Moritz de Hadeln, Special Teddy Award Winner, Dies

The internationally renowned British-Swiss festival maker and filmmaker Moritz de Hadeln died on Saturday at the age of 85 in a hospital in Nyon, in the Romandy region. As his biographer Christian Jungen confirmed, de Hadeln succumbed to complications following a medical procedure performed shortly before. De Hadeln was regarded for more than three decades as one of the most formative and influential figures in global film culture—and as a champion of queer cinema.

A Life in the Service of International Cinema
Born on December 21, 1940 in Exeter, England, de Hadeln began his career initially as a photographer and documentary filmmaker. Together with his wife Erika, he founded in 1969 the documentary film festival in Nyon (Visions du Réel). This was followed by leading the Locarno International Film Festival (1972-1977), before he took the helm of the Berlin International Film Festival, the Berlinale, in 1980. He later directed the Venice Film Festival in 2002 and 2003.

During his more than twenty-year tenure in Berlin from 1980 to 2001, de Hadeln fundamentally modernized the festival’s structure, fostered dialogue between East and West during the Cold War, and oversaw the historic move of the event from the Berlin Zoo to Potsdamer Platz. Internationally, the Berlinale emerged with a strengthened profile from his tenure.