Munich Film Up! 2023 cohort

Munich Film Up! 2023 cohort

The Munich Film Up! mentoring and residency scheme for emerging filmmakers has unveiled the six participants for its third edition.  

An initiative from Munich Film School in partnership with Pop Up Film Residency, the ninth-month programme is organised in association with the Munich Film Festival and Munich’s International Festival of Film Schools with support from the Kirch Foundation.

The selected participants have all recently graduated from film school and are developing their feature debut.

They include Leonardo Martinelli, winner of Locarno’s 2021 Golden Leopard for his short Fantasma Neon; Lebanese filmmaker Leila Basma, whose student short Sea Salt premiered in Venice Horizons; and Berthold Wahjudi, whose short Summer Hit won best live-action short (over 15 mins) at Palm Springs in addition to cumulating millions of online views.

The programme begins at Munich’s 42nd International Festival of Film Schools later this month with a six-day boot camp with individuals then participating in a three-week long Pop Up Film Residency in March before presenting their film projects to industry representatives at next year’s Munich Film Festival in July 2024. One of the projects will receive a €5,000 cash prize from the Kirch Foundation.

Munich Film Up! 2023-24 participants 

Leila Basma, Lebanon, Famu with Running with Beasts
Romy Bou Nasr, Lebanon, Alba with Clinical 
Leonardo Martinelli, Brazil, PUC-Rio with Fantasma Neon
Gretta-Garoliina Sammalniemi, Finland, HFF München with This is Normal
Inès Sieulle, France, Le Fresnoy with Au Relais des Maux
Berthold Wahjudi, Germany, HFF München with Wolkenbruch