After her education in management assistant for audiovisual media, Michaela Linow studied Film Production and Media Economics at the University of Television and Film in Munich. During her studies, she created several short films with her production company Plock + Reinhardt and worked as freelance worker for the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. Having finished her studies, she became a producer at EM.Entertainment GmbH, marketing shows like “Biene Maja,” “Heidi,” or “Tabaluga.” In 2006 she returned to her birthplace Erfurt to gather experience in Thuringia, Germany’s newfound “land for children’s media.” As production manager, she has been running the “STUDIOPARK KinderMedienZentrum” as well as numerous productions for the big and the small screen.

Director and writer Christian Werner creates feature films and documentaries, which can be as rugged as they can be gentle, always dealing with the reality in drama and tragic comedy. He was born in 1978 in Rudolstadt, Thuringia. He applied his studies from Visual Communication at the Bauhaus University Weimar towards being an assistant director at Saxonia Media as well as Zerofilmes LTD in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He then founded his own production company acamara film, designing works for national and international festivals and TV. Since October 2007, he has been studying Directing at the Film Academy Baden-Würtemberg and has been receiving several awards from renowned festivals. In 2010 he was chosen for the Berlinale Talentcampus and took part in a UCLA Masterclass in Los Angeles, USA.

Matthias Sdun works as freelance film maker and format developer in Hamburg. After his studies of political science, sociology, and media studies in Hamburg and Marburg, he began a practical training at Norddeutscher Rundfunk, later working for the satire news program “extra3” as writer and TV journalist. He started developing new journalistic formats like “Mythen des Nordens” and “Mit 80.000 Fragen um die Welt” in his newly-founded production company freeeye.tv, which has been awarded with the Axel-Springer award, among others. Right now he is fascinated with Mobile Reporting and Virtual Reality as new narrative form for both fictional formats and documentaries. As a graduate from the World Press Institute Fellowship 2015, he coaches media companies in using videos and social media.

My name is Anna-Maria Görnandt and I am in the 10th grade of the Freie Waldorfschule Jena. Two of my favourite hobbies are Hip Hop Dance and Photography. I like taking pictures of moments, because you can evoke emotions and passion with a photograph. The impact of films is impressive to me. I myself like to experiment with the art of film in order to learn it.

My name is Luise Krahnert and I am 17 years old. I am in the 11th grade of the Christliches Gymnasium Jena, where I have been taking classes in “Presentation and Design” for two and a half years. During this course, we have also been creating our own little film. I also manage the study group “Young Authors.” Short films fascinate me because of the succinct narratives, which are short yet exciting; they can be funny or shocking.

Hello, I am Pauline. I am 16 years old and a student of the Freie Waldorfschule Jena. In my free time I like to do sports. I dance and do artistry. I like watching good movies. What I find fascinating about short movies is, how film makers accomplish telling a story with all its emotions and details in such a short time.