Natalia Cabral (Santo Domingo) and Oriol Estrada (Barcelona) are filmmakers who move between fiction and documentary. They are graduates of the San Antonio de los Baños Film School in Cuba. Their works have been exhibited and awarded in Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Visions du Réel, IDFA, Huelva, Havana, Toulouse, Gijón, Sydney and Lincoln Center.

Film: A Film About Couples

Britta Strampe is a producer and co-founder of Bandenfilm. During her studies in communication science, she completed various internships in the film and media sector. Afterwards, she worked as a production manager for cinema documentaries before taking up a master's degree in film production in Babelsberg and working for a film distributor. THE ORDINARIES, directed by Sophie Linnenbaum, is her feature film debut as a producer, for which she was awarded the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino and the VGF-Nachwuchsproduzent:innenpreis, among others, together with Laura Klippel.

Film: The Ordinaries (Produktion)

Laura Klippel is a producer and co-founder of BANDENFILM. After graduating from high school, she completed various internships in the film industry and studied event technology and management. She then took up a master's degree in film and television production at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. Her graduation film RÅ premiered at the Berlinale in 2018 and was awarded the Studio Hamburg Newcomer Award for Best Short Film Production and the German Short Film Award. THE ORDINARIES is her producing debut together with Britta Strampe, for which Bandenfilm 2022 was awarded the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino.

Film: The Ordinaries (Produktion)

Emina Smajić was born in Zagreb on December 30, 1992. As a Bosnian-Muslim child of a refugee family, she grew up in Berlin. For the past four years, she has been producing and developing films and series with a focus on women's empowerment. Her mission also includes intercultural and diverse storytelling. Her graduate feature film ELAHA had its world premiere at the Berlinale in 2023. In 2022, Emina worked freelance as a producer and as a coordinator for the Forum Talentfilm Deutschland as well as for the Max Ophüls Preis film festival in Saarbrücken. Since January 2023, Emina has been a permanent producer at MadeFor Film.

Film: Elaha (Produktion)

Milena Aboyan was born in Armenia. From 2010, she began acting training in Germany, which she completed with stage maturity. In addition to her acting studies, she participated in a young talent program of the association Drehbuchcamp e.V.. From 2015 she studied at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and won the Emder Drehbuchpreis in 2019. Her first feature film ELAHA had its world premiere in the series "Perspektive Deutsches Kino" at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.

Film: Elaha (Regie)

Fabian Stumm, born 1981 in Koblenz, studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York and has appeared at HAU Berlin, Münchner Kammerspiele and Volksbühne Berlin, among others. His film & TV work includes LORE by Cate Shortland, IVIE WIE IVIE by Sarah Blaßkiewitz and the youth series DRUCK. He made his directorial debut in 2020 with the short film BRUXELLES, and his second film DANIEL won Best Mid-Length Film at the Achtung Berlin Festival in 2022. His feature film debut KNOCHEN UND NAMEN premiered at the 2023 Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino and won the Heiner Carow Award there.

Film: Knochen und Namen (Regie)

After completing her studies in psychology and working as a playwright, Sophie Linnenbaum studied directing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. In addition to her national and international award-winning short films, she directs series and documentaries. Her first feature film THE ORDINARIES had its international premiere in the main competition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, was awarded the Förderpreis Regie at the Munich Film Festival and won the First Steps Award for Best Evening Feature Film.

Film: The Ordinaries (Regie)

Adiam Ghebremeskel studied education in Frankfurt am Main and lives in Hamburg. There A.G. works in the social sector as a social pedagogue and educational consultant and works, among other things, on the topic of intersectionality. A.G. also deals with how spaces can be created in the public and social context, for example in the district initiative Koblenzer Straße (SIKS, Frankfurt) and in HALLO e.V. (Hamburg).

Event: Wunschprojektion Kino – Filmpaläste und Filmräume der Zukunft

Awarded "Best Producer" by an all-female jury at Filmfest München 2018, Anna de Paoli searches for the "crack in reality" in her productions. With her strengths in development, casting and exploitation, she has supported the creation of unique auteur genre films that have been represented at A-list festivals worldwide and won awards such as the German Independence Award, the Golden Lola and the Silver Méliès. With FILM MACHT SCHULE she initiates encounters between film artistic personalities and children/youth. Her professional credentials include senior lecturer in film production at the DFFB, program manager at the Berlinale/Perspektive Deutsches Kino, funeral trainee and yoga teacher. Anna de Paoli lives with her family in Berlin.

Event:

 Revision der Positionen - Fishbowl | The Next Day - 5 Jahre Frankfurter Positionen | Populärer Realismus? - Biederkeit statt blaue Bohnen - wo sind die Filme jenseits von Festival und Kommerz?

After university, Bill Anderson (British filmmaker, FERA board chairman) worked for two years on the Fulmar Alpha oil rig in the North Sea while he turned away from writing dialogue-heavy television dramas like Nailed and toward telling stories with images. Creatures of Light, his graduation film from the National Film and Television School, won the Chaplin Award for Best First Feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
 His 30-year career as a television director has included workplace dramas Mr. Selfridge, The Mill and the BAFTA-nominated Dockers (the story of their strike, dramatized by a writers' group of laid-off Liverpool dockworkers, produced by their union for Channel 4); historical epics such as Daniel Craig in Sword of Honour and Alex Kingston in Boudica (co-produced by MediaPro Studios and shot in Romania in 2002); crime dramas such as the pilot Lewis and the writing and directing of RTS and the Prix Italia-nominated Guardians.

In stark contrast to his work on Spooks and Dr. Who, Abrams Press has just published Bill's first prose work, The Idle Beekeeper, a book about empathy (and raising bees).

Event:

FERA’s Eco Movie Manifesto: Inspiring Filmmakers to Create Sustainably | FERA: The Politics of Creative Freedom and Sustainability

Claudia Young-joo Park studied General and Comparative Literature and German Studies at Princeton University and Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. She has been pursuing her PhD at the Institute for General and Comparative Literature in Frankfurt am Main since 2022. Her research interests include literary theory, philosophical aesthetics, and critical theory.

Event:

Realismus als Kritik

Daniel Fairfax is a research associate in the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies at Goethe University-Frankfurt. He is the author of the two-volume monograph The Red Years of Cahiers du Cinéma (1968-1973), published by Amsterdam University Press in 2021, and his current research is on film theory in the age of neoliberalism. He writes regularly for the Australian film journal sensesofcinema.com.

