Explore television, experience the festival: Medienkultur students accompany TeleVisionale in Weimar
With the relocation of TeleVisionale – Film and Series Festival from Baden-Baden to Weimar, an active link has been established between festival activities and media studies research at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. In close cooperation with the German Academy of Performing Arts, which organises the festival, and ARD Kultur, the Faculty of Media transforms its seminar room into a festival stage.
A full-day workshop on cultural journalism took place on 21 October as an applied module led by television scholar Prof. Dr. Lorenz Engell for students in the bachelor’s degree programme in Medienkultur. The module engaged participants in organising and implementing the television festival steeped in tradition, which will be held in Weimar for the first time from 1 to 5 December 2025.
Under the guidance of Bettina Kasten (Programme Director, ARD Kultur), Ineke Hagedorn (Senior Editor, ARD Kultur) and Project Manager Steffi Nickel, the students engaged in a dynamic design thinking process, gradually exploring the creative development of a public cultural platform. The participants went beyond mere observation: they joined the team, addressed the framework conditions and requirements of public service broadcasting and simultaneously gained insights into programme planning, organisation and audience engagement. In this way, theoretical knowledge gained in the seminar room was directly applied within the city’s cultural practices. The students’ findings will be presented on 4 December 2025 during the ARD Culture Reception at TeleVisionale.
In the workshop, participants explored the tasks and challenges facing public service broadcasting and discussed strategies for presenting cultural content to younger audiences in the future. They generated original concepts for a new cultural platform. The process demanded a shift in perspective and analytical thinking in relation to target groups while enabling the transformation of creative approaches into coherent strategies. »The relocation of TeleVisionale to Weimar presents a unique opportunity to engage with the traditional festival from an academic standpoint while simultaneously inspiring new directions in research and education«, explains Prof. Dr. Lorenz Engell, project coordinator at the Faculty of Media.
For the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, the cooperation opens up a variety of interfaces between university knowledge transfer, contemporary television research and audiovisual practice. Students engage with Medienkultur at its source – in a live, interdisciplinary context and in dialogue with industry professionals.
Additional information on TeleVisionale:
www.televisionale.de
www.ardkultur.de