In the LICHTER anniversary year, Doris Dörrie, one of the most successful German directors, took over the LICHTER patronage – and this woman is what we call a real multi-talent. She directs, produces, teaches and writes books. Her films, such as Männer, Ich und Er, Bin ich schön?, Kirschblüten – Hanami and Glück, are box-office hits that show the potential of German cinema. But they are anything but ordinary. In her stories Dörrie breaks with taboos and makes us read between the lines. Her theme is the interpersonal, from whose supposed everyday life she subtly teases out the special. Regardless of whether it's about love in old age or the question of how far we would go for another loved one, Dörrie's characters live for the moment. The emotional state of emergency resonates constantly. Not infrequently it bubbles enormously under the seemingly so ordinary surface, until it finally comes to the inevitable "bang". That's exactly what drives the filmmaker after all these years, as she likes to reveal in interviews. 

Doris Dörrie discovered her love for film early on. After school she moved to the USA in 1973, where she first studied film in California and later in New York. Back in Germany she enrolled at the Academy of Film and Television in 1975. At the same time, she worked as an editorial assistant and film critic for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Dörrie finally achieved her breakthrough with the film Mitten ins Herz, originally planned as a WDR television production. The story about the 22-year-old cashier Anna Blume with Beate Jensen and Josef Bierbichler in the leading roles impressed so much that she quickly flickered over the screen at the Venice Film Festival and won the audience prize and a sponsorship award at the Max Ophüls Film Festival. Her two film comedies Männer (1985) and Ich und Er (1988) finally made her popular in Germany. 

Since 1997 Doris Dörrie has been a professor of applied dramaturgy and script development at the Munich University of Television and Film. She has also published various non-fiction, novels and children's books. She has directed several operas at the Berliner Staatsoper, including Cosi fan Tutte, for whose unusual staging she was highly praised by critics and the press. We are pleased to welcome you to the 10th LICHTERFilmfest in Frankfurt. 

Doris Dörrie presented her film Grüße aus Fukushima on 29 March.

Niko Apel was born on the 15th of December 1978 in Frankfurt/Main. During his school years, he worked as a projectionist at a repertory cinema in Frankfurt and began to shoot first short films. Between 2002 and 2007, he studied Documentary Film Direction at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. His degree film Sonbol was awarded the “first steps award” as well as the “Grimmepreis”. Other feature-length documentary films followed such as Von Kindern (ZDF 2010), Freispielen (arte 2012) and On the road with Socrates (arte 2014), all of which attracted much attention at national as well as international festivals.

Born in Stuttgart, Nicole Baum has been living in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen since 1994. After studying Romance and German Studies in Strasbourg, Freiburg and Berlin, as well as absolving a newspaper internship, she worked as a freelancer for print media, radio and television. Since 2001, Baum has been an editor at ZDF/3sat in Mainz, supervising documentary films for the cinema at the 3sat film section, among others, the films Arteholic by Hermann Vaske and Endstation der Sehnsüchte by Sung Hyung Cho, both of which were shown at LICHTER.

Betty Berr staged numerous contemporary, frequently musical plays as theater director. In addition to her work as an actress for film and television, she also appears in theatere performances. Especially worth mentioning amongst her roles are Le terre au ventre by Tony Gatlaf, No man's land by Alain Tanner or France tour detour 2 enfants by Jean-Luc Godard. Together with Rainer Wothe, she has been managing the Cinéma de Contis and the Festival international de Contis for more than 20 years.

Rainer Wothe has worked as a stage designer with many theater directors and choreographers such as Ion Omesco and Régis Obadia. He is also a producer of the performing arts and short films and worked with Hanna Schygulla on texts such as by Jean-Claude Carrière. As the founder of the A CONTIS association, he is responsible for international partnerships as the ambassador for cultural diversity.

