To curate an archive is not merely to preserve objects, but to take responsibility for meaning. Film archives hold more than material history: they contain gestures, voices, aesthetics, and worldviews that speak across time. With HFF | F, the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München understands digitization as a curatorial act—one that negotiates between past and future, memory and access, material fragility and cultural continuity.
The HFF film archive is a living body of work. Each film is a trace of its moment of creation, shaped by social contexts, artistic ambitions, and technological conditions. To digitize these works is therefore not an act of neutral reproduction, but of interpretation: a decision about what is carried forward, how it is contextualized, and for whom it remains visible. HFF | F approaches this task with the conviction that artistic heritage must not retreat into obscurity, but remain present, accessible, and open to be discussed by new generations.
Filmstill Tango Berlin, 1997 by Florian Gallenberger and German Kral. © Andreas Giesecke
In 2025, this curatorial approach materialized in concrete results. Using the HFF’s in-house Cintel film scanner, more than 40 film titles were digitized, advancing the transformation of the analog archive into a fully digital system. This process forms the conceptual and technical foundation for a future HFF mediatheque: an open structure in which films can be viewed by a large audience. Or at least, larger than the few people currently rummaging through the basement of our film archive.
Alongside our in-house digitization, five films and one audio material were selected for in-depth restoration by an external specialist provider. The selection followed clearly defined criteria: cultural relevance, historical significance, material condition, and the potential of a work to resonate beyond its time of origin. Together, these works form a curatorial constellation that spans decades, genres, and perspectives within HFF filmmaking.
Filmstill Haut und Haar, 1996 by Beryl Shennen. © Christof Oefelein
Das Gesicht (1978), directed by Cinzia TH Torrini, reflects meaningful themes of trauma and anti-war sentiments, gaining the filmmakers critical acclaim.
With Smash – Gefahr aus der Unendlichkeit (1979) by Gisela Weilemann, the archive preserves a milestone: the first science-fiction film at the HFF directed by a woman, marking an early intervention in genre cinema and questions of authorship.
The documentary MS Polarstern (1982) by Angela Lütkemeier exemplifies how archival work can reconnect cinematic memory with lived experience. While the image was digitized in-house, the magnetic sound was restored externally. The decision to restore this film was prompted by a personal inquiry from a meteorologist who had once traveled to Antarctica aboard the research vessel Polarstern and remembered a HFF student documenting the expedition on 16mm film. Digitization, in this case, becomes a bridge between individual memory and scientific history.
Der fremde Donner (1983) by Pascal Hoffmann reveals the transnational layers embedded within the archive. Its use of a Chinese song – first released in a Taiwanese film in 1949 and widely popular in Chinese communities from the 1980s onward – opens the film to global discourses. These connections were examined in depth by Head of HFF I F, Dr. Yi Lou at an international conference in Singapore, underscoring how HFF works circulate beyond their original contexts.
With Lautlos (1990) by Katja von Garnier, the archive captures a moment of artistic risk: a sensual fantasy setting involving a tiger, filmed with a real animal in the studio. It received multiple international awards for its unique artistic vision. Schnell und Sauber (1999) by Sonja Heiss completes the restored selection and reflects the shifts of late 1990s cinema at the threshold of a new millennium, highlighting narratives of underrepresented groups.
Taken together, the digitalization and restoration results of 2025 articulate the curatorial ethos of HFF | F. The project combines technical precision with interpretive care, understanding preservation as an active process of reactivation. Each restored and digitized film re-enters the present, not as a static artifact, but as a voice that can be heard again, questioned again, and newly situated.
Looking ahead, HFF | F will continue to expand this digital archive and open it to the public through a dedicated mediatheque. In doing so, the project affirms a central conviction: that films do not merely document history – they shape cultural memory. To curate them is to shape how the past remains present. We are bringing the past into the future.
Filmstill Bourbon Street Blues, 1978 by Douglas Sirk. © Michael Ballhaus
To bring forgotten works onto the screen again, for a large audience to view and re-contextualize, our newly digitized films were shown around the globe in 2025. Here’s a selection of festivals and screenings:
DOK.fest München (May 2025)
Der Letzte Dokumentarfilm, 2000
Director: Daniel Sponsel, Jan Siebling
Curtas Vila do Condo Film Festival, Portugal (July 2025)
Bourbon Street Blues, 1978
Director: Douglas Sirk
Duisburger Filmwoche (September 2025)
Ortswechsel, 2002
Director: Jens Christian Börner, Winfried Härtl
RE:COLLECT, HFF Munich (Oktober 2025)
Curated by CreatiF Center
Kinderträume, 1984, Director: Steffi Kammermeier
Klink des Grauens, 1992, Director: Rainer Matsutani
The Passenger, 1995, Director: Matthias Lehmann
Queer Film Festival Munich, Short Film Program „Crossing Timelines Vol. II“ (October 2025)
Curated by the HFF QUEERS
Angesichts Ihrer Fatalen Veranlagung scheidet Lilo Wanders freiwillig aus dem Leben, 1994, Director: Jörg Fockele
Kreuz und Quer: Der Tote vom anderen Ufer, 1996, Director: Lenard Krawinkel
Lorenza, 1991, Director: Michael Stahlberg
Miracle Baby, 1998, Director: Mona Lenz
Freier Fall, 2000, Director: Jochen Blatz
Coming Out: LeTRa, 2001, Director: Satu Siegemund
Berliner Herbstsalon “Rotes Haus” (Oktober-November 2025)
Gastarbeiter aus der Türkei, 1969
Director: Kenan Ormanlar
News & Documentary Program Restoring Memory: Paths to Life, New York University, USA (November 2025)
Curated by Sorry Not Sorry Short Film Project
Vom Zusehen beim Sterben, 1983
Director: Dorothee Schön, Hubertus Meyer-Burckhard
Goethe Institut Südafrika (November 2025)
Verspiegelte Zeit – Erinnerungen von Angelika Schrobsdorff , 1999
Director: Sebastian Steinbichler, Florian Vogel
Beyond Camp: The Queer Life and Afterlife of the Hollywood Melodrama, BFI – British Film Institute, London, UK (December 2025)
Bourbon Street Blues, 1978
Director: Douglas Sirk
Filmclub 813, Cologne (December 2025)
Marilyn, 1985, Director: Ralf Huettner
Weihnachtsmärchen, 1974, Director: Bernd Eichinger
Bamberger Kurzfilmtage (December 2025)
Klink des Grauens, 1992
Director: Rainer Matsutani
