We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 39th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg!

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Jury: Nawar Al Qassimi, Patrick Holzapfel, Adina Pintilie, Emilie Poirier, Yulia Serdyukova

HAMBURG SHORT FILM AWARD (3.000€):
Enrique Pedráza-Botero, Faye Tsakas - Alpha Kings
Jury Statement: "We would like to give the main award ex aequo to a film that depicts emptiness without artifice in a very new contemporary setting. The filmmakers are bringing us into the world of online financial domination without judgment while maintaining a healthy and critical distance from their protagonists. Through online videos, live streams and hand-held camera moments, themes like sexuality, hyper masculinity, erotic labor, power dynamics and gender performativity are addressed in a very agile and delicate way. The Best Short Film of the competition goes to Alpha Kings : an observational film that skilfully presents the dichotomy between the Masters and their subs in their transactional relationship and the loneliness in the everyday life of some American teenagers."

Karla Crnčević - Wild Flowers
Jury Statement: "We would like to give the main award ex aequo to a film that touched us with a dialogue between a daughter and a father about a video he recorded thirty years ago documenting the traces of war at the family’s house. What seems rather simple at first sight opens up different layers of memories, both personal and collective, as well as a longing for family and home, all overlapping like the petals of the eponymous flower. In a time in which the violence and scars of wars seem to swallow every hope, the film makes us realize that the appearance of beautiful flowers growing out of ruins on an old videotape can mean the world."

DEFRAMED AWARD (2.000€):
Douwe Dijkstra - Neighbour Abdi
Jury Statement: "We would like to give the Deframed award to Neighbour Abdi, a film that presents a harsh reality in a unique and unconventional way. In this film, producer Douwe and Abdi work together to recreate scenes from Abdi’s hometown of Mogadishu. The film takes us from the studio to the ruined city showing us the process of making, collaboration, memory and trust between the two individuals. An omnipresent green screen appears and disappears as we move through the film; a reminder of the trauma that we carry with us as individuals."

HAMBURG SHORT FILM CANDIDATE FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS:
Joseph Wilson - I can see the sun but I can’t feel it yet
Jury Statement: "In the spirit of Hamburg Short Film Festival's core curatorial concept - to acknowledge and support unconventional and thought-provoking works, which challenge the boundaries of cinema as a medium, our nomination for the European Film Awards goes to a conceptual and performative tour de force, an irreverent celebration of freedom - both the freedom to decide over our bodies, identities and loves, and that of cinema as the language of our deepest longings and shadows. Shifting unpredictably, and sensuously, between memory and dream, pain and breathtaking beauty, incisive satire and raging poetry, the film is a wild and life-affirming tribute to the queer body’s power and beauty. To paraphrase the filmmaker “a monument to youth and love within us”. The European Film Academies Short film nominee is “I Can See The Sun, But I cannot feel it yet”, by Joseph Wilson."

SPECIAL MENTION:
Shuli Huang - Will you look at me
Jury Statement: "​​There are many different ways to deal with prejudices and the wounds they cause. This film shows how oppressive systems hurt all sides of this vicious circle. While a son turns to his mother in search of recognition and acceptance, healing is hardly possible, but shared pain and mutual compassion create a space where love persists against all odds. The special mention of the competition goes to a film that explores the complexities of family connections in a way that is both strikingly intimate – and universally human: Will You Look At Me by Shuli Huang."

GERMAN COMPETITION

Jury: Clara Helbig, Dani Rosenberg, Ulrich Ziemons

JURY AWARD (2.000 €):
Rita Macedo - Farewell recording for an observer of an unknown time and place
Jury Statement: "Set in the liminal wetland space between the real and the virtual, this film is a highly inventive sci-fi eco-dystopia. Touching on planetary collapse and the outsourcing of intelligence, the director zooms into urgent issues of the now and sculpts an equally seductive and menacing vision that functions as a warning at crossroads."

SPECIAL MENTION
Camille Tricaud, Franziska Unger - Slow down the fall
Jury Statement: “This intimate drama, virtuously staged against the backdrop of an imposing landscape, questions the sacrifices we are prepared to make for personal success – whether in life or in sports. A cinematic tour de force, that at its core is a search for truth."

TRIPLE AXEL COMPETITION (1.000€):

Simon Ellis - The Terminator
The Audience Award is supported by the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung.

