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Germany’s Hollywood
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- The entrance to the legendary Babelsberg film studios in Potsdam.
- (© picture-alliance / dpa)
Lights, camera, action! Millions of people all over the world are fascinated by cinema and films. Probably the most important location in Germany for the film industry is just outside the gates of Berlin: Potsdam-Babelsberg. The Babelsberg film studios qualify as Germany’s Hollywood and have a long tradition. Founded in 1911, they are the world’s oldest film studios and Germany’s largest.
About eighty percent of German feature films are made at these studios or reach the cinema screen with their support. National and international film and television producers find perfect conditions here. With sixteen studios and outdoor sets covering an area of more than 150,000 square meters, plus a rich stock of over one million props and 250,000 costumes, Babelsberg is the largest integrated studio complex in Europe. This attracts film people from all over the world to Potsdam and Berlin.
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- Although set in Russia, the car chase scenes filmed here for "The Bourne Ultimatum" were actually taken in the autobahn tunnel near Alexanderplatz in Berlin.
- (© picture-alliance/ dpa)
For 97 years, Babelsberg has been writing film history. Famous names such as Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Kevin Spacey and Paul Verhoeven have come here to produce films or work on them. In recent years, cinema blockbusters like The Bourne Ultimatum and Flightplan with Hollywood stars Matt Damon and Jodie Fosteror have often been shot in Babelsberg. The Studio Babelsberg has been co-producer on films such as The Counterfeiters, which was awarded the Oscar for best foreign language film earlier this year, The Constant Gardener, The Pianist, and V for Vendetta. Currently, they are working on a number of international feature films.
Above and beyond the film studios and their neighboring film and television theme park, Babelsberg has an excellent reputation as a media location. Alongside a number of smaller production companies, the most important regional television and radio station, RBB (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg), has its broadcasting center here in the largest district of Potsdam. There are also institutions like the German Broadcasting Archives (DRA) and the Film and Television Academy (HFF), one of the best places in the country to train in the areas of scriptwriting, directing, camerawork or acting.
This is an updated version of an article provided courtesy of Deutschland Magazine www.deutschland-magazine.de
