the 2024 Munich Film Fes­ti­val.

Sina Ataeian Dena, born in 1983 in Ahvaz, Iran, is an Iran­ian-Ger­man inter­dis­ci­pli­nary artist, direc­tor, screen­writer, and film pro­duc­er.

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.

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.

Flo­ri­an Plumey­er, screen­writer, was born in 1983 in Hanover. He stud­ied The­atre and Media Stud­ies in Erlan­gen and Athens, com­plet­ed a Master’s in Ethics of Text Cul­tures, and stud­ied Screen­writ­ing at the Ger­man Film and Tele­vi­sion Acad­e­my Berlin (DFFB). He lives in Berlin. Select­ed films include UNGEDULD DES HERZENS (2025, dir. Lau­ro Cress), BIS ANS ENDE DER NACHT (2023, dir. Christoph Hochhäusler), and ALLE WOLLEN GELIEBT WERDEN (2022, dir. Katha­ri­na Woll).

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.

Françoise von Roy lives in Berlin and works inter­na­tion­al­ly as a dra­maturg for a wide range of films, includ­ing genre, exper­i­men­tal, doc­u­men­tary, and art cin­e­ma. In addi­tion to advis­ing indi­vid­ual pro­duc­tions, she co-hosts the bi-month­ly work­shop Script Cir­cle in Berlin for writ­ers and film­mak­ers, togeth­er with Franz Rodenkirchen.

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.

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.

Susanne Bieger is a dra­maturge with many years of inter­na­tion­al expe­ri­ence in the film and tele­vi­sion indus­try in Berlin and Los Ange­les, as well as co-direc­tor of the Around the World in 14 Films fes­ti­val in Berlin. Her pro­fes­sion­al focus includes sto­ry devel­op­ment and script con­sult­ing, the con­cep­tion and orga­ni­za­tion of film fes­ti­vals, cura­tion and pro­gram­ming, as well as the devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of impact cam­paigns. She reg­u­lar­ly col­lab­o­rates with renowned pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies and film dis­trib­u­tors, is a mem­ber of var­i­ous selec­tion com­mit­tees, and teach­es at lead­ing film schools.

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.

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).

Luise Hauschild, while still study­ing at the DFFB, found­ed the pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny New Mat­ter Films togeth­er with Mari­am Shat­berashvili in 2020, based in Berlin and Leipzig. Their films have been screened and award­ed at the world’s most pres­ti­gious A‑list fes­ti­vals. These include the grad­u­a­tion films WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY? by Alexan­dre Koberidze (Berli­nale Com­pe­ti­tion 2021, FIPRESCI Prize) and TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER by Anni­ka Pinske (Berli­nale Panora­ma 2022). They are cur­rent­ly work­ing on new fea­ture films by Alexan­dre Koberidze, Anni­ka Pinske, Katha­ri­na Wyss, Vales­ka Grise­bach, Luise Don­schen, Katin­ka Nar­jes, Oliv­er Grüt­tner, Cyrill Schäublin, Tat­jana Kononenko, and Faraz Fes­hara­ki.

Vera Herchen­bach has worked for over twen­ty years in film acqui­si­tion and edi­to­r­i­al con­sult­ing for var­i­ous dis­trib­u­tors in the UK and the USA. For the past four­teen years, she has been with the Mel­bourne-based film dis­trib­u­tor Mad­man Enter­tain­ment. In addi­tion to inter­na­tion­al and nation­al fea­ture films, Mad­man focus­es on doc­u­men­taries. Its in-house SVOD plat­form Doc­Play exclu­sive­ly presents nation­al and inter­na­tion­al doc­u­men­tary films and series. Vera is a part­ner at Wolf Kino Berlin.

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.