Events:

Film als ästhetische Theorie und Erfahrung | Realismus als Kritik

Edgar Reitz, born and raised in Morbach in Hunsrück, studied German, journalism and theater studies in Munich. His first feature film Mahlzeiten (Meals), which today is one of the defining works of "Young German Cinema," won an award at the 1967 Venice Film Festival. Since the mid-1970s Reitz has published numerous texts and works on film theory and film aesthetics, as well as short stories, essays, poetry and literary versions of his films. Among his most important films are: Cardillac, The Journey to Vienna, The Tailor of Ulm, Zero Hour, and the world-famous Heimat trilogy, which is composed of 31 feature-length individual films to form a century-long epic and, with over 54 hours of running time, is one of the most extensive narrative film works in film history. In 2022, Edgar Reitz published his autobiography. "Filmzeit, Lebenszeit, Erinnerungen" in Rowohlt Verlag.

Events:

 "Filmzeit, Lebenszeit: Erinnerungen" – Lesung mit Edgar Reitz | Edgar Reitz Thesen zum Strukturwandel der Kinobranche

Fabian Massah, founder and partner of the production company Endorphine Production, has been responsible for several feature films as producer, co-producer and executive producer - in addition to numerous commercials. His films premiered at A-list festivals such as Venice, Berlin and Toronto, won numerous awards and were marketed internationally. "Men On The Bridge" was an international festival hit in 2009/2010. Among others: Monitor (Series Project, Séries Mania Co-Production Pitchings 2023), Oblivion Verses (Venice 2017, Best Screenplay), At Once (Berlinale 2016), Atlantic. (Toronto 2014), Men On The Bridge (Locarno & Toronto 2009, multiple Best Film awards).

Event:

 „Wir sind gemeinsam bereit, wirtschaftliche Risiken zu tragen...“

Franziska Wildt is a PhD student at the Institute for Social Research (IfS) and a scholarship holder of the postgraduate Hessian Atelier Program (HAP). She studied philosophy, psychology and liberal arts in Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and New York.

Event:

Im Sinne der Materialität - Film und Gesellschaft nach Siegfried Kracauer

Prof. Inga Pollmann is Associate Professor of Film Studies in German & Slavic Studies and English & Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She conducts research at the intersection of film and media studies, philosophy, and the history of science. Her work focuses on the history of film theory and the significance of the moving image for aesthetics. In 2022/23, she is working as a Senior Fellow at the Cinepoetics-Kolleg in Berlin. Her most recent publications are: Cinematic Vitalism. Film Theory and the Question of Life. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2018.

Event:

 Geist und Begeisterung – 100 Jahre Frankfurter Schule Zur Zukunft der Kritischen Theorie

Ji-Hun Kim is an editor, journalist, lecturer and music producer. He studied musicology and philosophy. He was editor at De:Bug for many years and is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Das Filter. As a freelance author, columnist and journalist, he works for Monopol and Der Freitag, among others. He has received teaching assignments from Humboldt University Berlin and the University of Bonn. He lives with his family in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Event:

Herr oder Knecht - KI: Die künstliche Intelligenz in der Kulturindustrie

Laura Klippel is a producer and co-founder of BANDENFILM. After graduating from high school, she completed various internships in the film industry and studied event technology and management. She then took up a master's degree in film and television production at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. Her graduation film RÅ premiered at the Berlinale in 2018 and was awarded the Studio Hamburg Newcomer Award for Best Short Film Production and the German Short Film Award. THE ORDINARIES is her producing debut together with Britta Strampe, for which Bandenfilm 2022 was awarded the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino.

Film: The Ordinaries (Produktion)
Event: Populärer Realismus? - Biederkeit statt blaue Bohnen - wo sind die Filme jenseits von Festival und Kommerz?

Nikias Chryssos was born to German-Greek parents near Heidelberg and now lives in Berlin. He studied film and video production in England and directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. During his studies he was selected for the Résidence du Festival de Cannes in Paris. His short films screened at festivals such as Berlinale, Tribeca, Rotterdam and Oberhausen and received numerous international awards.

After founding Kataskop Filmproduktion, he produced his first feature film DER BUNKER in 2015, which premiered at the Berlinale, screened at over 40 festivals and received several international awards.

His second feature film A PURE PLACE, a German-Greek co-production, premiered at the 2021 Munich Film Festival where it won the Best Director Award. In 2022 he shot LEBEN TOD EKSTASE, a TATORT for hr, for which he also served as co-writer.

Event

: Populärer Realismus? - Biederkeit statt blaue Bohnen - wo sind die Filme jenseits von Festival und Kommerz?

Pauline Roenneberg lives and works in Munich. Studied documentary film directing at the HFF Munich. 2013 'Starter-Filmpreis' for her first fictional short film. 2018 Graduation with the four-part BR documentary series ,sooner or later'. 'FFF Förderpreis Dokumentarfilm', 'No Fear Award' at 'First Steps'. She is currently developing the fictional mini-series 'Leni (AT)' about Leni Riefenstahl with Ulrich Limmer and is in the process of completing two episodes for 'Farmrebellion' (director; dramaturgical direction: Doris Dörrie). Since 2019, she has been writing her FFF screenplay-funded feature debut 'Der Kuckuck' (mentor: Caroline Link). 

Event: "Angst essen Kino auf" - Junge Regisseur:innen und der deutsche Film | The Next Day - 5 Jahre Frankfurter Positionen

Roger Behrens, 1967, lives and works in Hamburg; numerous publications on the critical theory of society. Research assistant at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg (educational science), especially educational theory and philosophical foundations.

Jahre Frankfurter Schule Zur Zukunft der Kritischen Theorie

Rudolf Worschech, born 1958, is editor in charge of the magazine epd Film. Studied German, Slavic studies and theater, film and television studies. From 1986 to 1995 research assistant at the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt. Exhibitions, film programs, catalogs.

Event:

 Abschied von Morgen? - Kracauers Erben: Filmkritik zwischen Podcasts und dem Feuilleton

Saralisa Volm (*1985) is a filmmaker, writer, actress and producer. As an art historian, she repeatedly explores the boundaries between film, text and visual art in her work. With her company POISON she produced, among others, the film FIKKEFUCHS (director: Jan Henrik Stahlberg) and directed the radio play 'Wir haben keine Krise' and most recently her feature film debut SCHWEIGEND STEHT DER WALD, which premiered at the 2022 Berlinale.

Event: Revision der Positionen - Fishbowl | "Wir sind gemeinsam bereit, wirtschaftliche Risiken zu tragen..."

Sheri Hagen - director and actress from Berlin. In addition to numerous works for film and television, she has appeared in various theater productions. She first appeared as a screenwriter and director in 2007 with the short film STELLA UND DIE STÖRCHE. Her feature film debut AT SECOND GLANCE followed in 2010. In 2015, Sheri Hagen founded the production company Equality Film GmbH, which focuses on telling special stories that reflect the diverse realities of life in German society. In her second feature film FENSTER BLAU (2016), Sheri Hagen adapted the play - MUTTERMALE FENSTER BLAU by Sasha Marianna Salzmann. Sheri Hagen is currently preparing the feature films BILLIE and MOTHERHOOD. In development is the series KEHINDE and the short film AUF WIEDERSEHEN.

