German short films in Canada

At the recent Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, AG Kurzfilm presented three short film programmes in conjunction with the Goethe Institute Toronto. Germany was the featured country this year in the “Spotlight on ...” series. In addition, six German short films were on view in the International Competition. A further four films were screened at the festival in various supporting programmes. All in all, the festival – one of the most important in North America and, due to the large influx of buyers, a key marketplace for the short form – showed 37 German short films.

Thanks to the support of German Films and the Goethe Institute, filmmakers Susanne Seidel, Anja Struck, Maximilian Erlenwein and Jan Thuering as well as Jutta Wille, Project Coordinator for AG Kurzfilm, were on hand to represent the German short film scene at the festival. One good opportunity for this was the German Short Film Roundtable in which the above were joined by Ingo Grell (KFA Hamburg), Doina Popescu (Goethe Institute Toronto) and German filmmaker Oliver Hussein, who currently lives in Toronto. At the roundtable, casually and expertly guided by Festival Director Shane Smith, representatives from festivals, buyers and filmmakers talked about production conditions, the festival landscape, the market situation and training in Germany. This first major appearance by AG Kurzfilm in North America met with lively interest on the part of both the professional audience and festival visitors.

Jutta Wille