Oscar® nomination for İlker Çatak's "Das Lehrerzimmer", Silver Bear and four German Film Awards for Matthias Glasner's "Sterben" and a total of five prizes in Cannes for Mohammad Rasoulof's "The Seed of the Sacred Fig". The 2024 film year could not have gotten off to a better start for North German productions.
The north is highly attractive for the film world. Just as it is for the seahorse, which was thought to be extinct in the North Sea. But now the sightings are increasing. A real comeback! And reason for us to swim with the seahorse through the film year 2023.
From the Oscar®-winning short film "Istina" to the star-studded historical epic "King's Land" - cinema and festival audiences could look forward to a wide range of cinematic treats in 2023.
Mohammad Rasoulof's film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" received 15 minutes of standing ovations and five awards at the Cannes Film Festival 2024 - including the Special Jury Prize. The production company Run Way Pictures is based in Hamburg, where post-production also took place.
Director Nuri Bilge Ceyland's "About Dry Grasses" screened in the official competition in Cannes in 2023. Lead actress Merve Dizdar was awarded the Palme d'Or for Best Actress.
In "Für immer", Hamburg filmmaker and Grimme Award winner Pia Lenz accompanied a married couple from Harburg with her camera for five years during the last phase of their lives.
With "Heaven can wait", Hamburg filmmaker Sven Halfar tells the story of an extraordinary choir. The documentary film celebrated its premiere at the Hamburg Film Festival, where it received the Audience Award.
Ruben Östlund's sartire was nominated for three Oscars and won the Palme d'Or for Best Film at Cannes in 2022. Part of the post-production took place in Hamburg.
When Stephen King raves about a new cinema film on Twitter, you should take a closer look: After the thriller "The Lesson" celebrated its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival in New York, it was also able to impress at the Hamburg Film Festival. The film was shot entirely in and around Hamburg.
The north has got
the hang of it
Shot entirely in Hamburg in autumn 2023, premiering at the renowned Tribeca Film Festival in New York in June 2024: Lamin Leroy Gibba's series "Black Fruits" takes a look at the realities of life for black and queer characters in eight episodes. "Dark" star Lisa Vicari was also in front of the camera in the Hanseatic city for the Letterbox production "The Next Level". And director Ameer Fakher Eldin and his film crew spent several weeks on a Hallig in Schleswig-Holstein for "Yunan" - produced by Hamburg-based Red Balloon Film.
We were on location for many of the shoots in our funding region and spoke with the cast and crew.
In 2023, 2,292 days of filming took place in the Film North, 551 of them in Schleswig-Holstein and 1,741 in Hamburg, with 16 feature films and eight high-end series produced here.
Large and
diverse cinema
When a dark movie theater is charged with crackling tension and the curtain rises - these magical cinema moments are what drive us. That's why we've allocated the lion's share of our funding - a total of 9.5 million euros - to the production of feature films.
The 9.5 million euros will be used to produce more than 50 cinema films in the coming years. These include İlker Çatak's new drama "Gelbe Briefe" with numerous days of filming in the Hanseatic city, the animated film "Go with the flow" by Ali Samadi Ahadi and the tragicomedy "Drift" by "Toubab" director Florian Dietrich, which is about a Hamburg bicycle courier - and which received the highest amount of funding of the year at 863,000 euros.
From the film north
to screens worldwide
The road movie "Treasure" by Julia von Heinz starring Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale 2024 and will be released in German cinemas on 12 September 2024.
The film "Déserts" by director and screenwriter Faouzi Bensaïdi had its world premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival. Part of the post-production took place in Hamburg. Cinema release: 27.06.2024
The film adaptation of the novel "Der Buchspazierer" starring Christoph Maria Herbst was also shot in Hamburg. Cinema release: 10 October 2024
Silver Bear at the Berlinale for Best Screenplay, nine nominations at the German Film Awards: Matthias Glasner is in the fast lane with his drama "Sterben". Cinema release: 25.04.2024
With "The Outrun", Systemsprenger director Nora Fingscheidt has turned Amy Liptrot's memoirs into a film. Saoirse Ronan plays the lead role. The film celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale 2024.
French filmmaker Bruno Dumont won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale 2024 with "L'Empire". Unfortunately, it is not yet clear when the science fiction epic will be released in cinemas.
