A total of 33% of ifs students are international students. They come from 34 countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, China, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Georgia, Great Britain, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, USA.
 
The ifs offers its international students comprehensive counseling - before their arrival in Germany, during and at the end of their studies. They also have access to TH Köln's resources for international students.
 
Since 2020, we have nominated a selection of international students for the DAAD Prize, which is awarded each year to an international student at TH Köln for exceptional academic achievement and social commitment.

The ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln regularly welcomes students from partner universities. In addition, the ifs is also open to students who would like to spend a semester abroad at the ifs as so-called freemovers. For further information on the specific conditions and the application procedure, please contact us by e-mail. Further information as follows:

Nomination deadlines for incoming students:

The nomination deadlines for our partner universities and for freemover requests are April 15th for mobilities in the winter semester (or entire academic year) and October 15th for mobilities in the summer semester.

Procedure for incoming students from partner universities of the ifs:

1. the International Office of the partner university nominates the student in Mobility Online
2. the student registers in Mobility Online and completes his/her application
3. the International Office of the ifs will get back to you by e-mail with the further application procedure

Procedure for incoming students (freemovers):

1. the International Office of the sending institution contacts the International Office of the ifs by e-mail (n.moehrke@filmschule.de) with the following information:

• Name of the student
• degree programme + specialisation and individual previous experience of the student
• semester of the student at the foreign university
• planned exchange semester at the ifs (summer semester or winter semester + year)
• Degree programme for which the application is submitted
• Minimum number of ECTS credits that must be obtained

2. The ifs International Office will contact you by email with the next steps in the application process.

In order to consolidate the respective career aspirations and to expand international activities and cooperations, the ifs has set up a mobility window, which creates free space for internships and semesters abroad.
 
The mobility window is available to BA FILM students in the 4th OR 5th semester, depending on how it can be most usefully integrated into the individual study plan.
Within the framework of our bilateral academic cooperations, ifs students have so far been able to spend semesters abroad in Australia, India, Israel, South Korea, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom.
When choosing destinations, they can also benefit from our Erasmus partnerships for student mobility.

Erasmus Partnerships

Beit Berl College (Beit Berl, Israel)
Hochschule Luzern (Luzern, Schweiz)
RICTS (Brüssel, Belgien)
Université du Luxembourg (Luxemburg)
FAMU (Prag, Tschechien)

Other Partner Universities

FTII (Pune, Indien)
Griffith University (Brisbane, Australien)
La Fémis (Frankreich)
Lodz Film School (Polen)
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (Budapest, Ungarn)
Universidade Lusófona (Lissabon, Portugal)
Kingston University (London, UK)
Westerdals (Norwegen)
Seoul Institute of the Arts (Seoul, Südkorea)

Students regularly participate in field trips to international industry events in Germany and abroad.
Examples include:

BA Film

Editing Picture and Sound: School of Sound Conference (London, UK)
VFX & Animation: Annecy International Animation Film Festival (Annecy, France)
Direcotr of Photography: Camerimage Filmfestival (Toruń, Poland)
Screenwriting, Creative Producing, Directing: Berlinale (Berlin, Germany)

MA Entertainment Producing

MIPCOM (Marché International des Programmes de Communication) (Cannes, France)

MA Film

Documenta (Kassel, Germany)
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) (Rotterdam Netherlands)
University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) (Winston-Salem, N.C, USA)

MA Digital Narratives

Transmediale (Berlin, Germany)
Re:publica (Berlin, Germany)
International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

MA Serial Storytelling

Berlinale (Berlin, Germany)
Film Festival Cologne / European Series Day (Köln, Germany)
Series Mania (Lille, France)

Many of our student films were screened at renowned international film festivals, including festivals in Beijing, San Francisco, Berlin, Oberhausen, Dresden, Saarbrücken, Munich, Paris, New York, Rhode Island, Beirut, Prishtina, Tirana, Istanbul, Pune, Chennai, Reykjavik, San Sebastián, St. Petersburg, Montreal, Krakow, Bangkok, Auckland, and Sydney.
 
Numerous ifs films have also won international awards - the crowning example being the ifs graduation film "The Swing of the Coffin Maker" by Elmár Imánov (director) and Eva Blondiau (producer), which won the Student Academy Award - the "Student Oscar" - in Los Angeles in the category "Best Foreign Film" in bronze.

Some students shoot their films abroad, either as part of a bilateral exchange program or as their graduation films. Numerous feature films and documentaries have been shot in international locations: including Belgium, Ghana, Scotland, Spain, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Turkey, Morocco, Israel, South Korea, and Bangladesh.