Frankfurt am Main | 14 – 22 October 2023

B3 Conference

Multi-layered, forward-looking, high-caliber and diverse

The program of the B3 Conference takes up current topics and trends in the creative and media industries. International differences and commonalities are highlighted and analyzed.In keynotes, master classes, panel discussions or workshops, personalities from media, art, politics and science discuss and present their insights and opinions on socio-political, artistic, legal, higher-level as well as practice-oriented topics. The B3 audience is always welcome to join the discussion. Please note that participation in specially designated events is exclusively open to accredited professionals.

All talks will be shown at the ASTOR Film Lounge MyZeil in the heart of Frankfurt.

Day 1saturday, 14.10.2023

  • 09:30 AM – 11:00 AM
    HessenLab

    B3 HessenLab Pitch

    Only for participants and mentors of the HessenLab


  • 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

    Get started! Daily Networking Warm-up with Croissants and Coffee at the Astor Film Lounge Café

    Daily Networking Warm-up with Croissants and Coffee at the Astor Film Lounge Café


  • 11:00 AM – 11:10 AM

    B3 Conference Opening Ceremony

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  • 11:15 AM – 12:30 PM
    Panel

    From Hollywood to Netflix & Co. - Is Content still King?

    With: Rob Kraitt (Agent, Casarotto, Ramsay & Associates, UK) Christian Franckenstein (CEO, Bavaria Studios, Germany)

    The film and moving image industries are in a constant state of change. With the increasing spread of streaming services and the steadily growing importance of social media, viewing habits have changed dramatically, and at the same time the demand for high-quality content has risen significantly. Where does this content come from and which topics are currently in particular demand by the audience or should be set?

    How can a filmmaker, producer or agency be successful in this volatile environment and what trends can be expected in the future?
    The storytelling of a film or series is more and more being influenced by the way films and moving image content are created and which distribution platforms they are produced for.
    This raises further questions such as what technologies and platforms will industries use in the future, and what new opportunities and risks might result from them?

    The panelists will discuss these topics from different perspectives and take a look behind the scenes of the film and moving image industry.

    This discussion is a great opportunity to gain valuable insights from experienced expert:s and get a glimpse into the future trends and challenges of the industry.

    Speaker

    Rob Kraitt Agent, Casarotto, Ramsay & Associates, UK

    Talent manager at Casarotto Ramsay Associates Limited in London, Rob Kraitt has wide ranging experience representing writing and directing talent; and selling books for film & television adaptation. He has participated on panels and masterclasses for the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain and the International Screenwriter’s Festival amongst others. He was also part of the BFI’s delegation to Shanghai and Beijing in 2015. Rob started his career as a script editor and consultant for many top film production companies in the UK including Working Title, Focus, Pathé Productions, Miramax and Ruby Films as well as the European Media Development Agency. Prior to joining Casarotto in February 2011, he was Head of Media and Associate Director of A P Watt Literary Film & Television Agency.

    Christian Franckenstein CEO, Bavaria Studios, Germany

    Dr. Christian Franckenstein (Jahrgang 1963) ist seit 6. Oktober 2014 Vorsitzender der Geschäftsführung der Bavaria Film GmbH.

    Er kam von der MME Moviement AG, wo er seit 2004 dem Vorstand der MME Moviement AG angehörte und seit 2010 als dessen Sprecher bzw. Vorsitzender.

    1999 hatte Christian Franckenstein die moviement GmbH, München, mitgegründet, die unter seiner Leitung zu einer der führenden unabhängigen Fernsehproduktionsgesellschaften in Deutschland ausgebaut wurde. Im Jahre 2007 gelang mit dem Einstieg der All3Media als Mehrheitsgesellschafter die wichtige Anbindung an einen internationalen Partner und Formatlieferanten.

    Der gebürtige Westfale Christan Franckenstein studierte nach einer kaufmännischen Ausbildung Betriebswirtschaftslehre an der European Business School. Nach verschiedenen Funktionen bei mittelständischen Beteiligungsgesellschaften und seiner Promotion gründete er 1997 mit Partnern die erfolgreichen NOVAMEDIA– Fonds, eine Beteiligungsgesellschaft für Film- und Fernsehfinanzierung.

    Christian Franckenstein ist seit ihrer Gründung im Jahre 2008 Vorstandsmitglied der Allianz Deutscher Produzenten und war zwischen 2005 und 2014 Aufsichtsratsmitglied und ab 2008 Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender der Studio Babelsberg AG.

    Er lebt mit seiner Familie mit drei Kindern seit 1992 in München.

    Host


    Aaron Hillis

    Moderator und Director of Programming Cineverse, USA
  • 01:00 PM – 02:00 PM

    UpStream, an Initiative by Film London. For all those who want to launch internationally with their idea.

    With: Helena Mackenzie (Head of Inward Investment & Business Development, Film London, UK)
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    UPstream is an innovative event focused on new IP which could, with vision, be adapted to TV, Film and/or Games.

    UPstream finds new content creators and provides a platform for the IP to be pitched to development executives and creative producers at production companies in the UK. Maybe you have a podcast, or an animated character, or an amazing true story or an, as yet, unpublished novel? If so, we want hear from you.

    Speaker

    Helena Mackenzie Head of Inward Investment & Business Development, Film London, UK

    Helena Mackenzie is the Head of Inward Investment & Business Development at Film London. She delivers key industry events such as the London Screenings and the Production Finance Market, helping producers to raise finances for their feature film productions. She originates in & outbound bespoke programmes to encourage and facilitate international co-productions with London-based producers and oversees the emergence of new film studios in the British capital.


