MunichFilmUp! is a mentoring program for emerging filmmakers ready to transform their ideas into first feature-length films. We support six promising talents – final-year film students or recent graduates (within 3 years) on a curated 7-month journey from treatment to the first version of the script.
The programme kicks off at Munich’s Festival of Future Storytellers, includes a personalized 3-week Pop Up Film Residency, and culminates in Cannes with one-on-one industry meetings and the Kirch Foundation Award Ceremony. Along the way, participants benefit from expert-led online mentoring and workshops designed to refine their vision and craft.
The prestigious Kirch Foundation Award – €5,000 towards project development is awarded by an international jury during the Cannes Film Festival. All travel, visa, and accommodation costs are covered.
More infos: www.munichfilmup.org
NATALIA GARCÍA AGRAZ
BIO:
Natalia García Agraz graduated with honors from Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. She directed the short film “The last romantic” which earned a 2019 student Oscar nomination, a Silver Ariel awards nomination and participated in more than 60 international festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival, Palm Springs Short Fest and Morelia Film Festival. As a screenwriter, she has collaborated on feature films and series for Netflix, Amazon and HBO. She recently directed two short films “A Revolution” 2023 winner of the FOCINE fund which screened at Morelia, Bogoshorts, Milano Fest and Brno16 among others and “Passarinho” 2024 which screened at Tribeca, Torino, Short Shorts Asia and won Silver Hugo at Chicago Film Festival, Best Film at Festival of Future Storytellers Munich and special mention to best director at Palm Springs Short Fest. It also received a nomination to the BAFTA student awards and Silver Ariel awards 2025. Currently she is working on her first feature film.
PROJECT:
Tibu and the Animals
Displaced from a coastal town, two orphaned sisters, Remedios, who is barely an adult, and Lucía, a ten-year-old karate apprentice with anger issues, search for their missing dog across Mexico City. Their journey becomes a confrontation with loss and a test of the bond that keeps them together.
SUBARNA DASH
BIO:
Subarna Dash is an Indian animation filmmaker and an alumna of the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata. Recognised as a Berlinale Talent in 2025, her films have screened at festivals worldwide, including the Berlinale, TIFF, SXSW, and Annecy. Her work explores themes of the body, identity, and isolation with a touch of wit and humor.
PROJECT:
In Heat, On Loop
When a creatively blocked film student flees home to dodge her thesis deadline, she finds herself caught between her mother’s matchmaking spreadsheets and an ill-advised, sex-positive collaboration with her ex that spirals into chaos.
OLIVER MCGOLDRICK
BIO:
Oliver McGoldrick is an Irish filmmaker / doctor. He grew up in the countryside outside Belfast, and graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, working as a doctor before pursuing his Masters in Film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He divides his time between Northern Ireland, where he continues to work in Medicine, and New York City where he has graduated from New York University’s Graduate Film programme. He is a BAFTA North America Scholar and was selected as part of the Film at Lincoln Centre Artists Academy cohort for the 2024 New York Film Festival. His previous short film, Three Keenings (2024), premiered at the Venice International Film Festival 2024, won Best Short at the Oscar Qualifying Galway Film Fleadh and was broadcast on CanalPlus. His next short film, MELTER, will be Executive Produced by Spike Lee. He is currently in development for his debut feature, Barnyard
PROJECT:
Barnyard
‘Barnyard’ Barry, a former local legend turned 30 year old wastrel- recovers from an untimely stroke at age 29 in his Northern Irish seaside village. When his childhood friends return home, a weekend of nostalgia veers towards chaos when tainted drugs threaten lives and force Barry to reckon with his position in the world.
CAMILLE TRICAUD
BIO:
Camille Tricaud is a French writer, director and producer, born in Bordeaux and educated in Germany. After studying Philosophy, she graduated in Documentary Film Directing Documentary Film Directing at the University of Television and Film Munich. Her short film Slow Down the Fall has screened at major festivals and was nominated for Best Short Film by the German Film Critics’ Association. She works as a producer at Benedetta Films, which she co-founded. She co-directed the collective feature documentary Eleven Tomorrows, which premiered at the Berlinale 2024. She is based between Munich and Paris.
PROJECT:
The Song of the Baba
Berlin 1943, a forced labor camp. People from all over Europe have been forced to work for the German arms industry. Despite all being oppressed, the forced laborers reproduce a harsh hierarchical system among themselves. When a French and a Soviet fall in love, they face rejection from all sides. But over time, as their relationship becomes more accepted by others, it starts to fall apart from within.
BONI ZANATTA
BIO:
Boni Zanatta is a screenwriter and educator from São Paulo, Brazil. Her graduate thesis in cinema studies, short movie Non Spontaneous Combustion, written and directed by her, has been multi-awarded at film festivals throughout the world. She is currently a screenwriting teacher at Instituto Criar of inclusive cinema education. Boni is a former animator at Globo, Brazil’s main TV channel, and an experienced producer in documentary series and films. She believes in the life-changing power of cinema and aims, with her work, to celebrate the persistent joy of LGBT+ brazilian narratives
PROJECT:
The Three Maries Parable
The reputation of Maria de Fátima as the most conservative elder of Ararinha do Sul, her small town in Brazil, is put at risk when she falls in love with Maria de Lourdes, a rebellious grandma who helps her fix a miracle-working Virgin Mary statue.
MUSCHIRF SHEKH ZEYN
BIO:
PROJECT:
Patrick
A refugee boy named Ali is adopted by a seemingly perfect family. But right after his arrival, their biological son Patrick suddenly disappears, and Ali immediately falls under suspicion. To regain the trust of his new parents, he must help bring Patrick back – yet the questions surrounding Patrick’s disappearance keep piling up, and the price is far greater than he could ever have imagined
