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TALENT Meet-up BW 2026

In 2026, the TALENT Meet-up BW will once again offer young professionals the opportunity to experience the Stuttgart Animated Week (FMX – Film & Media Exchange (May 5 to 7, 2026), Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (May 5 to 10, 2026), and the APD Conference (May 5, 2026)) with a free combi ticket. The program supports participants in networking, provides personalized program recommendations, and creates a framework for optimal exchange – both among participants and within the international industry. In addition, attendees will get to know regional support services and contact persons.

The program is aimed at individuals who are at the beginning of their own startup journey, currently developing animation-based content such as games, XR, VFX, or animation, or who are from related but non-industry fields, such as students in (humanities) sciences seeking to network with professionals from the animation, film, and games sectors. The offer is free of charge.

Applications are open until February 23, 2026, with responses provided by March 19, 2026. Apply now via the online form!

Program coordinators are MFG Baden-Württemberg, Animation Media Creators Region Stuttgart (AMCRS), Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart (WRS), Film Commission Region Stuttgart, Wirtschaftsförderung der Stadt Stuttgart and the Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

Source and further informations: MFG Baden-Württemberg

Grimme Award Nomination for Lena’s Farm

The nomination committees of the 62nd Grimme Awards convened in early January and, across the categories Information & Culture, Fiction, Entertainment, and Children & Youth, selected 71 productions and individual achievements from more than 750 submissions for nomination. A total of eleven nominations went to commercial broadcasters and streaming platforms, including two in Information & Culture, four in Fiction, three in Entertainment, and two in the Children & Youth category.

The series “Lena’s Farm” is nominated in the “Children” section of the competition category “Children & Youth”. The series – created by our CREATORS at Studio FILM BILDER and MINYA Film for ZDF – is broadcast on KiKA.

Lena’s Farm, Still: Studio FILM BILDER

The team includes Elena Walf (director and writer), Simon Thummet and Barbara Kuznetsova (writers), Ingo Weis and Jens Ripke-Desaules (editors), as well as Thomas Meyer-Hermann and Miljana Dragicevic (producers), and many more.

The winners of the 62nd Grimme Awards will be announced in March. Fingers crossed for all nominees!

Complete list of nominees

Source: Press Release Grimme Award, January 22, 2026

Pre-Berlinale Panel Discussion – Animation & VFX in Baden-Württemberg

Invitation to the Pre-Berlinale panel discussion on Animation & VFX in Baden-Württemberg, taking place on Wednesday, February 11, 2026 on the eve of this year’s Berlinale (February 12 to 22, 2026), at the Vertretung des Landes Baden-Württemberg beim Bund

Over the past years, Baden-Württemberg has developed into one of Europe’s leading hubs for animation and visual effects. International successes, renowned studios, and excellent training and educational institutions have turned the region into a hotspot of creative innovation.

Under the theme “Zurück in die Zukunft: Wohin steuert Deutschlands führender Animations- und VFX-Standort?” (“Back to the Future: Where Is Germany’s Leading Animation and VFX Hub Heading?”), the discussion will focus on key questions shaping the future of the industry: How can Baden-Württemberg maintain its leading position? What conditions are needed to foster an innovative, resilient, and internationally competitive sector? And what role do politics, education, networks, and funding structures play in this context?

On the eve of the Berlinale, these questions will be addressed by the panel guests Arne Braun, State Secretary at the Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst des Landes Baden-Württemberg, Carl Bergengruen, Managing Dirctor of the Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg (MFG), Stefanie Larson, Manager of the Animation Media Creators Region Stuttgart (AMCRS), Gerd Nefzer, special effects artist and multiple Academy Award winner, and Wiebke Wiesner, Deputy Managing Director of the Produktionsallianz.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr. Andreas Bareiß, Director of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026, 18:00 to 21:30 CET
Venue: Vertretung des Landes Baden-Württemberg beim Bund, Tiergartenstraße 15 in 10785 Berlin 
Organized by Animation Media Creators Region Stuttgart (AMCRS) and FMX – Film & Media Exchange

Further information and registration

https://stm.baden-wuerttemberg.de/de/vertretung-beim-bund/veranstaltungen-und-gaestehaus/veranstaltungskalender

Please note that seating is limited.

Filmakademie BW establishes the Carl Laemmle Institute for Research & Media Innovation (CLI)

Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH (FABW) is sharpening its profile as an internationally leading institution for education and research in film and media: with the establishment of the new Carl Laemmle Institute (CLI), the academy will consolidate its activities in artistic-technological research, digital innovation, and forward-looking production methods.

The centrally anchored institute within the Filmakademie will be headed by Professor Volker Helzle, who has long served as a key driver at FABW’s Animationsinstitut, where he coordinated research and development. Under his leadership, the institute is set to function as an interdisciplinary platform for applied research and development and to foster knowledge transfer between art, science, and industry.

