Julia Helmke

Pastor, General Secretary of the German Protestant Church Congress
Country of origin: 
Germany

Dr. Julia Helmke, born 1969, studied Protestant theology in Berlin, Rostock, Neuendettelsau, Heidelberg, Montpellier and San Jose/Costa Rica and completed postgraduate studies in film history/criticism at the HFF Munich. Since 2002 she has been a lecturer in Christian journalism in Erlangen and since 2005 she has been the representative for art and culture in the Hanoverian state church. In 2005 she received her doctorate with a thesis on "Church, Film and Festivals - History and Criteria of Protestant and Ecumenical Film Jury Work between 1949-1988". She has been a member of the INTERFILM board of directors since 2003 and took over the honorary presidency in 2013. Since 2015 she has been head of the department for socio-political issues in the Office of the Federal President under Joachim Gauck and became General Secretary of the German Protestant Church Congress in 2017. She publishes and educates in the fields of religion and film as well as church and contemporary arts and is a regular juror at festivals.

Articles

On November 28, 2016, Hans Werner Dannowski, city superintendent em. of Hannover, died at the age of 83 years. He was film commissioner of the council of the EKD 1985-1992, president of INTERFILM 1988-2004 and since 2004 honorary president of INTERFILM. Today's president of INTERFILM, Julia Helmke, portrays the deceased.
Today, people are more likely to visit the cinema than the church in their search for enlightenment. Cinema and church have a lot in common - they are both "storytelling organisations" as the president of the Protestant film organisation, INTERFILM, puts it.

Festivals

14.05.2014 to 25.05.2014
Cannes
21.01.2013 to 27.01.2013
Saarbruecken
01.08.2012 to 11.08.2012
Locarno
02.11.2011 to 06.11.2011
Luebeck
12.05.2010 to 23.05.2010
Cannes
30.04.2009 to 05.05.2009
Oberhausen
07.02.2008 to 17.02.2008
Berlin
01.08.2007 to 11.08.2007
Locarno
24.04.2006 to 30.04.2006
Nyon
03.11.2005 to 06.11.2005
Luebeck
04.07.2002 to 13.07.2002
Karlovy Vary
15.05.2002 to 26.05.2002
Cannes
03.05.2001 to 08.05.2001
Oberhausen