On February 11, 2002, Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys, the Monty Python films) addressed a crowd of 900 young actors, directors, and film students from all across the globe. He shared his experiences of making the film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote; how budget-cuts, back problems and freakish storms conspired to sabotage the project, forcing him to give it up after three years. After narrating the entire disaster to the captive audience, he simply stated, “I will make the film anyway!”


This was 'Vision Day' at the Berlin International Film Festival – the birthplace of Talent Campus. And what a vision! The following year, 472 talents from 61 countries were invited to the Festival in February, to be part of a unique interaction with their international colleagues and a host of experienced filmmakers.

Dieter Kosslick, Director of the Berlin International Film Festival and initiator of the Berlinale Talent Campus believes that the Talent Campus is a space for “reflection”. It provides room to discover one's choices, and the opportunity to think about filmmaking as a profession. “I believe in the Asian way of learning” he said, “doing, and passing on your knowledge to the next generation”.

Since the first Berlinale Talent Campus in 2002, this has become a prominent event at the Berlin International Film Festival. The Talent Campus initiative has also travelled abroad to select international festivals: the Molodist Film Festival in Kiev, the Sithengi Festival in South Africa, the Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Cinema and Osian's-Cinefan in New Delhi.

Over the years, participating experts at Berlinale Talent Campus have ranged from the renowned German filmmaker Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Paris Texas) to Korea's cult-filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy). World-renowned cinematographers, composers, editors, writers, casting agents and costume designers, have all taken precious time off their schedules to share their stories, secrets, grievances and the so-called 'tricks of the trade'.


We at Osian's-Cinefan are delighted to be hosting Talent Campus India for the third year in a row. The first two editions proved to be tremendously successful. Over a hundred young filmmakers from across the country and also from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, have attended the Campus. Our list of experts, while not half as long as that of the Berlinale, has certainly been as distinguished – it includes Iranian filmmakers Samira and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the maverick Australian-born cinematographer Christopher Doyle, award-winning German documentary filmmaker Andres Veiel, producers Marion Hansel and Wouter Barendrecht, Chinese filmmaker Hou Yong, and eminent Indian filmmakers Aparna Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal and Mani Kaul.

Topics of discussion have included directing actors, cinematography, developing scripts, independent filmmaking and the aesthetics of editing. The feedback was heart-warming: most felt that the experience was unique and stimulating. “The best thing about Talent Campus was that all the speakers made us believe that we CAN make films and that we should just go out there and do it!”, said one Talent.

Since the Campus, many participants have shown their films at international festivals. Some of them have begun dedicated work on developing screenplays, and a few have even collaborated on each other's projects. Talents from the Campus in India have also participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus. In 2005, Sainath Choudhury from Mumbai, who attended our first Campus, won an award in Berlin for his short-film Cataract.