Annual Report 2025

At a glance

• Animated Annual Report

• Annual Report in Figures

• Diversity in Figures

• Funded Projects 2025

MOIN is taking off

A celebration for the film and cinema industry: the Beatles series “Hamburg Days,” about the band’s early years in Hamburg, received a record funding grant of 1.3 million euros. With CineHamburg, a forward-looking industry event will take place in Hamburg for the first time in 2026. MOIN and PUBLIKUM.io are launching a pilot program to strengthen audience-focused story development using AI. And as part of the Hamburger Kinopreise 2025, we introduced the Kinobonus with an additional 100,000 euros in funding. There’s a lot happening in the film north!

İlker Çatak brought the Berlinale’s top prize to the Hanseatic city with “Yellow Letters.” Fatih Akin drew larger audiences to German cinemas with his Cannes title “Amrum” than any other arthouse film in 2025. And with Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig Tree,” Hamburg provided Germany’s Oscar submission for the second year in a row. A fantastic year for the North German film industry!

Further awards:

• Rosanne Pel’s “Donkey Days” celebrated its world premiere in competition at Locarno Film Festival, followed by its German premiere at Filmfest Hamburg.

• The coming-of-age film “Short Summer” by Nastia Korkia was awarded the “Lion of the Future” for Best First Feature at the Locarno Film Festival.

• The twin brothers Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser took home the Best Director award in the “Un Certain Regard” section at the Cannes Film Festival this year for "Once upon a Time in Gaza"

• The short film "Mama Micra" produced by Fabian&Fred qualified for Oscar consideration in 2025 and screened at numerous festivals.

• The drama "Smalltown Girl" by Schleswig-Holstein native Hille Norden, starring Dana Herfurth in the lead role, celebrated its world premiere at the Filmfest Hamburg.

• Shot on a Hallig island in Schleswig-Holstein, “Yunan” by Ameer Fakher Eldin screened in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival 2025

Fresh Funding for New Stories

With an additional five million euros, the budget of MOIN Film Fund increased to a total of 21.2 million euros in 2025. In addition to project funding, this also enables us to support, among others, the Filmfest Hamburg, the Hamburg Media School and the HFBK Hamburg, as well as finance new programs such as the Nordic NEST and the OMNI Inclusion Data diversity platform.

MOIN Film Fund is jointly operated by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the State of Schleswig-Holstein, with additional funding from NDR, ZDF, and allocated broadcasting fees.

Budget 2025

Turning 1 Euro into 3

How one euro became three: in 2025, nearly three euros flowed back into the film region of northern Germany for every euro of funding. Why? All productions we support are required to spend at least 150 percent of their funding in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. In practice, they usually invest even more: in 2025, that figure reached 294 percent of the total funding volume.

60 funded projects were completed in the past year. Our initial investment of 7.6 million euros grew into 22.4 million euros flowing back into the region. Each euro invested generated 2.94 euros for Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein’s economy.

Regional Effect

The North takes Center Stage

Could this be the next German arthouse film of the year? Hamburg director Fatih Akin shot his new film “Geister” over more than 40 days last summer in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. Director and writer Doris Dörrie spent 24 shooting days in the funding region with “Frau Winkler verlässt das Haus.” Sönke Wortmann filmed “Die Ältern” with Sebastian Bezzel, among others, in Volksdorf and along the Außenalster — and director Lars Jessen worked with lead actor Charly Hübner for “Spaziergang nach Syrakus” for several days in the water tank at OffTec Base in Schleswig-Holstein.

Shooting Days

In 2025, a total of 1,572 shooting days were recorded in the northern German film region, including 313 in Schleswig-Holstein and 1,259 in Hamburg. During this time, 18 funded feature films and one high-end series were produced with our support.

Cinema is our Home

A small world on a grand scale: in 2025, the highest funding amount for a feature film went to “Miniatur Wunderland.” The family film, produced by Letterbox Filmproduktion and directed by Félix Koch, is set to shoot for around three weeks in Hamburg in summer 2026. We also supported strong projects in the animation sector — including “The Amazing Maurice 2 – The Waters of Life,” directed by Toby Genkel, with 470 animation days in Hamburg.