    Jordan McGarry

    Head of Talent Development and Production, Film London, UK
  • 02:00 PM – 03:00 PM
    Keynote

    Masterclass: One of the most influential directors of our time and B3 Honorary Lifetime Achievement Laureate 2023, Sir Stephen Frears, in conversation with Adrian Wootton (OBE), CEO of Film London and British Film Council.

    With: Adrian Wootton (CEO of Film London and British Film Commission, UK) Stephen Frears (Director, UK)

    Speaker

    Adrian Wootton CEO of Film London and British Film Commission, UK

    Adrian is a Programme Advisor to the BFI London Film Festival; Venice Film Festival and Noir in Fest, Milan; Founding Director of Shots in the Dark Festival, Nottingham and Curator of the annual Cinema Made In Italy programme, London.

    Adrian is a recognised authority in various film/TV and literature subjects (Hollywood, crime and mystery and Italian Cinema amongst others) and regularly lectures, writes broadcasts and curates programmes on them. In 2012, Adrian received an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts and was appointed Visiting Professor of Film & Media at Norwich University of the Arts.

    In 2016, Adrian wrote and coproduced the BBC Arena Documentary Shakespeare on Screen . In 2014, Adrian received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia and in 2017 was awarded an OBE for Services to Film. Most recently, Adrian has led the BFC’s work to develop the COVID-19 Production Guidance for Film and High-end TV drama, as part of the BFI’s wider COVID-19 Screen Sector Recovery Task Force.

    Stephen Frears Director, UK

    Unanimously regarded as one of Britain's finest directors, Stephen Frears has always embraced a wide variety of styles, themes and genres. He worked almost exclusively for the small screen in the first 15 years of his career, with programs such as One Fine Day by Alan Bennett and Three Men In A Boat by Tom Stoppard. Stephen’s more recent TV work includes Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight for HBO and Channel 4’s The Deal starring Michael Sheen and David Morrissey. In the mid-1980s he turned to the cinema, shooting The Hit (1984), starring Terence Stamp, John Hurt and Tim Roth. The following year he made My Beautiful Laundrette for Channel 4, which crossed over to big-screen audiences and altered the course of his career. After directing its companion piece Sammy And Rosie Get Laid and the Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears, he began working in Hollywood, with Dangerous Liaisons and the Grifters (for which he was Oscar®-nominated) among his most notable titles.

    Returning closer to home, he directed The Snapper and The Van, two Irish films based on Roddy Doyle stories and, after a second spell of making American films (The Hi-Lo Country and High Fidelity), based himself largely in Britain. Frears showed his versatility with two vastly different movies – Dirty Pretty Things, a realistic account of immigrant life in London, and Mrs Henderson Presents, a nostalgic backstage comedy-drama. For his 2006 film The Queen he was again nominated for an Oscar. His subsequent films included Cheri and Tamara Drewe. He followed these with Philomena, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, which won a BAFTA and was nominated for three others, along with three Golden Globe and four Oscar nominations; The Program, which starred Ben Foster as seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong; and Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, which received various accolades including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture and an Oscar nomination for Streep. Frears followed this with Victoria & Abdul, which starred Judi Dench, who received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance.

    Frears’ return to TV was with the acclaimed three-part BBC television series A Very English Scandal, which won Stephen a BAFTA for Best Director. He followed this up with an Emmy win for Nick Hornby’s short form series State Of The Union - starring Rosamund Pike and Chris O’Dowd; and most recently directed QUIZ for ITV – James Graham’s TV adaptation of his play, starring Michael Sheen and Matthew Macfadyen.

  • 03:15 PM – 04:45 PM
    Workshop

    Workshop: Artificial Intelligence in the Creative and Pre-Production Phase of Film and Television

    With: Oliver Schütte (Screenwriter, Author, Producer, Consultant and Founding Member of the German Film Academy, Germany)
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    This workshop focuses on the use of AI technologies in the creative and pre-production phases of film and television projects.

    Participants will get an overview of AI tools and platforms that can be used in different areas of the film and television industry to increase efficiency while exploring new opportunities.

    Topics include ideation and prototyping, scene selection, prop and costume planning, time and resource planning, cast and crew, storytelling and script development, script analysis, casting and character analysis, music and sound design, sound editing and analysis, voiceover, as well as collaboration tools for crew and production.

    Speaker

    Oliver Schütte Screenwriter, Author, Producer, Consultant and Founding Member of the German Film Academy, Germany

    Oliver Schütte studied film and theater in Berlin. He has been a screenwriter for film and television since 1986. He won the German Film Prize in 1988 for his first screenplay, "Koan". Since 1990, he has been working as a Script Consultant. From 1995 until 2008 he was the director of the Master School Drehbuch, an institution for advanced education of screenwriters, script consultants and producers. In 1997, he co-founded the "Script House" development agency in Berlin which he left in 2001.

    Today he works as a writer, script consultant and as a lecturer in Germany, Austria, Poland, Switzerland and USA.

    Since 2014 he is also the managing director of the filmproduction „tellfilm Deutschland“.

    Oliver Schütte is a founding member of the German Film Academy.

  • 07:30 PM – 08:30 PM
    Presentation

    Adrian Wootton Presents Stephen Spielberg - A Film History

    With: Adrian Wootton (CEO of Film London and British Film Commission, UK)
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    Adrian Wootton, Film London CEO and film historian gives this militia media illustrated talk. Looking at the incredible life and career of this legendary influential and prolific director who is also the most commercially successful and popular filmmaker in movie history, Adrian traces his meteoric rise as a movie “brat” and reveals the behind the scenes stories of the making of classic films such as Jaws, Indiana Jones , Schindlers List and Jurassic Park, lavishly illustrated with film clips and slides. Coming right up date Adrian also explores Steven Spielberg’s latest award-winning and most autobiographical drama The Fablemans.

