Kirsten Niefs has been elected president of the German Federal Film Board, known locally as FFA, becoming the first woman to be elected to the board.
Variety predicted the appointment in an article published at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Niehus, trained as an entertainment lawyer but with a wicked wit, replaces the German government’s respected former culture minister Bernd Neumann, who has resigned.
Until this summer, Mr. Niehus was CEO of Medienbode, the Berlin-Brandenburg region’s film fund and a major sponsor of international co-productions. Mr. Niehaus served as Deputy CEO of FFA from 1999 to 2004 before moving to Medienbode. Sarah Dube-Schmidt, who served as FFA’s deputy CEO until June, replaced Niehaus as head of Medienboard.
FFA is a powerful institution in the German film industry. Last year, it distributed 20 million euros ($23.4 million) in production and script funding to 50 projects. That includes cash for Cannes films such as Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Values” and Christian Petzold’s “Miroir No. 3”, box office hits such as “School for Magical Beasts 4,” and buzzy arthouse films such as Ruben Østlund’s “The Entertainment System is Down.”
It is an exciting time to take the reins of FFA after Germany revamped its film funding structure late last year, expanding FFA’s funding portfolio to cover all federal film funding. Additionally, German producers can now claim up to 30% of local production costs, up from 20% for feature films and up to 25% for television productions.
But in the eyes of many in the German industry, the legal reforms do not go far enough, and Niefs told Variety in May that he agreed with this view. “I think the industry needs an automatic (production incentive) system that is competitive with other systems, like in Hungary,” she said. “A lot of production is going to be shot in Hungary rather than Germany, not to mention the tariffs, and we don’t have a lot of American production coming in. We’re not attractive enough for big American productions, and that’s obviously hurting all of Germany, Bavaria as much as Hamburg and Berlin.”
Asked if she was optimistic that competitive incentives legislation would be passed this year, she said, “I’m crossing my fingers. I mean, I hope so. Optimism, you know… I’ve seen all kinds of miracles, good and bad, over the years I’ve been in this industry.”
Kirsten Niehaus and Bernd Neumann
Provided by FFA