Event: The Next Day – 5 Jahre Frankfurter Positionen

Stefan Müller is a presenter, radio editor, podcaster, media trainer and curator. He helped establish two radio stations, Radio X in Frankfurt and hr-xxl, where he conceived and hosted several programs. Studies at the FU Berlin and the University of Mainz; postgraduate studies in documentary film with Andreas Dresen and Thomas Schadt; journalistic traineeship at the Protestant Press Service epd including the picture agency epd-Foto; film editor at the az-andere Zeitung Frankfurt; author for film and music topics for Deutschlandfunk Kultur, curator and presenter at the film festival "Lichter Frankfurt International", psychodrama training at the IPU-Berlin with Prof. Christa Rohde-Dachser (psychoanalysis and film); radio DJ at Byte.FM.

Event: Herr oder Knecht – KI: Die künstliche Intelligenz in der Kulturindustrie

Torsten Frehse founded the distribution company Neue Visionen Filmverleih in 1997 and is its managing director and shareholder. Neue Visionen has since developed into one of Germany's leading arthouse distributors and has won the Distributor Award for Best Film Distribution eight times since its founding. In 2005, he founded and established Good Movies as a joint project of eight independent film distributors to create a high-quality video label. Behind it, Torsten Frehse is sometimes also co-producer, then board member of AG Verleih and founder of EWIP Cologne - European Work in Progress.

Event: Revision der Positionen - Fishbowl | Sieht der deutsche Film rot? | „Wir sind gemeinsam bereit, wirtschaftliche Risiken zu tragen...“

Alfred Holighaus was born in Dillenburg (Hesse) in 1959 and was president of SPIO e.V., the umbrella organization of the German film industry, from 2015 - 2019 and director of the German Film Academy e.V. from 2010 - 2015. Prior to that, he worked as a senior editor at the city magazine TIP, dramaturge, producer and distribution manager at Senator Film and as curator for the German and international program of the Berlinale (2001 - 2010). Holighaus was and is a member of several film promotion committees and belongs to the Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film.

In the "Berlinale years" he has made three international documentaries as a freelance writer and producer (including Merle Haggard: "Learning to live with myself" and "Spur der Bären - 60 Jahre Berlinale", with Hans-Christoph Blumenberg).

Since summer 2020, Holighaus has been head of development and producer at the Berlin production company Real Film Berlin GmbH.

He is a member of the European and German Film Academies.

Event: „Angst essen Kino auf“ - Junge Regisseur:innen und der deutsche Film

Anna Schoeppe, born in 1984, took over the management of the Kuratorium junger deutscher Film in Wiesbaden in 2013, which promotes young directors and writers in particular, and was appointed its director in 2017. She studied history and German language and literature at the Technical University of Berlin, but already lived out her love of film at that time and thus laid the foundation for her lateral entry into the film industry: She completed numerous internships in film and television (including at the Filmstiftung NRW) and camped out in front of the premiere box office at Potsdamer Platz during the Berlinale. After working at the European Film Academy in Berlin and the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, her path led her to the film state of Hessen. Here she successfully restructured the Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, the oldest German film funding organization. Since 2020, Anna Schoeppe has been managing director of Hessen Film & Medien, with which she opens up new artistic perspectives, promotes young talent and develops the film location.

Events:

 „Angst essen Kino auf“ - Junge Regisseur:innen und der deutsche Film | Revision der Positionen

Björn Hoffmann studied media business in Ilmenau, started working for Pandora Film Verleih in 2004 as an intern and has been managing partner since 2018. He has been responsible for releasing films such as Soul Kitchen by Fatih Akin, Le Havre by Aki Kaurismäki, Was bleibt by Hans-Christian Schmid, The Broken Circle by Felix van Groeningen, Only Lovers Left Alive by Jim Jarmusch, Paula by Christian Schwochow, Gundermann by Andreas Dresen, Ein verborgenes Leben by Terrence Malick and most recently Close by Lukas Dhont.

Event:

Sieht der deutsche Film rot?

Cornelia Grünberg has represented BVR on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the FFA since January 2022. She studied directing, screenwriting, editing and production at the DFFB. Her diploma film was called "Paul Vier" based on the novel "Paul Vier und die Schröders" by Andreas Steinhöfel.

Today she works mainly in the field of feature film, feature film, documentary, series, series; theater productions in Berlin Zurich Cottbus, teaching at the Filmschauspielschule Berlin Master Class, film history, guest professorship at the Film Academy of the Bauhaus University Weimar, Vision Kino film education at the state media houses.

Event: Sieht der deutsche Film rot?

Daniel Moersener studied film studies and philosophy in Berlin. His research focuses on the affinity between critical theory and mass culture, the tension between politics and aesthetics, classical and New Hollywood cinema, and the European New Waves. He is also a filmmaker (including 2018's Outlaw and 2022's Hustler) and film critic for ZEIT, taz, and Jungle World, among others.

Event:

 Geist und Begeisterung – 100 Jahre Frankfurter Schule Zur Zukunft der Kritischen Theorie

Eileen Byrne, born 1984, is a German-Luxembourgian director. After graduating from high school, she began working as a script supervisor. After studying Performing Arts at the University of Winchester and Theater Studies, Musicology and Art History at LMU Munich, she studied Feature Film Directing at HFF Munich from 2007.

This was followed in 2012/13 by a master's degree in directing at the ESAV in Toulouse. Her short films have screened at festivals worldwide. Her graduation film WAS BLEIBT (English: TOUCH ME) was nominated for the Student Oscar and the First Steps Award and screened at Camerimage and the Max Ophüls Preis Festival, among others. She wrote other screenplays and shot series episodes and music videos.

She is currently preparing her first feature film MARIANENGRABEN, for which -based on the bestseller of the same name by Jasmin Schreiber- she also wrote the screenplay.

Event:

"Angst essen Kino auf" - Junge Regisseur:innen und der deutsche Film

Fabian Stumm, born 1981 in Koblenz, studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York and has appeared at HAU Berlin, Münchner Kammerspiele and Volksbühne Berlin, among others. His film & TV work includes LORE by Cate Shortland, IVIE WIE IVIE by Sarah Blaßkiewitz and the youth series DRUCK. He made his directorial debut in 2020 with the short film BRUXELLES, and his second film DANIEL won Best Mid-Length Film at the Achtung Berlin Festival in 2022. His feature film debut KNOCHEN UND NAMEN premiered at the 2023 Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino and won the Heiner Carow Award there.

Film: Knochen und Namen (Regie)
Event: "Wir sind gemeinsam bereit, wirtschaftliche Risiken zu tragen..."

