Dieter Kosslick

Born in Pforzheim and raised in Ispringen, Dieter Kosslick studied Communication, Politics and Education at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. After receiving his master's degree, he continued at the university as a research assistant before moving to Hamburg in 1979 to work as speechwriter and office administrator for the First Mayor of Hamburg Hans-Ulrich Klose and later as press spokesman for the "women's equality" unit. He left this position in 1982 to work as a journalist for the political magazine "konkret".

In 1983 he became involved in film funding, starting as managing director of Hamburg's cultural film fund (Hamburg Film Office). In 1986 he founded the European Low Budget Forum with the cinema "Kino auf der Alster". In 1988 he became managing director of the city's economic film fund (Hamburg Film Fund - Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein). The same year, he was a co-founder of the EFDO (European Film Distribution Office) and became the president of this European organisation, a post he held until EFDO's dissolution in 1996.

In 1992 the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and WDR (West German broadcasting corporation) attracted Kosslick to the Rhine to head up the barely one-year-old "Filmstiftung NRW" as its executive director. During his nine years in office, North-Rhine-Westphalia became the leading German film site and established itself internationally as an important film region.

In July 2000 the federal state and city of Berlin as well as the Federal Government of Germany appointed him director of Germany's prestigious Berlin International Film Festival. Kosslick assumed the role on May 1, 2001.

To date, Dieter Kosslick has launched new sections and initiatives within the Berlin Film Festival, among which are the section "Perspektive Deutsches Kino" for young German film, the Co-Production Market and the World Cinema Fund as well as the Culinary Cinema which has operated since 2007. The Berlinale has grown to become one of the most important film festivals in Europe.

Dieter Kosslick has received many honours and awards for the diverse ways in which he has promoted film and culture; the Bundesverdienstkreuz, the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres among others.

Media related to Dieter Kosslick at Wikimedia Commons

• official biography at the Berlinale website