    Speaker

    Adrian Wootton CEO of Film London and British Film Commission, UK

    Adrian is a Programme Advisor to the BFI London Film Festival; Venice Film Festival and Noir in Fest, Milan; Founding Director of Shots in the Dark Festival, Nottingham and Curator of the annual Cinema Made In Italy programme, London.

    Adrian is a recognised authority in various film/TV and literature subjects (Hollywood, crime and mystery and Italian Cinema amongst others) and regularly lectures, writes broadcasts and curates programmes on them. In 2012, Adrian received an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts and was appointed Visiting Professor of Film & Media at Norwich University of the Arts.

    In 2016, Adrian wrote and coproduced the BBC Arena Documentary Shakespeare on Screen . In 2014, Adrian received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia and in 2017 was awarded an OBE for Services to Film. Most recently, Adrian has led the BFC’s work to develop the COVID-19 Production Guidance for Film and High-end TV drama, as part of the BFI’s wider COVID-19 Screen Sector Recovery Task Force.

Day 2sunday, 15.10.2023

  • 09:00 AM – 10:00 AM

    Get started! Daily Networking Warm-up with Croissants and Coffee at the Astor Film Lounge Café

    Get started! Daily Networking Warm-up with Croissants and Coffee at the Astor Film Lounge Café


  • 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
    Panel

    Absolutely Necessary and Polarizing. Diversity and Identity Politics In Art, Culture, and Media.

    With: Cameron Kostopoulos (Artist and VR Producer, USA) Joshua Gundlach (Artist and Game Developer, Germany) Katarzyna Perlak (Artist, UK)

    Special format featuring individual conversations followed by a panel discussion

    "Black Lives Matter," Migration, Post-Colonial Discourse, Antisemitism, LGBTQ+, Cultural Appropriation, Cancel Culture, Tokenism - these terms and buzzwords have been making their way into the cultural and political sphere for years, even reaching the mainstream. We all encounter one or another aspect of these issues daily and find ourselves challenged to take a stance.

    Diversity and identity politics play a crucial role in the arts and culture sector, as they can reflect society's variety and contribute to breaking down discrimination, promoting equal opportunities, and fostering participation. This array of people, ideas, and perspectives is also mirrored in artistic works and cultural events at B3.

    To begin with, in brief individual conversations with artists and media professionals presenting their works at B3, space is created for critical exchange and constructive debates about their personal experiences, art, culture, and politics. In the ensuing panel discussion, they collectively deliberate on solutions and strategies for an inclusive and diverse art and cultural landscape.

    Speaker

    Cameron Kostopoulos Artist and VR Producer, USA

    Cameron Kostopoulos is an award-winning director, filmmaker, and XR pioneer. The overlap between his alternative writing & directing and technical VFX skills frees him to create dreamt worlds, fading memories, and deeply intimate experiences.

    ​In May 2022, he graduated Summa Cum Laude from USC's School of Cinematic Arts, with a BFA in Film & Television Production and a minor in Future Cinema. Currently, he is studying under Nonny de la Peña and Mary Matheson at ASU’s Narrative & Emerging Media Program.

    Cameron’s work has been awarded by many world-class festivals and organizations. His XR experience “Body of Mine” won the Special Jury Award at SXSW, while his student short film “A Mother’s Soliloquy” was selected as a Semi-Finalist for the Student Academy Awards, and won him many regional and national awards for Best Director.

    With a multidisciplinary approach to filmmaking, his work blends poetic cinema with narrative storytelling, relying on emotional realism to explore the inner human psyche. He has worked with leading LGBTQ+ organizations to create and promote stories about queer identity, including The National AIDS Memorial and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and has collaborated with queer artists including Jason A. Rodriguez, co-star of the FX series POSE, to bring underrepresented characters to the screen.

    Moving into the future, he is continuing to explore the intersection of technology and intimacy, while writing and directing live-action films and XR experiences.

    Joshua Gundlach Artist and Game Developer, Germany

    Joshua Gundlach is a story teller. A 2021 graduate from Kunsthochschule Kassel, he centers his art around Judaism, queerness and disability. He primarily works with making games, illustrations and textile art.

    Katarzyna Perlak Artist, UK

    Katarzyna Perlak is a Polish-born artist, based in London who employs video, performance, textiles, sculpture, and installation in her works.

    Perlak studied Philosophy in Poland and Fine Art Media in the UK.

    She was part of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2017 and shows in the UK and internationally.

    Through her work Perlak explores how crafts, heritage and traditions can be revisited and re-imagined from contemporary feminist, queer and diasporic, migrant perspectives. She engages 'affective truths' such as myths, tales, dreams, desires, collective memories, and seeks to problematize how history is written and traditions are represented.

    By questioning who tradition belongs to and who it overlooks, her work encourages audiences to consider and experience multiple, overlapping and contesting historical narratives rather than as a single, fixed entity.


    Bassam Issa Al-Sabah

    Artist, Iraq and UK (tbc)

    Host


    Jasmin Hagendorfer

    Festival Director and Filmmaker, Austria
  • 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
    Masterclass

    Spanish Artist and B3 Honorary Laureate 2023 in the Category of Art, Daniel Canogar, in Conversation with the Director of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Dr. Sebastian Baden.

