Hello Berlin #12 - Inside Berlin Fashion Film Festival

Once again it’s time for Berlin to stick out with yet another creative event that shouldn’t be missed: the Berlin Fashion Film Festival (BFFF). In the name of exploring new artworks, this event shows the best films for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle over the course of two days. But that’s not all.

"It is primarily a platform and a network for creatives. In addition to film screenings, masterclasses and talks, which we hold every year at the BFFF, we are constantly creating new formats such as 'Creative Speed Datings' to connect our participants",

explains its founder, Frank Funke. 

A concept that totally fits today’s trend: films and moving pictures becoming more and more important for the lifestyle industry, as they easily manage to build up the audience’s emotions – and thereby feed the public’s need of "being touched by something".  

Related to that, the BFFF gives these works a specific stage and awards the best and most creative films every year. Additionally, the festival program has been created to also work as a sharing platform, giving all participants the possibility to connect with each other. A beautiful and ambitious concept which is one of its kind - and it starts today.

We asked founder Frank Funke to tell us a little more about what’s going on this year, which are the trends in fashion filmmaking and why you should attend the festival – if not today, then at least next year.

#1 What is the difference between this film festival and others?

Compared to the other international fashion film festivals, the networking idea at the BFFF clearly stands in the center. Another difference is that we not only show fashion films, but also music videos and films from other industries that are - like the BFFF itself - rooted in lifestyle, creative culture, and mainstream. We show content that we call "state-of-the-art filmmaking".

#2 What is special about this year's festival - what is the subject of the event?

A special feature of this year's festival is, in addition to the second-day conference, the ARTE Fashion Film Night, where, together with ARTE, we will be presenting exciting documentaries on the theme of fashion for an entire evening. The aim here is to offer an additional, observational perspective.

#3 What do you see as your mission?

When the festival was launched, the fashion film, especially in Germany, was still very unknown. With the first edition, we wanted to change this and offer a stage to the films and creators behind them. The stage now stands, so we are now working intensively on helping new actors to connect them with established creators and customers.

#4 What are the general trends of the Fashion Film industry, in your opinion?

Looking back on the past few years, I see with pleasure that the fashion film is more and more going back to a classic storytelling. You can also see microtrends every year. Two years ago, "dancing" was a big topic in our submissions, for example. This year one sees much serious and gloomy stuff.

#5 How do you see the development in the industry and the achievement of the individual participants?

I am particularly pleased that some of our participants were able to use the BFFF as a stepping stone. Last year, for example, some directors were signed up by companies, and some films were made by directors who had met their customers during the BFFF before.

#6 What are you looking forward to at this year's festival and what is your "Hot List to Attend“?

I’m looking forward to every single one of the program points we've been working on throughout the last year. My hot list looks like this: Come by on Thursday morning at 10 and take as much as you can out of the following two days’ schedule!