Frieder Schlaich was born in Stuttgart in 1961. After studying visual communication in Hamburg, he opened the video store "Filmgalerie 451" in Stuttgart together with Irene von Alberti in 1987. In 1992 this became a cinema rental, video/DVD label and film production. Since 1995 also director (PAUL BOWLES - HALBMOND). As a producer he realized films by Christoph Schlingensief, Werner Schroeter, Heinz Emigholz, Elfi Mikesch, Omer Fast and Robert Schwentke, among others.

In 2001 the company moved to Berlin. Today, "Filmgalerie 451" distributes the complete cinematic works of Schlingensief, Emigholz and Roland Klick throughout the world and, more recently, Albert Serra in Germany.

Event:

"Angst essen Kino auf" - Junge Regisseur:innen und der deutsche Film | Revision der Positionen - Fishbowl | Sieht der deutsche Film rot? | "Wir sind gemeinsam bereit, wirtschaftliche Risiken zu tragen..."

Irene von Alberti was born in Stuttgart in 1963. She studied media technology and, from 1988, production and worked as a camera assistant and camerawoman. In 1987, together with Frieder Schlaich, she founded the video store "Filmgalerie 451" in Stuttgart. In 1992 a cinema rental, video/DVD label and film production emerged from this. Since 1995 also director. Her directing credits include an episode of the film STADT ALS BEUTE, her first full-length feature film TANGERINE, and DER LANGE SOMMER DER THEORIE. She is currently working on the film DIE GESCHÜTZTEN MÄNNER.As a producer, she has realized films by Heinz Emigholz and Monika Treut, among others.

Events:

Vom Regisseur zum Shooter - Wer führt beim Film? | Geist und Begeisterung - 100 Jahre Frankfurter Schule; Zur Zukunft der Kritischen Theorie

Jochen Schuff works in the Berlin research group "Reorganizing Ourselves" of the philosopher Alva Noë (Berkeley) and in the research training group "Normativity, Criticism, Change" at the Freie Universität Berlin. He studied and received his doctorate at Goethe University in Frankfurt. Currently, he is interested in the aesthetics of contemporary arts and their critique, as well as in the context of identity, autobiography, and theory. Publications include Ästhetisches Verstehen. Approaches to Art after Wittgenstein and Cavell. Paderborn: Fink 2019. More at www.reorganizingourselves.de

Event:

Film als ästhetische Theorie und Erfahrung

Martijn Winkler (1978) is a writer, director and digital creative working at the intersection of online, cross-media and linear audiovisual storytelling since 2003. International and award-winning productions (including two Rose d'Ors, an Emmy, a Webby and an International Format Award at MIPCOM), often with an innovative and/or online component. His latest series Heat, a thriller about climate change, was the most awarded short film series of 2021.

Martijn is a former chairman and current board member of the Dutch Directors Guild, a member of EFA and on the advisory board of VU University Amsterdam, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies. He is also co-founder and creative director of the production company VERTOV and head of social media and strategy at its sister company Coebergh Communications & PR in Amsterdam.

Event:

FERA’s Eco Movie Manifesto: Inspiring Filmmakers to Create Sustainably

Nora Neuhaus studied cultural studies in Hildesheim and Rome as well as stage design and costume in Stuttgart. She has worked academically at the Städel Museum Frankfurt and for the exhibition Confessions of the Imperfect of the international museum cooperation L'Internationale, among others, and as a stage and costume designer at Schauspiel Hannover and Mousonturm Frankfurt, among others. She is currently completing a Master's degree in Curatorial Studies in Frankfurt am Main and works for the Marburg DFG project Transdisciplinary Networks of Media Knowledge, among others. Essay publications 2022/23 in In the Sense of Materiality. Film and Society after Siegfried Kracauer, edited by Leonie Hunter and Felix Trautmann, and on arthistoricum.net.

Event: Film als ästhetische Theorie und Erfahrung

Peter Schernhuber, born in 1987, studied film and media science. Numerous curatorial, organizational and journalistic activities followed. From 2009 to 2014 Schernhuber was co-director of YOUKI - International Youth Media Festival in Wels. In addition, he worked at other film festivals, including the Diagonale, the festival of Austrian film in Graz. From 2015 to 2023, he co-directed the Diagonale with Sebastian Höglinger.

Event:

 Filme für den Liegestuhl - Wie wird in Filmen gerade erzählt?

Rolf Silber is author of scripts for TV, cinema, children's film and novels, director of films for TV and cinema, co-founder of two production companies ( FFP Media & U5-Filmproduktion), several years board member of VG-BildKunst, board member of Berufsverband Regie, member of Deutscher Drehbuchverband, several years member of funding commissions of Hessische Filmförderung and Drehbuchförderung FFA. Favorite genre optionally dramatic and/or escapist comedies. Motto: Film is continued reporting of reality with the means of dreams.

Event:

Vom Regisseur zum Shooter - Wer führt beim Film?

Events: Abschied von Morgen? - Kracauers Erben: Filmkritik zwischen Podcasts und dem Feuilleton | "Angst essen Kino auf" - Junge Regisseur:innen und der deutsche Film | Geist und Begeisterung - 100 Jahre Frankfurter Schule; Zur Zukunft der Kritischen Theorie | Populärer Realismus? - Biederkeit statt blaue Bohnen - wo sind die Filme jenseits von Festival und Kommerz? | Revision der Positionen

Sebastian Höglinger, born in Linz in 1983, studied theater, film and media studies, many years of experience in the organization and implementation of various cultural events. Since 2009 co-director of the International Youth Media Festival YOUKI in Wels, collaboration at various film festivals, including the Diagonale, the festival of Austrian film in Graz.

From 2015 to 2023, he co-directed the Diagonale with Peter Schernhuber.

Event: Wunschprojektion Kino - Filmpaläste und Filmräume der Zukunft

Sophie Ahrens founded and runs Schuldenberg Films together with Fabian Altenried and Kristof Gerega as an independent film production company based in Berlin and Bad Endorf (Bavaria). Schuldenberg Films focuses on producing cross-genre fictional and non-fictional film works with a critical and political approach, ranging from feature films, documentaries and series to experimental artworks - including NEUBAU (2020), which won two awards at the Max Ophüls Prize, PIAFFE (2022), which screened in competition at the 75th Locarno International Film Festival last year, and ASH WEDNESDAY (2023), which recently premiered at the Berlinale.

Event:

 The Next Day – 5 Jahre Frankfurter Positionen

Steffen Andrae studied philosophy, sociology, and political theory in Darmstadt, Frankfurt am Main, and New York after completing his training as a state-certified educator. Since 2019, he has been a doctoral student at the Max Weber College of the University of Erfurt, and in 2022, he completed a one-year guest residency at Columbia University. His dissertation focuses on the relationship between realism and experience in Siegfried Kracauer and Alexander Kluge.

Event: Realismus als Kritik

Wolfgang M. Schmitt is a film critic and author. He has been running the ideology-critical YouTube channel "Die Filmanalyse" since 2011, on which he analyzes and criticizes mainly mainstream films on a weekly basis.

