He was the fourth director of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) from 1 May 2001, when he took over from Moritz de Hadeln, until 2019.

Born in Pforzheim and raised in Ispringen, Dieter Kosslick studied Communication, Politics and Education at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

In 1986 he founded the European Low Budget Forum with the cinema "Kino auf der Alster".

[citation needed] In 1992 the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and WDR (West German broadcasting corporation) attracted Kosslick to the Rhine to head up the barely one-year-old "Filmstiftung NRW" as its executive director.

[1] Kosslick launched new sections and initiatives within the Berlin Film Festival, among which are the section Perspektive Deutsches Kino for young German film, the Co-Production Market and the World Cinema Fund, as well as the Culinary Cinema in 2007 (dropped after his departure, from 2020[2]).