Focus on Cultural Film: NRW Awards 517,400 Euros in Funding to 15 Projects

In its current round of simplified production funding, the Film and Media Foundation NRW is supporting 15 film projects with a total of 517,400 euros. The focus is on cultural film projects that explore issues of identity, social change, memory, justice, and democratic developments. The funded projects are characterized by high artistic quality, innovative cinematic approaches, and relevant social perspectives.

Funding is provided for projects in the areas of screenwriting, project preparation, short- and feature-length film production, and post-production. Thematic content ranges from personal coming-of-age stories and family histories to historical and political research and international documentaries. Among other topics, the selected projects shed light on social upheavals in Iran, the consequences of police violence, experiences of migration, democratic processes in India, and questions of memory, belonging, and self-determination.

The decision was made by an independent jury consisting of Franziska Gärtner, Head of Fiction at Cologne-based bft; Horst Herz, filmmaker, editor, and producer; and Corinne Le Hong, writer and filmmaker of *Dubdolls*.

Screenplay Grant

ISTANBULDA – 10,000 euros
Screenplay: Cenk Ertürk, Lohmar
A Turkish barber wants to escape his life and believes the only way to do so is in Germany. When he meets a terminally ill German woman in Istanbul, his life changes fundamentally. He helps her and finds himself caught in a conflict between hope, superstition, and despair—until he promises to protect what matters most to her: her young son.

A PIECE OF SKIN - 10,000 euros
Screenplay: Semih Korhan Güner, Cologne
In 1993, nine-year-old Sercan travels with his family from Cologne to his parents’ home village in the East Anatolian steppe. There, his circumcision is performed and celebrated. The journey and the days spent in the village become for him a confrontation with patriarchal traditions and the loss of a child’s sense of security.

Project Preparation Grant

LIFE IS AN EXTREME CLOSE UP - 25,000 euros
Director: Shahab Kermani
Production: Shahab Kermani & Markéta Polednová, Cologne
In a war-torn Iran, a camera passes from hand to hand, becoming the medium for a collective cinematic narrative. At a time when no one knows what the coming months will bring, a personal portrait of social upheaval takes shape over the course of a year. The protagonists become documentarians of their own lives. The filmmakers’ contributions coalesce into a shared perspective—a symbol of solidarity and resilient hope.

LANDMARKS - 25,000 euros
Director: Benjamin Hindrichs
Production: El Gallo Amazónico Films, Hückeswagen
In the 1970s and 1980s, Volkswagen had forced laborers clear tens of thousands of hectares of Amazon rainforest to create a model cattle ranch. All of this has left a deep imprint on the bodies and landscapes of an entire region. The documentary follows three forced laborers and brothers as they return to the site of the events for the first time. The film combines archival footage with contemporary footage, bringing the past and present together.

THE BODY AS AN ARCHIVE - 14,500 euros
Director: Gelareh Kakavand, Münster
This hybrid documentary alternates between archival research, observational present-day footage, and essayistic montage. On two narrative levels, the events in Iran are recounted in parallel with those in Germany in 1967. The archival level focuses on the political atmosphere of 1967, the role of the Shah’s regime, German police violence, and the struggle surrounding and interpretation of Benno Ohnesorg’s death. The film’s core revolves around the question of how death, at the moment it is recorded, is detached from the body and translated into administrative language.

Short Film Production Grant

GRUNDRISS – 25,000 euros
Director, Screenplay: Anja Kreis
Production: Fortis Fem Film, Cologne
As a real estate agent, Clara shows prospective buyers through empty apartments day after day. She is always composed and conformist. This routine normality also seems to define her private life. But she is increasingly losing control over her body and her life. In a cycle of repetition and self-alienation, what has never been mourned comes to light. And we see how experiences that were never given space become embedded in the body.

THE LAST STRAW (AT) - 25,000 euros
Director, Screenplay: Silke Schönfeld, Dortmund
On her way home, a young woman stumbles into a parked police car in front of the Dortmund North Police Station. What happens next exists in two irreconcilable versions. The documentary is about the director’s sister, who was allegedly a victim of police violence, and examines the psychological consequences for those affected. It poses the question: Is there an isolated case that is clear-cut enough—with a victim deemed innocent enough—that the well-established mechanisms of justification no longer apply?