    With: Daniel Canogar (Artist, Spain, B3 Honorary Laureate, Category ART 2023)
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    Daniel Canogar is a pioneer of interactive art. He creates artworks that blend traditional media with modern technology. His installations explore the connection between humans, nature, and technology in fascinating ways. In his Master Class, he offers insights into his work and creative process, and engages in a conversation with Dr. Sebastian Baden about art, the impact of societal trends and cutting-edge technologies on his artistic practice, art in general, and what this signifies for artistic creation in the future.

    Speaker

    Daniel Canogar Artist, Spain, B3 Honorary Laureate, Category ART 2023

    Born in Madrid (1964) to a Spanish father and an American mother, Daniel Canogar’s life and career have bridged between Spain and the U.S. Photography was his earliest medium of choice, receiving a M.A. from NYU at the International Center of photography in 1990, but he soon became interested in the possibilities of the projected image and installation art. He has created public art installations with LED screens, including Dynamo, a site- specific audiovisual project designed for the Spanish Pavilion in Dubai Expo 2020 (Dubai, 2021). Currents a suspended artwork in the atrium of the renovated Evangelische Bank (Kassel, 2020). Aqueous at The Sobrato Organization (Mountain View, CA, 2019). Pulse, at Zachry Engineering Education Complex in Texas A&M University (College Station, TX, 2018).\n Tendril for Tampa International Airport (Tampa, FL, 2017) and Cannula, Xylem and Gust II at BBVA Bank Headquarters (Madrid, 2018). He has also created public monumental artworks in different mediums such as Oculus a generative animation features on Novartis Pavillon zero-media façade (Basel, Switzerland, 2022). Brushstrokes a screen installation for DeKa Bank’s lobby (Frankfurt, Germany, 2022).Bifurcation, a multi-laser projection at Noor Riyadh Light & Art Festival (Riyadh, 2021). Amalgama Phillips (Washington D.C., 2021) and Amalgama El Prado (Madrid,2019), generative video-projections projected on the Phillips Collection and the Museo Nacional del Prado façades’ and created with the painting collections of both institutions. Fulgurations, a project in collaboration with the Spanish National Cancer Research Center - CNIO (Madrid, 2021). Bifurcation, a multi-laser projection for the Noor Riyadh Light & Art Festival (Riyadh, 2021). Constellations, the largest photo-mosaic in Europe created for two pedestrian bridges over the Manzanares River, in Madrid Río Park (Madrid, 2010) and Asalto, a series of video-projections presented on various emblematic monuments, including the Arcos de Lapa (Rio de Janeiro, 2009), the Puerta de Alcalá (Madrid, 2009) and the church of San Pietro in Montorio (Rome, 2009).\n Also part of the series is Storming Times Square, screened on 47 of the LED billboards in Times Square (New York, NY, 2014). His solo shows include “Turbulencias” at Galería Max Estrella (Madrid, 2022). “Hidden Tides” at Wilde Gallery (Basel, 2021). “Reverberations” at Kornfeld Gallery (Berlin, 2021). “Latencies” at Anita Beckers Gallery (Frankfurt, 2021). “Billow” at bitforms gallery (New York, NY, 2020). “Liquid Memories” at Sala Kubo-Kutxa (San Sebastian, 2019).\n Surge a temporary installation for the Grand Lobby Wall at Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA, 2019). “Echo” at Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum (Lafayette, LA, 2019). “Melting the Solids” at Wilde Gallery (Geneva, 2018). “Fluctuations” at Sala Alcalá 31 (Madrid, 2017). OR “Echo” at bitforms gallery (New York, NY, 2017). He has exhibited extensively in major museums and galleries across the world including Art Vault Santa Fe Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, New Mexico. ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe.\n Reina Sofia Contemporary Art Museum, Madrid. Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio. Offenes Kulturhaus Center for Contemporary Art, Linz. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfallen, Du ̈sseldorf. Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin. Borusan Contemporary Museum, Istanbul. American Museum of Natural History, New York.\n Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Alejandro Otero Museum, Caracas. Max Estrella Gallery, Madrid. bitforms gallery, New York. Wilde Gallery, Geneva and Basel. Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt. Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin.\n Eduardo Secci Contemporary, Florence.

    Dr. Sebastian Baden

    Director, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany
  • 12:30 PM – 02:00 PM
    Workshop

    Beyond the Page: Does the New Age of Screenwriting Need the Screenwriter More Than Ever?

    With: Laura Turner (Screenwriter and Playwright, UK)
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    Traditional screenwriting remains an essential skill for aspiring screenwriters. It also forms the basis for most film and television productions and serves as a guide for directors and actors to develop a common vision of the eventual film.

    This workshop will focus on the art of classic screenwriting in the film and television industry. It will also look at possible future trends in screenwriting and discuss how to prepare for changes in the industry through further proliferation of streaming services or the use of the latest AI tools: Will there be more interactive content soon? What role will artificial intelligence play in the scriptwriting process in the future?

    Current AI tools can already help screenwriters in early stages of their creative process to generate ideas, visualize them from the beginning and share them with others in their creative team. Screenplay analysis can also be simplified, improved and accelerated by AI: What changes in the role, task and self-image of the screenwriter will result from these recent developments?

    The workshop offers a great opportunity to expand one's own writing skills and to prepare for the new age of screenwriting in partnership with AI.