Andreas Bareiß, Volker Helzle, Photo: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

About the Carl Laemmle Institute (CLI):
The Carl Laemmle Institute (CLI) consolidates the research and development activities of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH (FABW) into a centrally embedded research and development department and serves as a key interface between education, applied research, and industry partnerships. The institute emerges from the former research and development department of FABW’s Animationsinstitut and advances its work structurally, conceptually, and strategically.

The institute’s research fields include, among others, virtual production methods, extended reality, AI-supported creative and production processes, cross-innovation, new forms of human–machine interaction, as well as sustainable and resource-efficient production models for film, games, and immersive media.

With the naming of the institute, FABW deliberately connects to the legacy of Baden-Württemberg–born pioneer Carl Laemmle. In 1912, he founded the film studio Universal Pictures in Los Angeles, played a decisive role in the rise of Hollywood, and significantly shaped the international film industry. The reference to Laemmle stands for a spirit of innovation, visionary entrepreneurship, and the courage to create new structures for creative work. At the same time, it underscores the institute’s ambition to rethink film as a cultural, technological, and social force – with an international perspective and openness to radically new ideas.

Full announcement by the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (FABW) with further information and quotes from Dr. Andreas Bareiß, Director of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Professor Volker Helzle, Petra Olschowski, Minister of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, and Rosemary Laemmle Hilb, great-grandniece of Carl Laemmle.

GGJ goes THE LÄND: Kokolores Ludwigsburg

Global Game Jam goes THE LÄND 2026 – From January 26 to February 1, 2026, it’s time to design, code, and create amazing things once again: the Global Game Jam, the world’s largest game event, is coming to THE LÄND! Game studios, companies, universities, associations, and (cultural) institutions in Baden-Württemberg are organizing their own “sites” – locations where local game jams take place – often in collaboration with other stakeholders from their region. GGJ goes THE LÄND is coordinated by MFG Baden-Württemberg & Games BW and funded by the Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg, in partnership with game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche e.V. Baden-Württemberg. The goal: to strengthen cooperation and expertise in game development, game design, and game art – regionally, interdisciplinarily, and across university and company boundaries.

The Kokolores Creative Collective e.V., in cooperation with the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and the Wirtschaftsförderung Ludwigsburg, is also taking part. GGJ goes THE LÄND: Kokolores Ludwigsburg will take place from Monday, January 26 to Wednesday, January 28, 2026, at the Filmgalerie of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Akademiehof 10, 71638 Ludwigsburg.
There are still free spots available. Registration and further information can be found here.

Poster GGJ goes THE LÄND – Kokolores Ludwigsburg

Further sites of GGJ goes THE LÄND (including Heilbronn, Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, and the Lake Constance region) can be found here: https://hola.mfg.de/

In addition, GGJ26 @ Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart will take place at the Stuttgart City Library with Chasing Carrots from Friday, January 30 to Sunday, February 1, 2026. Further information and registration can be found here.

VES Awards nominations announced!

A Sparrow’s Song, Credits: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

The Visual Effects Society has announced the nominations for the 24th VES Awards. The prestigious annual celebration recognizes outstanding visual effects artistry and innovation worldwide and the VFX supervisors, VFX producers and hands-on artists who bring this work to life. Also in the running are the visual effects from projects by AMCRS members.

In the category OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT, “A Sparrow’s Song” has made it onto the list of nominees. The project was created by Tobias Eckerlin, Vincent Maurer, Elias Weber, and Lilli-Luisa Heckmann (and many more) as a diploma project at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg’s Animationsinstitut. The film has already won a Student Academy Award in Gold, is currently shortlisted for the 2026 Academy Awards, and was recently nominated for the 2026 Annie Awards.

RISE FX can celebrate a nomination in the category OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE for “The Lost Bus” – Feather River Canyon by the Pulga Bridge – (nominated team: David Schulz, Mareike Loges, Björn Markgraf, and Philipp Hafellner).

Congratulations to everyone involved! Fingers crossed for the VES Awards ceremony on February 25, 2026, at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

Complete list VES Awards nominees

Unreal MegaMeetup #11 at b.Rex on February 4, 2026

Unreal Engine has quietly become a serious industrial tool: from high-fidelity CAD visualization and VR design reviews to production-ready automotive HMI prototyping. If you’re in engineering or automotive – especially in the Mittelstand – this meetup is designed to be practical: real pipelines, real constraints, and what actually works in day-to-day product development.

Expect a short, focused evening with four expert talks and plenty of time to network with engineers, product teams, innovation leads, and Unreal creators working on industrial use cases.

The topic of the Unreal MegaMeetup #11 on February 4 (organized by our CREATORS from b.Rex) is “Unreal in Engineering, Automotive HMI & CAD Workflows“, the program includes four talks:

Arjun Rai Gupta | Virtual Dimension Center (VDC), Fellbach
Talk focus: A big-picture introduction: how Unreal is showing up in industrial contexts (engineering + automotive), and how initiatives like CyberLÄND support collaboration, knowledge transfer, and cross-company innovation in immersive tech.

