42nd Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg: 2 – 7 June 2026 +++ 42nd Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg: 2 – 7 June 2026 +++ 42nd Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg: 2 – 7 June 2026 +++
Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg is once again among Germany’s film festivals with the fairest working conditions! During the Berlin International Film Festival, we were honored for the third time with the Fair Festival Award – presented by the AG Festivalarbeit within ver.di at the AG Kurzfilm reception. We are very pleased about the recognition and the great company alongside: abgedreht! – Hamburg’s junger Film , Braunschweig International Film Festival, Duisburger Filmwoche / doxs! documentaries for children and young people, exground filmfest Wiesbaden, Human Rights Film Festival Berlin, and NEISSE NYSA NISA FILM FESTIVAL.
Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg is once again among Germany’s film festivals with the fairest working conditions! During the Berlin International Film Festival, we were honored for the third time with the Fair Festival Award – presented by the AG Festivalarbeit within ver.di at the AG Kurzfilm reception. We are very pleased about the recognition and the great company alongside: abgedreht! – Hamburg’s junger Film , Braunschweig International Film Festival, Duisburger Filmwoche / doxs! documentaries for children and young people, exground filmfest Wiesbaden, Human Rights Film Festival Berlin, and NEISSE NYSA NISA FILM FESTIVAL.
The award is based on an anonymous survey conducted by ver.di among all permanent and freelance employees of German film festivals. In a two-stage process, the fairness of working conditions was evaluated in categories such as working atmosphere, equality, leadership, remuneration, and co-determination.
When the nights get too long, we bring the shorts! Featuring young classics from the last festival and, of course, the best from Dreifacher Axel. We’re celebrating the fact that it won’t be long until we can say: “The 42nd Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg is now open!”
The 35ml Club will provide the liquid encore for the evening.
Submissions are now open for the 42nd Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg and the 28th Junges Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg Mo&Friese! You can find all information about submissions here.
Earlybird: October 31, 2025 // Deadline: January 31, 2026
We are looking forward to being surprised, provoked, and fascinated by your films. Together, we’ll make Hamburg the hub of the short film world once again – from June 2 to 7, 2026 – mark your calendar!
With his program “While We Lived”, Anand Varadaraj, director of the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival, takes a look at the Indian short form – with us and for us. Curated by him, the program sheds light on powerful stories from the fringes of Indian society, focusing on individuals often overlooked in mainstream narratives.
Whether it’s a young girl caught up in a nighttime police raid or an elderly man struggling with memory loss – each film explores the human struggle for dignity in repressive or indifferent environments. Together, these films form a moving mosaic of contemporary Indian society, where marginalized voices reclaim their space and speak – with quiet strength – of justice, belonging, and humanity, while challenging traditional role models.
The short film program is part of India Week Hamburg, taking place from June 23 to 29, 2025 – featuring over 70 events in politics, business, society, science, culture, and sports.
In the presence of numerous filmmakers, the award ceremony of the 41st Kurzfilm Festival and the 27th Young Short Film Festival Hamburg Mo&Friese took place on Saturday, June 7, 2025. Prizes worth a total of €18,500 celebrated the diversity of the short film format. Being John Smith received two awards.
The €3,000 Hamburg Short Film Award was presented by the five-member jury of the International Competition to "Being John Smith" by British filmmaker John Smith. He also received the Audience Award, worth €1,500.
In the presence of numerous filmmakers, the award ceremony of the 41st Kurzfilm Festival and the 27th Young Short Film Festival Hamburg Mo&Friese took place on Saturday, June 7, 2025. Prizes worth a total of €18,500 celebrated the diversity of the short film format. Being John Smith received two awards.
The €3,000 Hamburg Short Film Award was presented by the five-member jury of the International Competition to "Being John Smith" by British filmmaker John Smith. He also received the Audience Award, worth €1,500.
