“The question of how we are going to finance the future of film and creativity runs through his year’s industry programme,” says Julia Weigl, artistic director of the Munich International Film Festival (MIFF).
A packed nine-day schedule of keynotes, panel discussions, pitches masterclasses and workshops starts today (June 27) as the festival joins forces for the first time with the Produktionsallianz to stage the third Creators Conference in the Bavarian capital under the title of Framing the Future of Filmmaking.
Speakers including Leonine Studios’ CEO Fred Kogel, Axio Capital’s partner Alexandra Lebret, Magic Light Pictures’ joint CEO Michael Rose, and Janine Jackowski, co-founder of German production house Komplizen Film, are taking part in discussions on parallel stages is addressing issues including the impact of AI on storytelling and new business models, trends in international financing and co-production, equity investment in independent production companies.
As is MIFF’s tradition, the coming together of the German film community before the summer break provides an opportunity for the film and TV industry to organise their own panel discussions and networking events for accredited guests under the banner of the Beergarden Convention.
For example, the Association for Film and Television Dramaturgy (VeDRA) will be highlighting Austrian initiatives for diverse storytelling in film and television as a model for Germany and the German Screenwriters Association is bringing authors, producers, broadcasters and AI experts to discuss working with AI.
The centrepiece of the industry programme is the fourth annual CineCoPro Conference dedicated to facilitating co-production with Germany.
As part of a regional focus, producers from Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol are in town to meet with their German counterparts. The networking will prove more important than ever as producers grapple with how to work amid the current stalemate in the progress on Germany’s film funding reforms and to the swingeing budget cuts to Austria’s ÖFI+ incentive earlier this year.
“It’s extremely important now for people to come together and talk about how they can work together,” says Christoph Gröner, managing director of MIFF.
Over 60 participants from the four countries will be attending the event from June 30 to July 3 which includes the presentation of case studies of Stefan Haupt’s Swiss-German co-production I’m Not Stiller and Michael Kofler’s German-Italian-Austrian co-production A Land Within, both screening as world premieres in the Filmfest programme. There is also a ‘meet the funders’ roundtable and a panel by the media lawyers Freshfields addressing the question of whether Germany can catch up in the global tax incentive race
German participants include Lieblingfilm’s Philipp Budweg, Bantry Bay Productions’ Carmen Stozek, Studio Hamburg’s Michael Lehmann, and the Berlin-based producer duo Britta Strampe and Laura Klippel, who were behind the production of Sophie Linnenbaum’s debut The Ordinaries which won two German Cinema New Talent Awards at the Filmfest in 2022.
The 10-person delegation coming from Switzerland includes Zodiac Pictures’ Reto Schaerli, tellfilm’s Katrin Renz and Catpics’ Rajko Jazbec, while Film AG’s Alexander Glehr, Allegro Film’s Gabi Stefansich, and Dor Film’s Danny Krausz are among the eight producers coming to Munich from Austria. South Tyrol will be represented by three producers including Martin Rattini of Bolzano-based Helios Sustainable Films, the Italian co-producer of A Land Within.
Ten projects have been selected for the CineCoPro Pitch which will be held on the afternoon of July 3 and be followed by two sessions of one-to-one meetings for more in-depth discussion between the producers about the co-production potential.
The projects to be presented offer a wide spectrum: from Freibeuter Film’s €2m satirical comedy Who Is Afraid of God? and Golden Girls Film’s €450,000 documentary Superhumans, about Ukrainian amputee soldiers rebuilding their lives. Furthermore Contando Films’ € 2m debut feature En Passant is a coming of age story while Oksuperdanke Filmproduktion’s € 2.3m Almanstadt is described as a “multi-strand absurd drama”.
Meanwhile, two of the Swiss production companies in Munich will be pitching TV series projects. Contrast Film, whose recent credits include the series Davos 1917 and the documentary Game Over - The Fall of Credit Suisse, is looking for partners for the € 13.7m series Gold, a thriller set in the darkest corners of the global gold trade.
And tellfilm, the Swiss co-producer of Austrian director Johanna Moder’s Berlinale 2025 competition title Mother’s Baby, is pitching the € 5.7m survival drama series Wake Up which follows six teenagers who escape a train crash in the Gotthard Tunnel only to find themselves in an eerily beautiful Alpine valley that is determined to keep them there forever.
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