Part of Dieter Kosslick’s response to taking over directorship of the Berlinale was that he felt that it wasn't enough to just discover and show films. He said that the Festival owed something to the movies themselves, "the business side and the artistic side - which means that we should make an investment in the future of cinema, and this future is the young filmmakers."

 

This idea translated into the creation of the Talent Campus, which in the last 8 years has developed into one of the most energetic and pro-active initiatives of the Berlinale. Taking full advantage of its presence at the Festival, the Campus gives aspiring filmmakers from all over the world, and with many different disciplines, the chance to attend an "A"-Festival, but more importantly, allowing them to connect with, and learn from, some of the world’s most prominent filmmakers and industry professionals, often attending as festival guests. Many of these so-called "experts" choose to return in subsequent years becoming part of a continuous exchange which has built up between the industry attending the market and the Campus.

 

But the most significant effect is probably the developing of a network that is truly beneficial to up-and-coming filmmakers. A network not just between talents and professionals, but between the talents themselves, working together, getting to know each other, and creating a collaborative community - largely facilitated by ongoing communication through the Campus website as well as ancillary Campuses in cities such as Guadalajara, Buenos Aires, Durban, or Sarajevo.

 

An obvious goal of the programme is to see alumni from previous Campus editions return to the Berlinale with a film. 2008 was a banner year with two films, Lake Tahoe by Fernando Eimbcke (Campus 2003) and Ballast by Lance Hammer (Campus 2004) in the Competition. In 2009 over thirty Talents had their films screened in the official Berlinale programme, among others Adrián Biniez, participant of the Talent Campus Buenos Aires in 2005, whose film Gigante was awarded the Jury Grand Prix / Silver Bear, the Alfred Bauer Prize and the Best First Feature Award in 2009. And not just the Berlinale recruits Campus alumni, Cristian Mungiu (Campus 2004) made it to Cannes in 2007 where he won the Golden Palm for 4 Months 3 Weeks And 2 Days.

 

Programme manager Matthijs Wouter Knol sees a stronger community of future industry people as the Campus' real long term goal. "It’s not just coming to Berlin and having a great time during the festival, but also the opportunity to get together, to create and sustain a group of people that you could imagine working with for future projects – both fellow-talents and established industry professionals." As such, he plans to foster a greater awareness in the EFM of what’s happening at the Campus, observing that "just down the street from the market is a group of talented people that will be the industry of tomorrow and will define the cinema of the future."

 

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