In the jury’s statement, it says: „Though the film seems to be about how one’s name can be a disadvantage and create long-lasting prejudice in life, it is also much more. Rather, it is a witty, moving, humorous meditation on aging, life, politics, change, mortality and the role of art and the artist over time. Using economical means with no-nonsense inventiveness, the film is coherent, concise and complex all at once, flowing like gentle waves throughout.With self-deprecating gusto, but no exaggeration or narcissism, Smith creates a portrait of dignified fragility and vulnerability, but also resilience. ‚Being John Smith‘ is at once personal as it is highly political, reflecting as it does, on the current moment of dystopian disbelief as the world ploughs forward in high-capitalist mode, increasing polarization and atomization. Despite the disheartening socio-political subtext, the film at once affirms the belief in the emancipatory potential of culture and community.“
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Hamburg Short Film Award
Being John Smith – John Smith, United Kingdom 2024
Deframed Award
The Moving Garden – Inês Lima, Portugal 2024
Hamburg Short Film Candidate For The European Film Awards
I believe the portrait saved me – Alban Muja, Kosovo/Netherlands, 2025
Special Mention
Water Sports – Whammy Alcazaren, Philippines 2024
GERMAN COMPETITION
Jury Award
Ich hätte lieber einen anderen Film gemacht – Suse Itzel, Deutschland 2024
Special Mention I
The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for Mabel Dove – Nnenna Onuoha, Ghana/Deutschland, 2024
Special Mention II
Ceasefire – Jakob Krese, Germany/Italy/Slovenia 2025
OTHER AWARDS
Triple Axel Audience Award
JAH! – Madli Lääne, Estonia 2024
Audience Award
Being John Smith – John Smith, United Kingdom 2024
Arte Short Film Award
Rain Falls Still – Đăng Tùng Bạch, Australia/Vietnam 2024
KODAK Award
Okay Keskidee! Let Me See Inside – Rhea Storr, United Kingdom 2025
KODAK Award – Special Mention
Archipelago of Earthen Bones – to Bunya, Malena Szlam, Canada/Australia/Chile 2024
YOUNG SHORT FILM FESTIVAL HAMBURG MO&FRIESE
Friese Award
Hufen auf Kufen – Ignas Meilūnas, Lithuania 2024
Friese Award Special Mention
Wasserschweine – Alfredo Soderguit, France/Chile/Uruguay 2024
Mo Award
Akababuru – Irati Dojura, Columbia 2025
Mo Award Special Mention
Was um uns herum geschieht – Krystsina Ramanava, Czech Republic 2023
NEON Award
Neun Tage im August – Ella Knorz, Germany 2024
NEON Award Special Mention
Storytelling – Nils Hedinger, Swizerland 2024
ECFA-Preis
Wir drehen einen Film – Tota Alves, Portugal 2024
ECFA-Preis Lobende Erwähnung
Dragfox – Lisa Ott, United Kingdom 2024
The program for the 41st Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg ist online! ❤️🔥 Browse through our this year's events, get your tickets and get excited about what lies ahed!
Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg and Young Short Film Festival Hamburg Mo&Friese are spaces for exchange, communication, and diversity. That is why our top priority is to create a safer space for our audience and team.
Together with Act Aware e. V., we have developed an awareness concept to ensure that everyone involved in the festival experiences and cultivates respectful, appreciative interaction with one another. In addition to our Value Statement and our Code of Conduct, it also includes specific actions and support structures on site, including information on awareness contact persons and contact options. At the Festival Center Post and all external venues you will find posters with the most important awareness-information.
In OPEN SPACE, the exhibition space of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, we are presenting the laser show "spin jump crawl climb dream bite hunt" by Hamburg-based artist Paul Spengemann.
"The being that only occasionally comes to the surface here is attempting to build a world – a world made of unstable connections, in which a longing for community becomes as evident as a sense of estrangement in a place governed by peculiar rules of play." – Merle Radtke
In OPEN SPACE, the exhibition space of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, we are presenting the laser show "spin jump crawl climb dream bite hunt" by Hamburg-based artist Paul Spengemann.