Car­o­line Kir­berg has been work­ing for over 15 years as an inde­pen­dent pro­duc­er of artis­tic films. She pur­sues her inter­est in hybrid forms between art and film, as well as doc­u­men­tary and fic­tion, through pong and in col­lab­o­ra­tion with film artists such as Dani Gal, Stephan Geene, Claris­sa Thieme, and Clemens von Wede­mey­er under the label Kir­berg Motors. She has taught at the DFFB and the UdK Berlin, among oth­ers, and is a found­ing mem­ber of the film pol­i­cy asso­ci­a­tion Hauptver­band Cinephilie (HVC). With­in the pong team, she serves as man­ag­ing direc­tor and lead pro­duc­er for fic­tion and doc­u­men­tary projects, project devel­op­ment, and dra­matur­gy.

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.

Kir­ill Krasovs­ki, born in 1982 in the USSR, stud­ied pro­duc­tion at the DFFB, grad­u­at­ing in 2014 with A PROLETARIAN WINTER’S TALE (D: Julian Radl­maier). With his own com­pa­ny fak­tu­ra film, he pro­duced, among oth­ers, Radlmaier’s grad­u­a­tion film SELF CRITICISM OF A BOURGEOIS DOG (world pre­miere 2017 in Rot­ter­dam and at the Berli­nale). In 2023, Krasovs­ki pro­duced MUSIC by Angela Schan­elec, which pre­miered in com­pe­ti­tion at the Berli­nale. In 2022, he found­ed the pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny Blue Mon­ti­co­la Film based in Magde­burg. PHANTOMS OF JULY by Julian Radl­maier pre­miered in the com­pe­ti­tion of the 2025 Locarno Film Fes­ti­val.

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.

Lasse Scharp­en did his first intern­ship in Los Ange­les, assist­ing the pro­duc­ers of films such as HANGOVER and THE RING. Back in Ger­many, he first com­plet­ed a sol­id com­mer­cial train­ing pro­gram, nar­row­ly passed his stud­ies at HFF Babels­berg, and has since been work­ing as a pro­duc­er. Ini­tial­ly at Bantry Bay, he worked on for­mats like DRUCK and DEUTSCHER. Now, under his own label Stu­dio Zen­tral, he pro­duces series such as LOVE SUCKS and ECHT, and films like EIN FAST PERFEKTER ANTRAG and In die SOUND OF FALLING.

Erwin M. Schmidt is a con­fer­ence cura­tor and mod­er­a­tor (Ger­man-French Film Meet­ing, Cre­ators Con­fer­ence, ex-Explor­er Con­fer­ence), a sys­temic orga­ni­za­tion­al devel­op­er, for­mer man­ag­ing direc­tor of PROG – Pro­duc­ers of Ger­many e.V. (Pro­duc­ers’ Asso­ci­a­tion), and for­mer pro­duc­er (Pina, Cathe­drals of Cul­ture).

Mari­am Shat­berashvili, while still study­ing at the DFFB, found­ed the pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny New Mat­ter Films togeth­er with Luise Hauschild in 2020, based in Berlin and Leipzig. Their films have been screened and award­ed at the world’s most pres­ti­gious A‑list fes­ti­vals. These include the grad­u­a­tion films WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY? by Alexan­dre Koberidze (Berli­nale Com­pe­ti­tion 2021, FIPRESCI Prize) and TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER by Anni­ka Pinske (Berli­nale Panora­ma 2022). They are cur­rent­ly work­ing on new fea­ture films by Alexan­dre Koberidze, Anni­ka Pinske, Katha­ri­na Wyss, Vales­ka Grise­bach, Luise Don­schen, Katin­ka Nar­jes, Oliv­er Grüt­tner, Cyrill Schäublin, Tat­jana Kononenko, and Faraz Fes­hara­ki.

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.