Numan Acar is a German actor and film producer of Turkish origin. He is a producer specializing in German-Turkish productions. As an actor he has appeared in various Turkish and German productions. He is the founder of the film production Acar Entertainment, and in 2007 he worked as a producer on the Turkish series Menekse Ve Halil, which was shot in Berlin. In 2014 he was awarded the Hessian Film Prize in the category of screenplay for Weihnachten unter dem Halbmond.

Mischka Popp studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater. She then worked at various theatres in West-Germany and Switzerland. Since 1973, she works together with Thomas Bergmann. Together they develop and produce FS formats in the field of education and social policy. Mischka shot films for the ARD and the ZDF. Her topics: countryside, province, German everyday life. In 1983, she founded the company PILOTFILM GMBH. Amongst Mischkas’s works are Mazel Tov (2009), Augenlied (2003), Kopfleuchten (1998), Herzfeuer (1993), Die potemkinsche Stadt (1988), Higgs (2000), 90 Jahre plus (2006), Der Rauch der Träume (2007). Mischka has been honoured with numerous national and international awards and prizes, including the Hessischer Filmpreis, Grimme Preis, Kulturpreis des Landes Hessen, Goethe Plakette, Robert Geisendörfer-Preis, Deutscher Sozialpreis, Ökomedia-Preis, Premiere-Preis, Öngören Preis für Demokratier und Menschenrechte, 1.Preis Jewish Film Festival Berlin, Prix Leonardo as well as awards from various US film festivals. Mischka Popp works as an author and filmmaker and lives in Frankfurt am Main.

The actor Reza Brojerdi, born 1983 in Iran, has lived in Germany since the age of two. Raised in Melle, Lower Saxony, he relocated as a teenager with his family to Bielefeld. In 2006, he moved to Berlin where he has lived since. Brojerdi played various roles, amongst others in the television series Notruf Hafenkante and in several film series such as Unter Verdacht next to Senta Berger and Ulrich Tukur. End of 2011, he appeared in a Köln Tatort with Klaus J. Behrendt and Dietmar Bär. In 2015, he played a guest part as Hanif in the US television series Homeland, season 5.

Over many years, Pepe Danquart has made a name for himself as an internationally renown director. Having started in the late '60s with his first Super-8 films, he co-founded the Medien-Werkstatt Freiburg (MWF) in 1977. Between 1978 to 1991, this film collective produced more than 30 documentary films, in which he participated as author, director and producer. Among others, Pepe Danquart was awarded the Oscar® for the Best Short Film for Schwarzfahrer (1994). Since then, Danquart continously works on nationally and internationally influential and distinguished productions. The most recent award added was the accolade for the “Beste Regie Kinder- und Jugendfilm“ for Lauf Junge, lauf! as part of the BVR’s director award Metropolis in 2014. His latest film Auf der anderen Seite ist das Gras viel grüner was released in 2016.

Robert Hertel is a producer from Frankfurt / Main. He is a founding member of 'Goldhamster Film' and has been successfully producing short films and documentaries since 2009. Image and advertising films are also part of his portfolio. For several years now, he has increasingly been working in the field of feature films and has been working as a post-production manager and production manager for TV and cinema productions in Hessen (i.e. Ein Atem, Jugend ohne Gott, Tatort and Taunuskrimi).

Born in Frankfurt, Sylvie Hohlbaum lives and works in Hamburg as a freelance writer, director and lecturer for non-fiction films. Already during her film studies at the HfG in Offenbach, her films were characterised by detailed observations and subtle humor. Her attention thereby is turned to sociological phenomena and subcultures. Among her most famous films is the award-winning short film Beige, which is about older people’s penchant for the color beige and, noticeable only at second glance, a self-deprecating generational study. Occasionally, Sylvie Hohlbaum also plays with the audience’s ability to observe and invites it to have a close look to check whether the narrated content really corresponds to the truth.

