This is how Robert Redford described his reaction to the developments he observed in his early years in the film business in an interview with Indiewire in 2013. And this prompted him to found the Sundance Institute and establish the Sundance Film Festival to showcase all the exciting new voices in the world. There is certainly no other place in the world that has since become as relevant to independent
As announced at the press conference of the Max Ophüls Prize film festival on January 15, contrary to his agenda of politically recognizing and supporting film culture and the film industry in all its diversity, Minister of State for Media Wolfram Weimer has significantly reduced BKM funding for a select group of German film festivals by 2026. This decision stands in direct contrast to the increase in federal funding for
With the statement “It is important that they leave the cinema different from when they entered,” Christoph Terhechte expresses one of his core concerns as a long-time director of various film festivals in an interview, describing an essential characteristic of film festivals: their impact. The entire interview can be found in issue 4/2025 of Communicatio Socialis and is available to read free of charge in German here.
While some federal states are being forced to significantly reduce, if not eliminate, funding for their own film festival landscape, Baden-Württemberg is introducing its own funding guidelines for smaller film festivals in order to support both access to film culture and the film industry. In addition, with this measure, the federal state is pursuing the goal of contributing to the professionalization of film festivals and thus strengthening their future viability
The Federal Association of Municipal Film Work (BkF) invites you to Dresden for its annual congress from November 20 to 23 2025. Under the motto “Growing Together – Cinema Culture in East & West,” the event will focus on differences and similarities, historical developments, and Needs of cinema culture in the eastern and western German states and create space for exchange.The congress program can be found here
The figures show a welcome upward trend not only in terms of the number of arthouse cinema tickets sold, which rose by 1 million compared to the previous year, but also in terms of the importance of arthouse cinemas in the German cinema market. In 2024, the share of arthouse cinema tickets in the overall market rose to 15 percent, and there was also an increase in the share of
With the publication of the 69th edition of the Film Statistics Yearbook by the umbrella organization of the film industry (SPIO), the analyses of the entire film distribution chain also include current data on the development of the German film festival sector. A key finding is that in 2024, the sector will return to its pre-pandemic growth trajectory, with 14 new companies being founded and only six liquidations (previous year:
While the third update of the Baden-Württemberg Film Concept in 2020 once again confirmed the growing cultural and social value of film festivals, it also came with an urgent recommendation that cultural policy decisions regarding the film festival sector should be based on empirically obtained data in the future. Against this backdrop, at the end of 2023, the Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg commissioned an inventory
Activists recently received strong support for Netzwerk Quote Ost’s demand to give East German (narrative) perspectives a platform alongside those of a small privileged circle of filmmakers such as Andreas Dresen, Leander Haußmann, and Christian Schwochow through two studies: One was the study commissioned by Producers of Germany (PROG) and conducted by Goldmedia East German Perspectives In Film and Series, and the other was the expanded study conducted by Hoferichter
Under the label 100 Zeros, the media giant is now entering the co-production and co-financing business in cooperation with Range Media Partners, a talent incubator and production company. With the aim of appealing to younger target groups in particular, 100 Zeros was already involved in the marketing of the German independent horror film “Cuckoo”. This makes it clear that Google’s interest is not solely focused on in-house productions.