ANYTHING ABOVE 300 METERS IS CONSIDERED A MOUNTAIN - 25,000 euros
Director, Screenplay: Kevin Biele, Cologne
A son (32) and his mother (55) set out together to climb the Drachenfels. The mother is doing it to spend time with her son. He, in turn, wants to get his overweight, short-of-breath mother into shape. But during the ascent, frustration builds up in
both of them, and the signs that something is wrong with the mother multiply. At the summit, while a woman takes a photo of them, the tension between mother and son erupts—and transforms into a memory of loss.

PHOENIX – 25,000 euros
Director, Screenplay: Maximilian Bungarten, Mechernich
Tomasz returns to his hometown in the Rhineland for his father’s funeral to help his mother with the arrangements. Both hide parts of their lives from each other, and old tensions between mother and son resurface. An unexpected reunion with an old friend also plays a major role in Tomasz’s stay at home.

REFUGIA (ANIMATION) – 25,000 euros
Director, Screenplay: Hannah Noh, Jiha Jeon
A European pine marten sits motionless on a branch. When another creature—made of natural materials and discarded trash—makes its way through the forest, the marten follows it. To do so, it must cross an endless highway, wander through museum galleries under construction, and pass through dioramas featuring preserved specimens and animals altered by the Anthropocene. In the end, it returns to its branch—and remains motionless.

Feature Film Production Grant

FLAGS OF AN IMAGINARY NATION—90,000 euros
Director, Screenplay: Rebana Liz John
Production: Filmbetrieb Dedek & Engelhardt, Cologne
This long-form documentary follows students in Mumbai up to their first parliamentary election in 2029. This portrait of Indian youth explores their dreams, fears, and unspoken longings. Against the backdrop of digital media, misinformation, and rising autocracy, the young people show what it’s like to grow up in one of the world’s largest democracies, which is under increasing pressure.

ACHINOS - 90,000 euros
Director: Iris Baglanea
Screenplay: Iris Baglanea, Alice Rohrwacher
Production: FICTION PARK, Düsseldorf
Two sisters, ages 7 and 10, live with their family in the heart of nature in Greece. Living in deliberate seclusion, they exist in harmony with their environment and far removed from societal conventions. When the family’s fragile balance begins to falter, the father makes a radical decision. To protect themselves from life’s hardships, they transform themselves into sea urchins and turn death into a game.

OPERATION CHAMPION - 60,000 euros
Director, Screenplay: Mariam Nikolaishvili
Production: CORSO Film and Television Production, Cologne
Gvantsa is severely disabled following a car accident. What follows is not recovery, but a reinvention. She becomes a world champion in wheelchair fencing. What was once considered a disability transforms into a powerful ability. The authoritarian regime in Georgia exploits her as a pawn in its political game. Soon she finds herself torn between an operation that could save her health and the sport that gives her life meaning.

Post-production funding

THE STUDENT REPORT - 35,000 euros
Director, Screenplay: Sylvia Minhöfer / Borges
This hybrid documentary explores female sexuality, memory, and the struggle for self-determination. Twelve women recount their first sexual experiences in a classroom setting—intimate, contradictory, raw, and even funny. AI-generated imagery translates their inner states. The film takes up the aesthetic of the “Schoolgirl Report” and turns it on its head: this time, the women determine the perspective. The project was awarded a Wim Wenders grant in 2021.

AT THE EDGE OF THE DESERT - 33,000 euros
Director, Screenplay: Laurentia Genske
The Sonoran Desert between Mexico and the U.S. is one of the most dangerous migration routes. Extreme heat, water scarcity, and the treacherous terrain claim countless lives. The documentary tells the stories of people crossing this desert and of those who are there when they arrive. How does this experience affect the helpers who refuse to look away? How does it affect the refugees who risk everything to reach America?