Tobias Krell

Tobi Krell Copyright Hans Florian Hopfner

I read a lot and watched pretty much everything I could get my hands on. While studying in Münster, I was a projectionist in an art house cinema for a few years — my dream job!

Tobias Krell studied sociology and political science in Münster and then completed a master's degree at the Film University "Konrad Wolf". He has worked as a journalist and editor in television since 2008, and as a reporter and presenter in front of the camera since 2010. He has been appearing on children's television as "Checker Tobi" since 2013. The show has won numerous awards and has reached over 1.8 million viewers with two feature films. Since 2021, he has been curating the program for young audiences at FILMFEST MÜNCHEN together with Tobias Obermeier.

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My love of the cinema started when I was a child. I could watch a film twenty or thirty times without getting bored. When I was about eight or nine years old, I started secretly watching films that I wasn’t really old enough for: DAS BOOT, for example, and classics like THE WAGES OF FEAR. When I was 17 or 18, I saw David Lynch’s MULHOLLAND DRIVE, a dark, mysterious film that was different from anything I’d ever seen. When it ended, I sat there with my mouth agape and thought: Wow! So that’s what movies can be like!

After that, I started to get very involved with film. I read a lot and watched pretty much everything I could get my hands on. While studying in Münster, I was a projectionist in an art house cinema for a few years — my dream job! Parallel to that, I worked in the editorial departments of various newspapers and TV stations and later stood in front of the camera as a reporter and film critic for SWR’s youth program.

From 2010 to 2014 I earned a master’s degree at the Film University in Potsdam-Babelsberg, and since 2010 I’ve also been working for various festivals. In 2013, “Checker Tobi” became a thing and I moved to Munich. Since then, of course, I’ve also been a regular at FILMFEST MÜNCHEN. I love it when the whole city goes crazy over films for several days! I think Munich is never more beautiful than at that time.

Three years ago, I was invited to give a talk at the Kinderfilmfest. That was my first encounter with the KFFM audience. I was really impressed by how incredibly smart, curious, and creative the kids were! I was all the more pleased when I was asked if I would like to direct the Kinderfilmfest. There is no better way to introduce the medium of film to children and young people. Films can be like journeys into other worlds and yet tell stories that children and young people here can also identify with. I’d like to discuss such films with the audience: films that really take their main characters, their troubles and yearnings seriously. I’m really looking forward to all the encounters and moments that the Kinderfilmfest, by now known as CineKindl, holds in store for us all.