Open to film students
& fresh graduates
From all over the world
FOR
6 PROMISING
YOUNG
FILMMAKERS
MunichFilmUp!26/27
MunichFilmUp!26/27 Submission
THE
PARTICIPANTS 2026/27
MunichFilmUp! 2026/27 participants
GOALS OF THE
PROGRAMME
The programme kicks off at Munich’s Festival of Future Storytellers, includes a personalized 3-week Pop Up Film Residency, and culminates in Cannes with one-on-one industry meetings and the Kirch Foundation Award Ceremony. Along the way, participants benefit from expert-led online mentoring and workshops designed to refine their vision and craft.
The prestigious Kirch Foundation Award – €5,000 towards project development is awarded by an international jury during the Cannes Film Festival. All travel, visa, and accommodation costs are covered.
THE
PARTICIPANTS 26/27
The 6 promising young filmmakers are offered a 7-month journey that starts in Munich (at the Festival of Future Storytellers) and ends with the Kirch Foundation Award Ceremony at the Festival de Cannes with individual 3-week-long Pop Up Film Residencies in between.
Jennifer Drake
Jennifer Drake is a Ghanaian-German writer, director and producer based in Munich and Accra. She has a Business Degree from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana and a Film Production and Media Science Diploma from the University of Television and Film, Munich. Since 2020, she has produced a number of short and feature length fictional and documentary films across the continents of Europe and Africa. In 2023, Jennifer wrote and directed her first short film titled God is Grey which screened at festivals like LA Shorts, Black Star Film Festival, British Urban Film Festival, Max Ophüls Film Festival, Accra Indie Film Festival and many others. In 2026, Jennifer wrote and directed her next project, Little Lady. Jennifer is passionate about storytelling and wants to tell stories that capture hearts, push boundaries and open up unknown worlds.
To Be a Butterfly
When Elikem and Nana Ama fall in love in their final year of high school, their peaceful boarding school life as they know it comes to an end. Ultimately, they find themselves torn between the love they have for each other and society they very much love.
Reuben Hamlyn
Reuben Hamlyn is a NYC-based filmmaker from London. His Sundance, IDA and Impact Partners-supported feature documentary, Another Body (2023), won the Special Jury Prize at SXSW, and was released internationally before receiving an Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Directing’ and two BIFA nominations. His shorts include the BFI & BBC-backed Roger (2019), Bitter Weeds (2024), shortlisted for the Student Academy Awards, and Sunday’s Children (2026), which premiered at Cannes, Cinef. His debut fiction feature was selected for Torino ScriptLab 2026. As an editor, his work has premiered at Cannes, Venice, San Sebastián & Locarno. He is an NYU Graduate Film alumnus and recipient of the TSOA Scholarship and W.T.C. Johnson Fellowship.
Pale Comfort
After a lobbyist is stabbed, two bored young women go on the run, convinced they’re at the centre of the story.
Yupeng He
Yupeng He was born in humid southern China, where summers are muggy and hot, and autumns are short. He found his sanctuary in cinema at the age of eighteen. His personal journey naturally drew him toward the rhythms of slow, ambiguous, and unspoken cinema. Approaching filmmaking as a form of visual poetry, he seeks to capture mundane routines, whispered dialogues, and the lingering ghosts of memory. Yupeng earned his MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University in 2025. During his time at Columbia, he directed the short film A Bright Sunny Day, which made its world premiere at La Cinef at the Cannes Film Festival 2023.
Like Reptiles Through the Night
On the verge of graduation, three college girls confront their own life dilemmas, filled with disappointment, confusion, and fear for the future. Their struggles feel like an endless cycle that has been repeating on this land for generations.
Maïssa Lihedheb
Maïssa Lihedheb is a German-Tunisian filmmaker and MFA candidate at NYU Tisch. Her work explores identity, performance, and power dynamics. Her short films include Dogfriend, which screened at Tribeca and BFI London, and Samra’s Dollhouse. She has also worked across television, documentary, and music video. She is an Ang Lee Scholarship recipient, a recipient of the Spike Lee Production Grant, a Princess Grace Award honoree, and a fellow of the Reinaldo Marcus Green Fellowship.
A Wedding and Funeral
One week before her wedding in southern Tunisia, a German born Tunisian academic returns to her ancestral hometown only to have her French born Tunisian cousin murdered, forcing two families preparing for a celebration to navigate grief, class prejudice, superstition, and the fragile decision to choose joy over fear.
Caspar Wallrabe
Caspar Wallrabe completed his studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin in 2017. Since 2020 he has been studying directing at HFF München. He worked as assistant to Valeska Grisebach on her film The Dreamed Adventure (Jury Prize at Cannes 2026). His last short film has been screened at international and national film festivals. He is a member of the editorial team and an author for Revü – Flugblatt für Film.