ARTE AWARD:

Moe Myat May Zarchi - The Altar
The competition spanning ARTE Short Film Award consists of the purchase of one film (up to 6,000 euros) and its subsequent screening in the »Kurzschluss« programme by ARTE, the Franco-German cultural TV channel.

AUDIENCE AWARD (1500€):

Fariba Haidari - Leila
The Audience Award is awarded to a film from the International or the German Competition.

MO&FRIESE AWARDS:

Friese-Award: Marjolaine Perreten – Pebble Hill , lobende Erwähnung: Anne-Sophie Gousset – To be sisters
Mo-Award: Samy Sidali – P.D.O., lobende Erwähnung: Andrew Brand – Buzz
Neon-Award: Justine Martin – Oasis, lobende Erwähnung: Kantarama Gahigiri – Terra Mater
Nomination ECFA Short Film Award: Nathan Clement – The truth about Alvert, the last Dodo

Exhibition opening, text by Melike Bilir

„Mehr Licht” ("More light") Goethe said on his deathbed. As an artist and scientist, the longing for more light drove him throughout his life. Not only during the Romantic period, but throughout the ages, pharaohs and astronomers, philosophers and physicists, priests and painters have sought methods of understanding light and becoming powerful with it. Cultural history is rich in myths and legends, theories and inventions. They are all about the essence of light, as it is part of our experience and consciousness.

Light is all-embracing and touches all areas of human life. The philosophers of antiquity were the first to systematically include light in their theories. For almost 1000 years, the Platonic doctrine, which primarily emphasized the spiritual-internal dimension of light, was the basis for all subsequent lighting concepts - from optics to architecture to philosophy. With the beginning of the modern era, it was displaced and thus light was deprived of its spiritual reference point. This break marks a decisive moment in the history of light and is the basis for our understanding of it today.

In the 21st century, the character of light is being discussed anew. Light shapes life and thus culture. Electric light is the basis of our modern economic and social system. The significance and effect of artificial light on people, aesthetics and space is up for debate.

And this is where Luftwerk comes in: Luftwerk (Petra Bachmaier & Sean Gallero) explore light, color and perception in their installations. Since their founding in 2007, Luftwerk has created an extensive body of work ranging from site-specific installations to experimental projects. Petra Bachmaier, holds a Master of Arts from the HfbK in Hamburg and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago (SAIC). Sean Gallero, studied art and humanities at Lehman College in New York. He continued his studies at the School of the Art Institute Chicago (SAIC), where he began his collaboration with Bachmaier in 2000.

Light and color are the most important elements in Luftwerk's work. Their interest is in the power of light as a crucial element of vision, whose dynamic relationship to color perception is explored. Through the use of various modalities - such as projection of videos, shadow casting, among others - they integrate light into each project to explore its fleeting and changing nature. Essentially, Luftwerk creates visual atmospheres through the use of light and manipulates the viewer's attention with vibrant colors to create intriguing experiences. Petra and Sean describe that in every Luftwerk project, color is the key and light is the core. The combination of light and color adds a dynamic layer to their work that changes the audience's perception.

What I would also like to point out: despite many innovations, LIGHT drags all this tradition of mysticism and symbolism with it. All the time it had something to represent: Christ, divine inspiration, truth, enlightenment, even socialism. In general, light has always been used primarily to reveal other things. Luftwerk is about light revealing itself as light. The light doesn't symbolize anything else. It is what it is. Freed from traditions, mysticism and symbolism, they treat light as matter - as material.

SCENOGRAPHY OF SPACE

An inspiration for this installation SCENOGRAPHY OF SPACE, which brings together visual art & film, was Hans Richter's film "Rhythmus 21". Hans Richter was an important 20th century German artist and filmmaker known for his avant-garde works. One of his notable films, "Rhythm 21" from 1921 is considered one of the earliest abstract films ever made and has been called a "key film of modernism." In this film, Richter explored the representation of abstract forms, movements, and rhythms. The film consists of trick moving geometric shapes and patterns. Black and white squares appear in fades up and down on the screen. They sometimes appear to move from one side of the frame to the other, sometimes from foreground to background.

