Julia Weigl

Discovering films, presenting them to Munich audiences for the first time, and offering a platform to filmmakers is a tremendous privilege and a dream come true.

She studied literature at the LMU Munich and theater, film and television criticism at the HFF Munich and the Bavarian Theater Academy August Everding. Through study as well as practice residencies at the University of Oxford and New York University, she was able to deepen her experience in the field of cultural mediation. Since 2014, she has worked as a freelance journalist, author, translator, and presenter. From 2015 to 2019, she worked in the press department and editorial office of FILMFEST MÜNCHEN. From 2019 to 2023 she curated the international film program with a focus on the English-speaking world, American Indies, Scandinavia and international TV series as well as cultural collaborations with other institutions. She is now the Artistic Co-Director of FILMFEST MÜNCHEN.

While BAMBI lulled me blissfully to sleep in movie theaters, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS captivated me at a young age and kindled a lasting fascination with psychological thrillers. That was certainly not in the spirit of the German ratings board. I have my parents to thank for that!

Again and again, I allowed my passion for cinematic storytelling to creep into my everyday life — whether it was my personal life in the movie theaters of the Oberpfalz region, or my study of literature at the University of Munich (LMU), or my training in arts journalism at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). So the path to FILMFEST MÜNCHEN was a short one, via the HFF directly to the Filmfest’s press department and editorial office and into the team of curators, where I am now responsible for films from the English-speaking world and Scandinavia as well as for international TV series.

Discovering films, presenting them to Munich audiences for the first time, and offering a platform to filmmakers is a tremendous privilege and a dream come true. When I’m not screening films on small screens or the big screen, I like to sit in the theater, write about it or for it, write articles about TV series and travel, and sit or stand on stage to talk to exciting people about their exciting work.