Impact Producing in Germany

Since April 2019 Helge Albers is working as CEO of Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. He has been in the film industry for about 25 years, producing films with his companys „Flying Moon“ and „Achtung Panda!“, a production company that focuses on German-Chinese co-productions. Amongst others he won prices fort he documentarys HAVANA, MI AMOR, FULL METAL VILLAGE, ABOVE AND BELOW and CUNNINGHAM. Moreover, he managed the German Producers Association, now called Producers Association, on it’s way back on the film policy map.

Elisa May, born 1990 in Dresden, completed an apprenticeship as a media designer at NDR Hamburg and studied media management at the University of Cologne. For the film distribution company, mindjazz pictures, she was Head of Home Entertainment for three years. She participated in several educational programs at international film festivals, including the Locarno Academy 2018 and Locarno Pro 2019. In January 2020 she and three colleagues founded the communication agency, KERN DES GANZEN, where she is Managing Director. With a focus on cooperation marketing and backed by experience in releasing feature-length and documentary films, the agency creates individual marketing and press strategies for theatrical, physical and digital releases, as well as film events.

From Amsterdam’s international underground arts & culture magazine BABY to commercials to documentaries. My professional journey has spanned fashion, arts, advertising, the natural world, and filmmaking, which have given me curiosity, determination and trust in the magic of possibility. Organising and moderating the Climate Story Lab to Berlin in October 2020 confirmed my belief in the power of partnerships, building bridges across sectors through storytelling, the necessity of alternative financing schemes and carrying stories to the audiences who can make a difference. Together with the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin we now build on the connections and experiences we made during CSL and continue building for a Good Pitch event in Germany.

Director of Documentary films, such as "Painful Peace" and "Miles & War". Last year co-director of "Uganda's lady Justice" (Al Jazeera). Since a few years senior video producer at WWF Germany responsible for Storytelling and Video production.

Valentin Thurn is a director of documentaries for TV and cinema. His documentary “Taste the Waste” won 20 international awards such as the German Environmental Media Award and the Eating City Special Award. It was a box office hit in Germany with more than 130.000 spectators. The sequel “Food Savers” won among others the Econsense Journalist Award. His recent film “10 Billion – What’s on your plate?” won the German Nature Film Award and many others and was declared the most successful German cinema documentary in 2015. In the last 20 years Valentin Thurn realized more than 40 documentaries, among them “I Am Al Qaeda” that has been nominated for the German TV Award in 2006.