The University of Television and Film Munich (German: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München, short: HFF Munich) is a publicly funded film school in Munich, Germany. The school was established in 1966 by decree of the Bavarian government. The University of Television and Film Munich is one of Germany's most reputable film schools with about 350 students enrolled.
Academics
The teacher to student ratio is about 1:9, the staff to student ratio is approximately 1:4. There are five different degree programs:
* Department III – Film and Television Drama Directing
* Department IV – Documentary Film and Television Reportage Directing
* Department V – Film Production and Media Economics
* Department VI – Screenplay
* Department VII – Cinematography
The new building of the University of Television and Film Munich was inaugurated in 2011, featuring three cinemas, a VR cinema and four film studios.
Ranking
The film school has been selected as one of the 15 best film schools worldwide by the entertainment trade magazines
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
and
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
in 2012, 2014,
2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021
Notable alumni
*
Baran bo Odar
Baran bo Odar (born 18 April 1978) is a German film and television director and screenwriter. He is known for co-creating the Netflix series ''Dark'' (2017–2020) and '' 1899'' (2022) with his creative and romantic partner, Jantje Friese.
His ...
*
Maren Ade
Maren Ade (; born 12 December 1976) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer. Ade lives in Berlin, teaching screenwriting at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. Together with Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach, she r ...
*
Byambasuren Davaa
Byambasuren Davaa, also known as Davaagiin Byambasüren ( mn, Даваагийн Бямбасүрэн; born 1971 in Ulaanbaatar), is a Mongolian filmmaker currently residing in Germany.
Between 1995 and 1998 she studied at the Movie Academy in Ula ...
*
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck (; born 2 May 1973) is an Academy Award-winning German and Austrian film director. He is best known for writing and directing the 2006 dramatic thriller ''Das Leben der Anderen (The L ...
*
Doris Dörrie
Doris Dörrie (; born 26 May 1955) is a German film director, producer and author.
Biography
Born in Hanover, Dörrie completed her secondary education there in 1973. The same year, she began a two-year attendance in film studies in the drama de ...
*
Uli Edel
Ulrich "Uli" Edel (; born 11 April 1947) is a German film and television director, best known for his work on films such as Last Exit to Brooklyn (film), ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' and ''Body of Evidence (1993 film), Body of Evidence.''
His ''Ra ...
*
Bernd Eichinger
Bernd Eichinger (; 11 April 194924 January 2011) was a German film producer, director, and screenwriter.
Life and career
Eichinger was born in Neuburg an der Donau. He attended the University of Television and Film Munich in the 1970s and bou ...
*
Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich (; born 10 November 1955) is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for his science fiction and disaster films and has been called a "master of disaster" within the industry. His films, most of wh ...
*
Frauke Finsterwalder
Frauke Finsterwalder (born 15 December 1975) is a German film director and screenwriter. Finsterwalder has directed several shorts and documentaries and is the director of the 2013 feature film ''Finsterworld''. Her second feature film, ''Sisi & ...
*
Florian Gallenberger
Florian Gallenberger (born 23 February 1972 in Munich) is a German film director and writer. His film '' Quiero ser (I want to be...)'' was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2001.
Career
Gallenberger appeared in various ...
*
Katja von Garnier
Katja von Garnier (born 15 December 1966, in Wiesbaden) is a German film director.
Biography
From 1989 to 1994, she studied at the University of Television and Film Munich. Her 1993 practice film '' Making Up!'' was shown in theatres all over Ger ...
*
Dominik Graf
Dominik Graf (born 6 September 1952) is a German film director. He studied film direction at University of Television and Film Munich, from where he graduated in 1975. While he has directed several theatrically released feature films since the 198 ...
*
Benjamin Heisenberg
Benjamin Heisenberg (born 9 June 1974) is a German film director and screenwriter. He has directed sixteen films since 1995. His film '' Schläfer'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. His 2010 film, ...
*
Oliver Herbrich
Oliver Herbrich (born 1961 in Munich) is a German filmmaker working as author, film director and producer. He is associated with the New German Cinema movement in the 1980s. From 2016, his films are digitally remastered and re-released in the ''Fi ...
*
Mika Kaurismäki
Mika Juhani Kaurismäki (; born 21 September 1955) is a Finnish film director.
Biography
Mika Kaurismäki is the elder brother of Aki Kaurismäki, and the father of Maria Kaurismäki, who graduated from Tampere School of Art and Media in 2008 ...
*
Caroline Link
Caroline Link (born 2 June 1964) is a German film director and screenwriter.
Life and work
Caroline Link is the daughter of Jürgen and Ilse Link. From 1986 to 1990 she studied at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), and then wo ...
