Prior experience and specific career aspirations are not prerequisites. We are seeking for students who are passionate about filmmaking and eager to develop their own artistic voice. The course offers you the possibility to learn about all the department and find out which is most appealing to you. While studying Motion Pictures you will have many opportunities to gain experience and identify your fields of interest.

• Portfolio examination on June 9th and June 10th 2026
• Interview on June 25th and June 26th 2026

The following documents are required to be submitted for the application.  

• a University Entrance Certificate valid in the state of Hesse, Germany. If you expect to receive your University Entrance Certificate after the deadline of June 1st, you can also hand in the last two high school reports instead and send the actual document later. Applications without a University Entrance Certificate is also possible if we identify exceptional artistic talent. This means you need a higher minimum score in the entrance examination. More information you can find in our statute.
• proof of English language proficiency: The last two English grades in your high school report cards have to be better than average. Alternatively you can send either a B2 Certificate or similar such as Toefl and IELTS.
• a digital artistic portfolio with a maximum of three work samples (as non-expiring links in the application form). One of the work samples must be a short film dealing with this year's theme, “On the edge/An der Kante”. The other two work samples can be selected at your discretion. These could be another short film, a screenplay, a storyboard, or a photo series.
• a CV that includes your artistic, cinematic and narrative interests, a description of your experience, your skills, your social engagements and a short motivational statement explaining why you want to study Motion Pictures. 

For applicants with an international University Entrance Certificate, the application process is different. The deadline is the 15th of April. You will find more information below.

The online application portal is open from 01.04. to 01.06.

Please sign up on https://my.h-da.de to register as an applicant and upload your documents.

After signing up you will receive an application number. Please make sure to use this number for all communication with us outside of the application portal. 

As soon as you complete these steps, you may proceed with the application process (Bewerbungsantrag).

During the process you will be prompted to upload the required documents.

Hint: In case you can not deliver the proof of English language proficiency before the 1^st of June, you can hand it in later until before the immatriculation. Instead, please upload a PDF containing a short, informal declaration that you will do so.

• Download the Application Portfolio Form at summary
• Please enter your work samples as non-expiring links in the form. One of the work samples must be a short film dealing with this year's theme, for the theme please go to summary.
• Once you have entered all the required information, you can proceed to upload your Application Portfolio Form, including the links to your works.  
• Please ensure that you provide a short description of your work samples in the designated section of the form and sign the declaration of originality. 

Upload the form on https://my.h-da.de

• Portfolio examination on June 9th and June 10th 2026
• Interview on June 25th and June 26th 2026

The University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt is a member university of Uni-Assist Association. For a service fee, Uni-Assist checks which applicants are eligible to study in Germany based on the guidelines of the Central Office for Foreign Education (Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen, ZaB). So in order to formally apply for the Motion Pictures Programme you must register at the Uni-Assist online portal: https://www.uni-assist.de/en/ 

Uni-Assist will ask you for the following documents: 

• School leaving certificate
• Depending on your country of origin, a certificate proving that you have passed the University Entrance Examination
• If you have previously studied in your home country, please submit a documentation to confirm the number of years of study.
• English Language Certificate (B2; IELTS; TOEFFL, etc.)
• Copy of your passport 

• a digital artistic portfolio with a maximum of three work samples (as non-expiring links in the application form). One of the work samples must be a short film dealing with this year's theme, “On the edge/An der Kante”. The other two work samples can be selected at your discretion. These could be another short film, a screenplay, a storyboard, or a photo series.
• a CV that includes your artistic, cinematic and narrative interests, a description of your experience, your skills, your social engagements and a short motivational statement explaining why you want to study Motion Pictures. 

Once you have entered all the required information, you can proceed to upload your Application Portfolio Form, including the links to your works.  

• Download the Application Portfolio Form at summary
• Enter your work samples as non-expiring links in the form, one of the work samples must be a short film dealing with this year's theme, see summary.
• Please ensure that you provide a short description of your work samples in the designated section of the form and sign the declaration of originality. 

Upload the form on https://cloud.h-da.de/s/y4akRWd4X82ayHW (Password: Portfolio_WiSe2026)

Once you have submitted all the necessary documents, the admissions committee will evaluate your portfolio as the first step of the artistic entrance examination. Following the evaluation, applicants will receive an email notification of the results. 

If you pass the portfolio evaluation process successfully, you will receive an invitation for the interview.  

Two weeks after the portfolio examination we conduct interviews with the applicants. You will be informed about the exact date, and time following the results of the portfolio examination. These interviews will take place online.

There will be no practical tasks this year, but please be prepared that we might give you a task during the interview.

If you have already completed a comparable programme, you may be eligible to join at a higher semester. The procedure is similar, but please note that the examination board will review each application individually after you have successfully participated in the artistic entrance examination. As well as the documents already mentioned, applicants will need to submit additional proof of all previous university grades, including those that were failed. Please note that the examination board may also request further documentation. 

If you have any questions about registering or uploading your files, please get in touch with the Student Service Centre. 

If you have questions about the artistic entrance exam, please contact Prof. Herbert Schwering: herbert.schwering@h-da.de 

If you need general advice about the application and studying Motion Pictures please contact: mopi-studieren@h-da.de 

No, you will learn everything during your studies. However, it is important to be motivated to work independently, as well as to be reliable and open to working collaboratively as part of a team. You should have analytical talent and be able to develop and communicate your ideas and concepts to translate them creatively into moving images and sound.  Furthermore, a general understanding of mathematics and physics is an advantage. 

You should upload your portfolio as non-expiring links via the form you can download above. It should demonstrate your audiovisual talent. Show your ability to translate your concepts and ideas into film language. The portfolio can contain short films as well as screenplays, storyboards or series of photos. In general, there are no restrictions on genres or formats.

We give you an exercise to evaluate your capability of visual thinking. You will have to complete the exercise at home. This could be a short film, a written task or a series of photos for example. 

No, on request the Entrance examination procedure will be conducted online, including the interview.  Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate other time zones. Please note that the interview will take place according to Central European Time (CET). 

Do not treat the interview as an exam. We want to get to know you personally and talk with you about your work and motivation. 

You will be informed via e-mail. Please check your mailbox and your junk mail folder regularly.   

If you have further questions to the application with international university entrance qualification reach out to our International Office.

https://international.h-da.de/