Filmmaker Claudia Richarz scored a real festival hit in 2023/24 with "Helke Sander: Aufräumen". Cinema release: 22.04.2024
In 2023, we were able to support 28 films with 725,000 euros for their cinema releases. A further 105,000 euros were provided for 30 subtitling projects, basic equipment and special measures. 2024 will see some exciting cinema releases with Julia von Heinz' "Treasure", "The Outrun" by Nora Fingscheidt and Bruno Dumont's "L'Empire".
Stars
'n' Series
What do Heinz Strunk, Angelina Häntsch, Fahri Yardim and Dominique Devenport have in common? Exactly, they all appeared in a MOIN-funded series on TV or a streamer in 2023. A total of four high-end series saw the light of day last year. And six more have already been shot. So we can expect another fantastic series year in 2024!
Incubating ideas
in the NEST
Since the beginning of 2024, we have been breaking new ground in the funding of screenplays and ideas: Authors and creators now receive customized funding and the opportunity to fully exploit the potential of their ideas with other creatives in a collaborative thinking space. Welcome to the NEST.
What we bring
to the NEST
Here are the four most important cornerstones of the NEST in a nutshell.
NEST sees the light of day: first launch event at the Altona Museum
On stage: Katrin Mersmann, Helge Albers and Nicola Jones from MOIN Film Fund with Hamburg producer Andrea Schütte
Questions from the audience were answered in detail
The participants and tutors of the NEST Space in Meezen
Discussing the projects for the final presentation: (from left) Wiktor Filip Gacparski, Markus Mayr and Momo Sinner
NEST replaces the traditional funding of screenplays and treatments as well as innovative concepts and ideas. Ideas for theatrical documentaries, feature and animated films, high-end series, and innovative formats such as XR or 360 degrees can now be submitted to the new portal.
All-inclusive
with OMNI
How diverse is the German film industry really? We would like to get a little closer to the answer to this question with our new OMNI survey tool. OMNI is a simple, maximum 5-minute online survey that cast & crew can use to provide their data in compliance with the DSGVO. This data is collected, analyzed and regularly published in anonymized reports.
"OMNI - Inclusion Data" was developed in close collaboration with an industry-wide advisory board and implemented by the Hamburg agency Never Final. Its role model and cooperation partner is The Everyone Project, which has realized a similar tool for the Australian market.
Here, Hamburg filmmakers tell you why OMNI is so important.
Equal Funding
for All
One of our goals is for female filmmakers to receive as much funding from us as male filmmakers. And we are steadfastly approaching this mark: in 2023, we supported 31 female directors and 33 male directors in the area of production. All figures on the structure of our committees, our team and our funding decisions can be found in our diversity overview.
Welcome back
to the Home Port
How one euro became three: in 2023, more than three euros came back to the Film North for every euro of funding. Why is that? All of our funded productions have to spend at least 150 percent of their funding amount in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. As a rule, they invest even more: in 2023, it was 340 percent of the total funding amount.
A total of 58 funded projects were completed and invoiced last year. The 10.4 million euros that we provided in funding for these projects turned into 35.4 million euros that flowed back into the region. This means that every euro we invested generated 3.40 euros for the economy in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.
Anchored
in the budget
MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein’s budget in 2023 was around 16.9 million euros. In addition to project funding, we also use these funds to support Filmfest Hamburg, the Hamburg Media School and HFBK Hamburg film schools, and to fund special programs such as our GetOnSet program for professionals.
MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein’s shareholders are the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the State of Schleswig-Holstein. Additional funding comes from NDR, ZDF and a fixed portion of the broadcasting fee.
What also happened
at MOIN
We also had a lot going on last year outside of funding decisions: whether it was our MOIN Midsummer Party with over 1,000 guests at Kampnagel in Hamburg or the XR Pitch Battle as part of the Nordic Film Days Lübeck - there were numerous exciting events and programs for the film and media landscape in the north.
With our green mission statement, we made it into the three finalists for the German Sustainability Award for Companies 2023. A great acknowledgement of our green work.
Inception meets virtual reality: With his VR thriller "Fragments of Silence", VR artist and filmmaker Dan Franke has won the XR Pitch Battle organised by MOIN Filmförderung and received a grant of 10,000 euros.