Her love for film led her to television. After an internship at the arts section of the Hessischer Rundfunk, Christel Schmidt worked as a film critic for many years and later, as an editor and director in different formats, genres and stations (hr, 3sat, ARD). As author she shoots many documentary films and is awarded the Regino-Preis for Die großen Kriminalfälle - Familienbande. Between 2011 and 2015, she heads the hr-Filmförderung, marrying her enthusiasm for film and filmmakers. As part of the Hessischer Film und Kinopreis, Christel Schmidt is responsible for the Hessischer Fernsehpreis (Best Actress/Actor).

Ralph Benz has been working as a TV editor for 22 years, focusing on IT technology topics. The certifyable geek and nerd, who was responsible amongst other for the well-known computer broadcast “Neues” on 3sat, worked for the computer/games/culture TV magazine “Pixelmacher” and was responsible for the e-sports magazine “FTW” on ZDFKultur . Next to his current 2D-TV work for the 3sat magazines “Nano” and “Scobel”, he has been preoccupied with VR/AR for several years and is a member of a 360-degree video development group at ZDF/3sat.

Eckart Köberich has been Head of VR at ZDF Digital since February 2017. From end of 2014 to January 2017 he directed the 360° and VR development project for the ZDF [Second German Television]. During this time over 30 ZDF 360° productions, as well as VR platforms for IOS, Android, Google Daydream and the web platform VR.ZDF.DE. were created. The ZDF Digital VR Unit, formed in 2016, produces 360° films, interactive virtual reality applications and actively participates in and promotes the research of the new VR medium. This is also the case with this year's VR conference and VR fair as part of the 10th LICHTER Filmfest.

Marco Heutink is a user experience designer for virtual reality projects at Cheil. He designs captivating, immersive worlds in virtual reality through the skillful combination of intuitive interaction and 360°-storytelling. In 2015, he co-produced the VR video series “VR the FUTURE” for Samsung. He was Lead Creative for the award-winning VR video platform “Samsung Discovr”, which went online for the first time in September 2016.

Kay Meseberg studied political science at the University of Potsdam and graduated with a diploma. After having been stationed at the ARD programme Polylux and journalistic activity for various ARTE formats and the 3sat programme FOYER, he has been an online editor and TV author for the investigative ZDF magazine Frontal 21 for many years. Since the end of the 90s and parallel to his TV career, Meseberg was involved in the conception and implementation of many online projects like Polylog.tv for Polylux and Berlinfolgen.de together with the taz and 2470media. In 2013, he joined ARTE where he was involved in the development of the ARTE FUTURE thematic product. Since the success of the Polar Sea 360° project, Meseberg has been working on the implementation of content in a 360° video viewer and virtual reality. He has also been involved in the conception and editorial support of many successful, innovative web formats such as ScrollDocs and WebDokus. Meseberg has received numerous awards for his work, including three Grimme Online Awards, the Deutscher Reporterpreis, the Deutscher Wirtschaftsfilmpreis and a LEAD Award.

Astrid Kahmke has been directing the First Movie Program at the Bayerisches Filmzentrum since 2012. In 2015, she launched the “Immersive storytelling 360°Hackathon” and directed “Vr Creators' Lab”. Since October 2016, she curates the international conference “I4C”, which deals with Content Creation for Virtual Worlds. On the 6th of April, the next “I4C – spring into 360°” will take place in Munich.

Saul Judd, (born 1963, Brazil) freelance curator in Frankfurt, is responsible for the video art section of the Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International. Within the context of the festival, he designed exhibitions with renowned artists such as Keren Cytter and Mike Bouchet, until he launched the LICHTER Art Award in 2011. His current projects are Blank Slate, a publication on art, architecture and design, and since January 2016, together with the film- and cinema-maker Gunter Deller, SCHAUT!, an exhibition series at the Mal Seh'n cinema in Frankfurt.

Olaf Stüber is a gallery owner, curator and publisher for contemporary art and film. In 2008, he and Ivo Wessel founded the international platform Videoart at midnight at Babylon Kino in Berlin. In addition, he gives lectures and holds workshops, in particular on art films and videos, curates programmes for institutions, trade fairs and festivals. He was a member of the jury of the Videokunstförderpreis Bremen 2009, the Dokumentar und Videofest Kassel 2012, the Videonale at the Kunstmuseum Bonn 2013, the EMAF – European media art festival in Osnabrück 2015 and, most recently, Filmwinter 2017 in Stuttgart.

