Director of the German Film Institute announces the end of her tenure in autumn 2017.
Claudia Dillmann announced today the termination of her twenty-year tenure as board member and director of the Deutsches Filminstitut DIF e.V., which includes the German Film Museum on Frankfurt's Museumsufer, on September 30, 2017. She communicated her decision to the chairwoman of the institute's board of directors, Frankfurt's head of cultural affairs Dr. Ina Hartwig, in a personal conversation. Dillmann will be taking early retirement. She wants to devote herself to writing again in the future and can also imagine contributing her knowledge and experience to cultural consulting.
Claudia Dillmann already decided to take this step at the beginning of last year 2016: "The house is well positioned. The financial basis for the work of the Deutsches Filminstitut, including the Film Museum and the projects, has improved greatly in recent months, and the house can rely on its supporters at the municipal, state and federal level. In terms of content, the institute has also been able to launch forward-looking partnerships, for example with the Goethe University Frankfurt or the Federal Archive, Dillmann said. An exhibition plan extending until summer 2019 offers reliability and at the same time the freedom to develop new ideas in 2018.
"It is with pleasure and also with satisfaction that I look back on the 20 years at the DIF in which the institute developed so successfully, said the 62-year-old, who counts among her successes the founding of goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden, the development of the online platform filmportal.de, her presidency of the Association of European Film Archives and Cinematheques from 2004 to 2012, the planning and construction of the new film museum from 2007 to 2011, and the progress made in digitizing Germany's film heritage since 2014.
Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr. Ina Hartwig welcomed Dillmann's decision with great regret and at the same time paid tribute to the achievements of the long-time director:
"The departure of Claudia Dillmann, who was brought to the Deutsches Filminstitut by my predecessor Hilmar Hoffmann, marks the end of an era. Her twenty years of work have shaped the Institute and brought it a long way. The director, whose private reasons for early retirement I can well understand, leaves behind an excellently positioned house with a clear profile, an excellent team and the best prospects for further development under new management. The pioneering, highly successful and forward-looking projects in the field of cultural education for which Claudia Dillmann was responsible deserve special mention. I regret her decision and at the same time am grateful to her for all she has done for the German Film Institute and thus also for Frankfurt's cultural landscape. Gratefully, Ms. Dillmann will be available in an advisory capacity during a transitional period.
A decision on Dillmann's successor for the independent institute is to be made by way of an international call for proposals.
