The Berlinale Talent Campus taps into the unique atmosphere of a great festival to bring together young talents and experienced professionals. The experience of the latter meets the inspiration of the former – a very vital platform for the film world to participate in. Since 2007, the Berlinale Talent Campus takes place in the three venues of HAU - Theater Hebbel am Ufer. 

The Campus takes place parallel to the Berlinale and works as an intensive week-long academy. Creative professionals from every field of the film industry are available as speakers, teachers and partners for discussion. A number of guests from the festival's programme sections are also invited to discuss their work with the talents and thus help integrate the Campus into the Berlinale. A great number of Campus lectures and discussions are intended for the public and can be attended by anyone. Tickets are sold under the same terms as other Berlinale screenings and events.  

 

Talented young people from around the world involved in all areas of filmmaking are eligible to apply to the Berlinale Talent Campus: screenwriters, directors, producers, cinematographers, actors, film editors, art directors, production designers, composers, sound designers, journalists, and visual artists. Over 350 of them are invited to Berlin to reflect on their cinematic ideas in workshops, lectures and panel discussions, and to work on their projects in specialized hands-on studios.  

 

Increasing importance is given to supporting structurally weak film countries by inviting talents from these regions to take part in the Campus. A similar aim motivated the "export" of the Campus idea to other countries: meanwhile festivals in South Africa, Delhi and Buenos Aires are organizing their own annual Campus with the support from Berlin. The first-ever Sarajevo Talent Campus took place as part of the Sarajevo Film Festival 2007. It has a regional focus on up-and–coming filmmakers from southeastern Europe. 

Each Berlinale Talent Campus attends to a focus topic to which part of the programme is dedicated and for which renown experts are invited. The Berlinale Talent Campus 2009 - headlined “Suddenly, It All Happened – The turning point in close-up” - will focus on turning points as a driving force in filmmaking and will illuminate every facet of the fascinating effect they can have. 

 

Storytelling is one of the central aspects of successful filmmaking and is as old as humanity itself. Stories have always connected people to their culture. It is a communication medium used to influence others, to seduce, convince or even manipulate them. It can explain certain things or keep people and events from fading in our memories. Successful films and compelling stories thrive on turning points, events that give a plot a new and critical direction. These turning points can make the film experience unique and overwhelming. However they are not only responsible for shaping a successful plot development, they also play a central part on other levels of filmmaking. Whether actor, cinematographer, editor or composer – everyone will face a turning point in the creative process and deal with its aftermath. 

 

The Berlinale Talent Campus is truly a joint project: initiated by Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick, prepared and organized by a project team headed by Matthijs Wouter Knol und Christine Tröstrum, supported by the EU MEDIA Programme, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the Federal Foreign Office, Skillset, the UK Film Council, Volkswagen AG and 40 other partners, embassies and cultural institutes.  

 

The Berlinale Talent Campus has developed into one of the most exciting initiatives of the Berlinale. Meanwhile it can boast of numerous success stories: co-operations which were conceived here, careers which began here, ideas which originated here – and their visible results can frequently be seen in the Berlinale programme. Regular cooperation also occurs at the Berlinale Co-Production Market where producers and film financiers are introduced to selected projects by Campus participants within the framework of the "Talent Project Market". 

Find additional information on the Berlinale Talent Campus' own website:  

 www.berlinale-talentcampus.de  

Detailed information on the application process and the upcoming programme, as well as short profiles of Campus alumni and one-minute sample films for live stream viewing. The Berlinale Talent Campus website also serves as an important networking platform for the talents prior to the actual event.