The ACADEMY
original title: Dei Academie
2024, 100 min., color, German
CATEGORIES : Romantic Drama, Debut
COUNTRY: Germany
PRODUCTION : BUDGET : 1 300 000 euro
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
CAST
Maja Bons, Luise Aschenbrenner, Jean-Marc Barr, Andreas Lust, Christoph Luser, Isolde Barth
CREW
Director : Screenplay : Camilla GuttnerCinematographer : Luca Bigazzi
Producers : Marcos Kantis, Korbinian Kalleder, Josef Brandmaier, Camilla Guttner
COMMENTS
FESTIVALS: Raindance Film Festival (Competition / Closing Film / International Premiere) 2025, Munich Film Festival 2024
SYNOPSIS
The film THE ACADEMY is set in the world of fine arts. Its main setting is an art academy—a place full of contradictions: beauty and despair, freedom and disillusionment, poetry and pressure. It is both a refuge and a place to flee from.
Into this microcosm—where diverse people, opinions, lifestyles, and beliefs collide—enters JOJO (20), determined to live out her ideal of being an artist. Along the way, she meets others who, like her, are wrestling with their art, love, and life. But gradually, self-doubt, psychological pressure, and the contradictions of the art world threaten to shatter her dream…
PRESS
Written and produced by Camilla Guttner (Sky Blue), The Academy is a semi-autobiographical love letter to the colourful but often coldhearted world of contemporary art. Told through the eyes of young, eager and tenacious art student Jojo (Maja Bons) as she navigates her probationary year at the elite Munich Academy of Fine Arts, the film explores the sprawling constellations of artists, anxieties and pedagogies that she encounters at every turn.
As Jojo is forced to confront challenging obstacles – her paintings are stolen, she is forced to watch the rapid decline of her grandmother’s health, and she is unabatingly critiqued by her eccentric professor – Guttner deftly sketches a fascinating exploration of mental health and the pervasive fear of failure within an increasingly competitive academic environment.
With notably strong performances (Maja Bons won best actress at the 2025 Bayerischer Filmpreis) from its cast, audiences are placed fully beside Jojo – as she loves, loses, creates, paints, and wonders.
Insightful, poignant, beautifully shot and masterfully acted, The Academy brings an iconic campus to the screen, exploring the cognition of creation against a backdrop of artistic movements and cutthroat critics. An undoubted treat for scholars and general audiences alike. by Bryony Chellew, Raindance Film Festival