Appli­ca­tion

The DFFB offers five full-time pro­grammes: Screen­writ­ing, Cin­e­matog­ra­phy, Direct­ing, Pro­duc­tion and Edit­ing & Sound.

Dates and Dead­lines study year 2026/​27

  • beginning/​mid Octo­ber: The DFBB pub­lish­es the appli­ca­tion infor­ma­tion for the pre­s­e­lec­tion process on its web­site.
  • November–January: Open peri­od for the online appli­ca­tion process; dead­line for all appli­ca­tions is in Jan­u­ary.
  • Begin­ning/mid-Jan­u­ary: Dead­line for sub­mis­sion of appli­ca­tion tasks 2026/​27
  • April–May: Appli­cants are informed of the deci­sions of the exam­i­na­tion board and a small num­ber of appli­cants are invit­ed to attend the entrance exam­i­na­tions.
  • May–June: The entrance exam­i­na­tions take place at the DFFB in Berlin.

The can­di­dates are informed in advance of the pre­cise dates and struc­ture of the exam­i­na­tion week.

 

Appli­ca­tion Process

To enrol in stud­ies at the DFFB, can­di­dates must go through a com­pre­hen­sive appli­ca­tion process:  Stu­dents first sub­mit an appli­ca­tion and port­fo­lio. The DFFB then selects a small pro­por­tion of appli­cants and invites them to attend a one-week entrance exam­i­na­tion at the acad­e­my. This exam­i­na­tion is over­seen by an exam­i­na­tion board.

 

How to Apply

Appli­ca­tions are accept­ed every year via a process that begins in autumn for the fol­low­ing year.

  • The academy’s online appli­ca­tion process is divid­ed by study spe­cial­i­sa­tion.
  • To apply to a spe­cial­i­sa­tion, stu­dents must sub­mit pho­tos, film exer­cis­es, texts, images and oth­er mate­ri­als.
  • After this sub­mis­sion, the exam­i­na­tion board selects a small num­ber of can­di­dates to take the entrance exam­i­na­tion at the DFFB dur­ing spring.
  • The entrance exam­i­na­tion includes oral, writ­ten and prac­ti­cal ele­ments. These ele­ments are intend­ed to iden­ti­fy an applicant’s poten­tial as well as their prac­ti­cal, col­lab­o­ra­tive, and cre­ative abil­i­ties.
  • At the end of the exam­i­na­tion process, a new class is select­ed to join the DFFB for the fol­low­ing aca­d­e­m­ic year.
  • Every year, 6–10 stu­dents from Ger­many and abroad are admit­ted into each spe­cial­i­sa­tion.
  • Admis­sion to the pro­gramme depends sole­ly on suc­cess­ful­ly pass­ing the entrance exam­i­na­tions.

 

Fur­ther Require­ments

Appli­cants should be at least 21 years old at the begin­ning of their stud­ies.

Prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence or aca­d­e­m­ic degrees in relat­ed fields are not required, but increase the chance of admis­sion.

A can­di­date can­not apply more than twice for admis­sion to the DFFB.

 

Lan­guage skills

  • Please note that good writ­ten and spo­ken Ger­man is required to study at the DFFB.
  • Inter­na­tion­al appli­cants must prove their Ger­man lan­guage skills in the form of the Goethe Cer­tifi­cate B2 (or equiv­a­lent), which must be pre­sent­ed at the start of their stud­ies in autumn.
  • The writ­ten appli­ca­tion may be sub­mit­ted in Eng­lish and the oral/​practical exam­i­na­tion may be con­duct­ed in Eng­lish, if a can­di­date’s Ger­man lan­guage skills are insuf­fi­cient at this time.
  • Good writ­ten and spo­ken Eng­lish-lan­guage skills are required for all can­di­dates. Eng­lish is the sec­ond lan­guage of the DFFB, and a num­ber of sem­i­nars are taught in Eng­lish by inter­na­tion­al teach­ers.

 

Study Fees

  • Stu­dents must pay annu­al reg­is­tra­tion and equip­ment insur­ance fees to the DFFB; the cost is €225 per aca­d­e­m­ic year.
  • Dur­ing the first four aca­d­e­m­ic years stu­dents must also pur­chase a Deutsch­land semes­ter tick­et (to take pub­lic trans­porta­tion ger­man­wide), which cur­rent­ly costs approx­i­mate­ly 176,40€ per semes­ter

 

The fol­low­ing appli­ca­tion tasks are from this year and are for guid­ance pur­pos­es only. It is no longer pos­si­ble to apply for the aca­d­e­m­ic year 2025/​26!

Appli­ca­tion: Cin­e­matog­ra­phy

Appli­ca­tion: Direct­ing

Appli­ca­tion: Screen­writ­ing

Appli­ca­tion: Edit­ing & Sound

Appli­ca­tion: Pro­duc­ing