Film Manufacturers Inc. (FMI) was founded by filmmaker Katharina Otto-Bernstein to create an international production company that develops, produces and co-produces fiction and non-fiction entertainment.
In 2006, FMI’s Absolute Wilson had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival; after a successful international festival run, it went on to win the Art Film of the Year award from Art Basel. In 2007, Absolute Wilson – The Biography was published by Prestel Publishing as a companion book.
Otto-Bernstein directed and produced Beaautopia for FMI, which screened in competition at Sundance Film Festival in 1998 and won the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival the same year. FMI's other titles include The Need For Speed, Coming Home, When Night Falls Over Moscow, and The Second Greatest Story Ever Told.
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, produced by Otto-Bernstein for FMI, received its premiere at Sundance Film Festival in January 2016, followed by the International Premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, and a world television premiere on HBO in April. The film was released theatrically in the US and UK in April 2016, followed by the rest of the world. Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures is nominated for two Emmy Awards: Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special and Outstanding Cinematography For A Nonfiction Program.