Ulrich and Erika Gregor first organized an event designed to "supplement" the Berlinale in summer 1969 together with the "Friends of the German Film Archive" (renamed "Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art" in 2008). It took place at the Akademie der Künste, with the programme seeking to set new trends both in form and content. The film programme was a complete success and was repeated in 1970 in the newly founded cinema Arsenal. When the Berlin International Film Festival was curtailed the same year due to a scandal arising from Michael Verhoeven's Vietnam parable o.k., this "counter-festival" established itself as a contemporary festival format open to public discussion and new experiments. The very next year the Berlinale initiated a restructuring process and invited the Friends of the German Film Archive to put on their programme as an official parallel event to the main programme. The director of the International Forum of New Cinema was Ulrich Gregor, who stayed in this capacity until his retirement in 2001.

 

 The relevence of Ulrich and Erika Gregor's curational work for international film and its reception and position in Berlin cannot be overestimated. They have played a decisive role in shaping the profile of the Forum within the Berlinale as well as the work of the Arsenal and remain closely affiliated to both to this very day.