The channel now has nearly 100,000 subscribers. Schmitt also co-hosts the Zeitgeist podcast "Die Neuen Zwanziger" (The New Twenties), where he will talk with Stefan Schulz about the present and near future on a monthly basis and throughout the decade. Since 2019, he has been running the left-wing economics podcast "Prosperity for All" together with Ole Nymoen. In the spring of 2021, he and Ole Nymoen published the nonfiction book "Influencers. The ideology of advertising bodies".

Event: Abschied von Morgen? - Kracauers Erben: Filmkritik zwischen Podcasts und dem Feuilleton

After studying linguistics, English and philosophy, Angela Heuser worked as a clinical linguist and editorial assistant. In 1995 she attended the screenwriting seminar with Frank Daniel. Afterwards she worked as a script editor and translator, editor for TV movies at Sat.1 and research assistant at the MINTiFF project of the TU Berlin. She has been a freelance dramaturg for film and television since 2009 and has been a member of the board of VeDRA - Verband für Film- und Fernsehdramaturgie e.V. (Association for Film and Television Dramaturgy) since 2016, and vice-chair of VeDRA since 2022.

Event: Revision der Positionen - Fishbowl

Bettina Blümner is a directing graduate of the Filmakademie Baden- Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. For her first feature film, the documentary PRINZESSINNENBAD, she received the German Film Award in 2007. Further feature films followed (PARCOURS D'AMOUR, SCHERBENPARK, HALBMONDWAHRHEITEN), which have been successfully screened at national and international festivals and cinemas.

Bettina Blümner also directed various short films, for example GESTERN, HEUTE, ÜBERMORGEN for the project 20 x Brandenburg or DIE FRAU, DIE TÖTEN WOLLTE as part of the Blickwechsel film project for the Goethe Institute in Tel Aviv. She directed the award-winning feature film SCHERBENPARK, a best-selling adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alina Bronsky, starring Ulrich Noethen and Jasna Fritzi Bauer, as well as the documentary theater pieces at "Hebbel am Ufer" (HAU) Berlin.

Bettina Blümner is a member of the German Film Academy, as well as a jury member at various national and international film festivals. In 2016 Bettina Blümner received the Wim Wenders Scholarship for her feature film VAMOS A LA PLAYA.

Film: Vamos a la Playa (Regie)
Event: Vom Regisseur zum Shotter - Wer führt beim Film?

Britta Strampe is a producer and co-founder of Bandenfilm. During her studies in communication science, she completed various internships in the film and media sector. Afterwards, she worked as a production manager for cinema documentaries before taking up a master's degree in film production in Babelsberg and working for a film distributor. THE ORDINARIES, directed by Sophie Linnenbaum, is her feature film debut as a producer, for which she was awarded the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino and the VGF-Nachwuchsproduzent:innenpreis, among others, together with Laura Klippel.

Film: The Ordinaries (Produktion)
Event: "Wir sind gemeinsam bereit, wirtschaftliche Risiken zu tragen..."

Dana Linssen is a Dutch film critic, philosopher, filmmaker and author. She is the former editor-in-chief of the leading Dutch film magazine "De Filmkrant", a long-time film critic for "NRC Handelsblad", founder of the "Slow Criticism Project" and curator of the "Critics' Choice" at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where she published over 50 video essays together with Jan Pieter Ekker. In 2021, they shot five more video essays for the "Vive Le Cinema!" exhibition at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. She works for festivals, teaches, publishes books, and also writes opera libretti and plays. She has received several awards for her work.

Event:

Abschied von Morgen? - Kracauers Erben: Filmkritik zwischen Podcasts und dem Feuilleton

David Kleingers is head of the digital department and strategic development at the DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum. As a film journalist and historian, he has published numerous articles and book chapters on German, European and international cinema, furthermore he is curator of the Maple Movies Festival, which is dedicated to contemporary Canadian film.

Event:

 The Next Day – 5 Jahre Frankfurter Positionen

Elisabet Gustafsson is a Swedish director and screenwriter based in Stockholm and Paris. She has just finished her documentary "Djenné Djenno", shot in Mali, where she meets her Swedish cousin and childhood idol who runs a hotel in the desert. However, her previous productions have been mostly fictional, and her feature debut, "Krakel Spektakel" (2014), is based on classic Swedish children's books by Lennart Hellsing. Elisabet has always taken an international approach as a director and three of her short films have been international co-productions and shot in Estonia and France. She is currently in pre-production for a new short film, "The Guinea Pig," based on a true story about a guinea pig that flew over the city of Stockholm in a homemade balloon. She is also working on a feature film based on short novels by well-known Swedish writer and actor Jonas Karlsson.

Event:

FERA’s Eco Movie Manifesto: Inspiring Filmmakers to Create Sustainably | FERA: The Politics of Creative Freedom and Sustainability

Felix Trautmann is a research associate at the Institute for Social Research. In his research he moves between political philosophy, social theory and aesthetics. Recent publications: The Imaginary of Democracy. Political Liberation and the Enigma of Voluntary Servitude (Konstanz 2020); and as editor (together with Leonie Hunter) In the Sense of Materiality. Film and Society after Siegfried Kracauer (Berlin 2022).

Event:

Realismus als Kritik | Im Sinne der Materialität - Film und Gesellschaft nach Siegfried Kracauer | Geist und Begeisterung – 100 Jahre Frankfurter Schule Zur Zukunft der Kritischen Theorie

Georg Seeßlen, born in 1948, studied painting, art history and semiology in Munich. He was a publisher, lecturer at various universities in Germany and abroad, and today works as a freelance author for "Die Zeit," "taz," "epd-Film," "Freitag," etc., and as a curator of film/art series and exhibitions. He has also written around twenty film books. Together with Markus Metz he works on radio features and radio plays.

Event:

 Abschied von Morgen? - Kracauers Erben: Filmkritik zwischen Podcasts und dem Feuilleton

Janis Noah Kuhnert, born in Ludwigsburg in 1999, studied film studies in Mainz. He works as a freelance journalist and directs the FILMZ - Festival of German Cinema in Mainz.

Event:

The Next Day – 5 Jahre Frankfurter Positionen

Juliana Müller researches authenticity and representability in intermedial contexts. After completing her studies in aesthetics and comparative literature in Frankfurt am Main and Munich, she taught French literature and cultural studies at the University of Siegen. She is currently working on her dissertation in Frankfurt on concepts of the body in autobiographical literature and film. In 2022 she contributed to the volume edited by Leonie Hunter and Felix Trautmann Im Sinne der Materialität. Film and Society after Siegfried Kracauer.

Event:

Film als ästhetische Theorie und Erfahrung

Milena Aboyan was born in Armenia. From 2010, she began acting training in Germany, which she completed with stage maturity. In addition to her acting studies, she participated in a young talent program of the association Drehbuchcamp e.V.. From 2015 she studied at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and won the Emder Drehbuchpreis in 2019. Her first feature film ELAHA had its world premiere in the series "Perspektive Deutsches Kino" at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.