MOIN hosted a midsummer party - and everyone was there. Among the 1000 or so guests at Kampnagel: German Film Award winner Leonie Benesch, "Der Buchspazierer" Christoph Maria Herbst and the "Sløborn" team Aaron Hilmer and Emily Kusche.
Positive results from the first GetOnSet year: around 85 per cent of the film trainees found their way into the world of film through the programme - and there were more than 150 applications for the second GetOnSet round.
Portuguese-Brazilian VR artist and filmmaker Lui Avallos presented his VR project "Queer Utopia" at Venice Immersive as part of the 80th Venice Biennale in 2023. He had previously won the 2022 XR Pitch Battle organised by MOIN Film Fund.
We have invested a good three million euros in the development and production of high-end series. In plain language, that means 2.9 million euros went to nine series in production, 280,000 euros to five series in project development, and 233,000 euros to five series scripts - including Maria von Heland's youth book adaptation "Alea Aquarius," "Nix für Jungs" by the Belton brothers and "Last Exit Schinkenstraße" by Heinz Strunk.
The Crew
COMMITTEE HIGH END
Christian Granderath
NDR, Head of Drama, Hamburg
Murat Isgüder
Movie Consult, Owner, Hamburg
Wenka von Mikulicz
DCM Pictures, Head of Development, Berlin
Caroline von Senden
ZDF, Chief Editor Fernsehfilm I, Mainz
Ipek Zübert
Screenwriter, Berlin
Helge Albers
MOIN Film Fund, CEO, Hamburg
SUBSTITUTES
Leila Hamid
X-Verleih, Board of directors, Berlin
Nataly Kudiabor
Ufa Fiction, Executive Producer, Berlin
Stefanie Ren
Scriptwriter, Berlin
Soleen Yusef
Writer/Director, Berlin
COMMITTEE DIRECTOR'S CUT
Vanessa Ciszewski
Executive Producer/Distributor, Berlin
Anita Elsani
Elsani Film, CEO, Cologne
Sara Fazilat
Actress/Author, Directors, Berlin
Gabor Greiner
Films Boutique, COO, Berlin
Timo Großpietsch
NDR, Editor for Documentaries & Reportages, Hamburg
Helge Albers
MOIN Film Fund, CEO, Hamburg
SUBSTITUTES
Ali Samadi Ahadi
Little Dream Entertainment, Director/Producer, Hamburg
Sarah Blaßkiewitz
Director, Berlin
Britta Knöller
23/5 Filmproduktion, CEO, Berlin
Ann Carolin Renninger
joon film, CEO, Berlin
Mia Spengler
Writer/Director, Hamburg
Sabine Steyer-Violet
Writer/Producer/music advisor, Berlin
COMMITTEE SHORT
Johanna Jannsen
Script Writer, Directors, Flensburg
Friedrich Tiedtke
Script Writer, Directors, Berlin
Insa Wiese
Start Into Media, Partnership/Projektmanagement, Munich
Nicola Jones
MOIN Film Fund, Location Management, Kiel
SUBSTITUTES
Sophia Ayissi Nsegue
Writer and Producer, Hamburg
COMMITTEE INNOVATIVE
Ralph Heinsohn
Designer, Executive Producer and Curator of immersive media, Hamburg
Britta Schewe
gretegrote Internetproduktion UG, Founder / CEO, Hamburg
Ulrich Schrauth
VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival, Artistic Director, Hamburg
Nicola Jones
MOIN Film Fund, Location Management, Kiel
MOIN TEAM
Helge Albers, Jan Asmus, Inga Becker, Janieke Bekasinski, Joelle Bavoux, Meike Bockelmann, Anna Doig, Mathieu Dolenc, Christiane Dopp, Birgit Durbahn, Sainabu Fye, Julia Gläsker, Heike Goede, Claudia Hartmann, Amer Hassan Khalaf, Anneke Hoffmann, Nicola Jones, Jens Kiefer, Annka Lewerenz, Alexandra Luetkens, Katrin Mersmann, Lorenz Müller, Theresa Noll, Franco Razeto Barceló, Reiner Rosner, Sabine Schmidt, Daniel Szewczyk, Jana Ziebart