The North and its stories simply shine on the big screen — which is why the majority of our funding budget, 9.2 million euros, went to cinema productions.

Production Funding for Feature Films

Aus den 9,2 Millionen Euro entstehen in den kommenden Jahren 60 Kinofilme. Bereits abgedreht: "Minotaurus" von Andrei Zvyagintsev, der bei den Internationalen Filmfestspielen von Cannes 2026 ins Rennen um die Goldene Palme geht.

Putting the North on the Cinema Map

In 2025, we supported 27 films with nearly 980,000 euros for their theatrical releases. A further 124,500 euros were allocated to 23 basic equipment grants and special measures. In the first half of 2026, exciting new releases are already on the horizon, including the Berlinale titles “Trial of Hein” by Kai Stänicke, “Rose” starring Sandra Hüller, and “Roya” by Mahnaz Mohammadi.

Upcoming Theatrical Releases

• The documentary “Niñxs” by Kani Lapuerta celebrated its world premiere at the Visions du Réel.

• "Conni - Abenteuer mit Kranich Klaus" is an adventure for young cinema fans: will Conni manage to help Klaus the crane fly south in time with the migrating birds?

• A remarkable acting performance by Sandra Hüller in "Rose" — honored with the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival

• The film about the Iranian teacher “Roya” was produced by PakFilm in Hamburg

• At the Berlin International Film Festival 2026, “The Trial of Hein” received the Teddy Jury Award

• The star-studded "Adams Acht" cast, including Oliver Masucci and Felix Kammerer, spent nine shooting days in Ratzeburg

Great Stories without Borders

MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, the Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA), and the Five Nordics are breaking new ground in script development: Nordic NEST launched with a kickoff event at the Filmfest Hamburg 2025, bringing together 60 producers from Germany and the Nordic countries. In January 2026, the Nordic NEST Space followed, where ten writers from Germany and the Nordic countries worked on their ideas together on the Baltic Sea coast. At the Göteborg Film Festival, producers and writers then met for the first time at a matchmaking event.

Eight teams of Nordic-German producers and writers have now come together — each team receives €20,000 in development funding for their treatment. The three best projects, which will be presented at the Cannes Film Festival, stand to receive a further €60,000.

Talent heading North

Whether it’s MOIN Talents, Cannes Talents or the Nordlichter program: at MOIN, we place a special focus on the targeted support of emerging talent.

In 2025, we launched the MOIN Talents program for the second time, in which young filmmakers are supported over the course of a year through tailored coaching and professional development opportunities. Through Cannes Talents, we send four emerging talents to the Croisette together with nordmedia, where they have the opportunity to network, further develop their own projects, and gain valuable insights into the industry.

There was also an anniversary in recent months: the Nordlichter program, which we run together with NDR and nordmedia, entered its tenth round. Once again, emerging filmmakers have the opportunity to realize their fiction debut projects with funding of €1.15 million per project.

OMNI: Making Diversity measurable

Germany, here we come! After successfully completing the pilot phase, our platform OMNI Inclusion Data has been open to all production companies, funding institutions, broadcasters, and platforms since the Berlin International Film Festival 2025. Behind OMNI is a simple and fast online survey that allows cast and crew to provide their data in a GDPR-compliant way. This data is collected, analyzed, and regularly published in anonymized reports.

Promoting Funding Equality

A key objective remains: ensuring equal funding distribution between female and male filmmakers. In 2025, we supported 37 female directors and 31 male directors in production. Complete statistics on our committee structure, team composition, and funding decisions are available in our Diversity Overview.

MOINtastic Moments

Supporting films and series is our core business — but many other exciting things are also happening within our funding ecosystem: Hamburg-based Mohammad Rasoulof had the honor of signing the Golden Book of the City of Hamburg. Our career-changer program GetOnSet, which we run together with the Hamburg Media School and the City of Hamburg, entered its next round. And together with Planet Narratives, we launched a research fellowship: communications scientist Daniel Possler explored how inspiring visions of the future in entertainment media influence the ecological transformation of our society.

