In this year's trailer for the festival, Flóra Anna Buda condenses the motto I AM BECAUSE WE ARE into pink circles of colour that network, connect, from singular existence to a shared togetherness. An explosive, pleasurable connection that carries us into the great universe of short form.

Flora Ana Buda, born 1991 in Budapest, Hungary. The iron curtain has only just fallen – everything is in upheaval, socially, politically, with major implications for the private sphere. Buda studies animation and illustration at the renowned Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) in Budapest. She premiered her graduation film »Entropia« at the Berlinale Shorts, where it won the Teddy for Best Queer Short Film. A project study program, supported by the European Union, allowed her to study at Animation Campus Vyberg in Denmark. She currently lives and works in Paris.

Buda is one of the young voices of an Eastern European animation scene, whose main representative is Reca Busci. Conscious of traditions, colors and new narrative strategies that reference the modern novel have found their way into these women's work. Buda's interest lies in the dream world, scientific knowledge, and the intertwining with her own personal history. Colourful, expressive, surreal, romantic, sexy, different. Life in 3D.

Flóra Anna Buda in conversation with Maike Mia Höhne.

Jury International Competition

Chuko Esiri

Chuko Esiri was bornin Warri, Nigeria and raised in Lagos. He started work many years ago as an intern in New York at Innovative Artists and The Gersh Agency. He has made two short films: »Goose«, co-directed with his twin brother Arie, which played at the 2017 LA Film Festival and »Besida«, an official selection at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival. His debut feature »Eyimofe (This is My Desire)« had its World Premiere at the 70th Berlinale. He studied screenwriting and directing in the graduate film program of the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, earning a Master of Fine Arts in 2017.

Kirsten Tan

Kirsten Tan is a New York-based Singaporean filmmaker whose debutfeature POP AYE premiered as the Opening Night film of the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance 2017. The film went on to receive a Special Jury Prize for screenwriting at Sundance, the VPRO Big Screen Award at Rotterdam and the Best International Film Award at Zurich Film Festival. To date, it has screened at over 50 film festivals including BFI London, Melbourne, Munich and Busan. POP AYE was invited to represent Singapore in the Foreign Film Category at the Oscars. Prior to completing POP AYE, she made a series of short films. Her shorts 10 MINUTES LATER, FONZI, COLD NOODLES and DAHDI have collectively received over ten international awards. A Sundance Institute and Cinereach Film Fellow, she earned her MFA at NYU Graduate Film School.

Tasja Langenbach

Tasja Langenbach has been the artistic director of Videonale Bonn since 2012. Since 2004, she has worked as a freelance curator for institutions and festivals such as Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt; ZKM Karlsruhe; SoundTrack_Cologne; and the Folkwang Museum, Essen. Prior to that she studied art history and cultural studies in Erlangen, Leipzig, and Barcelona. She is a regular member of selection, prize, and grant juries and writes in the field of video and media art. Since2017, she has taught in the MA program Culture, Aesthetics, Media at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf.

Nina Rodríguez

Originally from Cologne, Germany, where she started working in the music industry, Nina Rodríguez has been Head of Programming at the Guanajuato International Film Festival in Mexico since 2006. Having collaborated with the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in the past, she is currently also part of the team behind Qumra, an initiative of the Doha Film Institute providing mentorship for international film projects from development through post-production. She served as Academic Coordinator for the Pueblo Mágico Mexican Film Residency in Tepoztlán and has curated showcases and participated on panels and juries at many other Mexican and international events including FICG, Tous Ecrans, Berlinale Talents, Tokyo IFF and Sarajevo Film Festival. In 2020, Nina opened Compartimento Cinematográfico, an independent cinema in San Miguel de Allende.

Marcel Derek Ramsay

Originally a photographer, Marcel Derek Ramsay quickly turned to film making. With his short films, often experimental and found footage works, he was nominated for the Golden Leopard at Locarno, among others. Apart from working as a director and cinematographer, he had been particularly successful at leaving his stamp on several award-winning Swiss animated and documentary films. In 2008 he founded the production company Cinéma Copain, and he has been producing cinematic trailers as well as animated and documentary films since. With his animated film “Why Slugs Don’t Have Legs”, Cinéma Copain celebrated its premiere in 2019 in Toronto and won several awards, qualifying the film for the Academy Awards, among other things. In 2015, his feature debut “Der Meister und Max” won a lot of praise in the media. His second directed feature film “My Life Is a Gunshot” followed in 2019, to much recognition.

Jury German Competition

Zamarin Wahdat

Born in Afghanistan and raised in Germany, Zamarin Wahdat attended New York University’s graduate film program as a Dean’s Fellow. Her work as a cinematographer premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival. She recently received an Academy Award for contributing as a second unit camera and interviewer on the documentary "Learning how to Skate in a Warzone" (if you’re a Girl). With a deep interest in expanding the boundaries of howto tell stories visually, she is drawn to tell stories that let us not only see but feel characters from the inside out. Wahdat also completed the Film Independent Project Involve Fellowship in LA for emerging filmmakers andreceived the Nestor Almendros Award for outstanding cinematography. Wahdat is a member of the ICFC andwas selected for the American Society of Cinematographer’s Vision Mentorship Program 2020/21.

