Berlin

Since 1986 the Berlin International Film Festival has presented the Berlinale Camera to film personalities or institutions to which it feels particularly indebted and wishes to express its thanks.

The 69th Berlin International Film Festival sees four individuals honoured with the Berlinale Camera: US producer and IFP founder Sandra Schulberg, Wieland Speck, who headed the Berlinale's Panoramasection for many years, French filmmaker Agnès Varda, and German director and screenwriter Herrmann Zschoche.

Sandra Schulberg, Founder of the IFP (Independent Filmmaker Project) (USA) holding her Berlinale Kamera

Sandra Schulberg, a long-time activist on behalf of filmmakers working outside the Hollywood studios, is being recognised by the Berlinale for her 40 years of service to the field. Schulberg founded the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) in 1979, and one year later co-founded the independent distribution company First Run Features. In 2008 she launched IndieCollect, a national campaign to save indie films from extinction. She also serves on the advisory committee of the Women's Film Preservation Fund, established by New York Women in Film & Television.

Alongside her advocacy and film restoration, Schulberg has been a working producer, with three of her movies premiering at the Berlinale: Beth B's Exposed (Panorama 2013), Philip Kaufman's Oscar-nominated Quills (Competition 2000) and John Hanson’s Wildrose (Panorama 1984). In 2004, the Berlinale also premiered her special series Selling Democracy: Films of the Marshall Plan, curated with Dr. Rainer Rother. In 2010, the Berlinale unveiled her restoration of Nuremberg: Its Lesson For Today(1948/2009), which documents the first Nuremberg Trial and was directed by her father, Stuart Schulberg. It was screened in the Berlinale Special programme.
Marking the 40th anniversary of the IFP, Sandra Schulberg is awarded the Berlinale Camera at the EFM. The ceremony took place on Friday, February 8, at the Gropius Bau Cinema.