Nikolaj Nikitin - Film Curator & International Lecturer

Curator of multiple film festivals and member of the European Film Academy Nikolaj Nikitin joined our series In The Mood For Cinema! 📽 Check out what films he would show if he owned a cinema for one night and what his favourite cinema in Berlin is in the full interview on our YouTube channel! ✨ #EuropeanFilmAcademy #inthemoodforcinema

Some visual impressions after the amazing „Fatherland“ premiere by highly gifted by Paweł Pawlikowski (pic 1 with his wonderful co-scriptwriter Hendrik Handloegten, one of the creators of „Babylon Berlin“ and a fanastic German filmmaker who’s debut „Paul Is Dead“ is still one of my favorite films) 🥳 This amazing masterpiece was producer by former @sofafilmadvancement counsellor Ewa Puszczynska (pic 2). The lead of Thomas Mann was played my maestro Hanns Zischler (pic 3 with with his guardian agent @milberoyal ) or to put it more precise Thomas Mann became @hannszischler 🤩 Always fun to reunite with outstanding actor @devidstriesow and his incredible wife Ines Ganzbeger (pic 4) ❤️ Missing in the pics from the cast is our biggest Hollywood export at the moment Sandra Hüller and my neighbor and buddy August Diehl which whom I opened last year our Kinofest Lünen and of@course many other@friend friends who work on this piece of art 👏 In Poland the film will be distributed by our friends of @kinoswiatowid and my dear friend @torstenfrehse from @neue_visionen just sealed the deal for Germany while @mubi is doing Italy and @thematchfactory handling the world 🤞🤞🤞 Thanks so much to all of them and especially @thanioula (pic 5) for having me and sharing the emotions of a brillant premiere night🥳🙏 Later I reunited with my dearest friends @magnusvonhorn (who is in the short jury) & @mariusz_lava , as they are presenting their amazing new project (pic 6)👌🤞 For change I let my critic colleagues praise the film. “It will be a hell of a movie that stands between Fatherland and the festival’s Palme d’Or.” Deadline “Told with exacting restraint yet as layered as the lacquer on an ebony Biedermeier console” “immaculately performed by Zischler and especially Hüller” The Hollywood Reporter “Sandra Hüller brings a bayonet of intelligence to Paweł Pawlikowski’s taut return” "an impossibly elegant, poised historical vignette" ★★★★★ The Guardian I highly recommend to catch one of the return screening here in Cannes or just enjoy a special cinematic evening back home once the film will hit a cinema in you’r neighborhood!

Thank you so much to Julien Rejl, @christopheleparc and Lauren Grall of the @quinzaine_des_cineastes 2026 for having me with at the „Le déjeuner des festivals“ at Quinzaine at Plage Quinzaine ♥️🙏 And thanks even more for the amazing, intense and incredible moving opening film BUTTERFLY JAM by my dear friend @kantemir_balag , produced my by longtime friend @alexander.rodnyansky , shot brillantly by @jomofray starring fantastic @barrykeoghanfan @rileykeough and newcomer to watch Talha Akdogan and scored by masters of film music Evgueni & Sascha Galperine! A movie that will stay with me forever ♥️👌🤩👍🙏 Of course I also met a lot of dearest friends during that day - including Susan Newman - the head of @eurimagescoe and @sofafilmadvancement alumni @visszfeny who was celebrating his birthday- you can guess, which one it was 🥳 And who‘s is coming up again soon 🤪

What an amazing opening night at the 79th @festivaldecannes it was — quelle soirée inoubliable❤️ A huge thank you to Thierry Frémaux, Iris Knobloch and Christian Jeune for having me there. It was wonderful to once again experience the magic of our industry representing @tallinnblacknightsff 👏 After a brief yet elegant opening ceremony introducing highly distinguished jury @demimoore Ruth Negga, @laura.wandel , Diego Céspedes, @isaachdebankole Paul Laverty, Stellan Skarsgård, and of course legendary Park Chan-wook. Came the unforgettable moment with Sir Peter Jackson — a filmmaker who changed cinema forever. This marked Peter’s third visit to Cannes. Years ago, he introduced his brilliant “Bad Taste”, and later returned to present footage from “The Lord of the Rings” before anyone could have imagined the global phenomenon it would become. At the time, they had filmed all three parts at once and were simply hoping audiences would embrace the first film — the rest is cinema history. Peter also emphasized how important Cannes was for selling Bad Taste to more than 50 countries back then and of course launching “The Lord of the Rings” here was a brilliant strategic move. Cannes remains la plus grande scène du cinéma mondial — the greatest stage in the world for promoting films. A very smart reminder in today’s industry landscape, Cher Thierry🙏 After @officialgongli and @janefonda officially opened the festival, we enjoyed the delightful opening film “The Electric Kiss” by Pierre Salvadori — a charming historical ROMCOM set in the world of art and entertainment, which I absolutely loved. Of course, the night continued with a fantastic party together with my Wolf-gang — @jetsspets , @pedvinas and Xavier G. Puerto — while @triintramberg and @tiinalokk were sadly missing from the picture. We danced wildly to “We Are Family,” which somehow perfectly captures what Cannes is also about: the biggest family reunion in our industry 🥰 And yes… also a little celebration ahead of my upcoming birthday😂♥️🥳

