• Practice-oriented writing training for non-fictional comedy and entertainment formats starts on 6 November; application deadline: 11 September.
• Cooperation with Cologne Comedy Festival and high-profile comedy producers  
• Funding by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and grants from CoJoking Space and Oschatz Management

The application phase for the next "Masterclass Comedy" at the ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln is still open until 11 September: the 'next generation' of comedy writers is being sought - for TV, audio and online.

In November/December 2023, the practice-oriented Masterclass will offer comprehensive writing training for non-fictional comedy and entertainment formats. In two one-week intensive training sessions in Cologne, the craft of professional writing will be taught - e.g. for late night/personality, comedy and entertainment shows or reality and factual entertainment formats on TV or online. 
The "Summer School Comedy" was successfully held for the first time last year: It resulted in numerous engagements for the participants. 

The "Masterclass Comedy" is aimed at people with a sense of humour and writing talent who want to enter or further establish themselves in the comedy industry. Professional experience as a writer is not a prerequisite. 

The course is led by the distinguished comedy writer Thomas Rogel (including "heute show", "Harald Schmidt Show", "Switch Reloaded"). The experienced team of authors also includes Svenja Ingwersen (including "Queens of Comedy", "Ich dich auch"), Joy Chun and Adrian Draschoff (Qolabo GmbH - including Netflix, "Studio Schmitt", "Moooment!", Kika ZDF, ZDF neo, Funk, Comedy Central, RTL). Other lecturers come from high-profile TV production companies in the comedy and entertainment sector.
The basis for the practical writing exercises are concrete tasks on popular genres or current comedy formats - based on briefings from the industry and with direct feedback from the programme makers. Input this year comes from Prime Productions (including "heute show", "Sträter") and RAAB TV (including "TV total").

The Masterclass Comedy is funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.
This year's partner for the first time is the Cologne Comedy Festival (26.10.-04.11.), which will present the Masterclass Comedy with two events in the extended festival programme: On 6 December, gags and ideas developed by the Masterclass participants for "TV total" will be presented to the audience in a table read by comedian and presenter Sebastian Pufpaff in the "TV total" studio in Cologne. On 8 December, the Masterclass Comedy participants will present selected works from the various workshops to the industry and interested parties in the ifs cinema. 

Other cooperation partners include the CoJoking Space, which also endows scholarships together with Oschatz Management, and the Grimme Akademie.

The professional training will take place from 06 to 10 November and from 04 to 08 December in presence at the ifs. In between the two writing courses, accompanying online seminars will impart current industry knowledge and market trends in the production and evaluation of non-fictional comedy and entertainment formats. 

Founded in 2000, the ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln is today one of the leading training institutions for film and moving image in Germany. It sees itself as a central, internationally oriented training and further education institution for the audiovisual media industry. Its aim is to offer film and media professionals high-quality, future-oriented training in a close interweaving of theory and practice. Its location in the film and media centre of Cologne is particularly characteristic of its claim to be close to the industry.
The shareholder of the ifs is the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.

Created on 29.08.2023