The director, author and curator Bettina Schoeller Bouju will join the programme team in mid-March and head the TV section TELEVISIONEN. She succeeds Friedemann Beyer, who was responsible for the section for over ten years. 

"I am very pleased to be able to give the TV section at FILMFEST HAMBURG, which has been established over the years, a new face starting this year. For me, the section is a great platform to show a wide range of what television can be on the big screen. We are inviting audiences and the industry to leave the comfort and ratings zone this autumn and get involved in carefully curated, innovative, courageous and different stories. From Hamburg as a strong TV location - with first-class studios, many creative minds and wonderful backdrops - we want to rethink television in dialogue with the national and international TV industry," says Bettina Schoeller Bouju. 

"We warmly welcome Bettina Schoeller Bouju to our team and look forward to important impulses for an innovative and forward-looking TV section at FILMFEST HAMBURG. The television market is in a state of upheaval, user behaviour is changing rapidly and new technologies are already being used. We want to take these developments into account and reposition ourselves with 'Television'. As a specialist and industry expert, Bettina Schoeller Bouju has an excellent network and will use her expertise to drive this realignment forward. My thanks go to her predecessor Friedemann Beyer, who has continuously developed the TV section under the festival management of Albert Wiederspiel since 2012," says FILMFEST HAMBURG director Malika Rabahallah. 

Bettina Schoeller Bouju grew up in Frankfurt am Main as the daughter of literary critic and editor Wilfried F. Schoeller and was interested in the question of how to make good television from an early age. After gaining a Master's degree in German, ethnology and journalism at the University of Hamburg and a film degree at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, she studied film directing for a year at the Bucharest Film Academy in Romania. Since 2001 she has been working as a director and author of both feature films and documentaries for cinema and TV. She is a book author, has worked for Deutschlandfunk and has curated DVDs, film series and exhibitions. Bettina Schoeller Bouju is co-founder of the association Pro Quote Regie and has established the RegieSalon at Babylon Kino Berlin with regular film discussions. 

The TV section at FILMFEST HAMBURG has existed since 1995, initially under the name "TV Movies made in Hamburg", then under the title "16:9 - Television in the Cinema". Since 2017, the section has been called "Television". The participating films and series in the competition compete for the Hamburg Producer Award for German Television Productions, which has been awarded since 2014 and is endowed with 25,000 euros, as well as the Special Award for Serial Formats, which has been awarded since 2021 and is endowed with 10,000 euros. Both prizes are sponsored by the VFF - Verwertungsgesellschaft für Film- und Fernsehproduzenten.