Die Crew

Gremium High End

Murat Isgüder
Movie Consult, Owner, Hamburg

Ole Kampovski
NDR, Head of Drama, Hamburg

Wenka von Mikulicz
DCM Pictures, Head of Development, Berlin

Caroline von Senden
ZDF, Chief Editor Fernsehfilm I, Mainz

Ipek Zübert
Screenwriter, Berlin

Helge Albers
MOIN Film Fund, CEO, Hamburg

STELLVERTRETER*INNEN

Leila Hamid
X-Verleih, Board of directors, Berlin

Stefanie Ren
Scriptwriter, Berlin

Soleen Yusef
Writer/Director, Berlin

Gremium Director's Cut

Vanessa Ciszewski
Executive Producer/Distributor, Berlin

Anita Elsani
Elsani Film, CEO, Cologne

Sara Fazilat
Actress/Author, Directors, Berlin

Gabor Greiner
Films Boutique, COO, Berlin

Timo Großpietsch
NDR, Editor for Documentaries & Reportages, Hamburg

Helge Albers
MOIN Film Fund, CEO, Hamburg

STELLVERTRETER*INNEN

Ali Samadi Ahadi
Little Dream Entertainment, Director/Producer, Hamburg

Sarah Blaßkiewitz
Director, Berlin

Britta Knöller
23/5 Filmproduktion, CEO, Berlin

Ann Carolin Renninger
joon film, CEO, Berlin

Mia Spengler
Writer/Director, Hamburg

Sabine Steyer-Violet
Writer/Producer/music advisor, Berlin

Gremium Short Film

Johanna Jannsen
Script Writer, Directors, Flensburg

Friedrich Tiedtke
Script Writer, Directors, Berlin

Insa Wiese
Start Into Media, Partnership/Projektmanagement, Munich

Nicola Jones
MOIN Film Fund, Location Management, Kiel

STELLVERTRETER*IN

Sophia Ayissi Nsegue
Writer and Producer, Hamburg

Gremium Innovative

Ralph Heinsohn
Designer, Executive Producer and Curator of immersive media, Hamburg

Britta Schewe
gretegrote Internetproduktion UG, Founder / CEO, Hamburg

Ulrich Schrauth
VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival, Artistic Director, Hamburg

Nicola Jones
MOIN Film Fund, Location Management, Kiel

STELLVERTRETER*IN

Lars Rummel
Künstler*in und Kurator*in für immersive Medien, Leipzig

Supervisory Board

Dr. Carsten Brosda (Chairman)
Senator for Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

Guido Wendt
State Secretary, Ministry of General and Vocational Education, Science, Research and Culture of the State of Schleswig-Holstein (BiMi SH)

Frank Beckmann
NDR Hamburg, Director of Programming, Division 2

Prof. Bettina Reitz
President of the University of Television and Film Munich

Peter Schauerte
CEO AllScreens & President of SPIO, Berlin

Jana Schiedek
State Councillor, Authority for Culture and Media, Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

Kristina Trapp
CEO EAVE

Tobias Würkert
Lawyer, Legal Affairs Department, ZDF, Mainz

MOIN Team

Helge Albers, Jan Asmus, Joelle Bavoux, Inga Becker, Victoria Benke, Meike Bockelmann, Sonja Collison, Mathieu Dolenc, Birgit Durbahn, Sainabu Fye, Julia Gläsker, Heike Goede, Claudia Hartmann, Robert Heins, Anneke Hoffmann, Nicola Jones, Karen aus dem Kahmen, Jens Kiefer, Alexandra Luetkens, Katrin Mersmann, Ann-Kathrin Meyer, Lorenz Müller, Theresa Noll, Katharina Paul, Franco Razeto Barceló, Deborah Reinmüller, Reiner Rosner, Sabine Schmidt, Christiane Scholz, Daniel Szewczyk, Paulina Toenne, Jana Ziebart