Rhythm was shot in black and white and lasts about 3 minutes - as does the installation Scenography of Space, shown here on loop. "Rhythm" had a profound influence on many subsequent artists:ing and filmmakers:ing and, as stated earlier, also served as inspiration for Luftwerk. Luftwerk's artistic practice, with its emphasis on light, color, and choreographed projections, is conceptually related to Richter's exploration of abstract forms and rhythms. Luftwerk's work extends Richter's legacy and bridges the gap between film and visual art. By incorporating light projections and techniques (in Luftwerk's case: motors / fabric panels), they push the boundaries of the medium and develop a unique visual language, expanding the possibilities of film and visual art through their innovative and boundary-breaking approach.

And while we're on the subject of perception, we're also in NOW, our theme of the Hamburg Short Film Festival. An expanded concept of media art also includes the use of light and movement as artistic material. As early as the 1950s, artists of the ZERO group such as Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker were concerned with light as a creative medium. Their concern was to trace painting back to its conditions, namely in particular to light as the underlying element. In doing so, however, they left the technique of painting with paint and canvas and created spatial works that cast shadows or evoked reflections and incorporated movement into their concept. The result was works whose impression changes depending on the viewer's point of view. Heinz Mack does not consider color or other formal components, but their spatial organization and movement as the actual form of artistic work.

Scenografie of Space by Luftwerk also works as a space-related artwork with the integration of a variable viewer perspective. As the:visitor:walks through the space, there is no fixed viewer standpoint that dictates an optimal perspective of perception. Movement and orientation in the space is an intentional element of the visitor experience.

-- Melike Bilir --

SCENOGRAPHY OF SPACE
Open Space @ Festival center Post
Opened daily from 11 am, guided tour on Friday, 1 pm

In addition to 133 competition films, we will also present selected, curatorial programs in the sections "Laboratory of the Present" and "Archive of the Present". This year, we continue our focus on migrant film in Germany that we started in 2022 – and also look at two Yugoslavian filmmakers and their work in and from Germany.

>> LABORATORY OF THE PRESENT: THINKING OF GERMANY

"Thinking of Germany at night just puts all thought of sleep to flight." In reference to these lines by Heinrich Heine, which are still used today to comment on problematic political events here, the "Laboratory of the Present" takes a critical look at Germany. A subversive, activist, but also fun attitude connects the five film programs in this section. They encounter the complex German history cinematically with a polyphony of identities and cultures.

The program "Blind in the Right Eye" (curated by Florian Wüst) bundles cinematic reactions to right-wing extremist violence and structural blindness of state institutions to racism and xenophobia. "The Most Beautiful Window in the World" (Florian Wüst) collages various TV excerpts and shows how unconventional, progressive and almost activist mass communication beyond ratings could and can be in the FRG. "Oh Pleasure Up Yours!" (Mara Marxsen) is aware of the complex relationship between gender, pleasure, power and images, but at the same time celebrates pleasure in films and through films. Wild, angry films meet in the program "Everyday Life and Turmoil. Counter-Narratives from the GDR" (Conny Klauß) with pockets of resistance, descriptions of daily life and the exasperation of an exhausted society. And "We need to talk" (Sarnt Utamachote) shows the diversity of migration stories from the Asian continent to Germany and makes clear how the filmmakers position themselves in the stories they tell.

>> ARCHIVE OF THE PRESENT: BACKLIGHT

The “Archive of the Present”, curated by Tobias Hering, focuses on the Yugoslav filmmakers Irena Vrkljan and Želimir Žilnik in two programs.

In the late 1960s, Želimir Žilnik was one of the best-known directors of the "Black Wave" - a series of films that dealt critically with Yugoslav society. In the mid-1970s, he moved to Munich for some time and also put his finger on sore points in the films he made there, addressing xenophobia and structural violence in West German society. In the presence of Žilnik, we will show short films shot in Germany, some of which were long considered lost, but have recently resurfaced in various archives.

Irena Vrkljan was a poet, filmmaker, translator and radio playwright. She lived between Berlin and Zagreb for 50 years, writing and narrating about life between these worlds that did not come together and yet became inseparable. When she began studying directing at the newly founded dffb in Berlin in 1966, she was 36 and already established in Yugoslavia as a television writer and poet. The four films she made at the dffb are explorat
ions of the place by a dowser, stories of "Shadow Berlin," but also critical positionings on the politically turbulent generation to which she belonged.

The complete program will be available at festival.shortfilm.com mid/end of May.

Filmstill: FAQ (Mariama Bah, Lea Kaiser & Jonas Riedel)