Mathilde Ter Heijne (born in 1969, Strasbourg, France) lives as an artist in Berlin and has been a professor for Visual Art / Media, Installation and Performance at KUNSTHOCHSCHULE KASSEL since 2011. She completed her art studies in the Netherlands at the Stadsacademie in Maastricht and the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. Mathilde ter Heijne's artistic practice is informed by feminist thinking which she links with her interest in the historical composition of social minorities and current power structures. Her installations, performances and videos were included in numerous national and international exhibitions, such as the Haus am Lützowplatz, the Museum für neue Kunst Freiburg, the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam or the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst Zürich.

Edgar Reitz is a filmmaker, author and university teacher. Born and raised in Morbach im Hunsrück, Reitz studied German, Journalism and Theatre Studies in Munich. Since 1957 he has been working as a cameraman and director. Reitz taught directing and photography at the "Institut für Filmgestaltung" (Institute for Film Design) at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm (the first film school in Germany) for eight years. His first feature film Mahlzeiten, which today is one of the most influential works of the so called "Young German Film", was awarded a prize at the 1967 Venice Film Festival. Since the mid-1970s, Reitz has published numerous texts and works on film theory and film aesthetics, but also stories, essays, poetry and literary versions of his films. In 1995, he founded the "European Institute of Cinema Film, EIKK" in Karlsruhe, which he led until 1998. Since 1994 he has been Professor of Film at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe. His most important films include: Cardillac, Die Reise nach Wien, Der Schneider von Ulm, Stunde Null and the world-famous Heimat-Trilogie (home trilogy), which consists of 31 full-length individual films to create a century-long epic and, with over 54 hours of playing time, is one of the most extensive narrative cinematographic works in film history. Together with his son Christian Reitz, he also founded Reitz & Reitz Medien in Munich. 

After two years of intensive preparatory work, research and the collection of material, Edgar Reitz ties in with his homeland in 2012 and shoots the German-French cinema co-production Die andere Heimat in Hunsrück, where he tells a family history in the 19th century, at the time of mass emigration from Germany to North and South America. The film was screened at LICHTER in the presence of Edgar Reitz in 2016.

Edgar Reitz is a member of several academies such as the Akademie der Künste Berlin, the Europäische Film-Akademie and the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste. His films have won awards all over the world and have been honoured by various European universities. These include among others the Golden Lion of Honour of the Biennale di Venezia, six national film awards, four Adolf Grimme Prizes, Luchino Visconti Prize, Federico Fellini Award, Premio Opera d' Autore, Carl-Zuckmayer-Medal, State Art Prize Rhineland-Palatinate, Cultural Honorary Prize of the City of Munich, Konrad-Wolf Prize of the Academy of Arts, German Television Prize,"Kulturgroschen" of the German Cultural Council, and more. In 2006 he received the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Edgar Reitz lives in Munich with his wife, the singer and actress Salome Kammer.

At LICHTER, Max Linz is anything but an unknown film star. With Die Finanzen des Großherzogs Radikant (2011) and Asta Upset (Ich will mich nicht künstlich aufregen, 2014), the Frankfurt native and Berliner-by-choice has shown young political cinema here at LICHTER. The creative provocateur caused a sensation with the web series Das Oberhausener Gefühl (2012), in which he pointedly analyses the conditions of artistic work with his camera. Linz has graduated from the Freie Universität Berlin and the Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris in film studies and has studied direction at the Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB).

Barbara Schweizerhof has studied theater arts, Slavistics and Eastern European history at the Freie Universität Berlin. Subsequent to her studies, as editor of the weekly newspaper der Freitag she found her way to feuilleton. Many a hundred thousand typed characters later, she specialized in moving images at the monthly epd Film. Ever since, she has been covering the works of the Coen brothers and other film stars, the Cannes and Venice film festivals as well as the latest hits of the Pixar-Disney film factory. As a juror, she has proved her good eye for the best international films at Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, and Oberhausen.

