Artist Training - Course: Film
Artist Training / Access Art Schools Berlin
08 to 12 September 2025: Self-Presentation and Networking for Professional Filmmakers at Risk by Natalija Yefimkina & Henner Winckler
The program supports filmmakers with a background of forced migration through coordinated networking and self-presentation events. It helps them present themselves to producers, funders, and broadcasters. The filmmakers are brought into contact with professional players from the industry over a period of one week (networking events). The program aims to strengthen participants’ networking skills and support them in creating self-presentation materials such as showreels, director’s notes, and CVs, depending on their individual needs. Participants are encouraged to refine their professional identity and reflect on how their unique perspectives can enrich the film landscape in Germany and beyond. Attendees leave the program with concrete tools and connections, better prepared to navigate the professional field and position themselves more confidently in future collaborations.
Programm:
Programm:
Monday 08/09: Presentation and analysis of personal projects, showreels, and CVs
10:00 -15:00 Introduction
Tuesday 09/09: Networking with film scene/industry I (producer, commissioning editor)
10:00 - 11:00 Workshop: project reviews
11:00 - 12:30 Meeting Katharina Bergfeld (Producer)
14:00 - 15:00 Lilla Puskas (Funding consultant Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg)
Wednesday 10/09: Networking with film scene/industry II (festival curator, film funding)
10:00 -12:00 Workshop: project reviews
12:00 -14:00 Meeting Maike Höhne Film curator (Internationales Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg) and filmmaker
Thursday 11/09: Pitching training
11:00 – 12:30 Andrea Schütte (Producer)
13:00 – 15:00 Pitch Training
Friday 12/09: Excursion (e.g. film school, broadcaster)
Excursion to the film class at the UdK Berlin (Lino Strässer, Tutor Art and Media)
+ Individual meetings
Venue: Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin Career College / Zentralinstitut für Weiterbildung, Bundesallee 1-12, D-10719 Berlin, room 341.
CV
Natalija Yefimkina, born in 1983 (Kiev/Ukraine) studied journalism in Leipzig and later literature and modern history in Berlin at of the Humboldt University, later she also attended documentary film seminars at the HFF in Babelsberg. During her studies, Natalija Yefimkina already worked as a production in various production companies. She worked on several feature films and television films as second and first assistant director. Since 2009 Natalija Yefimkina has been working in the Goethe-Institut Visitors Program and looks after state guests of the Federal Foreign Office in the field of film, art and theater. In 2020, she made her debut at the Berlinale with her first feature-length documentary “Garagenvolk” and won the Heiner Carow Prize of the DEFA Foundation. This was later followed by the Werner Herzog Prize 2020, the Audentia Award 2020 from Eurimages for Best Director and the German Fairness Award 2022 from ver.di-FilmUnion and the Bundesverband Schauspiel (BFFS). She has made several short films and is currently working on her second feature documentary and a television film for German and Austrian television. Since the outbreak of the war, Natalija Yefimkina has been collecting voices from Ukraine and publishing interviews on Inforadio and diary entries on the news site RBB24.
Henner Winckler lives and works in Berlin as an author and director. He studied visual communication and film at the HfG Offenbach und the HfbK Hamburg. From 2004 to 2010 he taught at the HFF Konrad Wolf Potsdam-Babelsberg as an assistant professor and in the summer semester of 2016 as deputy professor. Since 2014, Henner has been teaching at the Met Film School Berlin and since 2020 at the DFFB. His award-winning films Lucy and Klassenfahrt were shown at the Berlinale and various international festivals. In 2019 he co-directed the film A Voluntary Year with Ulrich Köhler, which was screened at the international competition of the Locarno Film Festival.
ARTIST TRAINING is a consulting and further education program at the Berlin University of the Arts for artists at risk. The aims are to network in the cultural and creative industries as well as in the UdK Berlin, to qualify for strategic positioning in the respective artistic field and to provide advice on further professional development. Since 2016, a total of 54 basic and in-depth courses have offered information and contacts to over 800 participants from the following sectors Music, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film and initially also Cultural Journalism. 2020 - 21 Educational films, workshops, excursions and advice on basic topics were offered at three other locations (Babelsberg, Hamburg, Hanover). Parallel to this, series of events and podcasts on institutional transformation processes were created.
The project Access Art Schools Berlin in cooperation with the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch is funded from April to December 2025 by special funds for participation for refugees, Senate Department Berlin.
More information:
www.udk-berlin.de/ziw/artisttraining
www.facebook.com/artisttraining.udk.berlin
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