Sarah Duve-Schmid, the deputy CEO of the German Federal Film Board (FFA) will succeed Kirsten Niehuus as managing director of film funding for Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg from mid-2025.
Niehuus, who was also deputy CEO at the FFA from 1999 to 2004, has been at the helm of the regional fund’s film funding operations since November 2004.
Like Niehuus, Duve-Schmid is a trained lawyer who has been head of film funding at the FFA since 2019.
In line with Duve- Schmid’s arrival, film funding decisions will now be taking by committee rather than by the managing director alone for the first time in the Medienboard’s 30-year history. This will be bring the fund in line with all of Germany’s other regional funds who allocate funds via committee
One of Germany’s leading regional film funds, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg allocated €40.7m in funding in 2022, generating a total of €218m investment in the Berlin and Brandenburg regions. 2022 is the most recent year for which full figures are available.
The bulk of the fund’s annual budget - €32.4m - was spent on film funding, achieving a 664% ‘regional effect’ equivalent to €190m investment in the region, according to the Fund.
The most recent support round has seen production and development funding of more than €6.3m in total, for 29 film and TV projects. Recipients include the fifth and final season of Babylon Berlin which received the single largest amount of €2m.
Among the film projects supported were Polish director Jan Komasa’s The Noise Of Time, starring August Diehl and Andrea Riseborough, Golden Bear winner Adina Pintilie’s Death And The Maiden, Faraz Shariat’s Staatsschutz, with Chinese-born newcomer Chen Emilie Yan and Sanda Hüller attached, and Komplizen Film’s third collaboration with Israeli director Nadav Lapid on the feature Yes.
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