Film: Elaha (Regie)
Event: Populärer Realismus? - Biederkeit statt blaue Bohnen - wo sind die Filme jenseits von Festival und Kommerz?

Oliver Zenglein was born in Munich in 1970. After theater internships, various internships and jobs in the film industry, he worked as an assistant director for film and television from 1992. A serious accident at work in 1996 confined him to a hospital bed for a year. During this time he founded Crew United with Vincent Lutz. In 2001 he stopped his work as a filmmaker to dedicate himself exclusively to Crew United. Oliver Zenglein lives in Munich with his wife and daughter.

Philipp Stadelmaier, born 1984, studied Romance and Comparative Literature in Frankfurt a.M., where and in Paris he earned a doctorate in Film Studies on Jean-Luc Godard and Serge Daney (to be published by Transcript Verlag in 2023). Since 2012 freelance film critic for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. His essay Die mittlere Regionen (Verbrecher Verlag) was awarded the Clemens Brentano Prize for Literature in 2018, and his debut novel Queen July was published in 2019, also by Verbrecher Verlag. Other film texts for the NZZ, German Vogue, ZEIT ONLINE, Filmbulletin and Sissymag - nicht heterosexuell, among others.

Event:

 Abschied von Morgen? - Kracauers Erben: Filmkritik zwischen Podcasts und dem Feuilleton

RP Kahl (filmmaker, visiting professor HfG Offenbach) studied at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch" Berlin, Rostock branch, and has worked as an actor for film and theater since 1990. In 1995, he switched behind the camera and in 1997 produced the award-winning feature film "Silvester Countdown" by Oskar Roehler. Together with Luggi Waldleitner's Roxy-Film he produced his feature film directorial debut "Angel Express" in 1998. In addition, he produces music videos and theater productions. Currently, his performative documentary "Als Susan Sontag im Publikum saß" is in theaters. Since 2013 he has been a member of the board of the German Film Academy, since 2017 as one of the three executive chairmen.

Event

: Geist und Begeisterung - 100 Jahre Frankfurter Schule; Zur Zukunft der Kritischen Theorie | Kein Anfang und Kein Ende - Abschlussbilanz des 3. Kongress Zukunft Deutscher Film

Sarah Adam works as a freelance curator and consultant for film festivals, cinemas and cultural institutes. Her content focus is on documentary formats, experimental works, short films and audiovisual media in public space. She was director of dokumentART, Neubrandenburg, is a commission member for the selection of the German Competition at the 68th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and works for the Kinemathek Hamburg, the Short Film Festival Hamburg and the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, among others. Sarah Adam is a board member of the Hauptverband Cinephilie and the Bundesverband kommunale Filmarbeit, founder of the Arab Filmclub Hamburg, co-operator of the collectively organized "B-Movie Kino" Hamburg and member of "A Wall is a Screen".

Event: Wunschprojektion Kino - Filmpaläste und Filmräume der Zukunft

Sebastian Staab studied philosophy and art history in Frankfurt am Main. He is doing his doctorate there in the field of practical and political philosophy. His research interests include critical theory, social philosophy, moral philosophy, and aesthetics.

Event: Im Sinne der Materialität - Film und Gesellschaft nach Siegfried Kracauer

After completing her studies in psychology and working as a playwright, Sophie Linnenbaum studied directing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. In addition to her national and international award-winning short films, she directs series and documentaries. Her first feature film THE ORDINARIES had its international premiere in the main competition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, was awarded the Förderpreis Regie at the Munich Film Festival and won the First Steps Award for Best Evening Feature Film.

Film: The Ordinaries (Regie)
Event: Filme für den Liegestuhl - Wie wird in Filmen gerade erzählt?

Svetlana Svyatskaya studied theater, film and media studies as well as art history at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. For the past ten years, she has worked as a freelance curator for film series and exhibitions, most recently being responsible for film programs on international cinema and television at the Filmkollektiv Frankfurt. Since 2021, she has been responsible for promoting and supporting Frankfurt's film culture events as a consultant for film, visual media and digitization at the Frankfurt Cultural Office.

Event: Wunschprojektion Kino – Filmpaläste und Filmräume der Zukunft

Xenia Klinge is a computational linguist at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI, working on human-centered AI applications in the medical and home domains. Her interests lie in the area of dialogic and creative language processing.

Event: Herr oder Knecht - KI: Die künstliche Intelligenz in der Kulturindustrie

Bettina Blümner is a directing graduate of the Filmakademie Baden- Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. For her first feature film, the documentary PRINZESSINNENBAD, she received the German Film Award in 2007. Further feature films followed (PARCOURS D'AMOUR, SCHERBENPARK, HALBMONDWAHRHEITEN), which have been successfully screened at national and international festivals and cinemas.

Film: Vamos a la Playa (Director)

Julian Vogel was born in Frankfurt am Main and studied at the FU Berlin, the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and the Fémis in Paris. He has made a film about a john who falls in love with a prostitute (TILMAN IM PARADIES, 2011), a film in which realities of residents and planners of a prefab building collide (PALAST, 2013) and a film about his best friend's deceased father (BILDER VOM FLO, 2016). His documentary trilogy EINZELTÄTER, dedicated to people who have lost loved ones in right-wing extremist attacks, will work from 2019 to 2023.

Film: Einzeltäter Teil 3 - Hanau (Director)

Maxi Buck is a freelance filmmaker with a focus on documentary film. Started in 2011 on stage in various theater youth clubs, followed a few years later by first part-time work in the independent theater scene. From 2018, Maxi Buck was active full-time as a freelancer for the "theater 3 hasen oben" in Northern Hesse as a performer and director. Not only in theater, but also in film Maxi Buck developed as an autodidact. In the years 2018-2020 he made his first walking attempts in documentary film and developed works that showed a departure from a profession and pedagog:in at the beginning of the Corona pandemic. After completely shifting his professional focus to film in 2021, he began to follow the story surrounding the court case against imprisoned environmental activist "Ella" with his camera, eventually resulting in his A49 protest portrait "49 Problems (and my future is one)."

Film: 49 Problems (and my future is one) (Director)

Hesam Yousefi is an independent Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker who was born and raised in Piranshahr/Iran in 1989. He has been living in Germany since 2015. From 2009 to 2016, Hesam worked as a freelance human rights journalist. Since 2018, he has been studying "Motion Pictures" at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. He has already gained experience as an editor, director and cinematographer. Hesam produces short and long documentaries with a focus on social issues. "Mina - The Price of Freedom "is a film he developed for a seminar at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and produced on his own.

