There is a master’s programme that trains film and audiovisual professionals — not to turn them into theorists, but to give them the overarching perspective that sets, editing suites, and co-production meetings rarely afford. It is called the European Film Business and Law LL.M. | MBA, a joint initiative of the Erich Pommer Institut (EPI), Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, and the University of Potsdam, now entering its fifth edition. The programme starts in October 2026, with applications open until 31 July: two years of study, 120 credits, an officially recognised degree — MBA, LL.M., or dual — awarded by both universities.
Full details on admission criteria, contacts, and upcoming free information sessions are available at epi.media/filmmaster/.
Olga Hartšuk is among the first graduates of this programme. An Estonian producer with over 15 years of experience — spanning television, documentaries, nationally acclaimed fiction, and international co-productions — she completed the programme in early 2026 with a thesis that has already redirected her professional path. From that research, she co-founded Mureel a startup selected for the Berlinale Start-Up programme at the EFM Innovation Hub. We met her to understand what it means, in practice, to return to formal education when one already has a well-established career.
Olga, how would you describe yourself and your background before joining EPI?
Olga Hartšuk: My entry point into film was production, not theory. Before EPI, I had been producing in Estonia since 2008 — starting with TV production and documentaries, then contributing as a line producer on nationally top-rated fiction series, and in recent years on international co-productions. I hold a first master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management, which gave me a systems-thinking lens that never fully left me. The film industry felt intuitive to me operationally, but I kept running into the same wall: the legal and financial architecture underpinning European co-production is genuinely complex, and I was navigating it almost entirely with the help of external consultants — which was costly. EPI was a deliberate choice to close that gap formally, not merely experientially.
What motivated you to pursue the European Film Business and Law LL.M. | MBA, and how did it shape your understanding of the industry?
Olga Hartšuk: I came in with a specific feeling rather than a specific plan: the sense that I was operating inside a system I could not fully see. I wanted to understand the full architecture of the audiovisual industry — from the earliest stage of script development and IP rights, through co-production structures and the financial puzzle behind them, all the way to sales, distribution, and ultimately the audience. What became clear is that every stage operates with its own logic, yet the stages are rarely understood as one continuous system. And all of this unfolds in an environment defined by constant change and structural uncertainty. That is what I came to EPI for. Not one skill — a full picture. How the whole chain works, from every angle: legal, financial, institutional. Taught by people who are active in it, not merely teaching it. That was the draw. And the professionals you meet there are people you can always approach, long after the programme ends.
What were the biggest challenges you faced during your studies, and how did you overcome them?
Olga Hartšuk: The honest answer starts with the physical. Sitting in front of a laptop for two solid days requires a discipline that nobody warns you about. One classmate solved this more elegantly than the rest of us — walking on a treadmill throughout the sessions. That said, the hybrid format was the only viable option for me, and it is one of the programme’s genuine strengths. The real challenge was learning to actually stop. To put down the practitioner’s reflex and shift into a different mode — open listening, deep conversation, genuine curiosity about a topic rather than simply mining it for what is immediately useful. That quality of attention atrophies fast in production life. The programme demanded it constantly. That was the friction, and eventually, also the point.
Can you share a particularly memorable experience from your time in the programme?
Olga Hartšuk: The first on-site week. There is a particular feeling that is hard to manufacture in adult professional life — the sense of a genuine new beginning, of not yet knowing how things will unfold. Something closer to how a child walks into the first day of something than how a professional walks into a conference. That is what that week felt like. And then the last dinner with our cohort during Berlinale. Sitting together in Berlin, I felt something entirely genuine: warmth, and a real sense of belonging. Not networking. Not useful contacts. A group of people who had been through something together and recognised each other because of it. That feeling of being part of one very specific, very small network — that was the moment I understood what the programme had actually given me, beyond the curriculum.
How do you plan to apply what you have learnt in your future career?
Olga Hartšuk: An engineer at heart, I observed the industry as a set of systems throughout the programme. Almost subconsciously, I was always looking for points of improvement. Over time, my focus narrowed to sustainability. I began comparing practices that actually worked with the increasing pressure coming from financing bodies. At the same time, CSRD requirements were approaching fast. That combination triggered something. For producers, it looked like mission impossible. For me, it looked like a solvable problem. I started digging — European Audiovisual Observatory reports, EU policy documents, industry frameworks across territories. The more I read, the clearer it became: the frustration I had sensed in practice was real. Not a lack of tools — a lack of infrastructure. I am applying this knowledge by stepping sideways into infrastructure. I am building something that reshapes how the system operates — specifically, how sustainability compliance and reporting flow between productions and institutions. If it works, it reduces wasted effort at scale. That will have an impact on the whole industry. This is my ambition.
What advice would you give to future students considering this programme?
Olga Hartšuk: Give the programme real time. Not calendar slots — actual space. The best advice we received came in the very first lecture: apply everything directly to your own company, your own projects, your current professional reality. Do not study in the abstract. Use every framework, every legal concept, every financing structure as a lens on something you are already building or navigating. I took that seriously from day one, and it changed the quality of everything I got out of the programme. The curriculum rewards that approach. The more concretely you anchor the learning, the deeper it goes — and the faster it becomes usable rather than merely interesting.
And Mureel — what is it today, and where is it heading?
Olga Hartšuk: My ambition is clear: build Mureel. What started as a thesis is now a startup — Mureel, co-founded with my CTO Anton Vedesin, Ph.D. — currently in active development and already progressing through its first institutional partnerships. The thesis identified the problem academically: the fragmentation of sustainability practices across the European audiovisual industry. Mureel is the answer in practice. Access to European film funding increasingly depends on sustainability compliance; it is no longer optional — it is a condition. But each funder requires different frameworks, different formats, different forms of evidence. For small production companies, that multiplies rapidly into a serious burden. Mureel connects it all: enter your data once, and the platform maps it to whichever frameworks your funders require. Not by replacing what already exists, but by linking it.
Being selected for the Berlinale Start-Up programme in 2026 was the first real test of whether two years of analysis had translated into something legible to the people it was built for. Eleven companies in the EFM Innovation Hub, conversations with fund representatives, broadcasters, and sustainability officers from across Europe. The response was consistent: yes, we have this problem; yes, our producers are exhausted by it; yes, we have been waiting for something that connects these frameworks rather than adding another one. It was confirmation that the thesis had identified something real. At the same time, I continue producing independently — selectively, with full commitment to impactful storytelling. That part of me does not pause for a startup. None of this would have taken the shape it has without EPI. The programme did not just give me the knowledge — it gave me the trigger.
OlgaHartšuk’s story is a reminder of what becomes possible when industry experience meets structured knowledge. The fifth edition of the European Film Business and Law LL.M. | MBA opens in October 2026 — for professionals ready to take that step. Applications close on 31 July. All information at epi.media/filmmaster.
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