*
Till Schauder
Till Schauder (born 1971), is a German-born American filmmaker, film director, screenplay writer, film producer, actor and film instructor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and co-producer, Sara Nodjoumi.
Early life
Schauder was bor ...
(M.A. 1998)
*
Hans-Christian Schmid
Hans-Christian Schmid (born 1965) is a German film director and screenwriter.
Life and work
Hans-Christian Schmid has collaborated with on several of the movies that he directed. Gutmann wrote screenplays for ''23 (film), 23 — Nichts ist so ...
*
Hito Steyerl
Hito Steyerl (born 1 January 1966) is a German filmmaker, moving image artist, writer, and innovator of the essay documentary.
*
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Docum ...
*
Sönke Wortmann
Sönke Wortmann (; 25 August 1959 in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German film director and producer.
Biography
Wortmann's father was a miner. After Wortmann's A-Levels he wanted to become a professional football player and started playing ...
*
Christian Ditter
Christian Ditter (born 1977) is a German director, producer and screenwriter who has worked on films, television and commercials. He is best known for his films ', (2009) ''Love, Rosie'' (2014), and ''How to Be Single'' (2016) and the Netflix se ...
Academy Awards
Several HFF alumni have been nominated or have received an Academy Award.
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Docum ...
has been nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
three times:
Buena Vista Social Club
Buena Vista Social Club is an ensemble of Cuban musicians established in 1996. The project was organized by World Circuit executive Nick Gold, produced by American guitarist Ry Cooder and directed by Juan de Marcos González. They named the g ...
in 2000,
Pina (film)
''Pina'' is a 2011 German 3D film, 3D documentary film about the contemporary dance choreographer Pina Bausch. It was directed by Wim Wenders. The film premiered out of competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.
During the prepa ...
in 2012 and
The Salt of the Earth in 2015.
Caroline Link
Caroline Link (born 2 June 1964) is a German film director and screenwriter.
Life and work
Caroline Link is the daughter of Jürgen and Ilse Link. From 1986 to 1990 she studied at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), and then wo ...
was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...
in 1997 with her film
Beyond Silence and won the Academy Award for
Nowhere in Africa
''Nowhere in Africa'' (german: Nirgendwo in Afrika) is a 2001 German drama film that was written and directed by Caroline Link. The screenplay is based on the 1995 autobiographical novel of the same name by Stefanie Zweig. It tells the story of ...
in 2003.
In 2005 the docudrama
The Story of the Weeping Camel
''The Story of the Weeping Camel'' ( mn, Ингэн нулимс, ', "Tears of the Camel") is a 2003 German docudrama distributed by ThinkFilm. It was released internationally in 2004. The film was directed and written by Byambasuren Davaa and ...
was nominated for the Academy Award for The Best Documentary Feature.
Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck
Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck (; born 2 May 1973) is an Academy Award-winning German and Austrian film director. He is best known for writing and directing the 2006 dramatic thriller ''Das Leben der Anderen (The L ...
won the same Academy Award in 2007 with his debut film
The Lives of Others
''The Lives of Others'' (german: link=no, Das Leben der Anderen, ) is a 2006 German drama film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck marking his feature film directorial debut. The plot is about the monitoring of East Berlin ...
.
In 2017, the comedy
Toni Erdmann
Toni, Toñi or Tóni is a unisex given name.
In Spanish, Italian, Croatian and Finnish, it is a masculine given name used as a short form of the names derived from Antonius like Antonio, Ante or Anttoni.
In Danish, English, Finnish, Norwegia ...
by producer and director
Maren Ade
Maren Ade (; born 12 December 1976) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer. Ade lives in Berlin, teaching screenwriting at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. Together with Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach, she r ...
was nominated for the Academy Award for The Best Foreign Language Film. In 2018, Ades and her co-producer Janine Jackowski, also a HFF alumna, international co-production
A Fantastic Woman
''A Fantastic Woman'' ( es, Una mujer fantástica) is a 2017 drama film directed by Sebastián Lelio, written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, produced by Juan de Dios and Pablo Larraín and starring Daniela Vega and Francisco Reyes. It was selected ...
won this award.
Florian Gallenberger
Florian Gallenberger (born 23 February 1972 in Munich) is a German film director and writer. His film '' Quiero ser (I want to be...)'' was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2001.
Career
Gallenberger appeared in various ...
won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short with his film
Quiero ser (I want to be...) in 2000. HFF students have also been gold winners at the Student Academy Awards in 1994, 2000, 2014 and 2016.
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Television And Film Munich
Film schools in Germany
Universities and colleges in Munich
Educational institutions established in 1966
Mass media in Munich
1966 establishments in West Germany