Rand Beiru­ty is a writer, direc­tor and co-founder of Shaghab Films, a pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny based in Amman, Jor­dan. She holds a prac­tice-based Ph.D. revolv­ing around ques­tions of rep­re­sen­ta­tion and par­tic­i­pa­to­ry film­mak­ing from Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg KONRAD WOLF. Beiru­ty has pitched her projects on inter­na­tion­al plat­forms and received awards from Tribeca Film Insti­tute, Arab Cin­e­ma Cen­ter and Euro­pean Net­work of Young Cin­e­ma among oth­ers. Her debut fea­ture doc­u­men­tary TELL THEM ABOUT US (2024) cel­e­brat­ed its world pre­miere at CPH:DOX 2024 while her short ani­mat­ed doc­u­men­tary SHADOWS (2024) cel­e­brat­ed its world pre­miere at the 81st Venice Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val.

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.

Melis­sa Dul­lius (Por­to Ale­gre, 1981) is an artist, film­mak­er, and lec­tur­er. She began work­ing as a self-taught artist around the turn of the mil­len­ni­um in Brazil and has been liv­ing in Berlin since 2006. From the begin­ning, she has worked with ana­log tech­niques such as 16mm film. Strad­dling the worlds of art and cin­e­ma, pho­tog­ra­phy and mov­ing image, her work includes films, instal­la­tions, tex­tiles, pho­tog­ra­phy, text, print­ed mat­ter, pro­jec­tion, and music. She is a found­ing mem­ber of Labor­Ber­lin e.V. and one half of Dis­truk­tur.

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 Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg KONRAD WOLF. 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.

Dami­an Kocur is a direc­tor, screen­writer, and cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er, and a PhD stu­dent at the Łódź Film School. He is the author of sev­er­al inter­na­tion­al­ly award­ed short films. His debut fea­ture BREAD AND SALT (2022) won the Spe­cial Jury Prize in the Oriz­zon­ti com­pe­ti­tion at the 2022 Venice Film Fes­ti­val and received awards at Cairo IFF, Antalya IFF, Cot­tbus Film Fes­ti­val, Gijón, and many oth­ers. His short film AS IT WAS (2023) was nom­i­nat­ed for the Palme d’Or in 2023. His lat­est fea­ture will pre­miere at the Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val.

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.

Alexan­dre Koberidze, born in 1984 in Tbil­isi, Geor­gia, is a film­mak­er and screen­writer. From 2001 to 2005, he stud­ied film and tele­vi­sion in Geor­gia, and from 2009 he stud­ied direct­ing at the DFFB in Berlin. His first fea­ture film, LET THE SUMMER NEVER COME AGAIN (2017), won the Grand Prix at the Mar­seille Film Fes­ti­val. His sec­ond fea­ture, WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY? (2021), cel­e­brat­ed its world pre­miere in the main com­pe­ti­tion of the Berli­nale. His fea­ture film DRY LEAF (2025) pre­miered in the main com­pe­ti­tion of the 78th Locarno Film Fes­ti­val. He lives between Berlin and Tbil­isi.

Gior­gi Koberidze, born in 1992, is a Geor­gian com­pos­er. He stud­ied music tech­nol­o­gy and com­po­si­tion at the Tbil­isi State Con­ser­va­to­ry. His score for WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY? (2021) was nom­i­nat­ed for the Ger­man Film Crit­ics Award in the cat­e­go­ry “Best Music.” His lat­est work for cin­e­ma is the score for the fea­ture film DRY LEAF (2025). Giorgi’s artis­tic work is char­ac­ter­ized by the seam­less fusion of elec­tron­ic and clas­si­cal instru­men­tal sounds.

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.

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).

Angeli­na Mac­carone, born in 1965 in Cologne, holds an M.A. in Ger­man and Amer­i­can Stud­ies. She is an author and direc­tor based in Berlin. In her film­mak­ing, Mac­carone explores var­i­ous gen­res, from fic­tion to non-fic­tion, from cin­e­ma to TATORT. She is part of queer film his­to­ry, and her films have won numer­ous awards at inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals, includ­ing the Gold­en Leop­ard in Locarno. Her lat­est film, KLANDESTIN, was released in cin­e­mas in April and received the Lola for Best Screen­play. From 2014 to 2025, she was also Pro­fes­sor of Direct­ing at the Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg.

