Since its first edition, the annual campaign has established itself as a flagship platform to give German film talent international visibility and draw the attention of the global film industry to some of the country's most outstanding newcomers and professionals.

FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS 2025 – THE FILMMAKERS features seven unique, impressive, and diverse personalities, each of whom has found a very personal, interesting path into the film industry. In a multifaceted way, they all illustrate how colorful, varied work and creativity can be in the film industry.

This year’s selection extends from actors Aaron Altaras, Lea Drinda and Thea Ehre, to writer-directors Leonie Krippendorff and Mariko Minoguchi, as well as director Mala Reinhardt and director of photography Tim Kuhn.

They are following in the footsteps of such respected filmmakers as internationally renowned stars Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel, Burhan Qurbani, Saskia Rosendahl, Alexander Fehling, Julia Jentsch, Jonas Nay, Jannis Niewöhner, Sara Fazilat, Soleen Yusef and Eva Trobisch, who have all been part of the campaign since it launched in 2016.

“We have a vibrant and diverse film scene in Germany. This diversity and creativity naturally thrives on its filmmakers. We have talents in all the different trades who are always coming up with new ideas, who are curious, who are constantly rethinking and redesigning the medium of film and cinema,” explains Simone Baumann, Managing Director of German Films. “At German Films, we see it as our duty to support these talents from the German film industry and to accompany them on their way to becoming successful filmmakers. We are proud to be able to present seven filmmakers as the ambassadors of our campaign this year, who are all emblematic of innovation in the film industry.”

Meet the FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS talents 2025:

Aaron Altaras, born in Berlin in 1995, is a German actor. Before starting his acting career, he studied philosophy in Amsterdam. He began his acting career with a role in the television film Nicht alle waren Mörder (2006). In the internationally successful Netflix series UNORTHODOX (2020), he plays a music student who shows modern Berlin to an orthodox Jewish woman searching for freedom. Aaron Altaras has also appeared in other notable projects, including the Disney+ series THE INTERPRETER OF SILENCE (Deutsches Haus, 2022)and the film THE NIGHT BETWEEN US (Zwischen uns die Nacht, 2022). Most recently, he starred in the Cannes Series Award-winning ARD series DIE ZWEIFLERS (2023), for which he won the German Television Award and the Blue Panther in the “Best Actor” category. His next films will be WHY ME (2024) and RAVE ON (2024).

Lea Drinda became known to a wider audience in 2021 with her first major role in WE CHILDREN FROM BAHNHOF ZOO (Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, 2021). She was nominated for the German Acting Award (Best Newcomer) in the same year. She received several awards for her role in the series Becoming Charlie (2022), in which she played the first non-binary character on German television, and was also nominated for the Grimme Award for Outstanding Acting Performance and the German Television Award for Best Actress. In the summer of 2024, the mini-series NIGHT IN PARADISE (Nachts im Paradies, 2024) was released on Canal+ with Lea playing alongside Jürgen Vogel as his daughter Joni. She recently shot City of Blood (2024) for Disney+ and is currently starring as Wanda in Where is Wanda? (2024) on Apple TV+.

Austrian actress Thea Ehre was born in Wels in 1999. In 2018, she moved to Vienna, where she soon landed her first role in the television series Vorstadtweiber (2018). While initially studying Theatre, Film, and Media Studies at the University of Vienna, she opted to leave her studies to take on her first significant film role. In 2022, Thea portrayed Leni Malinowski, a transgender woman navigating a complex world of love and investigations, in Christoph Hochhäusler’s genre thriller TilL the End of the Night (Bis ans Ende der Nacht, 2022). She received the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the 2023 Berlinale for her performance. In addition to her artistic pursuits, Thea Ehre actively advocates for the representation of transgender individuals, both in her public persona and through her work in film and theatre. Thea will be seen in Tom Tykwer's THE LIGHT (DAS LICHT 2024), the opening film of the Berlinale 2025.

