Film University
Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF is Germany’s only university dedicated exclusively to film and has been a centre of excellence in teaching, research and artistic development in the field of audiovisual moving-image media since 1954. Located in the media hub of Babelsberg in Potsdam, it brings together creative practice, academic expertise and interdisciplinary collaboration. It champions diversity, an open and international outlook, sustainability and social engagement – in teaching and learning, research, artistic practice and everyday university life.
Mission Statement
We are storytellers. We tell stories through images, words and sounds, bodies and spaces, pixels and takes, budgets and technologies. We explore the history, esthetics, and future of audiovisual media. Our stories are motivated by the desire and challenge to move and inspire people and to make a difference.
We represent a wealth of different stories and artistic forms, genres and formats, specialization and exchange. Our interdisciplinary work is based on mutual respect. We work together to implement projects. In both theory and practice, we collaborate with people, companies, and institutions. We are active on a regional, national, and global level.
We are Germany's first film university bringing scientific and artistic research together. We explore film as a narrative and technological medium, as an artistic and social practice, and as a phenomenon shaping education, entertainment, and our cultural heritage.
Our top priority is to deliver high-quality teaching and to support creative people in developing their own approach. We provide students with film craft skills as well as market and industry expertise while promoting artistic and scientific exchange. Offering Bachelor's, Master's, Meisterschüler, and PhD programs, we allow students to earn officially and internationally recognized degrees. As both media and media use change, we reflect upon and sustainably contribute to the process of change. Being aware of the history of Babelsberg as a media city, we advocate free and open societies. We unequivocally oppose discrimination and political extremism. We stand up or equality and support people in different family and living situations.
The Film University is a place representing and promoting the freedom of research, teaching, and artistic creation. Film is what unites us.
With its unique interdisciplinary study profile, successful productions and outstanding research projects, Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF makes a significant contribution to shaping the future of moving-image media. Knowledge and research findings, innovative audiovisual formats, as well as services, technologies, ideas and experience are transferred to businesses and society. Furthermore, Brandenburg's only university of the arts is a place for cultural and political debate. An international outlook, underpinned by the universal language of film, is part of our DNA.
Film University is committed to the principle of sustainability. Working together and embracing the concept of a "learning organisation", we continuously develop our structures and processes to establish a culture of sustainability across teaching and learning, research and knowledge transfer, as well as everyday campus life and operations.
Film University is an inspiring and diverse place not only to study, but also to work, offering creative and committed people an excellent working environment. A broad range of staff development initiatives, health management programmes, and training and continuing professional development opportunities are designed to encourage and support employees in their personal and professional growth. Extensive provisions to help staff balance family responsibilities with work and study benefit all members of the university community with caring responsibilities.
Campus & Infrastructure
Organisation
Sustainability
History
The Film University was founded in October 1954 at Babelsberg Palace with the signing of the “Ordinance on the Establishment of the German University of Film Arts” – as the first, and until 1966 the only, higher education institution for artistic, administrative and academic film professions in the whole of Germany. As the university had also been officially training the next generation of television professionals since 1967, it was renamed the University of Film and Television (HFF) in 1969, with the addition of ‘Konrad Wolf’ from 1985 onwards. Following a positive recommendation from the Science Council, the college was taken over by the new state of Brandenburg with effect from 17 December 1990 as its sole institution; in 2000, it moved from the Babelsberg villas to the new college building on Marlene-Dietrich-Allee. On 8 July 2014, “the transformation and expansion into Germany’s first film university, offering interdisciplinary artistic, technological and academic education and research on the universal theme of film in its historical, contemporary and future dimensions” took place during an official ceremony.
The website on the university’s history, launched to mark its 70th anniversary under the motto “moving images, moving times”, provides an insight into events and developments, fragments and documents, images and publications, and is being collaboratively updated as a “work in progress”: