I wrote about the Porn Film Festival Berlin for the newspaper merz – Zeitschrift für Medienpädagogik (Journal for Media Education). Since the article appeared in German in the newspaper, I have also published it here in English:
„From 21 to 26 October 2025, the Porn Film Festival Berlin celebrated its twentieth anniversary—spread across three Berlin cinemas. Founded in 2006 by Jürgen Brüning and now directed by Paulita Pappel, the festival has developed into one of the most important international forums for queer, feminist, and experimental pornography. Where other discourses avoid pornography, this festival seeks open engagement—aesthetic, political, and social. What insights can be drawn from the festival for media-educational work with young people?
Diversity of desire – diversity of form
Across 17 short-film programs—from BDSM to animation, from gay to fetish to educational porn shorts—it became clear that pornography can be much more than mere stimulus production. Many films deliberately played with viewing habits: women’s* desire, bodily diversity, aesthetic imagery, and narrative elements were at the forefront. As an attendee, one experienced an atmosphere of openness and mutual respect, making the festival a countermodel to the anonymous click-consumption of mainstream porn.
Discourses on ethics, labor, and visibility
The accompanying Adult Industry Forum deepened the discussion. Panels, workshops, and talks explored what ethical porn production entails: fair working conditions, consent, diversity in front of and behind the camera. Decriminalization of sex work was identified as the most effective way to improve the situation for people working in the porn industry.
Performers reported that self-marketing via platforms such as OnlyFans may offer autonomy but can also lead to constant self-exploitation. Burnout, algorithmic invisibility, and stigmatization remain central challenges.
The labels “feminist” and “ethical” were likewise critically examined. Erika Lust, pioneer of feminist pornography, emphasized that she does not want to be reduced to a label—cinematic quality is equally essential to her, not just moral evaluation. Others noted that such labels also serve as necessary door openers: without them, visibility on restricted platforms and in mainstream media (e.g., through interviews given by Lust and Pappel) would hardly be achievable.
Porn-positive rather than merely sex-positive
The concept of “porn-positive” goes back to Paulita Pappel. She advocates expanding the sex-positive approach to include a porn-positive perspective: not only sexuality but also pornography should be understood as a legitimate form of cultural expression. Being porn-positive does not mean approving of all porn; it means advocating for differentiation, education, and self-determination—and opposing shame, fear, and the tabooing of explicit sexuality.
Here, pornography is understood not as a threat but as a learning space: a site where fantasies are negotiated and social norms made visible.
Media-educational relevance
For media pedagogy, the impulses offered by the festival raise an urgent question: How can young people be accompanied in a digital culture saturated with pornographic content without pathologizing them or resorting to moral panic?
Most young people today first encounter mass-produced, non-ethical pornography—and almost never nuanced portrayals of sexuality. The festival demonstrated that different aesthetics and approaches are possible. However, the films shown at the festival are mostly behind paywalls.
Several voices therefore suggested considering publicly funded forms of pornographic education: if pornography is already part of media socialization, should at least talking about it not be permissible? A reflective engagement—for example within school-based media education—could help young people consciously recognize criteria such as consent, diversity, and production ethics.
Conclusion
The Porn Film Festival Berlin 2025 demonstrated that pornography, understood as a cultural practice, is a relevant subject for media education. Those who simply forbid or ignore pornography leave its interpretation to the algorithms of major platforms. A porn-positive media pedagogy, by contrast, could create spaces where desire, power, consent, and representation can be discussed openly—critically, respectfully, and with a focus on learning.“
Appendix
I also wrote a blog post in German about the article, where I briefly highlight the film Getty Abortions—both as an example of the festival’s variety and for its educational value, showing how emotions shown in abortion-related media (sadness, etc.) can differ from the actual feelings of women (relief, etc.). Find more on it in the german blog post as the film as well as the educational material is in german.