Being an unconventional director, author, and producer, Hermann Vaske stirs up the international film industry. For his films he works with great actors such as Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel, Sir Peter Ustinov, and John Cleese. At Saatchi & Saatchi, London and at the FCB Hamburg he operated as Creative Director. His films and ads have been awarded numerous distinctions, among others the Grimme-Preis and a Cannes lion. Last year, LICHTER showed his production Arteholic, in which film legend and art lover Udo Kier invites us on a journey to Europe’s best museums.

As an actor, Stipe Erceg is a specialist for the torn types: sometimes impulsive, other times broken, sometimes rebellious, vicious or even weird. As The Man (Der Typ, 2003), Erceg has called attention to himself on a ramble through the Frankfurt nightlife. One year later, he had his breakthrough in The Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei). In Bernd Eichinger and Uli Edel’s film version of The Baader Meinhof Complex (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex) he impersonated the RAF terrorist Holger Meins. In 2010, he shared the screen with Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger in the Berlin thriller Unknown White Male. As a producer, Erceg pursues projects combining film and theater. For his cinematic works he has won several awards, such as the “Förderpreis Deutscher Film”, the “Max-Ophüls-Preis”, and the “Hessischer Filmpreis” film awards.

Nico Sommer has studied feature and documentary film direction as well as visual communication in Kassel. During his studies, he has founded the production company suesssauerfilm. In 2008, he made his feature-length film debut with Stiller Frühling, which has been honored at the Dokfest Kassel. In the following years, Sommer shot several short films, some repeatedly prizewinning, as well as the pseudo-documentary Solokind (2010). Sommer’s feature film Silvi (2013) had its debut at the Berlinale and received the “Preis des Verbands der deutschen Filmkritik” film prize at the Achtung Berlin Filmfestival. His cinema film Familienfieber (2014) has been awarded multiple times, among others at the Max Ophüls film festival, and has been screened at LICHTER in 2015.

Following her study of cultural science and theater arts, Linda Söffker worked as the program coordinator of the “Zeughauskino des Deutschen Historischen Museums”. In 1999, she transferred to the Berlinale where she has been head of the “Sektion Perspektive Deutsches Kino” since 2010. Furthermore, she is very active in film events such as DOKU.ARTS and Newcomer. Repeatedly, she has been a member of film and funding juries. Occasionally, Linda Söffker is the author of publications about film and cinema (2006: Co-editor of a monograph about Aki Kaurismäki).

Isabel Berghout was born in the Netherlands in 1987 and grew up bilingually in Frankfurt. During her school days she discovered her passion for theater and after graduation started acting at the youth club of the Schauspiel Frankfurt. From 2008 to 2012, Isabel Berghout received training at the Schauspielhaus Salzburg and appeared in numerous theater plays. Engagements at the Ernst-Deutsch Theater in Hamburg, the Theater Hof and the theater in Bern followed quickly. Since 2011, Isabel Berghout has also been working for film and television. She has been playing the Dutch police woman “Anneke van der Meer” as part of the team of the ZDF crime series SOKO Wismar since 2014.

Born in Cologne, Lilli Kobbe has been home at the Hessischer Rundfunk since 1996. There, as an editor of the television and feature film department, she supervises the powerful Hessian Tatort, the Mittwochsfilm, as well as cinema co-productions. Especially fascinating is her sense for outstanding regional academy films, which she presents several times a year in the series frischfilm on Hessischer Rundfunk television. Dr. Lilli Kobbe has studied theater arts, art history, and philosophy in Vienna. As an artist, she exhibits her paintings and drawings regularly.

