“A small - but perfect company”, that is how Managing Director Loy W. Arnold describes Transit Film; he employs a permanent staff of five.

Transit Film was founded as a limited company on January 18, 1966, with the objective of conducting trust activities for the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation and for the Federal Republic of Germany. The sole shareholder is the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by delegates of the Federal Ministry of Culture and the Media (BKM).

Transit Film is responsible for commercial exploitation of the movies belonging to the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation, as well as the film documents from the collections of the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv in Berlin. Furthermore, Transit Film also exploits its own collection of movies; this comprises federally-owned films and titles for which Transit Film has acquired the rights over the course of the last few years.

The main focus of Transit Film is on international licensing; its range of services covers movies, picture documents and excerpt rights.

Distribution, with around 600 movies ranging from silent movies to more recent productions, is at international level.

Transit Film has also been operating in the production field since 1998. On average, two productions on film topics of historical interest are made each year, normally in the form of co-productions, for which Transit Film provides the rights from the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation or from the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv.

The multifaceted nature of these tasks demands special qualifications from all the employees: “Everybody must be a Jack-of-all-trades in order to – if necessary – assume the tasks of the others. Our motto is: old movies under modern management!”

Transit Film is a member of the Association of VDFE Verband deutscher Filmexporteure e.V. (German Film Exporters) and VdF Verband der Filmverleiher e.V. (Association of German Film Distributors).