A new name, a new brand identity, a new study center on Eschersheimer Landstrasse, innovative exhibitions and other exciting projects: 2019 will be a special year for an institution that goes back, at its roots, to the Deutsches Institut for Filmkunde (DIF), which was founded 70 years ago on 13 April 1949. Say hello to the new DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum.

2018, the first year for new director Ellen Harrington, was a successful one, with 201,000 visitors in the Museum on the Schaumainkai alone, and 365,000 visitors worldwide at our touring exhibitions and film programs. Right at the beginning, Harrington initiated a series of processes to analyze the impact of the institution. In addition to extensive visitor surveys, a working group started in February to draft a new mission statement; the group also developed the new name that presents this international film heritage institution as a unified entity- the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum.

The new names stands, from now on, for the integrated organization that has emerged from the joining of the former DIF and the Deutsches (German) Film Museum, which opened in 1984. After the renaming of the Deutsches Institut für Filmkunde to “Deutsches Filminstitut” in 1998, the acronym DIF did not fit any longer, though it remained in use. With the merger of the Deutsches Filminstitut and the Deutsches Filmmuseum in 2006, its use repeatedly caused confusion. This is now a thing of the past. In 2019, the year of the 70th birthday of the institution, the DFF presents itself as a unified whole.

In addition to the new name and acronym, this naturally also includes a new corporate design: a new logo and a new graphic concept that represents the building and all its departments and activities as a whole. The aim was to make the brand more recognizable and understandable at a glance. With a clear, almost classical logo and
a fresh color concept, the Offenbach-based graphic design firm Urban Media Project has successfully implemented this requirement. Their clever brand design, which focuses on projection as a link between the analogue past and the digital present and future, will be widely presented in the coming weeks and help to advance the repositioning of the institution.

The tag line “Everything is film,” derived from the mission statement, punctuates the brand. It expresses the belief, from the point of view of our DFF experts, that ‘film’ encompasses and communicates the essential things in life and art – it creates a ‘cinematic world’ which touches our emotions, evokes our dreams, and shares visual beauty or even ugliness. Film inspires our imaginations with themes and images that entertain, shock and challenge us as human beings. Everything we see, hear and feel can remind us of a film, and serve as the inspiration for a new one. That is why, for us: Everything is film!

An appealing, responsive new website is currently being created, which will go online in the Spring; there visitors can intuitively discover the full range of DFF offers. Naturally, this will also include online ticketing for cinema-goers.

70 years of DFF – Our Anniversary Year in Brief:
The film installation ‘70 Years in 70 Minutes,’ opening on 25 March, presents German film since 1949 in a curated projection experience, and gives the starting signal for the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the house, which culminate in a ceremony with Minister of State Monika Grütters on Monday, 20 May. On the same day, the new DFF – Fassbinder Center, Frankfurt, will be opened – another highlight of the anniversary year. In the new study center on Eschersheimer Landstraße, the DFF will be able to concentrate its many collections, including the estate of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, which was taken over in 2018, and make them accessible to film experts and the public for research purposes.

Shortly thereafter, on 3 June, ‘Digital Revolution,’ an interactive exhibition dealing with the creative possibilities digitalization offers the arts will open, with a focus, of course, on the medium of film. The international artist Maximilian Schell, whose personal collection the DFF took over two years ago, is the subject of a major autumn exhibition that combines multimedia elements with scenic installations and invites visitors to immerse themselves in Schell’s artistic cosmos, including his interactions with many of the leading creatives of the 20th century across many fields.

First up, from February 1, there will be a visitor-oriented innovation in the opening hours: In future, the museum will change its evening schedule, and will be open until 8 p.m. on Fridays instead of Wednesdays.

Frauke Haß
Presse & Öffentlichkeitsarbeit / Leitung
Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum
Schaumainkai 41
60596 Frankfurt am Main
Tel: 069/961 220 307
hass@dff.film

www.dff.film