Fantasma
While Andi, in his mid-thirties, renovates an old house on the Greek island of Samos to reinvent himself far from Germany, refugees keep arriving on its shores. But just as he fails at his utopia of a fresh start, he finds himself becoming part of the migration itself, and the line between watching and acting begins to blur.
Izabela Zubrycka
Izabela Zubrycka is a Polish writer-director and a graduate-to-be of the Łódź Film School. Her short documentary A Handful of Dirt (2023) had its international premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and screened at numerous international festivals. She is currently developing her debut feature, The Tangled Girl, with development funding from the Polish Film Institute. Her work focuses on female-driven narratives, blending psychological drama with folklore and a distinctive visual language.
The Tangled Girl
In a rural village in Podlasie in the late 1950s, Zosia grows up marked by a kołtun (matted hair), a symbol of shame and folk superstition. Believing that obedience will earn her love, she struggles to escape the stigma of her family’s past. Years later, however, she discovers that she has inherited her mother’s fate. When her daughter’s future is threatened, she rebels for the first time against the world that taught her to remain silent.
The
SCHEDULE
1st July - 1st August 2026
Applications are open
1st August - 1st September 2026
Time for the selection committee
21st and 22nd September 2026
13th - 17th November 2026
December 2026
22nd February - 15th March 2027
April 2027
16th - 19th May 2027
Cannes
All six participants travel to Cannes for the Kirch Foundation Award Ceremony and to present their projects in one-to-one meetings to professionals from the international film industry.
APPLICATION
PACKAGE
APPLICATION FORM
MunichFilmUp!26/27 Submission
TREATMENT
Six to eight-page treatment
for feature film.
LOOK & FEEL
Three photos and visuals to describe
your project.
CURRICULUM VITAE
For us to get to know better.
INTRODUCTION VIDEO
Three-minute video (1.5 min. about the applicant, 1.5 min. about the project).
SHORTS
Two previous short films you either wrote or directed.
FAQ – MUNICH FILM UP! IN
10 QUESTIONS
#1. Am I required to develop my film project in English?
#2. Can I submit more than one project per lab?
#3. Can I submit a short/mid-length project?
Each filmmaker may submit a feature-length project.
#4. Can I apply with an adaptation or documentary project?
#5. What if the project has two screenwriters ? Can a second writer or producer take part?
MunichFilmUp! will cover the expenses of the main writer/filmmaker (as detailed in the participant obligations).
A second writer/filmmaker may join the sessions at their own expense and share the same room assigned to the main writer/filmmaker.
#6. What is the attendance fee for the programme?
The expenses for travel to Munich and local accommodation for both Festival for Future Storytellers and Cannes Film Festival, for the mentoring and networking sessions, as well as for the Pop Up Film residencies are covered by the programme.
#7. If I am accepted, how and when will I be notified?
Online interviews with shortlisted applicants will take place on the 21st and 22nd September 2026. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out shortly after the interviews.
#9. Do I need to submit a copy of my graduation with my application?
Yes, we need to check the date of your graduation from film school. Candidates are eligible for up to three years after graduation.
#8. Can I apply with a project that has been submitted or supported elsewhere?
Yes.
#10. What video codec should I use for my application video?
We do not download video files. Please upload it online and send us the link.
WANT TO
CONTACT US?
at mfu@hff-muc.de
Our teams will answer you as soon as possible!
TEAM
DIRECTORS
Diesbach
Co-director
Elena Diesbach, Co-director: Elena Diesbach heads the International Office of the HFF Munich, where she plans and implements international study and exchange programs together with professors of the university and (inter)national film industry experts, and advises and supports HFF students in their international activities. In 2018, she founded the HFF Summer School, which since then has stood for a high-quality, English-language advanced and continuing education program at the HFF Munich.
Darras
Co-director
Previously, he founded & directed the European Network NISI MASA, and later on co-founded and was the artistic director of the TorinoFilmLab. A writer for the film magazine Positif, Matthieu Darras has been working as festival programmer, notably for the Cannes Critics’ Week and the San Sebastian Film Festival (since 2010). He co-founded First Cut Lab in 2015 and serves as Director.
TEAM
HOSTS
All of them are to discover on its website. Let’s go!
THE
Sponsor
The Kirch Foundation
Dr. Reinhard Scolik | credit: ©BR/Markus Konvalin
The non-profit Kirch Foundation was established in 1996 by Dr. Leo Kirch, media entrepreneur and owner of one of Germany’s leading media groups, the Kirch Group. The Kirch Foundation supports projects in the fields of film, television, and visual arts, provides media art scholarships, and supports young filmmakers in their first career steps.