In addition to Cologne and Düsseldorf, Westphalia also offers a wide range of film locations and exciting opportunities to strengthen the region as a production location and specifically promote up-and-coming filmmakers. In this context, two industry days for up-and-coming filmmakers in Westphalia are being organised as part of the Münster Film Festival.
All interested parties are invited to take part in the events – with the aim of networking up-and-coming filmmakers in Westphalia and promoting dialogue between them.
Friday 26 September will be dedicated to pitching. At the first pitching session, up-and-coming filmmakers from the region will present their current material to a jury of experts in order to receive a production cost subsidy from the Münster Cultural Office for the following year.
The second session presents treatment material that has been further developed as part of the Filmwerkstatt Münster screenplay class. Industry representatives will be invited to discuss the developed film material and further prepare the productions.
Case studies are also planned in which subsidised film projects will report on their productions in Westphalia – about the challenges they encountered and what worked particularly well.
On Saturday, 27 September, a panel for up-and-coming filmmakers in the region will take place together with Kinofest Lünen, Filmbüro NW and Netzwerk Filmkultur NRW entitled: “Filmnachwuchs im Finanzierungsdilemma – Wege aus der precarären Förderung”. Together with experts, filmmakers and industry representatives, we want to shed light on possible solutions and discuss what fairer and more accessible film funding could look like.
This will be followed by a masterclass with the director and author Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay and the producer Claus Herzog-Reichel, the managing directors of the Cologne-based production company filmfaust GmbH. In the masterclass for up-and-coming filmmakers in the region, they will talk openly about first steps, stumbling blocks and new paths in the film business. They will also discuss how to think differently about films, how to finance them differently – and how to assert oneself in a changing industry.
The two latest films from filmfaust GmbH, Hysteria by Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay and Sirens Call by Miri Ian Gossing & Lina Sieckmann, celebrated their premieres at this year’s Berlinale. Their production Liebe, D-Mark und Tod won the Grimme Prize in 2024. Büyükatalay’s debut film Oray was honoured as Best First Feature at the 2019 Berlinale.
Paula Essam will moderate both events.
Filmwerkstatt Münster
Filmbüro NW
Netzwerk Filmkultur NRW
Kinofest Lünen
The Münster Film Festival is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the City of Münster, the Westfalen Initiative Foundation and the Münster Foundation of Sparda-Bank West.