Film: Mina – Der Preis der Freiheit (Director)

Livia Theuer - after her studies in Munich, she worked as a dramaturge at the Schauspielhaus Bochum and the Schaubühne Berlin; for the last 20 years she has worked as a freelance dramaturge for theater and film, editor, screenwriter, collaborator with Rudolf Thome, lecturer, curator at the Kassel Dokfest; "Das Kino sind wir" is her first film.

Film: Das Kino sind wir

Nadine Zacharias conducted her field research with the camera in indigenous and marginalized communities in the USA and Canada during her master's studies in ethnology, history and archaeology in Freiburg, Seattle and Canterbury. In 2009, she completed her Master of Arts in Visual Anthropology with honors and began postgraduate studies at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg to become a director of educational and scientific films. In three years there, she made two short films, one mid-length and two feature-length films that screened internationally at film festivals and were broadcast on television. Since 2014 Nadine is a freelance director and producer under the film label "Moving Ideas" and with a special focus on socio-political and cultural topics.

Film: Fitness California (Director)

Jan Peters, born in 1966, is known as a filmmaker, but also writes and realizes radio plays and participates in art exhibitions. He studied at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, where he co-founded the filmmaker collective "Abbildungszentrum". In addition to his long-term project "I am...", Peters made numerous award-winning short films (e.g. "Wie ich ein freier Reisebegleiter wurde", 2007, 15 min.) and feature-length films (e.g. "Nichts ist besser als gar Nichts", documentary, 2010, 90 min.), which were presented not only at film festivals and in cinemas, but also in exhibitions (e.g. at the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris).

Film: Eigentlich eigentlich Januar (Director)

Lucie Herrmann studied literature and sociology in Frankfurt. She has produced many films for ARD, among others for hr, WDR, NDR arte and 3sat, e.g.: "Mädels sind toll!" (Female Rockbands), "Oh Horn! Albert Mangelsdorff - Trombone" (direction and production), editor and author "Rückblende" (WDR and hr): "Nur ein paar Augen sein - Die Künstlerin Jeanne Mammen", "Sieghaftes Rot über Bitterfeld - Die Geschichte der Filmfabrik Wolfen", "kinostarts" (hr) and "bücher, bücher" (hr), editor and author, "Von Leinwandgöttinnen und Cybergirls - Vom Wandel des Frauenbilds im Film", Frauenfilmfestival Dortmund.

Film: Talking to you (Director and Producer)

Patrick Büchting was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1998 and grew up in Bonn. Since 2015 he has been studying "Motion Pictures" at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, followed by a Master's degree in "Leadership in the Creative Industries" at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and "Film" at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences. Parallel to his studies he works as 1st and 2nd assistant director. "Tomorrow Somewhere by the Sea" is his debut film as a director.

Film: Morgen irgendwo am Meer (Director)

Anton Algrang grew up in Bruneck/South Tyrol and completed his training as a toolmaker there. 7 years of work experience. From 1990 to 1994 he studied acting in Berlin. With the role of Albert Speer in "Operation Valkyrie", directed by Bryan Singer, countless roles in film and television followed. "The Power of Decision" is his film directing debut.

Kurzfilm: Die Macht der Entscheidung (Director)

Carolin Glomp is an up-and-coming director and screenwriter from Germany. After completing her film studies at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences in 2019, Carolin is working in different areas of the film industry with a focus on directing and screenwriting. She feels especially at home in the comedic field.

Kurzfilm: Plopp (Director)

Michael Schwarz studied film and theater in Mainz, 2011/12 master student of Prof. Dr. Harald Schleicher (Filmklasse Kunsthochschule Mainz). Since then Michael Schwarz works as a freelance director, writer and producer (nachtschwärmerfilm Film- und Fernsehproduktion). His films have been screened at more than 200 national and international festivals and have received several awards, including six predicates from the German Film and Media Rating FBW.

Kurzfilm: Enjoy the Show (Director)

Born in France to Lebanese and Egyptian parents, Valentin Noujaïm holds a degree in political science from the Institut d'études politiques in Lille (2015) and in screenwriting from La Fémis College in Paris (2020). Noujaïm's work focuses on three axes: anti-racist movements, spatial utopias, and the disappearance of communities and individuals. He brings to life marginal and strange characters, in imaginative universes inspired by the genre of the fairy tale, relying on a research on formats, mixing DV, 16mm, digital and special effects. Influenced by social and postcolonial themes, his work questions the power and domination relationships at stake in French society through the prism of a strong ideal: revolutionary love, or the love of revolution.

Kurzfilm: Pacific Club (Director)

Benjamin Fiedler is a screenwriter and director with a focus on short films. He studies Motion Pictures at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and has experience as a Creative Video Producer at Urlaubsguru.de / UNIQ GmbH as well as an independent film producer. Fiedler's work is characterized by a fascination for dark places and the aesthetics of urban spaces.

Kurzfilm: Wenn die Erde stehen bleibt (Director)

Clara Jäschke studied sociology as well as theater, film and media studies in Frankfurt am Main and Vienna. Her previous short films "Long Lonely Nights" and "Nevermind!", for which she was co-writer and director, were shown at festivals in England, Romania, the USA, China and Spain, among others. She is currently in the financing phase of her feature film debut, the concept of which was awarded the BDFA's Material Development Award in 2018.

Kurzfilm: We make home movies therefore we are (Director)

Noreen Erkardas was born in Darmstadt in 1997. Already as a child she wrote her own stories and started to capture them with the camera. Since 2018, Noreen studied "Motion Pictures" at the Media Campus of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences in Dieburg and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2022 with the film "Staudamm". "Dam" is her first scenic and major project as a director.

Kurzfilm: Staudamm (Director)

Benjamin Kessler picked up a camera for the first time at the age of 14 and began to dream of a world that he says he has no idea about. Now he is 23 and the world has changed, he has changed, but the dream is still there.

Kurzfilm: Zwischen uns beiden (Director)

Leonard Mink was born in Bad Soden in 1994. After graduating from high school in 2013, he studied economics (B.Sc.) at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz from 2014. After completing this degree, he studied Motion Pictures (B.A.) at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences from 2017 to 2021. Parallel to his studies, he founded the production company Seehund Media in 2015, where he works as a director and editor.

Kurzfilm: Mauer des Schweigens (Director)

Novruz Hikmet was born in 1989 in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 2010 he graduated from Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts in the field of "Film Directing". Since 2010 he has been living and working in Kiev in the film industry and advertising as a director and 1AD. Since 2015 he is an active member of the organization "Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema". He directed independent short films, which were shown at international festivals.

Kurzfilm: Поки тут тихо. (It is quiet here.) (Director)

Eva Claus is an audiovisual artist and filmmaker. Claus was born in Brussels in 1992 and attended the Friedl Kubelka School for Independent Film in Vienna, Austria, and the Royal Academy of Arts in Ghent, where she received her MFA. Her films have been screened at various international festivals such as Light Field San Francisco, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Moscow International Film Festival, Process Film Festival Riga, Harkat Festival Mumbai, Rencontre International Paris/Berlin and Istanbul International Film Festival. In 2021, it won the public film award at the 22nd Dresden Schmalfilmtage in Dresden.

