“Filmmaking is the finest job in the world," to quote Florian Gallenberger, who certainly should know – having won (right after his graduation from HFF Munich’s Film Directing Department) a Student Academy Award for his debut film, QUIERO SER, plus an Oscar for Best Short Film. Gallenberger, in addition to directing feature films, has meanwhile returned to his alma mater – as an honorary professor, teaching a new bunch of talented HFF film directing students.

“Viewed from the outside, it was really crazy, what we launched back then,” says writer-cum-director Natalie Spinell, in retrospect, about her show SERVUS BABY. Within two seasons, the TV series has achieved cult status – and is currently available from the BR (Bavarian Broadcasting) Mediathek. Spinell spun SERVUS BABY from a short film idea for her film directing studies at HFF Munich. But her screenplay was packed with so many plot ideas, characters, and shooting locations that she expanded it into a series – including the pilot episode she shot as her HFF Munich graduation film.

If creating tomorrow’s movies and series is your dream too – and if you wish to study at one of the most renowned film schools in the German-speaking countries, HFF Munich offers you a choice of film-related study courses. HFF Munich provides professional training for directing documentary and fiction films and series, editing (with an editing major, in the film directing program), production (including a Creative Producing focus), screenwriting, and cinematography; as well as VFX supervision and production.

Since its founding, in 1966 (or rather the commencement of instruction in 1967), HFF Munich has been shaping talent for tomorrow’s films. Its best-known alumni include Caroline Link, Doris Dörrie, Maren Ade, Janine Jackowski, Bernd Eichinger, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Wim Wenders, and Roland Emmerich. After the early days in a villa in Munich’s Schwabing art quarter, in 1988, HFF relocated to a former bed-spring factory in the city’ working-class Giesing. Then, in September 2011, HFF welcomed students and faculty to its current, brand new Bernd-Eichinger-Platz premises, in the heart of Munich’s Kunstareal museum quarter.

Speech from Prof. Bettina Reitz (pdf-Download)
to her inauguration as President of HFF Munich
19 Oktober 2015