Kirsten Niehuus (c) MBB
Film Funding
Kirsten Niehuus has been Medienboard's CEO of Film Funding since 2004. Prior to that she worked in the film industry in various positions including as a lawyer for the German national film fund - Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) in Berlin and then as the acting director of the FFA. She was also the German representative to Eurimages as well as its vice-president for two years.
She is a board member of various institutions, such as German Films and the Kuratorium der Berliner Filmhochschule DFFB. From 2012 to 2016 she served as a member of the ZDF-Fernsehrat.
At the Medienboard Niehuus has been responsible for initiating various new programmes and policies such as „Leuchtstoff“ that supports newcomers and graduating students, artist-in-residence partnerships and co-production development funds with Poland, Turkey and Russia.
In 2013 she was honored with the French order “Chevalier of Arts and Literature” and in 2014 became honorary professor at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf where she teaches film funding and film policy.
Contact: k.niehuusoffice@medienboard.de
Helge Jürgens (c) MBB
New-Media-Funding
Helge Jürgens is Medienboard's CEO of New Media Funding. A business-administration graduate, Jürgens has held leadership roles in the film and TV industry for more than 20 years.
In recent years, Jürgens held the position of managing director at ARRI Film & TV. Among other functions, his duties included management of the company's strategic realignment. Previously, he served for six years as managing director of Berlin Union-Film, with primary responsibility for the modernisation of the historic company. Prior to this time he held a number of management positions at Endemol Deutschland, serving variously as authorised representative, general production manager, and head of resources management.
Jürgens was a member of the German Association of Technical Film and Television Companies (vtff) from 2006 to 2015, serving on the board of directors for six of those years. As part of his work for the association, he served as a jury member for the BKM Innovation Award and as deputy head of the bargaining commission, among other activities. In addition, he served as a lecturer on production economics at the Filmhaus Köln and the Filmhaus Babelsberg.
During his career, he has overseen the development of more than 200 entertainment, film and serial productions. In recent years, Jürgens has also worked as a business consultant, advising high-profile production companies as well as start-ups.
Contact: h.juergensoffice@medienboard.de