Michelle Koch has been the head of the dfi - Documentary Film Initiative at Filmbüro NW since January 2025. Before taking on the position for 2024, initially on an interim basis, she lived and worked in Vienna for several years as a freelance author, editor and programme designer (including for film festivals and cultural institutions such as the Berlinale, Viennale, Diagonale - Festival of Austrian Film and the Cinema Next - Young Cinema from Austria initiative). She has published academic and journalistic articles in numerous publications, most recently the anthology ‘Österreich real. Dokumentarfilm 1981-2021″ (with A. Bachmann, Vienna 2022). She has lived with her family in Cologne since September 2023.