10/09/2003

In spite of the recent protests involving more than 400 people from the world of German cinema, it’s been decided to create a Film Academy in Germany, modelled on the famous Hollywood institution. There will be about 100 founding members, but this figure is expected to increase to 1,000 or even to 1,500 members. The conditions that have to be met for people to have voting rights, are that they have to be especially active in their support of German films. At the moment, some of the people involved include the actors Klaus-Maria Brandauer, Daniel Brühl, Corinna Harfouch and Heiner Lauterbach and the directors Doris Dörrie, Oskar Roehler, Volker Schlöndorff, Sönke Wortmann and Wim Wenders. The members of the management committee are the directors Tom Tykwer and Andreas Dresen, the cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and the actors Jürgen Vogel and Katharina Talbach.

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"The world of cinema comes alive through its own strengths, to the benefit of German production" declared the culture minister, Christine Weiss, and she urged people from the world of entertainment to come on board “to enable the Academy to become a true representative of German cinematographic production". The Academy will be financially independent from the State and it will be funded by contributions from its members and through sponsorship deals. From 2005 the Academy will also be in charge of the German film prizes, the national equivalent of the Oscars.

(Translated from Italian)