Dieter Kosslick

Who is Dieter Kosslick?

Dieter Kosslick is the director of the Berlin International Film Festival. He has held this post since 1 May 2001 when he took over from Moritz de Hadeln.

Born in Pforzheim and raised in Ispringen, Dieter Kosslick studied Communication, Politics and Education in Munich. After receiving his Masters degree, he stayed on at the university in the Bavarian capital as a research assistant before moving to Hamburg in 1979 to work as speechwriter and office administrator for the First Mayor 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 magazine "konkret".

In 1983 he became involved in film funding, firstly as managing director of Hamburg's cultural film fund. 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. The same year, he was a co-founder of EFDO and became the president of this European organisation, a post he held until EFDO's dissolution in 1996.