On 26 September 2025, six filmmakers presented their projects at the Filmwerkstatt Münster public pitch with a great deal of passion, inventiveness and cinematic skill. For the third time, the event at SpecOps as part of the Münster Film Festival offered an exciting insight into the local film scene and the creative minds behind it. The aim of the pitching session: funding from the Münster Cultural Office for the year 2026.
A professional pitching seminar with Karin Sarholz from Cologne took place at Kreativ-Haus Münster at the beginning of September to ensure that the participants were well prepared for the competition. The training proved effective – in five minutes each, the filmmakers impressed the five-member jury with well thought-out concepts, strong stories and passionate presentations.
The projects presented ranged from short feature films to hybrid documentaries:
- Florian Ropers, “Materialised Spirit (AT)”, documentary film
- Manuel Talarico, “Ecke im Wald (AT)!”, scenic short film
- Can Ünlü, “TörenAlayı”, hybrid documentary film
- Silas Degen, “Johannaberg, documentary film
- Lea Lünenborg, “Fortschritt Film”, documentary archive short film
- GülşahTunali, “Not my Story – about narratives and representation”, biographical documentation
The jury, consisting of Asbirg Naranjo, Lejla Aliev, Christine Kiauk, Claus Herzog-Reichel and Benjamin Leers, assessed the projects according to their originality, artistic quality and feasibility. Two projects particularly impressed the jury:
- Manuel Talarico (5,000 euros) and CanÜnlü (5,000 euros) will receive funding.
Both films will be produced and completed in 2026.
Jury statement
Can Ünlü ‘s aesthetically stimulating film convinced the jury with its special visual language and its precise and sensitive examination of the themes: Farewell and remembrance, peaceful protest and self-empowerment. The sound of the machines once discarded in Germany reminds us of our own responsibility, while the performative level poetically combines resistance with political reality. Just as the woven fabric in “TörenAlayı” is interwoven layer by layer, so too do the levels of the narrative interweave with the visual language of the film.
The jury supports this powerful film project with a grant of 5,000.00 euros.
In Ecke im Wald (AT) , Manuel Talarico succeeds in transforming the historical setting of the siege of Münster in 1535 into a timeless resonance chamber for contemporary socio-political issues. The film turns history into a prism through which identity, power and truth are timelessly negotiated – a poetic and radical image of a world in upheaval.
With the grant of €5,000, the jury is honouring a project that is artistically courageous, narratively gripping and formally visionary.
With this funding initiative, the Filmwerkstatt Münster and the Münster Cultural Office are sending out a clear signal in favour of artistic film as an independent art form worthy of support. The focus is on the targeted strengthening of up-and-coming filmmakers in Münster: young filmmakers are to be encouraged to develop confidence in their projects and their artistic signature. The initiative creates space for creative experiments, individual forms of expression and new cinematic perspectives – and thus contributes to the diversity and vitality of the local film scene.
The pitching format also offers valuable practical experience: By engaging with a panel of experts, receiving constructive feedback and dealing with public cultural funding, participants gain confidence, professionalism and a deeper understanding of how to present their own artistic work.
TörenAlayı,hybrid documentary film – Can Ünlü
A funeral march, or a protest march? – People and masked figures march through the streets of a Turkish weaving village, a procession of residents slowly forming to the sound of drums, weaving machines and their fabrics.
ECKE IM WALD (AT), short feature film- Manuel Talarico
In the apocalyptic Münster of the 16th century, Franz von Waldeck fights for control – and discovers that his opponent Bernhard Rothmann is in fact a woman whose secret fundamentally changes the power struggle.
The Pitching Session of the Münster Film Festival offers up-and-coming filmmakers from Münster and the region a platform to present their projects to an expert audience and receive targeted support. The aim is to promote innovative and exciting film projects in the region and to strengthen artistic film in the long term.