"The being that only occasionally comes to the surface here is attempting to build a world – a world made of unstable connections, in which a longing for community becomes as evident as a sense of estrangement in a place governed by peculiar rules of play." – Merle Radtke
When multiplex cinemas first opened in Germany during the 1990s, a trip to the cinema was often accompanied by a grand laser show. Fog would rise before the film began, and flashes of light would streak across the auditorium. Viewers would lose themselves in the space; at times, the space itself seemed to dissolve. Bottomless. Paul Spengemann, a highly acclaimed artist, works in the exact opposite manner. He strips the story down to light itself and, through this light, tells a story that each person who experiences it sees, feels, and interprets differently. Once, spiders wove large webs across Hamburg’s HafenCity, enveloping it. Spengemann has long been fascinated by these arachnids.
For spin jump crawl climb dream bite hunt, he created a character who, with the help of the thread it spins, shares its emotions with the audience in short scenes. Through the sharply focused beam of the laser, the artist conveys the experiences of a creature that not only spins, jumps, crawls, climbs, bites and hunts, but also dreams – revealing its fears and desires. A narrative suspended between abstraction and storytelling. As in cinema, understanding emerges through the eye itself. But now: not loud, not monumental – rather tender, quiet, idiosyncratic. In doing so, Spengemann opens the black box to an experience that allows the audience to become the authors of what they perceive. His spider defies gravity with ease – weaving, scrambling, running, shaping. We sense the creature – and perhaps it senses us in return. Could that be why it is descending now, gaining speed?
OPEN SPACE: spin jump crawl climb dream bite hunt Daily from 11 am, free entry Festival Center Post
In the International Competition, a five-member jury awards the Hamburg Short Film Award, endowed with 3,000 euros, and the Deframed Award, endowed with 2,000 euros. It also awards the Hamburg candidate for the "European Short Film" award category of the European Film Academy.
Here are this year's juries! ❤️
International Competition
In the International Competition, a five-member jury awards the Hamburg Short Film Award, endowed with 3,000 euros, and the Deframed Award, endowed with 2,000 euros. It also awards the Hamburg candidate for the "European Short Film" award category of the European Film Academy.
Yalda Afsah, artist and filmmaker Zohra Ait El Jamar, head of Hayy Cinema, Jeddah Alecio Araci, filmmaker Katerina Gregos, director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens Ayhan Salar, filmmaker, author & curator
German Competition
The German Competition Award is endowed with 2,000 euros and is decided by a three-member jury.
Mariam Mekiwi, filmmaker and film editor Dietmar Schwärzler, Managing Director sixpackfilm, Vienna Laura Stöckler, writer and researcher
Kodak Film Award
New this year: The KODAK Film Prize, awarded for best analog film.
Christopher Gorski, interdisciplinary artist Holger C. Schwaerzel, KODAK Zamarin Wahdat, filmmaker
ARTE Short Film Award
ARTE awards the ARTE Short Film Prize across all competitions, combined with a purchase of the film.
Join the party! We invite film professionals, industry representatives, students as well as people from media and press to apply for an accreditation. Students can join us with a reduced price. Owners get access to all film programs and industry events.
Strong, emotional, dystopian – a mirror to our reality. This year's trailer is an impressive visual poem that conveys a hypnotic feeling of disillusionment and existential unrest. A pop-cultural, post-internet manifesto of the present by Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel.
Sometimes it’s love at second sight… We’re having a flea market and want you to be part of it! Pack up your favorite things from yesterday and sell them right at our festival centre POST! Clothes and curiosities will find a new home with us.
You want to take part and sell? Great! Just send us an email: antwort@shortfilm.com. Everyone else is welcome to take a stroll and have a good time. The disco van is briefed and playing records! Coffee and fun drinks are available at the bar, and there’s cake too!
FLEA-MARKET Sunday, June 8, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Kaltenkirchener Str. 1-3, 22769 Hamburg Outside if the weather is fine
Sometimes it’s love at second sight… We’re having a flea market and want you to be part of it! Pack up your favorite things from yesterday and sell them right at our festival centre POST! Clothes and curiosities will find a new home with us.