Monika Treut

With a doctorate in literature, she has been making feature films and documentaries as a writer, director,and producer since 1985. Her subjects run the spectrum of feminism, gender,and human rights. In between films, she teaches at universities in San Francisco, UC San Diego, UI Chicago, UI Bloomington,and others. Her films have been shown at numerous international festivals including the Berlinale (15 official entries). She has received retrospectives in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, South Korea, Taiwan, England, France, Italy, Greece, Poland, Switzerland,and the United States. For her life's work she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Tel Aviv and the Berlinale Teddy.

Florian Weghorn

Florian Weghorn is the Programme Manager of Berlinale Talents, the annual summit and talent development initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival. He also advises the seven Berlinale Talents offshoots around the world, ranging from Beirut to Tokyo. Florian Weghorn joined the Berlinale team in 2002, initially working for the Generation section. From 2008 to 2014, he was the section’s co-director and a curator of its annually around 60 short and feature films. Between 2012 and 2019, he was also a member of the Berlinale Competition selection committee. In addition, he has worked for various other international film festivals, film funds and cultural institutions and is a member of the European Film Academy.

ARTE-Kurzfilmpreis

Dr. Catherine Colas

Catherine Colas studied literature and theatre at the Sorbonne in Paris. During her studies,she also trained as an actress and subsequently ran a theatre group. She has been working for ARTE since 1995. Initially she worked in Paris, among other things for the department for narrative films and the magazine »Metropolis« and as an executive producer in the field of documentary films. She was a cultural advisor for the Institut Français in Germany from 2001 to 2006. She has been working as an editor for short and medium films for ZDF/ARTE and is responsible for the ARTE magazine »Kurzschluss«.

Laurence Rilly

Laurence Rilly was born in Angers, France and studied linguistics and translations in Strasbourg and Graz. In 1997, she joined ARTE’s newly founded Internet branch. There, she worked on the internet presence of magazines such as »Tracks« and »Metropolis« as well as selective theme nights on video art, underground and new technologies. In 2001, she developed »Kultur digital«, an online journal on net culture, art and science. In 2011, she worked on the online platform ARTE Creative with Alain Bieber. She has been the programme officer for short films since 2016 and is responsible for the »Kurzschluss« magazine.

The Festival

The Hamburg Short Film Festival is one of the most renowned and important European short film festivals. Since 1986, more than 400 films have been screened each year. The festival brings together cinema, exhibition, performative works, concerts and discourse. It shows films that react to the world in loud and sparkling, quiet and poetic, wild and calm ways. This way, selected programmes present the whole range of courageous, experimental and artistic films. Film makers, industry and audiences celebrate the short form together.

THE SHORT FORM

“The short form deals with aesthetic, societal and political questions in a radical and independent manner. It is a societal seismograph and offers a stage for tomorrow’s cinematic auteurs. Short films react quickly and freely to everyday life and reality. They are as manifold as the dreams that move the world. The film makers intervene in the public discourse and thus actively take position.” – Maike Mia Höhne, artistic director.

THE PROGRAMME

The three competitions of the festival, the International Competition, the German Competition and the Triple Axel present a distillate of the contemporary global short film scene. The selections’ range includes all possibilities of the cinematic language: Hybrid documentaries are presented next to essayistic experimental films, animations run side by side with classical narrative films. The Contemporary Laboratory section is conceived as a place for reflection of current issues. Invited artists and curators contemplate contemporary issues, conditions and commentaries in lavishly arranged curated programmes. These film programmes offer the basis for controversial, driven and forward-looking discussions. The Forum offers accompanying deepening rounds of talk in which the curators alongside guests from art and society further engage with the subject in discourses. In addition, there will be plenty of additional screenings, audio-visual art in the Open Space, performance, open-air screenings and concerts which turn the festival into a party. In cooperation with the Filmförderung Schleswig-Holsten, industry organizations and media partners, the festival also offers a platform for advanced training and industry networking.

THE YOUNG AUDIENCE

The Mo&Friese Children’s Short Film Festival is a part of the Hamburg Short Film Festival and dedicated to young audiences between the age of 4 and 18. The festival presents several contemporary and relevant short films in its international competition programmes. Film makers, audiences and trade professionals have a chance to get into conversations at several events. Furthermore, film workshops help to familiarize children and young adults with aspects of film making. You can find out more about Mo&Friese here: moundfriese.shortfilm.com

THE NUMBERS:

• More than 400 short films from over 40 nations are being screened.
• Among them, over 150 films run in seven competitions.
• The juries and audiences award more than 19,000 Euros in total prize money.
• The festival plays host to ca. 200 film makers from over 25 countries in addition to 400 trade visitors.
• Over 15,000 visitors attend roughly 100 programmes and events in six different cinemas, the festival centre and open-air screenings.