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a wonderful homecoming at the 26th @goeastff , a festival I had the honor of helping found. The new festival director, @rebeccaheiler together with her excellent selection committee and team, put together an incredible program 🙏 It was also a pure pleasure to reunite with my dear friend Jurgis Matulevičius. Jurgis presented his remarkable masterpiece @chinasea.film in the competition after its acclaimed world premiere last year in my Critics’ Picks competition in @tallinnblacknightsff where it won the main award 🥇 It feels especially fitting because I had just returned from China myself — so of course we had to capture the moment together in photos! The film continues to travel very successfully on the festival circuit, and the fantastic news recently arrived that it has been nominated for 11 (!) Silver Cranes in Lithuania — essentially the country’s equivalent of the Oscars. The awards will be presented after Cannes, and we are all keeping our fingers crossed for as many wins as possible 🤞 🤞 🤞 And if you would still like to program this wonderful film at your festival, please don’t hesitate to contact @jurgismatulevicius or his wonderful producer, @ievacrn ☺️ Besides Jurgis, it was wonderful to reunite with Kyrgyz master filmmaker @aktan_arym_kubat and his film „Black Red Yellow“, with Hana Jušić, who presented „God Will Not Help“, jury member and passionate DJ @tompatompatompa as well as especially with the outstanding Romanian producer and chair of @europeanfilmacademy Ada Solomon 😍 Despite her young age, @ada.solomon has already produced 99 films. We go back a long way together — from our @eave_producers participation in 2007 and the Bosch Foundation jury to sharing films at the @berlinale including her Golden Bear winner „Child’s Pose“ by Calin Peter Netzer in 2013. In Wiesbaden, Ada had a wonderful retrospective 👍 Thank you, goEast, for this incredible experience including a visit to the amazing new @museumreinhardernst ❤️🙏 And now, all eyes are on @festivaldecannes & @marchedufilm which opens tomorrow 🥰🥳

GoEast – not West, young man! That’s what Claudia Dillmann told me decades ago. Claudia had scouted me at a conference where I was holding a lecture about Sergei M. Eisenstein and Leni Riefenstahl and later invited me to help build—together with an amazing team—the @goeastff in Wiesbaden. We launched it in that iconic cinematic year, 2001 🥰 Years later, when Claudia was still running the @dff.film she came to visit us as an excellent mentor at our @sofafilmadvancement 🙏 Over the past 26 editions, GOEAST has become—certainly alongside @filmfestivalcottbus Germany’s leading festivals for films from the “East”. After Claudia I had the honor to work with Christine Kopf, Gaby Babic and many more dedicated professionals♥️ After an eight-year break, I had the honor of returning HOME, following the kind invitation of the @andrea.wink.exground and the new festival director @rebeccaheiler delivering my lecture, “Festival Strategies: Distributing Documentary Films and Properly Utilizing Markets,” at the East-West Talent Lab 😉 Andrea and her fantastic team selected an incredible group of participants with inspiring projects. Some received awards, but to me they were all winners! It was a privilege to be a mentor alongside such outstanding pro as Bettina Brokemper(@hmtflm ), Anne Christine Knoth (@eurimagescoe ), Susanne Mertens (@zdf.de /@ARTE ), @baoshea @aliaksei_paluyan , and @ada.solomon (more on Ada + the fantastic film selection in my next post)👏 The wonderful GoEast Lab participants were @a_g_a_s_i @leila__basma @fritziebe @nikolozbasilashvili @magdrei @kali.mihaela @tillogombiii @trendelinahalili Kateryna Khramtsova, Glib Lukianets, @k.naumko Dawid Nickel, Katharina Schwarz, @justlaurithings Valeria Starovoit, Michelle Traurig, @tuticaadem @blaz_zavrsnik @betijazvejniece and @nilswoitschach.xyz 🤞 As you hear, I went for the original “Go West” by the @realvillagepeople (1979), rather than the cover by @petshopboys 🥳 Thanks to @goeastff for this very warm HOMECOMING and Theo Lorenz for the pics ❤️👌🙏

