His eyes always looked a little tired, his smile remained unfathomable. Perhaps that was the mask that was needed to found an institution like the Munich Film Festival, to stabilize it, to lead to recognition, against much resistance. It should be a summer, a public festival, but with the aim of rivaling the German A festival in Berlin. In 1983, after a tough period of preparation, the starting shot was given with “Local Hero” by Bill Forsyth in the Gloria Palast. He stayed in office until 2003.
Eberhard Hauff had made a few films himself, as a director, producer or screenwriter, but, unlike his brother Reinhard, who shaped German cinema through films like “Messer im Kopf” and concentrated on the organization of German film production at some point, was long he is on the board of the SPIO, the central organization of the film industry, on the administrative board of the FFA, the film funding agency. Of course, it was a difficult, sometimes hateful, thankless job as film festival director. One or the other indispensable film was always missing from the program, the selection criteria were incomprehensible. But Hauff let a lot of bounce off with a smile, and he gathered great people around him, to whom he gave a lot of freedom, for programs by the German filmmakers or the American Independents. The Munich Film Festival – not a festival, but a celebration! – He made it a success story that politicians liked to cling to, both local and Bavarian. On October 13th, Eberhard Hauff is in his own way local hero died at the age of 89.