Germany: The Spirit of the Berlinale for Festival Managers

Since 2004, DW Akademie has offered a unique course in connection with Berlin's international film festival, the Berlinale. The course is all about the management and organization of the film festival. There can be no better opportunity to combine theory with practice than at the Berlinale.

The course is aimed exclusively at festival directors, managers or program organizers. Previous participants have come from countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand and Zambia.

The course participants are responsible for large regional and international film festivals in their home countries, such as the Festival Panafricain du Cinéma et de la Télévision de Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso or the Cinemanila International Film Festival in the Philippines.

The course uses every opportunity for networking: in 2007, graduates of the course took part in podium discussions at the Berlinale's Talent Campus. And in December 2007 the World Cinema Fund - an organization sponsored by the Berlinale to support filmmakers from transition countries - was a guest at the Jakarta International Film Festival (JiFFest).

Every year DW Akademie sets up its own Berlinale office to maintain its new festival contacts, distribute reports and give press interviews. According to project leader Padhric O'Dochartaigh, "the colleagues return to Africa and Asia impressed by the professionalism and the immense variety of films. Armed with these experiences, they will organize the film festivals in their home countries with even more enthusiasm than before."