Between all my film festivals and heading to @festivaldecannes soon, I allowed myself a weekend full of ART 😍 As many of you know, I spent most of my childhood with my parents in museums—I’m fortunately quite influenced by that—and I even studied art history before fully dedicating myself to film 🙏 Yes, we all know that cinema is the 7th and perhaps most lovable art of them all. But as the maestro painter from #1 said in an incredible masterclass, which was just so brilliant and should serve all young artists (including filmmakers) in how they should talk about their art, work, and especially position. He also reminds us how young our medium is and what all came before it. So, I checked out the @galleryweekendberlin —and yes, also stopped by the @sellerie_weekend 👍 After three full days of an incredible art marathon (almost 99 galleries and museums, and according to my app, well over 50 km) and one very special cinema screening (guessing the cinema gives double points, of course), I feel highly energized and inspired. I want to share the following pictures with you with a slightly different intention. This is, of course, only a small selection of the works I saw that impressed me—there were many more. To keep things playful, for a little while I won’t mention the names of the artists, curators, galleries, or museums you’ll be seeing, but instead let you guess. Most of them are modern classics, but there are also newcomers. Whoever gets the most right will win something special from my Beijing trip that I still have in my suitcase. Each time someone recognizes a person, place, artwork, or artist, I will, of course, reveal it, so it stays exciting. #1 is surely super easy. Also, you’ll immediately recognize the great artist I’m paying tribute to, who sadly passed away only recently. Let the game begin 😊 P.S. A huge thanks to Eka Eloshvili, who took most of the photos of me and mapped out our route, and to all the other old and new friends and art lovers who joined along the way. Solution: 16 @beeple_crap

“A Rose is a rose is a rose” – we all know that wonderful line by Gertrude Stein. And Sandra is Sandra and will always be Sandra – whether in Requiem twenty years ago, in the Oscar winner Thea Zone of Interest, or in my new favorite blockbuster Project Hail Mary. But “Rose” is special: an extraordinary work of art—pure cinema. I’m so happy that, twenty years after our Berlinale memories. I still vividly remember the energy of those celebrations… As we all know, cinema is teamwork. This Bear for Sandra reflects not only her brilliance, but also the achievements of everyone involved. Pic 4 shows me with brilliant co-star @godehardgiese one of our finest actors. The magic of this striking black-and-white film is the result of so many talents coming together, crafted with immense care, precision, and vision by DoP @geraldkerkletz ! And of course, my dear friend, editor @hansjoerg_weissbrich Weißbrich, who gave the images their perfect rhythm 👏 There are outstanding departments involved everyone deserves praise. And above all: to director @markusschleinzer who held it all together so masterfully! “Rose” is today opening in German cinemas👍 Also in the picture: one of Austria’s finest exports —former @european_shooting_stars of @europeanfilmpromotion & @tatort Kommissarin @franziskaweisz_ Markus was actually the one who first introduced Franziska to film. Back then, she was still an (allegedly!) unsuccessful model at a small casting, and recommended to Ulrich Seidl - the rest is history. And it’s worth mentioning: “Rose” was not the only Austrian success at the past Berlinale. There were 12 Austrian films, mainly due to the amazing work of @austrianfilms and their wonderful CEO @annelaurentdelage1711 pictured left. I know the sun is shining, Gallery Weekend is also tempting, but please go and see “Rose” this first weekend, and tell all your friends about it. As we all know, that opening weekend is crucial for a film’s theatrical success: Rose is exactly this movie that demands to be experienced on the big screen! Vielen Dank an @piffl_medien (German distribution) & @thematchfactory (worldsales) 🙏 Dancing into May is wonderful, but watching “Rose” is even better 😉

It was a remarkable 11th edition! 💫 We are overwhelmed with your amazing testimonials 👏 and we are thankful to everyone who joined us and contributed to making this edition so memorable! Watch our recap reel! 🎞️ And join us again next year! 🎊 Video: Giannis Vassaras @giannisvsrs - break the frame @breaktheframestudio Subtitling & translations: Sofia Athanasaki @sofathanasaki Music 1st part: @musoumusicgroup #filmfestival #berlin #greekcinema #berlino #kino

