Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ) - German Films

The Export-Union of German Cinema – A Profile
The Export-Union of German Cinema is the national information
and advisory center for the export of German films. It was established
in 1954 as the ”umbrella“ association for the Association of
German Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German
Feature Film Producers and the Association of German Film
Exporters, and operates today in the legal form of a limited company.
Shareholders in the limited company are the Association of
German Feature Film Producers, the Association of New German
Feature Film Producers, the Association of German Film Exporters
and the German Federal Film Board (FFA).
The members of the board of the Export-Union of
German Cinema are: Jochem Strate (chairman), Rolf Bähr,
Antonio Exacoustos Jr. and Michael Weber.
The Export-Union itself has nine permanent staff:
• Christian Dorsch, managing director
• Susanne Reinker, PR manager
• Julia Basler, project manager
• Angela Hawkins, publications editor
• Cordula Ulrich, PR assistant
• Stephanie Weiss, PR assistant
• Nicole Kaufmann, project coordinator
• Petra Bader, office manager
• Barbara Hirth, accounts
In addition, the Export-Union shares foreign representatives
in eight countries with the German Federal Film Board (FFA).
(cf. page 74)
The Export-Union’s budget of presently approx. DM 4
million (including projects, administration, foreign representatives)
comes from the export levies, monies from the office of the Federal
Government Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Media and
the FFA. In addition, the six main economic film funds
(Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, FilmFörderung
Hamburg, Filmstiftung NRW, Medien- and Filmgesellschaft
Baden-Württemberg and Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung) have
made a financial contribution, currently amounting to DM 0.45
million, towards the work of the Export-Union. In 1997, the Export-
Union and five large economic film funds founded an advisory
committee whose goal is the ”concentration of efforts for the
promotion of German film abroad“ (constitution).
The Export-Union is a founding member of the ”European Film
Promotion“, an amalgamation of twenty national film-PR
agencies (UNIFRANCE, the Scandinavian film institutes, Italia
Cinema, Holland Film, among others) with similar responsibilities to
those of the Export-Union. The organization, with its headquarters
in Hamburg, aims to develop and realize joint projects for the
presentation of European films on an international level.
EXPORT-UNION’S RANGE OF ACTIVITIES:
Close cooperation with the major international film
festivals, e.g. Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Montreal, Toronto,
San Sebastian, Tokyo, New York, Locarno, Karlovy Vary;
Organization of umbrella stands for German sales companies
and producers at international TV and film markets, e.g.
MIP-TV, MIPCOM, NATPE, AFM;
Staging of German Film Weeks in key cities of the international
film industry (2001: Buenos Aires, London, Los Angeles,
Madrid, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Rome, Warsaw);
Providing advice and information for representatives of
the international press and buyers from the fields of
cinema, video, TV;
Providing advice and information for German filmmakers and
press on international festivals, conditions of participation
and German films being shown, e.g. publication of a
comprehensive guide to international film festivals as well as
a German film festival guide;
Publication of informational literature on the current
German cinema: KINO-Magazine and KINO-Yearbook;
An Internet website (http://www.german-cinema.de)
offering both information about new German films as well
as a film archive;
Organization of the selection procedure for the German
entry for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film.
The focus of the work: feature films; documentaries with
theatrical potential and shorts that have been invited to the main
sections of major festivals.