Aaand Action! Supporting filmmakers worldwide

Text: Miriam Hoffmeyer

The many different postgraduate courses in film offered by German universities are attractive to international graduates. Interest in DAAD scholarships in this area is particularly noticeable in the countries of the Global South. In 2024, nearly 70 inter­national graduates applied for a scholarship to study in ­Germany. Funding is provided for complete courses of postgraduate and advanced study that German universities offer in various areas – from traditional film studies to storytelling and production techniques for digital media, film editing, film music and sound to marketing and public relations. “Berlin University of the Arts, Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and Internationale Filmschule Köln are particularly popular with international postgraduates interested in scholarships,” says Luca Richardt, Team Leader at the DAAD’s Scholarships department. Together with his team, he is responsible for all film programmes worldwide.

Most applicants from Germany want to go to the USA or another European country such as France, the United Kingdom, Italy or the Benelux countries. Various funding opportunities are ­available for film students and graduates from ­Germany: from short-term stays abroad – in order to research a film project, for instance – to a ­semester or even full postgraduate course abroad.

Selection committees determine which applications that meet all formal requirements will be granted funding. All scholarship applicants from Germany are interviewed in person by the committee and present samples of their work. The proced­ure is somewhat different in the case of inter­national applicants: the committee members divide up applications among themselves, review the work samples and make a preliminary selection. “I am convinced by films that demonstrate a clear ­artistic stance, portray their own viewpoint and express a palpable need to tell their particular story,” says film expert René Harder, a professor of drama at Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in Alfter. “I first attempt to watch the film as a person rather than as an expert: am I interested in this film, does it broaden my horizon? A technical analysis of the film’s direction, editing, sound design and so on only follows in a second step.” He adds that perfection in terms of filmmaking craftsmanship is a benefit, but that that alone is not the decisive factor: “We are not so much interested in rudimentary skills.”

“I am looking for something in which the artistic drive predominates but the work still requires further experimentation and development.”

Theda Nilsson-Eicke, a junior professor in stage setting and costume design at Dresden Academy of Fine Arts

Theda Nilsson-Eicke, a junior professor in stage setting and costume design at Dresden ­Academy of Fine Arts, describes her selection criteria as follows: “I am looking for something in which the artistic drive predominates but the work still requires further experimentation and development.” In her opinion, only then is further training really worthwhile. She explains that the life circumstances of applicants can also tip the balance when applications are equally good in all other respects: the scholarship can “be a small additional factor that can help people compete on a level playing field in our society”.

The members of the committee then meet to present the international applications to one another and show excerpts from the work samples. Lively debates are the order of the day, says Theda Nilsson-­Eicke: “Consequently, we can be sure that the application has been carefully checked and properly discussed.” The standard of applications has been very high of late, adds René Harder: “We sometimes have difficulty choosing because there are so many strong candidates.” Both experts have observed a crossover trend of late, with more and more applicants being involved in other artistic disciplines such as the visual arts, theatre, music and literature. Increasingly, quicker and more convenient media such as smartphones are also being used. Theda Nilsson-Eicke regards this as a positive development: “Possibly and hopefully this is a way to give art a quick, loud and active voice in societal discourse.”

The DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, one of the world’s most renowned artist-in-residence programmes, supports international artists who already have an impressive track record. The programme was initiated by the Ford Foundation in 1963 and then taken over by the DAAD in 1965. Every year, the Federal Foreign Office and the Berlin senate award around 20 scholarships for working stays, three of them to filmmakers. An annually changing external jury selects successful candidates from a pool of currently more than 500 applications in the film category alone. “Even within the very small group, we want to see diversity in terms of filmic approach, from feature films and queer cinema to documentaries and experimental films,” says Mathias Zeiske, Head of Literature and Film at the Artists-in-Berlin Program. “The time in Berlin enables fellows to concentrate on their project without any production pressure and to forge new contacts.”

The programme supports the film fellows with their research and film shootings, and works closely with them on publications and events. The daadgalerie in Kreuzberg‘s Oranienstrasse is an import­ant transdisciplinary hub where film screenings and exhibitions take place alongside concerts, readings, performances and workshops.

The artist-in-residence programme has already produced many successful and outstanding film professionals, such as the American choreograph­er, dancer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer, the ­Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, the American auteur filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and two-time ­Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi from Iran.

Renowned fellows of recent years also include Radu Jude from Romania, who won the Special Jury Prize at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival for his black comedy “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World”, and Burak Çevik from Turkey, whose film “Forms of Forgetting” premiered in the Forum section of the 2023 Berlinale. In 2024, Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias was awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlinale for his film “Pepe” (read our extensive interview with the director here).

“Artist-in-residence programmes have a very lasting impact because they give rise to friendships over time. The fellows are also invited by other institutions and become part of the Berlin scene,” says Mathias Zeiske noting that Artists-in-Berlin ­often collaborates with alumnae and alumni who took part in the programme decades earlier. For example, an event is planned with Robert Beavers at the daadgalerie in 2024. Beavers, an avant-garde filmmaker from the USA, was the first film fellow of the Artists-in-Berlin Program in 1970. —