Mariko Minoguchi was born in Munich in 1988. Her feature film debut RELATIVITY (Mein Ende. Dein Anfang, 2018) received the German Film Critics' Award for Best Debut Film and Best Screenplay, among others. Together with director Tim Fehlbaum, Mariko wrote the screenplay for his film Tides (Haven: Above Sky, 2018), which premiered at the 71st Berlinale and reached number 1 in the US Netflix charts. The film received four German Film Awards.  In 2023, she realized the anthology series Zeit Verbrechen together with Jorgo Narjes from X-Filme. The four films premiered at the Berlinale in the Panorama section in 2024, and were subsequently named German Crime Series of the Year and received the German Acting Award for Best Ensemble. The shooting of her new feature film DIE ANDERE SEITE (2024) will take place from 2024-2025. Together with Trini Götze, David Armati Lechner and Eva Trobisch, she is a partner in the Munich-based production company Trimafilm.

Before becoming a filmmaker, Tim Kuhn studied Latin American history in Germany, Spain and Ecuador. Alongside his studies, however, he began working as a cinematographer for various documentary films in Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East. After studying at the University of Film and Television Munich, he shot the series HINDAFING (2019), which won the Romy Award in the Best TV Series category. In 2021 and 2023, Tim Kuhn received the German Camera Award for his work on the series BREAKING EVEN (2019) and LUDEN (2021). Together with the Oscar-nominated Palestinian director Scandar Copti, he shot the independent feature film HAPPY HOLIDAYS. In 2024, Tim Kuhn was responsible for the visual design of the film adaptation of the bestselling novel 22 BAHNEN. Tim Kuhn is a member of the German Film Academy and lives in Berlin.

Mala Reinhardt completed her directing studies at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam in 2023. She had previously studied ethnology in Cologne, New Delhi and Kampala. One of her most acclaimed works, THE SECOND ATTACK (DER ZWEITE ANSCHLAG, 2018), premiered at DOK Leipzig in 2018 as part of the German Competition, where it earned an honorable mention. It later featured at the Berlinale in 2021. In 2024, Mala premiered her feature-length documentary FAMILIAR PLACES (directing & producing, 2024) at Locarno Film Festival’s Semaine de la Critique. Currently, she is conducting research for her next project, MOTHER/TONGUE (directing & producing, 2025), a hybrid film that will explore the intricate connections between language, migration, and colonial politics.

Born in 1985 and raised in Berlin, Leonie Krippendorff studied Film Directing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf from 2009 to 2016. Her graduation film LOOPING (screenplay & directing, 2015) was shown at various international film festivals, including the Guadalajara International Film Festival where it was awarded a prize. In February released, her feature debut COCOON (KOKON, screenplay & directing, 2018), was selected for the Berlinale Talents Script Station in 2018. In 2020, COCOON premiered as the opening film of the Generation 14+ section at the Berlinale. COCOON received numerous awards, Leonie Krippendorff also received the Bavarian Film Award for Best Emerging Director. Variety listed Leonie Krippendorff as one of the “10 European Talents to Watch 2020“. Her upcoming film project IN HEAT received the ArteKino International Award at the Berlinale 2023.

German Films will present this year’s seven FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS talents in person as part of a panel event organized by German Films during the Berlinale on 17 February 2025.

Additional press material:
The Press Kit can be downloaded here.
The Photo Selection and official campaign posters are available here

All information about the FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS – THE FILMMAKERS campaigns 2016 - 2024 can be found here 

Please note: If you are interested in the panel event and an interview with the talents from this year’s FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS campaign during the Berlinale, or if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the PR agency in charge, Amélie Linder, Panorama Entertainment and Alyson Dewar, PR Works International.

Press contact:
Panorama Entertainment
Amélie Linder, +49 172 640 7242

PR Works International
Alyson Dewar, +1 323 821 3750

Contact German Films:
Eva-Maria Pellikan, Head of Communications & Marketing, Liasion TV & Series
Angela Sonntag Head of Press & Public Relations