Andreas Stroehl has been named successor to Eberhard Hauff who this year celebrated his 20th year as director of the Filmfest Muenchen.

Stroehl, who has worked for the German cultural organisation Goethe Institut since 1988 - most recently as head of the division for film, film production management, television and radio -, will join Hauff in running the Internationale Muenchner Filmwochen from 1 April 2003 and will be solely responsible for the organisation of the Filmfest Muenchen and the International Festival of the Film Schools from 1 October 2003.

In his bid for the post, 40-year-old Stroehl, whose contract is initially for five years, reportedly proposed that the Filmfest's structure be streamlined and fewer films shown, and that more attention be paid in future to the younger generation.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the country, speculation has been rife in the past few weeks that marketing specialist Albert Wiederspiel, who worked in the past for distributors 20th Century Fox, Polygram and Tobis Studio Canal, may be named successor to Josef Wutz as the new head of Filmfest Hamburg.