News

Professor Wolfgang Längsfeld passed away

I am writing this mail with a broken heart to tell you that our dear friend Professor Wolfgang (Wolfie) Längsfeld has passed away last night (Monday, Feb  13th) very suddenly and unexpectedly.

Prof. Längsfeld was for more than 35 years an active member of CILECT and for more than 20 years its Vice President (1988-2002). For his distinguished work in 2002 he was elected Honorary Member. He was the founder (1981) and director (until 2001) of the well known Munich Student Film Festival which still prepares hundreds of our students each year for the glory of the professional festivals. The festival, and Wolfie, personally, helped so many of us, the young people from Eastern Europe, to understand that democracy exists and that its meaning was to create a feeling of community and friendship which would stay with us until our end. He was also the head of the Film Directing Department at HFF in Munich until his retirement, a department form which many important German filmmakers graduated since 1967. In his years as producer he has worked with great people such as Samuel Fuller, Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Bernd Eichinger and Nino Manfredi.

May he rest in peace!
Prof.Dr. Stanislav Semerdjiev
Executive Director
CILECT (The International Association of Film and TV Schools)