Dennis Basgier | Threedy (instant3Dhub)
Talk focus: CAD → Unreal without pain. Threedy will show how their Unreal Plugin streams complex CAD models into Unreal without preprocessing or simplification, while keeping engineering context/metadata.

Jouni Leino | Siili Auto (Siili)
Talk focus: “Our journey with Unreal Engine” – how real-time 3D is reshaping automotive experiences: in-car interfaces, visualization tools, and next-gen UX.

Tillman Staffen & Tim Völker | B.REX / Bruce B.
Talk focus: “AI-based Avatars in Corporate Communication” – how intelligent, real-time avatars are reshaping how organizations communicate with customers, employees, and stakeholders.

Participation is free! As always, there will be both meat and vegetarian dishes, as well as a selection of drinks. Register early to secure your spot! Registration and details here (communities.unrealengine.com) and here (meetup.com)

Date: Wednesday, Februar 4, 18 to 23 CET | Venue: at b.Rex, Reinsburgstraße 96/1, 70197 Stuttgart

The event is powered by the “NEW.STUTTGART” initiative.

Naked Web – exhibition by Students of the Merz Akademie

“Baroque“ by Merz Akademie student Vanessa Schmidt

In the dawn of the World Wide Web – before the separation of content and style, before CSS, in the age of pure HTML – webmasters worked with only a handful of <tags> to shape their pages.

Creating layouts, visuals and functionality was a challenge, yet not impossible. With the humble < table >, the elegant < hr >, the interactive < input type=“radio” > and < input type=“checkbox” >, and of course the legendary clear.gif, every trick became an act of invention. Even border=“0” or border=“100” carried a message.

The works in this exhibition by students of the Merz Akademie, curated by Olia Lialina, are built from these same elements – to make them shine once more, and never be forgotten.

Exhibition “Naked Web“ (as part of the 39th Filmwinter Stuttgart): January 13 to 25, 2026 – More information
Vernissage: Tuesday, January 13, 2026, 19:30 CET
Workshop with Olia Lialina “Reclaiming Your Corner of the web“: Saturday, January 17, 2026, 11 to 16 CET– More information
Get Together: Saturday, January 17, 2026, 16:30 CET

Venue: GEDOK Stuttgart, Hölderlinstr. 17, 70174 Stuttgart

Source and further information: Merz Akademie

Annie Awards nominations for diploma projects from the Animationsinstitut!

Two diploma projects from the Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg have made it onto the nomination list for Best Student Film at the 53rd Annie Awards. Congratulations to everyone involved!

A SPARROW’S SONG
Student Director / Student Producer: Tobias Eckerlin
Lead Technical Director: Vincent Maurer, Lead Character Artist: Elias Weber, Lead Animation: Lilli-Luisa Heckmann, Lead Animation: Jiro Magracia, Lead Groom/Feathers Artist: Rebecca Liebelt – and many more!

A Sparrow’s Song, Credits: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
A SPARROW’S SONG team (l.t.r.): Rebecca Liebelt, Jiro Magracia, Tobias Eckerlin, Vincent Maurer, Lilli-Luisa Heckmann & Elias Weber

THE UNDYING PAIN OF EXISTENCE
Student Director: Oscar Jacobson
Student Producers: Franz Rügamer, Nadiia Yunatska
and many more!

The Undying Pain of Existence, Credits: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
The Undying Pain of Existence, Oscar Jacobson at his Diploma Showroom, FABW

Both projects have already received numerous awards: “A Sparrow’s Song”, for example, has won the Student Academy Award in Gold, while “The Undying Pain of Existence” received an award at the Filmschau Baden-Württemberg. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the awards ceremony at the 53rd Annual Annie Awards on February 21, 2026! The ceremony can be streamed live here: https://annieawards.org/watch-it-live

Full list of all 2025 Annie Awards nominees

RegioClusterAgentur BW: Portrait of the AMCRS

The RegioClusterAgentur for Innovation and Transformation in Baden-Württemberg (RCA BW) is the support agency for cluster initiatives, business development and regional innovation systems in Baden-Württemberg. It supports the Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Tourismus Baden-Württemberg in the implementation of the state’s economic and cluster policy goals.

In September 2025, it featured the AMCRS in its portrait „Kreative Exzellenz und internationale Sichtbarkeit: Die Rolle des Netzwerks AMCRS für die Region Stuttgart“ (“Creative Excellence and International Visibility: The Role of the AMCRS Network for the Stuttgart Region.”) Topics covered include the creative industry in Baden-Württemberg, the Stuttgart Animated Week, support for young talent and securing skilled professionals, as well as milestones and flagship projects of the AMCRS members. Read the online article here.

The portrait has now been included in the recently published brochure “360 GRAD BW – Erfolgsgeschichten aus Baden-Württemberg“ (“360 GRAD BW – Success Stories from Baden-Württemberg.”) Access the online version of the brochure here, which can also be requested as a printed copy directly from the RegioClusterAgentur: https://www.clusterportal-bw.de/en/