    Speaker

    Laura Turner Screenwriter and Playwright, UK

    Laura is a screenwriter and playwright whose first feature film LAPWING was released in cinemas in 2021 (Bulldog Distribution). The film, featuring Hannah Douglas, Emmett J Scanlan and Sebastian de Souza, was selected for the BIFA To Watch List November 2021 and received critical acclaim. Previously, her award-winning short films GOING COUNTRY, PENNYWORT and INSIDE have been funded by BFI Network and BBC New Creatives, winning awards at film festivals across the world. A member of BIFA Springboard, BAFTA Crew, and a Finalist in the Women of the Future Arts and Culture Awards, Laura is currently developing feature and television projects. As a playwright, she has had over 50 plays produced nationally and internationally and runs Fury Theatre. Laura is represented by Rob Kraitt at Casarotto Ramsay.

  • 02:00 PM – 03:00 PM
    Panel

    Deepfakes and Voice Cloning. War Narratives: Fake News and Propaganda in Times of War

    In the era of digital technology, the methods of spreading false information and propaganda have evolved dramatically. Deepfakes and voice cloning are examples of this type of technologies that are increasingly used in times of war and political conflicts to spread fake news and propaganda and to manipulate public opinion in a targeted manner.

    The Russian war of aggression on Ukraine has made this clear to all Europeans: The use of such technologies in times of war, acts like a fire accelerant to ensure that war narratives and propaganda, which are naturally intended to strengthen one's own position and discredit opponents, are perceived as a plausible reality. But what are the implications not only for the political public sphere and its narratives of "just" war, but for the whole cultural storytelling on the topic of genuine human authenticity and identity?

    Our panel will provide a space for critical exchange and constructive debate with our experts from the arts, culture, and politics. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and to contribute their own experiences and opinions to the discussion.

    Host

    Johannes Grenzfurthner

    Johannes Grenzfurthner is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, author, and performer. With his art he manipulates people to positively respond to his lies and made-up realities. He is the founder and artistic director of monochrom, an internationally acting art-technology-philosophy group. His horror film MASKING THRESHOLD won awards from the Nightmares Film Festival 2021 in the U.S. and the A Night of Horror International Film Festival 2021 in Australia, among others. Boing Boing magazine referred to him as a leitnerd, a wordplay with the German term Leitkultur that ironically hints at his role in nerd-, hacker- and art culture.

  • 03:00 PM – 04:00 PM
    Panel

    Creative Storytelling at a Turning Point. Is AI a Tool or Antagonist of Storytelling?

    With: Oliver Schütte (Screenwriter, Author, Producer, Consultant and Founding Member of the German Film Academy, Germany)
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    Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to fundamentally change the way stories are told and produced in moving images. One of the main arguments for using AI technologies in moving image production is the time and money it saves. By automatically generating ideas up to entire videos and artworks, creating storyboards or transcribing, dubbing and translating videos, workflows can be optimized and resources can be used more efficiently. AI is also already finding its way into script analysis.

    At the same time, AI-assisted processes are generating numerous new ethical, legal, political, and aesthetic concerns, most of which revolve around the protection of copyrights and the handling of sensitive creative data.

    The extent to which the use of AI interferes with the process of human creativity as a whole also raises questions: should the creative control of human creators be allowed to be transferred to AI systems, and do the AI-generated results then still meet human standards or even have the potential to surpass human creativity and intuition, or do they merely complement them?

    Examples such as The Next Rembrandt, a project in which AI generated an artwork in the style of Rembrandt, or NVIDIA GameGAN, which uses AI technology to create new game worlds and scenes, raise fundamental aesthetic and philosophical questions regarding the limits of artistic creation, human authorship, authenticity, and originality.

    The workshop will critically examine and illustrate with hands-on examples the consequences for creative storytelling.

    Speaker

    Oliver Schütte Screenwriter, Author, Producer, Consultant and Founding Member of the German Film Academy, Germany

    Oliver Schütte studied film and theater in Berlin. He has been a screenwriter for film and television since 1986. He won the German Film Prize in 1988 for his first screenplay, "Koan". Since 1990, he has been working as a Script Consultant. From 1995 until 2008 he was the director of the Master School Drehbuch, an institution for advanced education of screenwriters, script consultants and producers. In 1997, he co-founded the "Script House" development agency in Berlin which he left in 2001.

    Today he works as a writer, script consultant and as a lecturer in Germany, Austria, Poland, Switzerland and USA.

    Since 2014 he is also the managing director of the filmproduction „tellfilm Deutschland“.

    Oliver Schütte is a founding member of the German Film Academy.


    Jonny-Bix Bongers

    Director, Designer and Visual Artist
  • 03:30 PM – 04:30 PM
    Panel

    To What Extent is The Use of AI in Film and Moving Image Acceptable?

    With: Daniel Chávez Heras (Lecturer in Digital Culture and Creative Computing, Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, UK) Hidéo Snes (Artist and Researcher, Finland)
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    For some time now, numerous voices have been raised in public, including those of experts in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), who are calling for a temporary halt to the development of the most advanced AI systems or for a comprehensive worldwide AI regulation on the part of official authorities.

    But even as some experts compare AI's destructive potential to that of a nuclear bomb, and even if AI can design 40,000 potentially lethal chemical agents in 6 hours - apart from the apocalyptic scenarios that could be invoked by AI, the question arises as to what else AI can do and how it can be put to good use. What could this mean for the use of AI in film and moving image?

    The role of AI in these fields has evolved dramatically in recent years. Today, AI-powered tools and technologies are integral to film production and post-production. Through these tools, everything from scriptwriting to color correction and sound design can be automated. But while it is possible that these advances might increase efficiency, they also raise important ethical questions.

    These questions and concerns center on the threat to jobs, creative integrity, originality, and authorship posed by AI. In addition, there are issues related to privacy and security, as well as the need for transparency in AI algorithms and their political and legal regulation.

