Walid Nakschbandi is to succeed Petra Müller as CEO of one of the leading German regional film funds, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, from January 1, 2024.
Afghan-born Nakschbandi, who settled in Germany at the age of 14, studied political science and law in Bonn and Berlin. He joined the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group in 1996 and ran the group’s TV production arm AVE Gesellschaft für Fernsehproduktion GmbH from 1999.
His producer credits include the TV movie My Daughter, Anne Frank, a documentary on the right-wing terrorist Beate Zschäpe in Letzte Ausfahrt Gera - Acht Stunden mit Beate Zschäpe, and 2016 feature film The Diary Of Anne Frank.
He later worked at the group’s publishing division Pan Macmillan in California and South Africa and joined the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group holding company in 2020 as SVP and chief content officer. Most recently, he was chief innovation officer at Holtzbrinck Buchverlage.
Nakschbandi will have an annual budget of around €40m at the fund to invest in the production and development of feature films and TV movies, series, games, web content as well as support for young film and media talent in NRW.
He will be the fourth CEO in the history of the Film- und Medienstiftung, following Petra Müller, who took up the post in September 2010, the late Michael Schmid-Ospach (2001-2010), and Dieter Kosslick who established the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia as a new leading player in the German and international film scene during his tenure between 1992 and 2001.
The news of Nakschbandi’s appointment comes as the Film- und Medienstiftung announced that 18 of its funded productions will be screening at the forthcoming Filmfest München. They range from Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, Amat Escalante’s Lost In The Night, and Maximilian Erlenwein’s English-language debut The Dive through to Amanda Nell Eu’s Tiger Stripes, Franziska Hartmann’s Monster im Kopf, and Henning Beckhoff’s Fossil and Daniel Rakete Siegel and Denis Moschitto’s thriller Schock - Kein Weg zurück.
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