You want to take part and sell? Great! Just send us an email: antwort@shortfilm.com. Everyone else is welcome to take a stroll and have a good time. The disco van is briefed and playing records! Coffee and fun drinks are available at the bar, and there’s cake too!
FLEA-MARKET Sunday, June 8, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Kaltenkirchener Str. 1-3, 22769 Hamburg Outside if the weather is fine
Info for vendors: Parking is available in the surrounding streets, but many of the parking spaces are reserved exclusively for local residents. Please bring your own tables and clothes rails. Second hand clothes and small items are welcome, please do not sell new items. We cannot accept any liability for goods, personal property, etc.
Bevor es vom 3.–8. Juni richtig losgeht, machen wir noch einen Abstecher in die Hanseatische Materialverwaltung im Oberhafen – mit einem bunten Kurzfilmprogramm im Requisitenfundus!
Freitag, 30. Mai 2025
Einlass 19 Uhr, Beginn 20 Uhr Eintritt: 7–9 €
Die Veranstaltung ist Teil des „Kulturfundus auf dem Sonnendeck“ und gefördert durch die Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg.
Foto: Franziska Holz
Addressing the effect of the war in Gaza on the national cultural scene share
Since its inception, we, the team of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, have seen our festival as a space of artistic freedom and freedom of expression, of critical debate and encounters characterised by mutual respect.
We are publishing this statement as a reaction to a climate which is increasingly marked by division and pressure, particularly within the German cultural sector. This has led to a palpable restriction of agency for institutions and cultural workers. We strongly oppose politically motivated interference by third parties in programming decisions as well as demands for background checks on potential participants.
Since its inception, we, the team of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, have seen our festival as a space of artistic freedom and freedom of expression, of critical debate and encounters characterised by mutual respect.
We are publishing this statement as a reaction to a climate which is increasingly marked by division and pressure, particularly within the German cultural sector. This has led to a palpable restriction of agency for institutions and cultural workers. We strongly oppose politically motivated interference by third parties in programming decisions as well as demands for background checks on potential participants.
We take a clear stance against all forms of group-related misanthropy, such as ableism, ageism, anti-Muslim hatred, anti-Semitism*, discrimination of LGBTQIA+ individuals, classism, racism and sexism, as well as against all forms of physical and verbal violence. Creating and maintaining conditions that foster these principles requires ongoing, shared efforts and proactive, self-reflective behaviour from everyone involved in the festival. Texts such as the present one are no substitute for this essential work, though they do offer the opportunity to take a conscious position both internally and externally.
Our scene is diverse. Our actions as political beings can take on different forms, whether loud and explicit, or in the background and implicit.
Even though we as a festival are very keen on an exchange – as difficult as it can be – we respect the decision of all those who have opted to suspend their co-operation with German institutions in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We join the urgent calls for a lasting, just peace in Palestine and Israel, in Lebanon and in Syria. We acknowledge that these goals can only be achieved through the enforcement of international law, the possibility of national self-determination and respect for state sovereignty and international law.
We want to preserve Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg as a place that reflects the diversity of artistic perspectives and attitudes, so that we can continue to share different experiences with one another.
Last updated in May 2025. This text was formulated on the basis of the Code of Ethics of the European Media Art Festival (EMAF). We endorse the words of our colleagues and would like to thank them for laying this groundwork.