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.

Aslı Özarslan, born in 1986 in Berlin, stud­ied The­atre and Media Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bayreuth as well as Phi­los­o­phy and Soci­ol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­sité Sor­bonne IV in Paris. From 2012 to 2017, she stud­ied doc­u­men­tary direct­ing at the Fil­makademie Baden-Würt­tem­berg. Her films INSEL 36 (2014) and DIL LEYLA (2016) were award­ed at nation­al and inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals. With ELLBOGEN (2024), she made her fic­tion debut. The film cel­e­brat­ed its world pre­miere at the 74th Berli­nale and received mul­ti­ple awards, includ­ing Best Lit­er­ary Adap­ta­tion at the Frank­furt Book Fair

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.

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.

Ker­stin Polte is a direc­tor and screen­writer. Her debut fea­ture WHO ACTUALLY INVENTED LOVE? won, among oth­ers, the Bavar­i­an Film Award. She lat­er direct­ed for tele­vi­sion, includ­ing a TATORT episode and the series WIR and BECOMING CHARLIE, both nom­i­nat­ed for the Grimme Prize. Her new film BLINDGÄNGER has just been released. At the heart of her poet­ic and humor­ous sto­ries are uncon­ven­tion­al, resilient char­ac­ters and rela­tion­ships that offer fresh per­spec­tives on soci­ety. She believes in the pow­er of imag­i­na­tion — and that one can­not cre­ate art when inter­nal­ly bro­ken. So she prac­tices build­ing new spaces — and invites oth­ers to grow with her.

Burhan Qur­bani is a Ger­man-Afghan film­mak­er and writer. Among oth­er works, he has adapt­ed the nov­el BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ and Shakespeare’s play RICHARD III into con­tem­po­rary fea­ture films, both of which pre­miered at the Berli­nale. He is cur­rent­ly work­ing on a stage adap­ta­tion of Franz Kafka’s THE METAMORPHIS for his first the­atre direc­tion at Thalia The­ater in Ham­burg.

Julian Radl­maier, born in 1984 in Nurem­berg, stud­ied Film Stud­ies and Art His­to­ry in Berlin and Paris, fol­lowed by direct­ing at the DFFB. He also worked as an assis­tant to Wern­er Schroeter. After SELF-CRITICISM OF BOURGEOIS DOG (Rot­ter­dam 2017) and Blood­suck­ers (Berli­nale 2021), his third fea­ture PHANTOMS OF JULY (2025) will pre­miere in the com­pe­ti­tion of the Locarno Film Fes­ti­val.

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).

Hen­ner Winck­ler, a grad­u­ate of the HfBK Ham­burg, teach­es at var­i­ous film schools, includ­ing DFFB, Met­Film School, and Film Uni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg. His fea­ture films KLASSENFAHRT and LUCY were screened at inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals such as the Berli­nale, Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val, and Karlovy Vary, and received mul­ti­ple awards. Togeth­er with Ulrich Köh­ler, he wrote and direct­ed A VOLUNTARY YEAR , which won the Ger­man Film Crit­ics Award for Best Screen­play.

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.

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).

Faraz Fes­hara­ki, born in 1986 in Esfa­han, Iran, stud­ied Dra­mat­ic Lit­er­a­ture and Film in Tehran, par­tic­i­pat­ed in work­shops by Abbas Kiarosta­mi, and sub­se­quent­ly com­plet­ed a cin­e­matog­ra­phy pro­gram at the DFFB. As a cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er, he worked on WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SKY? (Berli­nale Com­pe­ti­tion 2021) and PHANTOMS OF JULY (Locarno Com­pe­ti­tion 2025). In 2024, he made his direc­to­r­i­al debut with WHAT DID YOU DREAM LAST NIGHT, PARAJANOV? in the Berli­nale Forum.

