
In a tradition going back to 2008, we now present our annual review of award-winning short films over the past year. Listing the winners invariably results in a kind… Read More
In a tradition going back to 2008, we now present our annual review of award-winning short films over the past year. Listing the winners invariably results in a kind… Read More
Spengemann, Eichberg, Goldkamp, Hans – four names arranged in a circle appear at the end of the credits of several short films that were made in the context of the HFBK Hamburg (University of Fine Arts Hamburg) since 2014. The four filmmakers flippantly describe the logo, composed of their surnames, as a “sticker”: a sticker can be attached to a film, but should not infringe upon it in any way. Read More
Österreichischer Filmpreis (A) || 31.01.2019 Bester Kurzfilm: ENTSCHULDIGUNG, ICH SUCHE DEN TISCHTENNISRAUM UND MEINE FREUNDIN, Bernhard Wenger, A Robert Prisen || 31.01.2019 Årets kortfilm Fiktion / Animation: MAJA, Marijana… Read More
Lange Nacht des politischen Kurzfilms, Mainz (D) || 29.11.2018 1. Platz Fachjury: UM FILME PARA EHUANA (A FILM FOR EHUANA), Louise Botkay, BR 2. Platz Fachjury: VALEA JIULUI – NOTES,… Read More
“I’d like to create images that fuel the illusions of memory,” says the artist Robert Seidel (1), who positions his work between film and projection art. This conflicting field of… Read More
Short documentary, fiction and animated films work especially well in educational settings, and not just because of their lengths. They also have the potential to trigger off discussions and learning processes. But not all of them are suitable for this. Read More
»Cao Fei: A Hollow in a World Too Full« bis 09.12.18 im Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong Ullen Center for Contemporary Art präsentiert die erste Soloausstellung von Cao Fei in… Read More
When the new communication technologies – which we generally call social media today – were implemented into mobile phones about 10 years ago, resourceful nerds and cinema-loving fans came… Read More
At the end of October, the film submission platform Withoutabox announced that it would be ceasing operations by 30 October 2019. All obligations towards filmmakers and festivals are to have… Read More
The first two articles on the subject of film festivals focused on rip-off, pseudo festivals, as well as on a new type of festival being held in city-centre cinemas. The third part of the series is exploring the consequences of this development for the existing film and festival landscape, which is characterised by a deluge of films and a glut of festivals. Conclusions must be drawn from this that challenge all those involved to find new approaches: The filmmakers, festival organisers and cinema operators, as well as those on the film funding and support policy level. Read More
“I’m a fan of fast movies,” says Brenda Lien. She values aesthetic compositions that get to the point. Beauty videos and make-up tutorials, cat films and digital meditation sessions: Over… Read More
In 2016, “L’agence belge du court métrage” was founded in Brussels by filmmakers, producers and festival organisers. Its initiators, who manage the agency today, include Pascal Hologne and Anne-Françoise… Read More
Festival Internacional de Cine de Monterrey FICMTY (Mex) || 30.08.2018 Mejor Cortometraje Internacional de Ficción: CASTING, Katarzyna Iskra, PL Mejor Cortometraje Internacional de Animación: FOX BOY, Do-Yeon Tak, Republik Korea… Read More
Durban International Film Festival (ZA) || 29.07.2018 Best South African Short Film: STILLBORN, Jahmil X. T. Qubeka, ZA Best African Short Film: AYA, Moufida Fedhila, Tunesia Best Short Film: LA… Read More
The platform Patreon was founded in 2013 by Sam Yam (formerly of AdWhirl) and the musician Jack Conte. Conte’s personal motivation was dissatisfaction with changes at YouTube. Despite millions of… Read More
The first part of the research focused on scam festival calls for entries, as well as on pseudo festivals that are held beyond the public sphere. In connection with… Read More
Lina Sieckmann and Miriam Gossing have known each other since their youth, having both grown up in the same small town and studied at The Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). Still, it took years until they became a team in terms of their artistic endeavours. Read More
Busan International Short Film Festival (South Korea) || 30.04.2018 Grand Prix: SCAR, Choi Jungyeon, Republik Korea Excellence Award: SEMI-BASEMENT, Min Hyunki, Republik Korea Cinephile Award: SCAR, Choi Jungyeon, Republik Korea… Read More
In 2005, that is, before the launch of YouTube, various departments at the BBC founded the BBC Film Network online platform to enable short-film makers to present themselves and their… Read More
While the controversial obligation to incorporate upload filters is still being discussed at the European level and is not off the table yet, the largest platform for online videos, YouTube,… Read More
Vilnius International Film Festival “Kino Pavasaris” (LT) || 29.03.2018 Award of the Short Film Competition: PIRTIS (BY THE POOL), Laurynas Bareisa, LT Audience Award: MADRE, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, ES Annual Ann… Read More
A thirtieth birthday is a highlight and a crisis to the same extent, as Ingeborg Bachmann said in her short story “The Thirtieth Year”, the first sentence of which we considered prefixing as a title to this piece. The second sentence reads as follows: “Yet he himself, although he wasn’t able to discover any changes in himself, has become uncertain.” The future may indeed be even greater and vaster than the past, but the course of what is to come is slowly being set now. Read More
ZUMEFF Zayed University Middle East Film Festival, Abu Dhabi (UAE) || 28.02.2018 Best Animation: LONG ROAD, Adel Essam, Egypt / USA Best Narrative Award: CLOSE YOUR EYES … WELL, Ali… Read More
Based on the impression that just a handful of short films take the lion’s share of awards and honours each year all over the world, we decided several years ago… Read More
Since the beginning of the 2000s, Stefan Panhans has made a name for himself with works that refuse to be clearly assigned to an artistic genre or field of practice and entwine still and moving, as well as found and newly created images and spaces within constantly changing constellations. Doing so, he works with photography in which filmic plots are intimated, video installations that merge elements of theatre and computer games, texts that evolve like fictions you can enter, and performances that become films. He produces images of a present that is defined by the rhythms of goods and media consumption, that prefabricates their promises of salvation in the form of advertising, therapies and lifestyles and, doing so, fans the desires for the authentic and the immediate at the same time, and lets them ossify in their own clichés. Read More
Bamberger Kurzfilmtage || 28.01.2018 Spielfilmpreis: ALL THE TIRED HORSES, Sebastian Mayr, A Dokumentarfilmpreis: MR. UPPERCUT – HOW TO BE A CHAMPION, Maximilian Conway, D Animations-/Experimentalfilmpreis: THE MAN IS BIG, Anna… Read More
EU copyright laws have long been lagging behind the digital reality. So the new ‘Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market’ is designed to remedy this situation. While the… Read More
Certamen de cortos Ciudad de Soria-Castilla y León (ES) || 26.11.2017 Premio Mejor Cortometraje: CHIKE, Lucia Ravanelli, ARG Premio Mejor Cortometraje Animación: PUSSY, Renata Gasiorowska, PL Premio Mejor Cortometraje e… Read More
Just the first few seconds of this film are enough to create an all-pervading sense of oppression that predominates for the next 15 minutes. “Berlin Metanoia” is a dark, almost (hellishly) dreamlike trip into the innermost realms of a city that loves to market itself as young and cool, but which has lost its soul somewhere between hipsterism, tourist onslaughts and hype. In his latest short fiction film, which celebrated its premiere at the 2016 Berlinale, Erik Schmitt approaches the latent psychotic Berliner identity with an intensity that continues to reverberate for a long time afterwards. Read More
A few years ago, I already reported on a ‘film festival’ that was never held, but for which an anonymous festival organiser pocketed the film submission fees. At that… Read More