Under the 2025 motto „Mission Impossible!“, we asked for your films about failure. And there was a lot of it! Here is the best of impossibilities in a program of 25 films under 3 minutes:
Under the 2025 motto „Mission Impossible!“, we asked for your films about failure. And there was a lot of it! Here is the best of impossibilities in a program of 25 films under 3 minutes:
Basert på en sann historie (Based on a True Story), Ola Røyseland, Norway, 2025 Boy meets Girl, Joey Arand, Germany, 2025 Cannot Sleep!, Yingjie Zhou, Japan/China 2024 Challenges of a Solitary Mind, Astrid Rothaug, Austria, 2025 Crossing No.: 2, Andrej Polukord, Lithuania, 2023 Fish & Trips, Amy Bruchner & Marius Lübke, Germany, 2024 FMT 8, Antje Seeger, Germany, 2024 Forgive Us Our Sin and Cos, Paulina Maria Reineke, Germany, 2024 How to Stop Smoking Without Losing Your Head, Gieso Ristau, Germany, 2025 Jah! (Yes!), Madli Lääne, Estonia, 2024 Kein Trailer (No Trailer), Henri van Hettinga Voß, Germany, 2025 Längtan (Longing), Lars Odermatt, Switzerland, 2025 L'avant-dernière fois que j'ai fait caca dans mes culottes (The Second-to-Last Time I Pooped my Pants), Sébastien Landry, Canada, 2024 Mischen Impossible, Alexandra Kwart, Germany, 2025 Mission: Imfroschible (Mission Imphibious), Felix Dierich, Germany, 2025 Missive Imperfect, Kalle Anker, Germany, 2025 Paul Jannowski, Björn Warns, Germany, 2025 Pigeons, Seagulls and Other Birds, Holger Mohaupt - Time Echo Collective, United Kingdom, 2025 The Impossible Mission, Nicolas Gebbe, Germany, 2025 Tögethår, Rich Farris, United Kingdom, 2024 Trash, Holga Rosen, Germany, 2025 Triple Again, Shaian Ebrahimi, Iran 2025 When Doves Try, Thalia de Jong, Netherlands/Belgium, 2023 Willi macht rüber (Willi Defects), Sabine von Bassewitz, Germany, 2025 Wischen Impossible (Vision Impossible), Dorit Kiesewetter & Carsten Knoop, Germany, 2025
Film selection by Sebastian Apel, Axel Behrens, Silja Ebeling, Lisa Hoppe, Anna Leimbrinck & Klara Schmidt.
With 23 hand-picked films, the German Competition presents a red-hot selection of current national short film. 🔥 More urgent than ever, five programs show very personal views on major universal and social issues - from human and inhuman behaviour, remembering and forgetting to road trips through time and space.
With 23 hand-picked films, the German Competition presents a red-hot selection of current national short film. 🔥 More urgent than ever, five programs show very personal views on major universal and social issues - from human and inhuman behaviour, remembering and forgetting to road trips through time and space.
A RECONNAISSANCE, Stefan Kruse, Germany/Denmark, 2025 A Thousand Waves Away, Helena Wittmann, Germany, 2025 A War I've Never Seen, Fariba Buchheim, Germany, 2023 The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for Mabel Dove, Nnenna Onuoha, Ghana/Germany, 2024 Augen auf, Augen zu. (EYES WIDE, EYES SHUT), Leonie Minor, Germany, 2024 Butterfly Kiss, Zohar Dvir, Germany, 2024 Ciao Ciao Guo, Ying Chen, Taiwan/Germany, 2024 Cómo ser Pehuén Pedre (How to be Pehuén Pedre), Federico Luis, Argentina/Germany, 2024 Die ganze Nacht (The Whole Night), Alejo Franzetti, Germany/Argentina/Burkina Faso, 2025 Die Stimme des Ingenieurs (The Engineer's Voice), André Siegers, Germany, 2024 Eigentlich wollte ich nicht lange bleiben (Actually, I didn't want to stay long), Andreas Grützner, Germany, 2025 Gelin, Ah Gelin, Can Ünlü, Germany, 2025 Hühnergarderobe (Chicken Wardrobe), Simon Dickel, Germany, 2025 Ich hätte lieber einen anderen Film gemacht (I would have liked to make a different film), Suse Itzel, Germany, 2024 Invisible Countdown, Amir Ovadia Steklov, Germany, 2024 Mother's Letter, Sylvia Schedelbauer, Germany, 2025 One Hundred Years Later, Christoph Girardet, Germany, 2025 PREKID VATRE (CEASEFIRE), Jakob Krese, Germany/Italy/Slowenia, 2025 Les Rites de Passage (Les Rites de Passage), Florian G.M. Fischer & Johannes Krell, Germany, 2024 rückblickend betrachtet (in retrospect), Daniel Asadi Faezi & Mila Zhlutenko, Germany, 2025 The Garden Had Not Disappeared, Helena Aljona Kyn, Germany, 2025 The Wolf, Naama Heiman, Germany, 2024 Whether Here or There, Amir Naumann, Germany, 2024
Film selection by Francesca Bertin, Lars Frehse, Leonie Kellein, David Kleingers & Nadine Mayer.
