Dennis Ruh, whose departure as head of the Berlinale‘s European Film Market after the 2024 edition was announced today, has expressed surprise that his contract has not been renewed and also questioned the festival’s new hiring protocols.

Ruh revealed he was being let go in an earlier statement because incoming festival director Tricia Tuttle had decided to appoint a new EFM head for the 2025 edition. The market boss said he had not been given a chance to discuss the matter with Tuttle.

News of Ruh’s departure, broke a few hours after the surprise announcement of Tuttle as the new Berlinale director, replacing Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek after the 2024 edition.

Ruh, who took up the EFM role in the fall of 2020 amid the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic, said he had expected better treatment on the back of the performance of the market’s 2023 edition, which he described as “a success”.

“We really brought the market back in full swing and we broke all records,” he told Deadline in a phone interview. “I’m surprised this success is not honored and that the new designated director just decided to give this position to someone else.”

He said there had been a lack of transparency around the hiring of the new EFM director, whose identity has yet to be revealed.

“When I was appointed for this position, it was a very transparent process. There was an official job posting for the position, so I officially applied for this job. I was invited to a job interview and I spoke and presented in front of a committee, so committee members independently rated my performance, my ideas and what I brought into the job interview,” he explained.

“At the end, there was a score, and I had the highest score of all candidates. So, it was a very transparent process and there was no chance for favoritism or nepotism or things like this.” 

Ruh suggested that a new governance structure spearheaded by German Culture Minister Claudia Roth gave incoming Berlinale director Tuttle “a lot of freedom around appointing staff” and that many incumbent staffers now faced uncertainty over their jobs.

“Now the Berlinale director is able to just choose and replace any Berlinale executive without any restrictions,” he said.

“Many of us have contracts which end at the end of the directors’ [Chatrian and Rissenbeek] period and so this person has complete freedom to offer jobs or not.” 

Ruh’s comments follow in the wake of criticism about the way in which Chatrian was forced to step down as Berlinale Artistic director in September, following the scrapping of the festival’s short-lived dual management system.

Some 300 film professionals – including Martin Scorsese, Kristen Stewart, Olivier Assayas, Joanna Hogg, and Radu Jude – signed an open letter calling for him to be reinstated and extended beyond 2024.

Criticism was also been levelled at Culture Minister Roth who has been accused of taking a heavy-handed approach with regards to the running of the festival.

Deadline has reached out to the festival for comment.

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Source: DLine

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