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.

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.

Moritz Moessinger, born in 1990 in Stuttgart, stud­ied cin­e­matog­ra­phy at the Screen Acad­e­my Edin­burgh and com­plet­ed a Master’s at the Ham­burg Media School. He works as a cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er in fea­ture and com­mer­cial films and lives in Lon­don and Ham­burg.

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.

Lara Cre­mer, a native of the Rhineland, works as a free­lance edi­tor, VFX edi­tor, and assis­tant edi­tor. Dur­ing her stud­ies in Edit­ing and Visu­al Effects at the Fil­mu­ni­ver­si­ty Babels­berg Kon­rad Wolf, she was nom­i­nat­ed for the Nach­wuch­spreis für Editor:innen at the Edi­mo­tion Film Fes­ti­val. After grad­u­at­ing, she worked on inter­na­tion­al major pro­duc­tions such as AQUAMAN 2 and THE ETERNALS as a VFX edi­tor and IO coor­di­na­tor. She lat­er col­lab­o­rat­ed close­ly with the expe­ri­enced edi­tor Patri­cia Rom­mel (DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN, NIRGENDWO IN AFRIKA). Her par­tic­u­lar inter­est lies in inter­view for­mats and ani­mat­ed films, where she explores new forms of sto­ry­telling and cin­e­mat­ic expres­sion.

Susi Doll­nig is a free­lance col­orist. She has worked inter­na­tion­al­ly on doc­u­men­tary, fea­ture, and art film projects. Many of these films were shown at BAFTA- and Oscar-qual­i­fy­ing fes­ti­vals and dis­trib­uted world­wide in cin­e­mas, on tele­vi­sion, and via stream­ing plat­forms such as Net­flix, Ama­zon Prime, ORF, and ARTE.

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.

Clau­dia Mat­tai del Moro has been work­ing as a free­lance re-record­ing mix­er on var­i­ous fea­ture, doc­u­men­tary, and tele­vi­sion films since 2010. After expe­ri­ence in stu­dio work, sound design for ani­mat­ed films, and sev­er­al years in film sound rental in Ham­burg, she now applies her exper­tise cre­ative­ly to the real­iza­tion of orig­i­nal sound. She focus­es par­tic­u­lar­ly on dia­logue and the con­struc­tive col­lab­o­ra­tion between dif­fer­ent depart­ments on set.

Tolke Palm has been work­ing as a free­lance post-pro­duc­tion super­vi­sor since 2019 on nation­al and inter­na­tion­al fea­ture and series projects. After expe­ri­ence in post-pro­duc­tion hous­es, film dis­tri­b­u­tion and inter­na­tion­al sales, fes­ti­vals, and pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies, she applies her knowl­edge and long-stand­ing expe­ri­ence to help pro­duc­ers and direc­tors com­plete their projects effec­tive­ly and suc­cess­ful­ly. She believes post-pro­duc­tion begins before shoot­ing and that every film is dif­fer­ent; each project requires an expert to address its unique post-pro­duc­tion chal­lenges.

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.

Heike Parplies worked as an assis­tant edi­tor from 1999 to 2002 after study­ing Mod­ern Ger­man Lit­er­a­ture and Media. She was nom­i­nat­ed for the Film­Plus Edit­ing Award for DER WALD VOR LAUTER BÄUMEN (2003) and won it in 2009 for ALLE ANDEREN and in 2017 for TONI ERDMANN. The film she edit­ed, A VIDA INVISÍVEL DE EURÍDICE GUSMÃO by Karim Aïnouz, won the Un Cer­tain Regard award at Cannes 2019. FIREBRAND (2023) and ROSEBUSHPRUNING are her most recent col­lab­o­ra­tions with Karim Aïnouz. She is a mem­ber of the Acad­e­my of Motion Pic­ture Arts and Sci­ences, the Ger­man Film Acad­e­my, and the Euro­pean Film Acad­e­my.

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.