Closing Panel: Future German Film
Presentation of Congress findings
Ellen M. Harrington, Martin Hagemann, Alfred Holighaus and Claudia Dillmann
Host: Michael Hack
After two days of hard work, we end with the findings and results of the Congress on the Future of German Film: How can film funding, training and film culture in Germany be advanced? The results presented in this closing panel attempt to be concrete calls to action to the film political decisionmakers in Germany.
Ellen M. Harrington is, since January 2018, the director of the German Film Institute and the German Filmmuseum in Frankfurt. Formerly she was working for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills since 1993, where she acted as “Director of Exhibitions, Public Film Programs and International Outreach” and was responsible for roughly 80 exhibitions and more than 500 film events.
Martin Hagemann is a producer and acting director for zero fiction film, where among other films he produced “The Turin Horse” by Béla Tarr. He is a member of the standard committee of the FFA and on the board of the DFFF. As a lecturer he taught at the Film University Konrad Wolf in Babelsberg. Hagemann is the host of the roundtable talk “Funding and Financing”.
Alfred Holighaus is the president of the Spitzenorganisation der Filmwirtschaft (SPIO). After working in film economy he founded the Berlinale section “Perspektive Deutsches Kino” in 2001, which he directed until 2010. Following that he was the acting director of the Deutsche Filmakademie. Holighaus is the host of the roundtable talk “Training and Youth”.
Claudia Dillmann is a film scholar. From 1997 until 2017 she directed the German Filminstitute, which merged with the German Filmmuseum Frankfurt in 2006. From 2004 to 2012 she was the president of the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE). Under her leadership, the internet portal of German film filmportal.de was created in 2005. Dillmann is the host of the roundtable talk “Distribution and Cinema Culture”.
Michael Hack is a festival maker, political consultant and translator. Having been the head of programme until 2014, he is still active as a consultant for the LICHTER Film Festival. In Berlin he is the acting director of the “Week of Criticism”, instated by the Verband der deutschen Filmkritik and accompanying the Berlinale.