Hendrik Maximilian Schmitt was born in Fulda in 1985. From 2005 to 2013 he studied visual communication at the film department of the Kunsthochschule Kassel. His graduation film Tschüss Papa has been awarded the Goldener Spatz and the Studio Hamburg Nachwuchspreis young talents’ awards for best short film. Schmitt’s short films have been showing worldwide at more than 100 festivals and have won more than 25 prizes and distinctions, among others the ratings “Wertvoll” [valuable] and “Besonders wertvoll” [particularly valuable] of the Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW). Since graduation, he has been working for film, web, and television production companies, among others for ZDF Enterprise and DCM Pictures. Currently, he is developing his feature-length film debut.

Saul Judd freelance curator in Frankfurt, is responsible for the video art section of the Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International. Within the context of the festival, he designed exhibitions with renowned artists such as Keren Cytter and Mike Bouchet, until he launched the LICHTER Art Award in 2011. His current projects are Blank Slate, a publication on art, architecture and design, and since January 2016, together with the film- and cinema-maker Gunter Deller, SCHAUT!, an exhibition series at the Mal Seh'n cinema in Frankfurt.

Vivien Trommer is a curator and author. In 2015 she was selected curator of the MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38, New York. There she presented exhibitions including Natural Flavor with Kate Newby, Growing Horns with Anna-Sophie Berger, and Zuzanna Czebatul's US debut Opus Sectile. Together with Mario Pfeifer she produced #blacktivist, a video work in which the Flatbush Zombies played along. In 2014 she curated the exhibition Experience Economy (2014) at the Salzburg Kunstverein. Between 2012 and 2014 she was employed as curatorial assistant at the Kunsthalle Wien. Trommer has written articles for magazines and magazines such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frieze d/e and KubaParis.

Fabian Schöneich is curator at Portikus in Frankfurt am Main. He works as a consultant curator for the exhibition space SALTS in Basel/Birsfelden, as a consultant for the Focus, Frame and Live area of the art fair Frieze in London and New York. He has also realised a large number of solo and group exhibitions for the Ursula Blickle Foundation, among others. As assistant curator at the Kunsthalle Basel between 2012 and 2014, he has twice curated the performance project of the LISTE art fair in Basel. Prior to that, in 2011 at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, he worked as assistant curator, coordinating the exhibition Melanchotopia and the associated accompanying educational programme.

Christoph Thoke is the co-producer of our award-winning opening film 2014 Of Horses and Men as well as many other films. His productions have been invited to the competitions in Cannes, Venice and Berlin as well as selected for the competition for the European Film Prize, the Golden Globes and the Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category. He has worked with well-known directors such as Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Thoke is present in the Rhine-Main region with its production company Mogador Film.

Tatjana Turanskyj studied humanities in Frankfurt a. M. and has been working in the performance and video field since 1999. As a member of the performance film collective hangover ltd. she made successful films, including the Oberhausen award-winning short film Remake. In 2008 she and Jan Ahlrichs founded the film production turanskyj & ahlrichs, which produced the following feature films A Flexible Woman and Top Girl. Turanskyj's current film Athens – disorientation is not a crime that she made together with documentary filmmaker Marita Neher is in post-production. Turanskyj is currently working on the screenplay for High Potential, the third part of the "Women and Work Trilogy". Tatjana Turanskyj is a co-founder of the ProQuote Directing initiative, an association of female directors who are committed to promoting, among other things, a quota for the awarding of film and television directorships in order to achieve greater gender equality in the film industry.

Anne Ratte-Polle is a theatre, film and television actress. After studying in Münster, she trained as an actress at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock. At the Volksbühne Berlin she worked with René Pollesch, Frank Castorf, Dimiter Gotscheff, Werner Schroeter and Herbert Fritsch. Her first movie starring role was in Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder by Romuald Karmakar alongside Frank Gierig. She also shot with Andreas Dresen (Willenbrock) and Nicolas Wackerbarth (Halbschatten). Most recently, she appeared in two leading roles at the Berlinale as Wanja (director: Carolina Hellsgård) and Sybille (director: Michael Krummenacher).

