Urs Spörri

German cinema today is so much better than its reputation! And making that visible is exactly what I'm fighting for with all my heart.

Urs Spörri is co-programmer of the NEW GERMAN CINEMA section at the FILMFETST MÜNCHEN. He studied film studies, journalism and political science at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and cultural management at the Ludwigsburg University of Education. His focus is on current German filmmaking: Spörri directs the TeleVisionale Baden-Baden, scouts for the DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and curates German-language film series for the cinemas of the film museums in Frankfurt am Main and Düsseldorf.

Film festivals are my great passion. Immersing myself in foreign cinematic worlds and sharing the inspiring atmosphere with the filmmakers and the audience is simply addictive. Even as a young boy, after watching Pakula's Watergate political thriller ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN again and again, it was clear to me: I want to be a journalist. Later I realized: it was a film that triggered that in me. Today I combine both worlds - as a programmer and as a presenter.

I first worked for a film festival while I was still studying film studies with Prof. Thomas Koebner in Mainz, who had a very formative influence on me. At FILMZ in 2003, as a visitor, I was spontaneously and surprisingly engaged to operate the big spotlight from the balcony and to put Volker Schlöndorff in a good light. There it all began. A few years later I was in charge of the festival.

In the meantime, I am artistic director of the film and series festival TeleVisionale Baden-Baden and scout for the DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, where I am curator of the series "Was tut sich - im deutschen Film?". For the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf I program the series "Black Box BRD - Gespräche zum deutschen Gegenwartskino". And together with the Munich directorial legend Edgar Reitz, one of my central companions, I founded the HEIMAT EUROPA Film Festival in Hunsrück and established the "Edgar" as an award for the best modern Heimatfilm.

In 2014, Christoph Gröner brought me to FILMFEST MÜNCHEN as a presenter. As part of the New German Cinema section, at the Filmmakers Live Talks and from 2022 as a scout, I got to know and love FILMFEST. This is how you celebrate the best German cinema, and nothing else!