    The potential for AI to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and biases from its training data, potentially generating often unnoticed discriminatory content, will also be a topic of this panel. If a film that has been made using AI crosses legal or ethical boundaries - for example, by spreading hate speech or creating misleading deepfakes - who will be held responsible? Is it the developer of the AI? The filmmaker who made use of the AI? Or the AI itself? Panelists will examine and discuss these and related questions from different perspectives.

    Speaker

    Daniel Chávez Heras Lecturer in Digital Culture and Creative Computing, Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, UK

    Daniel specialises in the computational production and analysis of visual culture. His research combines critical frameworks in the history and theories of cinema, television, and photography, with advanced technical practice in creative and scientific computing, including applied machine learning technologies.

    He has worked extensively in interdisciplinary design and creative industries, in Mexico and in the UK, with cultural institutions such as The British Council, and the BBC. He was senior research fellow at the Cultural Analytics Open Lab in Estonia, and is now Lecturer in Digital Culture and Creative Computing in the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, where he is also part of the Computational Humanities Group, and research fellow at the Creative AI Lab, in partnership with the Serpentine Gallery.

    Hidéo Snes Artist and Researcher, Finland

    It is said Hidéo Snes is otherworldly, different. A creature, so deranged, strange, and twisted, its presence remains in constant flux. A tentacled elder-god, a multi-breasted space-vixen, a many-faced, utterly fiendish beast. Hidéo Snes is not one, but many. Not one thought that echoes through the void, but a chorus. A frightful symphony of ideas. Fundamentally questioning the idea of artistic production processes, Hidéo Snes establishes a neomodern continuum, wherein the fractured self is being mirrored in equally distorted selves. Hidéo SNES works with artificial intelligence and conducts artistic research into its racist, misogynist and queerphobic aspects. SNES’ works have been presented at Mumok (Vienna, AT) and Kiasma (Helsinki, FI), and have been part of exhibitions on four continents.

    Host

    Johannes Grenzfurthner

    Johannes Grenzfurthner is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, author, and performer. With his art he manipulates people to positively respond to his lies and made-up realities. He is the founder and artistic director of monochrom, an internationally acting art-technology-philosophy group. His horror film MASKING THRESHOLD won awards from the Nightmares Film Festival 2021 in the U.S. and the A Night of Horror International Film Festival 2021 in Australia, among others. Boing Boing magazine referred to him as a leitnerd, a wordplay with the German term Leitkultur that ironically hints at his role in nerd-, hacker- and art culture.

  • 05:00 PM – 06:00 PM
    Keynote

    AI-Generated Influencers and Avatars, and Their Impact on Film, Moving Images, Storytelling, and Society

    With: Wolfgang M. Schmitt (Film Critic and Author, Germany)
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    AI technologies are not only being used increasingly in the field of influencer marketing to automatically generate influential personas and content so that content, stories, and human-like avatars can be created quickly and cost-effectively, regardless of working hour regulations. AI avatars that can deceptively mimic human appearance, personality, and behaviors are also emerging in the metaverse and other artistic immersive mixed realities.

    The new possibilities arising from AI-generated influencers and avatars are also being met by critical voices: On the one hand, the question arises as to how authentic AI-generated influencers really appear and whether they are actually relevant for users. On the other hand, the use of AI-generated influencers can stir up ethical conflicts, as the question of whether they can be used in a manipulative way will inevitably come up.

    The newly created personalities are generated by algorithms, thereby changing or even completely replacing human creativity and the ability of authentic communication.

    What consequences does this have, for example, for film, marketing, for storytelling, and for the psychological authenticity and credibility of culturally significant figures and role models? How biased, one-sided, and infused with ideology are these AI influencers or avatars? What "psychology" or "personality models" do their actions follow, or do they increasingly detach themselves from those and become autonomous?

    The keynote and the subsequent panel aim to not only provide a societal context of influencers but also raise awareness about the magnitude of consequences related to the latest AI-based transformative capabilities.

    Speaker

    Wolfgang M. Schmitt Film Critic and Author, Germany

    Wolfgang M. Schmitt is a film critic and author. He runs the ideology-critical YouTube channel "Die Filmanalyse", and also co-hosts the zeitgeist podcast "Die Neuen Zwanziger" ("The New Twenties)" and the economics podcast "Wohlstand für Alle" ("Prosperity for All"). In spring 2021, together with Ole Nymoen, he published the non-fiction book " Influencer. Die Ideologie der Werbekörper" ("Influencers: The Ideology of Advertising Figures").

    Host

    Daniel Gebhardt

    Daniel Gebhardt is a Philosopher and Photographer who experienced the recent rise of NFTs and Crypto from the fashion industry's perspective. As a lecturer and trainer for intercultural communication and marketing at AMD, Berlin, he observed global innovative trends and markets critically and differentiated. Daniel Gebhardt also advises companies and brands from various industries (finance, pharmaceuticals, fashion) on questions of innovation and change communication.

  • 07:30 PM – 08:30 PM
    Presentation

    Kurosawa and Shakespeare, Adaptation and Reinvention - An Illustrated Lecture by Adrian Wootton

    With: Adrian Wootton (CEO of Film London and British Film Commission, UK)
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    Adrian Wootton CEO of Film London and film historian will explore the career of legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (1910-1988).

    Focusing particularly on a remarkable trilogy of films, Throne Of Blood (1957) , The Bad Sleep Well (1960) and Ran (1985), adapted from the classic Shakespeare plays Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear, Kurosawa translated them into unique highly influential cinema that also drew deeply on Japanese history and artistic traditions of painting and theatre. Lavishly illustrated with clips and slides Adrian will go behind the scenes and reveal the stories of the making of these extraordinary films and set them in the context of Kurosawa’s incredible canon of movies made over a 50 year period .

