Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen

The Filmstiftung is committed to supporting writers, directors, producers, distributors and cinema owners, as well as low and big budget films and outstanding international television productions. In order to react flexibly to filmmakers’ needs, the Filmstiftung assists in all phases of production, including script development, pre- and postproduction, production itself and the sales and distribution of the final product.

The Filmstiftung was founded in 1991 by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the TV broadcaster WDR. Six years later, the broadcaster ZDF joined the ranks as a third partner, in 2002 the cologne-based private broadcaster RTL and in the spring of 2003 the Media Broadcasting Authority (LfM).

Today the Filmstiftung’s annual budget for funding is around 33 million Euros. The film foundation in Düsseldorf uses this to support authors, producers and directors, distributors and cinema owners, high-budget and low-budget productions, cinema and TV films, fiction and documentaries, and last but not least, radio plays.

There are now over 330,000 people working in the media industry in NRW. A constantly developing array of training facilities assures that we have sufficient highly qualified professionals. Festivals in Lünen, Oberhausen, Münster, Bonn, Duisburg, Dortmund, Cologne and elsewhere in the state offer quality film culture almost everywhere.

National and international stars of acting and directing make their films in the Rhine and Ruhr area. And the locations in NRW offer ideal opportunities, whatever the desired motif – should anything be required and not found, film studios in Cologne or Bottrop are able to conjure up the perfect illusion.
 
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Link to Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen funding guidelines in English
 
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Cine-Regio representative - Mr. Michael Schmid-Ospach

Since April 2001, Michael Schmid-Ospach is CEO of the Filmstiftung NRW. He studied Theatre, German and Psychology in Cologne from 1964 to 1967. After graduation, Michael Schmid-Ospach became the manager of the arts section at Westdeutsche Rundschau in Wuppertal; at the same time, he also worked as a journalist for Deutschlandfunk (DLF) and NDR and WDR Radio.
From 1970 to 1974, Schmid-Ospach was at the epd/Kirche specialist press service in Frankfurt am Main. He was the deputy of Friedrich-Wilhelm Hymmen, the responsible editor.
From 1974 to 1977, he worked as the political adviser for the media of Heinz Kühn, the then deputy of the federal SPD and the minister-president of North Rhine Westphalia.
In 1977, Michael Schmid-Ospach joined WDR, Cologne, as the manager of press and publicity. I
n 1990, he became deputy television director and manager of the main ‘Broadcast Management and Central Tasks’ department. From 1997 to 2001, Schmid-Ospach was managing the programme area of cultural and scientific television of the WDR. Michael Schmid-Ospach is familiar to the public as the presenter of the ARD magazine programme ‘Kulturweltspiegel’.
As ARTE representative of the WDR (since 1992) Schmid-Ospach founded, with Heinz Ungureit of ZDF, the ARTE/Cinéma group to promote European film.
From 1992 to the beginning of 2001, Michael Schmid-Ospach was the chairman of Filmstiftung NRW. He is a member of the German Society for Journalism and Communications Science (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft), of the board of trustees of the Adolf-Grimme Institute and of the supervisory board of the European Centre for Media Authority.
Since 1971, Michael Schmid-Ospach has held lectureships at the Free University of Berlin, the universities of Munster, Siegen and Cologne and the Dusseldorf technical university.
In October 2006 he was appointed as Honorary Professor by the University of applied sciences Düsseldorf.
In addition, Schmid-Ospach has published books about Else Lasker-Schüler, the programme ‘Holocaust’ and films by Zanussi and Breloer.
 

Contact

Filmstriftung Nordrhein-Westfalen
Kaistrasse 14
40221 Düsseldorf
Germany

Tel: + 49 211 93 05 00
Fax:+49 211 93 05 05
info@filmstiftung.de
www.filmstiftung.de