Back from Beijing, here’s the highlight of my trip you’ve all been waiting for: the GREAT WALL ❤️ And yes - the Great Wall of China is officially recognized as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. And yes, it’s even far, far, and one more far impressive in real life than the movie “The Great Wall”, directed by Zhang Yimou and starring our dear Matt Damon. And of course many more films short there like „If You Are the One II“ by Feng Xiaogang (pic #10)👌 And yes, you’re seeing that right! All my workouts and running routines have clearly paid off - I was able to run up and down without losing my breath, unlike many of the millions of tourists there… and even got myself a medal for it :-) And yes, since my Chinese zodiac sign is the Tiger, I couldn’t resist channeling my inner Rocky Balboa. In Rocky, he famously trains on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art - better known as the Rocky Steps. Well… I decided to upgrade that scene and turn them into the “WALL Steps” this time 😉 Please check out the video - pic #15! And before you say it, yes - of course the song you hear “Eye of the Tiger” is from “Rocky III.” Even though many international headlines during my stay claimed that humanoid robots were outperforming humans in endurance marathon in Beijing, don’t worry - I didn’t see anything convincing enough to suggest AI is taking over just yet. Our jobs are safe… at least for now 😉 And here I go again - initially, I just wanted to say how impressed I was by the Wall, that no words can describe it. But now I’m rambling again. So I’ll stop here and let you enjoy the photos and my favorite running song… But I can’t end without a huge “thank you / 谢谢 - xièxie” to my new friends @harry_chi_1 and @rasha_hosny4 for sharing this outstanding experience - most of the photos are theirs 🙏 Harry, Rasha and I already miss you being in Cairo & Berlin 😉 Your wonderful colleagues from the @beijing_intl_film_festival were so fantastic hosts – we’ll keep this trip forever in our hearts😍 Next destination for me is the 26th @goeastff in beautiful Wiesbaden - which will be a real home-coming – more on that soon 😉Have a great & sunny weekend everybody 😎

Dear Community, after many kind messages following my posts about my first days at @beijing_intl_film_festival and our time in China, some of you asked for more content from our panel —so here it is: At the International Lounge, I was part of the “Programmers’ Salon: From Selection to Creative Trends,” where I had the pleasure of joining the main stage of the Market, together with fantastic and highly respected colleagues, and speaking about our fantastic @tallinnblacknightsff and my curatorial work there. Among them were @scoiatollo from @iffr ; my long-time collaborator and idol, Jacob Wong, with whom I worked at the @berlinale and who is the Director of the @hkiffs Industry Office; and my wonderful new friend @rasha_hosny4 , programmer at @cairofilms 😍 Our lively and insightful discussion lasted well over two hours and engaged local professionals in the audience. There were so many thoughtful perspectives and practical insights from my fellow panelists that it’s impossible to capture everything here—if you’re interested, I recommend checking with the festival for a recording👌 While I wouldn’t claim to be the ultimate expert on Chinese-language cinema, I do enjoy a great conversation and, as you know, can put on a good show when talking about my most passionate topic—the love of cinema and how to succeed on the film festival circuit. Judging by the reactions, the exchange resonated! I’m sharing a few impressions from the panel (and afterwards), including some unexpected “celebrity moments” with selfie requests—usually, I’m the one asking 😉😂🤩 This was followed by quite many interviews—OMG, do I love my job on days like this♥️ All in all, it was a truly memorable experience. My thanks go to the entire International Lounge team and the many new colleagues and friends I had the chance to meet—some of whom you’ll spot in the photos - including Anke Redl from @germanfilms 👌 Kristina, Rasha, and I all agreed that Jacob probably had the final word of wisdom. When asked what advice he would give young filmmakers, he said: “Do you want to make a movie, or do you want to be a director?” 👍🙏😍

After a hard day of work full of fruitful meetings for our @tallinnblacknightsff and an amazing networking lunch with very dear colleagues (more about that later) at the fantastic 16th @beijing_intl_film_festival I followed today my dear longtime friend and now colleague in the Advisory Board on Film Festivals, Film Institutions, and Film Culture Projects for the Bundesministerium für Wohnen, Kunst, Kultur, Medien und Sport (BMWKMS) @kunstkulturministerium , Andreas Ungerböck, and went to experience his recommendation, the Lama Palace (Yonghegong). While I was running SCHNITT he founded and was responsible for the outstanding Austrian film magazine @ray_filmmag , and he is one of the biggest experts on Chinese and Asian cinema I know! I was joined by my new friend and dearest colleague @rasha_hosny4 who is the programmer for Asia-Pacific Films of the @cairofilm and guided by our local hero @harry_chi_1 😍👍The beautiful pictures are either mine or done by Rasha or Harry 🙏 I know a picture tells more than 1000 words—especially in this case it’s true, and you can guess what I was praying for at the different places. Each of them stands for something different, like the Yonge Temple, where you pay for success in work, study, and career growth, or the Wanfu Pavilion (Ten Thousand Happiness Pavilion) with a huge Buddha statue inside that is carved from one sandalwood tree and a true highlight and the highest in the temple, where you pray for good luck, happiness, and a new start👌🤞 Tomorrow morning after some meetings, Rasha and I will sit on our panel talking about our work entitled "Programmers’ Salon: From Selection to Creative Trends" where we will be joined by dear @scoiatollo from @iffr and my long-time collaborator Jacob Wong, with whom I worked for decades at the @berlinale and who is now the Director of the @hkiffs Industry Office 🤩 Stay tuned for more impressions, and yes, of course the biggest landmark of China in terms of sightseeing is also coming up 😉