    Speaker

    Adrian Wootton CEO of Film London and British Film Commission, UK

    Adrian is a Programme Advisor to the BFI London Film Festival; Venice Film Festival and Noir in Fest, Milan; Founding Director of Shots in the Dark Festival, Nottingham and Curator of the annual Cinema Made In Italy programme, London.

    Adrian is a recognised authority in various film/TV and literature subjects (Hollywood, crime and mystery and Italian Cinema amongst others) and regularly lectures, writes broadcasts and curates programmes on them. In 2012, Adrian received an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts and was appointed Visiting Professor of Film & Media at Norwich University of the Arts.

    In 2016, Adrian wrote and coproduced the BBC Arena Documentary Shakespeare on Screen . In 2014, Adrian received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia and in 2017 was awarded an OBE for Services to Film. Most recently, Adrian has led the BFC’s work to develop the COVID-19 Production Guidance for Film and High-end TV drama, as part of the BFI’s wider COVID-19 Screen Sector Recovery Task Force.

Day 3monday, 16.10.2023

  • 09:00 AM – 10:00 AM

    Get started! Daily Networking Warm-up with Croissants and Coffee at the Astor Film Lounge Café

    Daily Networking Warm-up with Croissants and Coffee at the Astor Film Lounge Café


  • 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
    Keynote

    AI and the Future of Film and Media. Are We on Our Way Into a New Media Age? Or Does AI Dream of Electronic Pencils?

    With: Marcus John Henry Brown (Performance Artist and Speaker, UK/GER) Daniel Chávez Heras (Lecturer in Digital Culture and Creative Computing, Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, UK)
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    In his keynote presentation, Marcus John Henry Brown ponders whether AI dreams of electronic pencils.Artificial intelligence will replace us all—or it won't. The robots will rise up against us, destroy or enslave us.—or they won't. Artificial intelligence will solve all of our problems; creative, language, political, medical, cultural and ecological, or it won't.

    In "Does AI Dream of Electronic Pencils", Marcus John Henry Brown examines the artificial intelligent fuss and explores whether artists, filmmakers, composers, creatives and the creative industries should embrace, be indifferent to or be terrified by these emerging technologies. He wonders if we should care. The lecture examines AI's potential for democratising culture, expertise and genius and unpacks the argument that systems like midjourney are just intellectual property-theft machines for the talentless.

    In the subsequent panel discussion, the panelists examine the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and its profound impacts on the film and media industry. On the one hand, the use of AI in creation, production, and marketing offers the promise of enormous savings in time, cost, and effectiveness. This is also the case when AI-powered tools and technologies enable individuals and smaller production companies to create high-quality content without having to rely on expensive professional equipment or large teams.
    On the other hand, AI not only replaces routine jobs, but also requires new skills and abilities from employees in dealing with it. Classic professions such as directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors and visual effects artists will be the ones most affected by this development. But also the area of financing as well as many team coordination and service areas of production will have to make adjustments.

    The panelists discuss which fields of activity may possibly be replaced by or strongly influenced by AI in the future and which skills and knowledge will be particularly important in these professions in order to be successful and to use technological progress together with AI and whether suitable educational offers already exist for this.

    Speaker

    Marcus John Henry Brown Performance Artist and Speaker, UK/GER

    Marcus John Henry Brown is a performance artist based in Munich. He moved to Germany in 1993 having studied Art & Social context at Dartington College of Arts.

    Marcus splits his time between performance art, mentoring young creatives, teaching business professionals the dark art of public speaking and creating exciting virtual event experiences for commercial clients and brands.

    He has created a series of critically acclaimed performances examining the relationships between and impact of technology, culture and commerce on society. He calls them Presenterventions.

    Daniel Chávez Heras Lecturer in Digital Culture and Creative Computing, Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, UK

    Daniel specialises in the computational production and analysis of visual culture. His research combines critical frameworks in the history and theories of cinema, television, and photography, with advanced technical practice in creative and scientific computing, including applied machine learning technologies.

    He has worked extensively in interdisciplinary design and creative industries, in Mexico and in the UK, with cultural institutions such as The British Council, and the BBC. He was senior research fellow at the Cultural Analytics Open Lab in Estonia, and is now Lecturer in Digital Culture and Creative Computing in the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, where he is also part of the Computational Humanities Group, and research fellow at the Creative AI Lab, in partnership with the Serpentine Gallery.

  • 12:00 PM – 01:00 PM
    Keynote

    High Culture in Portrait Mode: What Platforms Like Tiktok and Instagram Can Teach us for the Storytelling of the Future Author, Journalist and Speaker Dirk von Gehlen in Conversation with ...

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    The enormous success of short video platforms and formats like TikTok or Insta-Reels has permanently changed the viewing habits of the younger generation. The type of content that is being consumed has a direct impact on storytelling.

    Due to the brevity of the videos on TikTok, storytelling is often simplified and presented in an abbreviated, pointed manner. Could this also be an opportunity for storytelling in the future? The author of the book "Meme - Muster digitaler Kommunikation" (Memes - Patterns of Digital Communication) will explain the basics of the transformation of digital storytelling patterns - and, building on this, outline the possibilities for learning from them: What do these developments mean for the storytelling of the future? How must stories be told in order to generate and maintain an audience? Which platforms are best suited for distribution? Following the keynote speech, Dirk von Gehlen will discuss these and other related questions with a well-known influencer/youtuber. The audience will then have the opportunity to actively participate in the discussion and contribute their own ideas and questions.

