Jury VFF Documentary Film Production Talent Award 2026
The production of university films requires the reliable organization of complex processes. While time-consuming filming must be managed alongside regular studies and tight budgets, the talents in production studies show great dedication. The award, which is being presented for the first time this year, recognizes the central role of production in the creation of current university documentary film projects.
The award is sponsored by VFF Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten mbH and comes with prize money of €3,000. The award goes to the producer of the film.
Cosima Forchheimer
Producer
Cosima Forchheimer was born in Munich in 1998 and spent her final two years of high school in Rome, where she graduated in 2017. She then studied communication studies at Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, completing her bachelor’s degree in 2021. This was followed by a one-year internship at the film agency Panorama Entertainment in Munich. Since 2016, Cosima has been involved in various short and feature-length film projects, both documentary and fictional. Since 2022, she has been studying Production and Media Management at the HFF Munich and has most recently been part of productions such as “God is Grey” (Best Short Film, Max Ophüls Film Festival 2025) and “Ich verstehe Ihren Unmut” (Berlinale 2026, Panorama). Cosima has been supporting Windlight Pictures as a working student in production since August 2025.
Thomas Frickel
Author, Director and Producer
After studying German language and literature, journalism and sociology in Mainz, Frickel worked as a freelance journalist for several years, focusing on cultural reporting and historical reportage. Since 1968 he has been working in the film industry. Since 1986, Frickel has been chairman and managing director of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dokumentarfilm (the largest association for independent film in Germany) in various film and cultural policy functions – for example, on the administrative board and executive committee of the FFA, the administrative board of the VG Bild-Kunst, as delegate of the beneficiaries in the VG Wort, on the advisory board of the VFF and the Künstlersozialkasse, etc. For several years he was spokesman for the Film/Media section of the "German Cultural Council". Frickel was also co-founder and until 1999 member of the board of directors of the European Documentary Film Network EDN. He is author, director and producer of numerous short and feature-length documentaries.
Leon Harms
Producer
Leon Harms studied Philosophy at the University of Hamburg, where he already focused on the aesthetics of film. In Leipzig he worked as a production assistant at Ma.ja.de. Fiction on an international co-production. At LOOKSfilm he gained experience in documentary development and worked within the production team of a Netflix documentary series. Since 2020 he has been studying Producing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and spent semesters abroad at La Fémis in Paris and in Tel Aviv. During his studies he produced ten short films shot in France, Israel, Palestine, Tanzania and Germany. He is currently producing the feature documentary EASTKIDS (ZDF/ Das kleine Fernsehspiel) and the “Young Documentary” BÄRBEL (SWR / MFG). He is a VFF fellow and a Berlinale Talents 2025 participant.
