In cooperation with CineGraph and the Hamburgisches Centrum für Filmforschung e.V. and with the support of the other members of the deutscher Kinematheksverbund, the Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF e.V., Frankfurt, is developing a central Internet portal for German film.

The project is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs, the German Federal Film Board, the hessen-media program of the Hessian State Government, the Cultural Authority of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation.

Until now, both professional and private users have been confronted with a plethora of Internet offerings that range widely in quality, as well as with offline databases offered by individual providers. Information on German films is impossible or difficult to find, often incomplete, out of date, or even contradictory. The goal of this portal is to provide the leading platform for comprehensive, certified and reliable information on all German cinema films from their beginnings to the present day.

The portal will go online at the end of 2004 and will include data on 17,000 German feature films, 3,000 long documentaries and around 10,000 short films and newsreels. Its comprehensiveness is the factor distinguishing it from all hitherto existing choices. Along with filmographic data, it will also include plot summaries, biographies, photos, posters and advertising materials, reviews, introductory essays on German film and cinema history, as well as purchasing information (videos, DVDs, books etc.). The online publication form enables continuous updates and allows users to carry out research at all times and from all locations. The information will be offered free of charge.



Drawing on wide-ranging cooperations with partners and sponsors from all areas of film culture, film funding and the film industry, the portal will also cross-link additional existing databases and digitalized archives, concentrating information and knowledge. This guarantees not only a vast range of content, but also a high degree of acceptance for an initiative that embraces many countries and institutions. An advisory council made up of prominent personalities from film culture, film studies, the film industry and film journalism will oversee the project under the chairmanship of Georgia Tornow (film20). Council members will offer advice on determining user needs and will represent the interests of the different institutions. They will also help review possibilities for cooperation, fostering strong networks within the film industry.

The central Internet portal for German film provides long-term stimulation for a vital film culture and promotes the cultural significance of German film in Germany and abroad. Not only will the portal function as a trustworthy, high-performance research instrument and a platform for all those who are already interested in German film, its attractiveness will entice new target groups to search and read, surf and browse.
It will bring interested laymen the whole range and richness of German film, while making it easy to order videos and DVDs; it will let professionals target their research, give program planners new ideas, provide television editors with information, inspire festival directors in Germany and abroad and assist students all over the world. The portal will whet the appetite for German film, its history, present and future.


An editorial board will select several thousand films on which comprehensive, supplementary information and materials will be provided. Its members will also work on determining the main emphases of the content offered by the Internet portal, whose form will go far beyond that of a mere lexicon. One special focus will be contemporary German films from the past 15 years. The editorial concept also includes a two-pronged approach to the presentation of German film history: along with “classical” searches by name, date, epoch and style, more associative approaches will be offered, linking current productions to German film history through specific themes and motifs. This will enable targeted searches for films and persons as well as thematic excursions into film history. Film history will be brought to life on the basis of comprehensive, certified and reliable information covering the complete body of German films.
The portal will also be dedicated to highlighting historical, cultural, technical, aesthetic and political interconnections whose diversity reflects the wide-ranging interests of portal users. It will also offer a basic introduction to the topic of genre, as well as linking entries on German genre films directly to general texts on the corresponding film forms.

“I am delighted that the Deutsches Filminstitut will be cooperating with CineGraph to establish a central Internet portal where it will soon be possible to call up exhaustive information on German cinema films. It is a signal that comes at the right time: after the recent success of NOWHERE IN AFRICA and GOOD BYE, LENIN! the portal picks up on the industry’s newly-gained self-confidence and spreads the spirit of innovation to the rest of the world."
Dr. Christina Weiss, Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs

“The Internet portal on German film is a fantastic information tool – not only for all film lovers, but for the entire German-speaking film industry. Here the industry finally has a completely state of the art overview of its creative potential.”
Georgia Tornow, General Secretary of film 20 - Interessensgemeinschaft Filmproduktion