INTO THE WILD is a mentoring program for female filmmakers of all disciplines who want to realize a film idea – regardless of whether it is a feature film, documentary, animated film or a series concept. We are looking for material that represents a new, powerful and feminine point of view, with a focus on stories that can appeal to a broad audience. Participants will be supported by successful mentors with industry experience for one year. The program aims to actively promote equal opportunities for women filmmakers in the film and television industry.
The second year of the mentoring program celebrated its crowning finale with the 2021 Pitching Salon at the 38th Munich Film Festival. Read more about the projects and participants in the INTO THE WILD booklet.
Language of instruction: German
Program duration: 12 months, part-time
Due to Corona, INTO THE WILD started online delayed in June.
At the end of September a screenwriting camp will take place at the Baltic Sea. In the following months, theme workshops at the participating film schools will follow.
Between the workshops, the participants develop their material and ideas with the support of their mentors and dramaturges. Finally, the film projects developed in detail will be presented to the professional audience in a pitching event (summer 2021, presumably during the Munich Film Festival ).
INTO THE WILD is financed by the participating film schools – the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, the ifs internationale filmschule köln, the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), the Academy of Television and Film Munich (HFF), Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb) and the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg – and is supported by the Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the Filmförderungsanstalt, the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, the FFF-Bavaria, Bavaria Film GmbH, Constantin Film AG, Ufa Fiction GmbH and X-Filme Creative Pool GmbH. The mentoring program is conducted and organized by Soilfilms Media GmbH.
Lecturers
Dramaturgs: Regine Kühn and Susanne Bieger
Initiator of the program: director and author Isabell Šuba
Julia von Heinz (Director and author)
Kristina Löbbert (Producer)
Maryanne Redpath (Head of Generation Section, Berlin International Film Festival)
Program
1. Screenwriting Camp
A 10-day screenplay camp will take place in September 2020 at the Baltic Sea and will serve not only for intensive examination of all film material but also for getting to know each other in the group. The offer is directed exclusively at INTO THE WILD participants and teams. Each participant should be open to a variety of personality exercises. A lot is written.
2. Workshops
With these workshops, INTO THE WILD is opening up to other team partners from all film schools as well as interested female students and graduates. All are cordially invited to introduce themselves and their work – from the fields of directing, production, camera, set design or screenplay.
Three workshops are planned. They take place at different film schools, are gender-specific and prepare the participants and teams for the everyday work of filmmaking. Participation is binding for INTO THE WILD participants.
For each topic, various experts are invited who
– train the participants/teams in self-organisation, self-presentation and communication within large film teams
– as filmmakers report on their own artistic career
– act as editors and experts for film funding in an advisory capacity
3. Pitching Event
A pitching event will probably take place as part of the Munich Film Festival 2021.
Editors, funding officers, producers, casters and agents from the film industry are invited. The participants/teams will present the material they have developed and establish contacts with colleagues and future working partners.
Requirements
Eligible to participate are film students from the 5th semester onwards and young professionals whose graduation from a German film academy should not be more than four years ago. The one-year program is designed for up to fourteen female participants and their respective film ideas/subjects.
Participation is only possible if the participant assures to be present at least 90% of the time – i.e. not to attend more than one of the events. This is the only way to guarantee the quality of the program. Childcare is partly provided by ITW.