Martina Valentina Baumgartner, born 1974 in Frankfurt am Main, is the art director of major films such as Der Vorleser (2008), Barbara (2012) and Ich und Kaminski (2013). Her LICHTER appearance in 2009 as head chef of the Friday kitchen alongside her Italian mom is legendary and unforgettable. Now she wants to follow in the footsteps of her father Karl Baumgartner and mix up the film industry as a produceer.

Stefan Kriekhaus, born 1968 in Haan, grew up in Gießen. Since 1998 he has been working as a freelance author, among others as co-author of Henner Wincklers Klassenfahrt (2002) and LuCy (2006). In 2005 he realized his first short film (Baden). In 2013, he won the Silver Bear of the Short Film Jury in the Berlinale competition for his short film Die Ruhe bleiben.

Achim Forst, born 1955, studied German language and literature, journalism and musicology in Berlin. After a traineeship, he worked as a freelance music and film critic. From 1977 he worked as a film and music journalist. He has also worked at film festivals such as the Berlinale and Filmfest München. Since 1991, he has been editor of the ZDF's 3sat film department. There he realized documentaries, among others about Eastern European cinema such as Russische Realitäten (2014). He published the book "Breaking the Dreams - Das Kino des Lars von Trier" and two films about the dogma filmmaker.

Director Leander Haußmann not only is one of the best in his profession, this year's festival theme "Humor and Comedy" has also become Haußmann's showpiece discipline since his award-winning debut film Sonnenallee (1999).

Haußmann, born in Quedlinburg in 1959, began his career as a theatre actor in the 1980s, but soon drew attention to himself with his directing talent. In 1995 he was finally appointed director of the Schauspielhaus Bochum. One year later he was shooting Detlev Buck's comedy Männerpension, also with Til Schweiger and Heike Makatsch. Also in the film business he quickly sat in the director's chair.

Sonnenallee is followed in 2003 by the filming of the novel Mr. Lehmann and in 2005 by the comedy NVA, in which Haußmann also satirically examines his own military service in the GDR. Haußmann's pensioner comedy Dinosaurier – Gegen uns seht ihr alt aus! 2009 not only received the title "Valuable" from FBW, but also won the Ernst Lubitsch Prize. Two years later he was able to build on this success with his Hotel Lux, which won an award for being particularly valuable, and he remained true to his humorous concept in his latest film Hai-Alarm am Müggelsee (2013).

As part of the film festival, Haußmann showed his controversially discussed tragic comedy from the year 2011 Hotel Lux about the emigrant hotel in 1930s Stalinist Moscow (D 2011, with Michael "Bully" Herbig, Jürgen Vogel, Thekla Reuter).

Director (Documentaries)

Film Producer

Director of "goEast - Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden."

Film Critic and Journalist

Actress

Managing Director and Producer of Kontrastfilm

With Volker Schlöndorff, a director takes on the patronage for LICHTER, who supports the German film landscape and propagates and lives its international opening.

Schlöndorff, born and raised in the Rhine-Main region, lived in Paris, New York and Berlin. After years of apprenticeship with masters such as Jean-Pierre Melville, Louis Malle, Alain Resnais and a collaboration with Jean-Daniel Pollet, he wrote film history with his own works. Among them are "Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum","Tod eines Handlungsreisenden" or "Die Blechtrommel", for which he won the Golden Palm in Cannes and the Oscar for the best foreign-language film.

Together with the organisers, the new patron wants to make the festival even better known - even beyond the borders of the Rhine-Main region. The collaboration is not only planned for the sixth edition of LICHTER, but also for a longer period of time.

Film Producer

Director

Film Producer

Director of the Film Evaluation Board

Director

Actress

Actress

Director

Film Critic

Director

Managing Director Voluntary Self-monitoring of the Film Industry

Head of department at the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and director of the Lünen Film Festival

Editor-in-Chief EPD Film

Film Scientist // Media Professor Goethe University Frankfurt

Director

Director

Cinematographer

Film Producer