Filmstill: The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for Mabel Dove, Nnenna Onuoha
The selection committee has chosen – and we love to share! As of now, all films in International Competition 2025 are out and ready to be explored! ❤️🔥
The selection committee has chosen – and we love to share! As of now, all films in International Competition 2025 are out and ready to be explored! ❤️🔥
A Metamorphosis, Lin Htet Aung, Myanmar, 2025 A Night That Took Everything, Nida Mehboob, Pakistan/Finland, 2025 Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya, Malena Szlam, Canada, 2024 Being John Smith, John Smith, United Kingdom, 2024 Coeur Bleu (Blue Heart), Samuel Suffren, Haiti/France, 2025 Casi Septiembre (Close to September), Lucía G. Romero, Spain, 2025 Ne réveillez pas l'enfant qui dort (Don't Wake the Sleeping Child), Kevin Aubert, Senegal/France/Morocco, 2025 Durian, Durian, Nelson Yeo, Singapore, 2024 Echoes of Machtat, Maram Nairi, Tunisia, 2024 Vybukhy bilia muzeiu (Explosions Near the Museum), Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk, Ukraine, 2023 Deus-E-Meio (God-And-A-Half), Margarida Assis, Portugal, 2024 Happy New Year, Huang Weipeng, People’s Republic of China, 2024 HIC SVNT DRACONES, Justin Fayard, France, 2024 Hold Me Close, Aurora Brachman & LaTajh Weaver, USA, 2024 Comment ça va? (How Are You?), Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel, France, 2025 How Many Lovers Can You Fit Inside a House?, Maya Sfakianaki, Spain, 2024 Mother's Child, Naomi Noir, Netherlands, 2024 Mua besoj më shpëtoj portreti (I Believe the Portrait Saved Me), Alban Muja, Kosovo/Netherlands, 2025 Landscapes of Longing, Alisha Tejpal, Mireya Martinez & Anoushka Mirchandani, India/USA, 2024 Language Decay, Zazie Ray-Trapido, USA, 2025 looking she said I forget, Naomi Pacifique, Netherlands/Switzerland, 2024 Man number 4, Miranda Pennell, United Kingdom, 2024 Miraculous Accident, Assaf Gruber, Austria/Germany/Poland, 2025 O Jardim Em Movimento (The Moving Garden), Inês Lima, Portugal, 2024 Notes From Planet Three, Simon Ellis, United Kingdom, 2025 Okay Keskidee! Let Me See Inside, Rhea Storr, United Kingdom, 2025 Al Basateen (The Orchards), Antoine Chapon, France, 2025 Puro Andar (Language of the Entrails), Luciana Decker Orozco, Bolivia, 2025 Prelude, Alina Panasenko, Ukraine, 2024 Rain Falls Still, Đăng Tùng Bạch, Australia/Vietnam, 2024 SILENCE OF HOMA, Azin Feizabadi, Iran/Germany, 2025 Boi Thaka (The Flow of Resilience), Pranami Koch, India, 2024 The Garden Of Electric Delights, Billy Roisz, Austria, 2025 The Tobacconist, Keifer Nyron Taylor, United Kingdom, 2024 Water Sports, Whammy Alcazaren, Philippines, 2024 What goes up, Samar Al Summary, Saudi Arabia, 2024
Film selection by Anna Feistel, Alejo Franzetti, Theresa George, Ghasideh Golmanaki, Maike Mia Höhne, Sebastian Markt, Moritz Maul, Nora Molitor, Felix Piatkowski, Yulia Serdyukova & Sarnt Utamachote.