Film: Any Way

Eunhee Lee was born in 1990. Lee attended the University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany, from 2012 to 2014, where she graduated from Thomas Zipp's class and received her MA from Hito Steyerl's class. She completed her MFA in video art at Korea National University of Arts, Seoul, South Korea, in 2016. Her works have been exhibited and shown internationally. Machines don't die was commissioned by the Seoul Museum of Art in 2022.

Video work: Machines don't die

John Hussain Flindt was born in Manchester, England, in 1993. He studied at Chelsea College of Arts in London from 2013 to 2016 and at Städelschule Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 2018 to 2022. His video installation Tales was recently exhibited at the 39th Kassel Dokfest, where he was awarded the Golden Cube for Best Media Installation.

Installation: Tales

American photographer and filmmaker Laura J. Padgett has lived in Germany for many years and teaches film theory at Goethe University in Frankfurt. She studied painting and film at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn (NY) and film, photography, art history and aesthetics at the Städelschule and Goethe University.

Her short films FRAGMENT (1987) and HILDEGARD VON BINGEN (1990) were shown in Oberhausen, among other venues, and her film SOLITAIRE (2017) was screened at various festivals in North America and Europe, such as the 35th Kassel Dokfest in Germany. In addition, there are numerous international solo and group exhibitions.

Her photographs are part of the collections of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Hamburg), the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, the Deutsche Bank Art Collection and the DZ Bank Kunststiftung.

Nikias Chryssos was born to German-Greek parents near Heidelberg and now lives in Berlin. He studied film and video production in England and directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. During his studies he was selected for the Résidence du Festival de Cannes in Paris. His short films screened at festivals such as Berlinale, Tribeca, Rotterdam and Oberhausen and received numerous international awards.

After founding Kataskop Filmproduktion, he produced his first feature film DER BUNKER in 2015, which premiered at the Berlinale, screened at over 40 festivals and received several international awards.

His second feature film A PURE PLACE, a German-Greek co-production, premiered at the 2021 Munich Film Festival where it won the Best Director Award. In 2022 he shot LEBEN TOD EKSTASE, a TATORT for hr, for which he also served as co-writer.

Since 2017, Thorsten Schaumann has been Artistic Director of the International Hof Film Festival. Previously, he worked as a rights agent and buyer at film festivals around the world, including Berlin, Cannes, Tokyo, Pusan, Hong Kong, etc. for the feature film world distributor Bavaria Film International and subsequently Sky Deutschland.

He is a member of the advisory board film, television, radio of the Goethe Institute, in the program advisory board of the Urania Berlin as well as in the award jury HessenFilm and media for the area "festivals, events and series".

Furthermore, Thorsten Schaumann holds teaching positions at the HFF Munich, the ifs Cologne, the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, the Filmwerkstatt Munich and the DFFB Berlin, among others.

Erin Högerle studied theater, film, and media studies and English at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and completed her doctorate on "Asian American Film Festivals: Frames, Locations, and Performances of Memory" (published by De Gruyter in 2021).

Since 2018, she has been working as a feature film editor at Hessischer Rundfunk and is responsible for the material development and implementation of "Tatort" and "FilmMittwoch" productions. Furthermore, she supervises debut films and cinema co-productions.

Dennis Stein-Schomburg works in animation and interactive media. His short films have been shown worldwide at festivals such as the Berlinale and the Cannes Film Festival (XR). They have received numerous awards, including the German Young Filmmakers Award and the Short Tiger Award.
In 2015, he founded the animation studio "Raumkapsel" (raumkapsel.space) with Martin Schmidt. Together they realize their own and commercial film and series productions, as well as interactive VR experiences and installation in space.
In addition to his work as a producer, he is working and doing his doctorate as an artistic assistant at the Kunsthochschule Kassel.

Lotte Schubert worked for four years as curatorial assistant and co-curator for ACC Galerie Weimar and HALLE 14 in Leipzig. At the same time, she studied graphic design/book arts there at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst.

During her subsequent acting studies at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch Berlin, she appeared at the Schaubühne as Grusche Vachnadze in DER KAUKASISCHE KREIDEKREIS (director: Peter Kleinert) and the short film LEO (director: Rebecca Pap) in the title role.

After graduating in 2021, she took up her first engagement at Schauspiel Frankfurt. In addition to her work on stage, she is active in film and television as well as a voice actress and releases her own music as SMILLA ZORN.

Britta Färber is an art historian and has headed Deutsche Bank's global art programme since 2022. After completing her Master's degree in art history, literature, film and media studies in London, Kiel and Frankfurt, she gained professional experience in various cultural institutions and media as well as an editor at a Frankfurt city magazine and as a freelance art critic and art mediator.

In her role as chief curator and now as head of the art programme, she has worked for the Deutsche Bank Collection and the "Artist of the Year" award, among others, curating exhibitions with artists such as Koki Tanaka, Basim Magdy, Zhang Xu Zhan and most recently LuYang. In collaboration with the Frieze Art Fair in London, New York, Seoul and Los Angeles, she was instrumental in the creation of the Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award.

Liberty Adrien is a curator, art historian and critic. She has been curating Portikus in Frankfurt am Main together with Carina Bukuts since 2022. Liberty Adrien founded the independent art space Âme Nue in Hamburg, dedicated to contemporary art and culture, and the Âme Nue Ateliers in Paris. In 2016, the French Ministry of Culture awarded her a research grant for her study on "the history of works by women artists acquired for the French national collections, from 1791 to the present day". Since then, she has collaborated with the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP) and the Institut français Paris to present exhibitions of video works from French collections in several European cities. In 2021, Liberty Adrien was artistic director of the art space Les Vitrines at the Institut français Berlin and curated with Carina Bukuts the project Balade Berlin: An Exhibition Parcours in Public Space, for which she collaborated with the artists Haris Epaminonda, Christine Sun Kim, Jumana Manna, Ulrike Ottinger, Bettina Pousttchi, Willem de Rooij, Jimmy Robert, Slavs and Tatars.

Saul Judd, a freelance curator in Frankfurt, is responsible for the video art section at the LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International. As part of the festival, he conceived exhibitions with renowned artists such as Keren Cytter and Mike Bouchet until he initiated the LICHTER Art Award in 2011. Since 2015 he has been curating the LICHTER International Shorts Film Programme. Other projects include BLANK SLATE, a publication on art, architecture and design, and since January 2016 SCHAUT! - an exhibition series at the MAL SEH'N cinema in Frankfurt. As guest curator of the Double Feature film series at the Schirn Kunsthalle, he presented the artist John Skoog in 2017.