    Speaker


    Dirk von Gehlen

    Author, journalist, and speaker, Director of the Think Tank at the SZ-Institute, Germany
  • 01:30 PM – 02:30 PM
    Panel

    Established and Innovative Financing Models for Film and Moving Image projects: Searching for New Ways - A Discussion on the Future Development of the Industry

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    Crowdfunding and streaming services have considerably expanded the spectrum of financing options for film projects, although traditional sources of funding such as public grants, studios and investors continue to play a significant role. How does this expansion of financing options affect film productions? Does this contribute to the process of internationalizing productions or does it even change storytelling formats?

    The panel discussion brings together experts from Europe and the U.S. to examine current developments in the industry as well as the future of financing film and moving image projects from different perspectives.

    Participants will explore the impact of digitization on traditional financing models and identify potential future opportunities. They will also address the challenges associated with these new models and identify strategies to find suitable financing for each project - for example, through global funding sources and co-productions.

    This panel offers professionals a perfect opportunity to gain valuable insights into current trends and developments in the market and to make informed decisions for their projects.

  • 05:30 PM – 07:00 PM
    Workshop

    Workshop: Creating Sounds for Moving Images

    With: Stephan Busch (Sound Engineer, Recording Studio Owner and Operator, Germany)

    „Everything you hear on a film is a lie.“ Why? Sound engineer Stephan Busch explains this in this workshop. Apart from the dialogue, natural sounds are often dull and unoriginal, and the recordings of environmental and action sounds on the film set rarely live up to expectations. Fortunately, there are so-called "sound effect artists" such as Jack Donovan Foley. Even Star Wars producer George Lucas once said: "Sound makes up 50% of the entire film". In this workshop, Stephan Busch takes us into the world of real-sounding yet unreal noises and introduces us to one of the most dangerous sounds in the world...

    Speaker

    Stephan Busch Sound Engineer, Recording Studio Owner and Operator, Germany

    Stephan Busch is a sound engineer, recording studio owner and operator. In 1993 he completed his training as a sound engineer at SAE Frankfurt and has been working for film and sound production studios in Frankfurt since 1995.

    Specializing in voice recordings and dialogue editing, music and film mixes for industry, trade fair and training films as well as language programs, he is a service provider for national and international customers, including TV stations such as ARD, arte, ZDF, 3sat, Hessischer Rundfunk or publishers such as Hoffmann and Campe, Saga Egmont Denmark, lagato Verlag and telc languages international. In the "Buch- und Medienpraxis", an education program of the Goethe University Frankfurt, he supervises the technical content of the audio journalism course offered.

Day 4tuesday, 17.10.2023

  • 09:00 AM – 10:00 AM

    Get started! Daily Networking Warm-up with Croissants and Coffee at the Astor Film Lounge Café


  • 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
    Panel

    Personal Experiences in Filmmaking as an Engine of Change

    Filmmakers are not just storytellers; they also mirror their own experiences. In this panel, we illuminate how these experiences find their way into their works and shape social and political developments in our contemporary world. Personal experiences have the potential to infuse films with emotional depth, allowing for the interpretation of universal themes in a personal manner.

    Concurrently, they serve as a catalyst for significant discussions on current societal issues. Our guests, seasoned filmmakers and artists, share their insights on how incorporating personal narratives not only enriches the artistic quality of their works but also holds the potential for a transformative impact on society, and more importantly, why this is the case.The discussion will provide deeper insights into the creative process and the practice of filmmaking. Gain firsthand knowledge of how personal stories can serve as powerful instruments to initiate, among other things, social and political movements and changes. Filmmaking, thus, is not solely an art form but also a driving force for positive societal transformations.

    Speaker


    Caitlin Webb-Ellis

    Artist and Filmmaker, UK
  • 05:30 PM – 07:00 PM

    Art, Morality and Film: When it is Possible to Show Anything in Films, Should We Actually Show It?

    Ethics of film and the moving image: Can and should everything be shown?Since the beginnings of cinema, movies have possessed a special ability to reflect, manipulate, and reinvent reality. The moving images projected onto the screen are more than just entertainment. They are powerful tools that can be used to generate empathy, highlight social injustices, or convey a political message. But along with this power comes great responsibility. The question of what can be shown and what should be shown will always be of key importance to the entire film and moving image industry.

    The technological possibilities make it possible to visualize almost anything, from explicit scenes of violence to depictions of the deepest human emotions. But just because you can show something doesn't mean that you should. In an increasingly globalized world where moving images can reach a wide international audience, it is crucial that filmmakers and artists be aware of the cultural contexts in which their works are seen: Do they bear a specific ethical responsibility for what social or political messages they convey through what means and media? Should film and the moving image be used even more to highlight social injustice and to encourage people to make changes? Or should they focus on pure entertainment and avoid political or moral issues? A panel of filmmakers, moving image artists and ethics experts will address these questions on stage.

    Speaker


    Jörg Buttgereit

    Host

    Johannes Grenzfurthner

    Johannes Grenzfurthner is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, author, and performer. With his art he manipulates people to positively respond to his lies and made-up realities. He is the founder and artistic director of monochrom, an internationally acting art-technology-philosophy group. His horror film MASKING THRESHOLD won awards from the Nightmares Film Festival 2021 in the U.S. and the A Night of Horror International Film Festival 2021 in Australia, among others. Boing Boing magazine referred to him as a leitnerd, a wordplay with the German term Leitkultur that ironically hints at his role in nerd-, hacker- and art culture.