40. Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg

4 – 9 June 2024

SAVE THE DATE: 40th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg: 4–9 June 2024 +++ SAVE THE DATE: 40th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg: 4–9 June 2024 +++ SAVE THE DATE: 40th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg: 4–9 June 2024 +++

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Festivaltrailer 2024 by NEOZOON share

"I can't see a thing!" – From light breezes to thunderstorms, our trailer reflects what “cloudy” can look like – and how it can obscure our vision. Thanks to NEOZOON for daring to head with us into the unknown!

Selected films 2024: International Competition share

27, Flóra Anna Buda, France, 2023 (Out of Competition)
3350 KM, Sara Kontar, Arab Republic Syria/France, 2023
Avaler la poussière (Swallowing Dust), Achille Bocquier, France, 2023
Boléro, Nans Laborde-Jourdàa, France/Italy, 2023
Bye Bye, Bowser, Jasmin Baumgartner, Austria, 2023

Doris & Bettan - Marbella Mayhem, Ellen Ekman, Sweden, 2023
DUCK, Rachel Maclean, United Kingdom, 2024
Este es el diario no tan secreto de Raquel (This Is Raquel's Not-so-secret Diary), Raquel Agea Ramos, Spain, 2023
El Reinado de Antoine (The Reign of Antoine), José Luis Jiménez Gómez, Kuba, 2023
getty abortions, Franzis Kabisch, Germany/Austria, 2023
Grandmamauntsistercat, Zuza Banasińska, Polen/Netherlands, 2024
I look into the mirror and repeat to myself, Giselle Lin, Singapur, 2023
I think of silences when I think of you, Jonelle Twum, Sweden, 2023
In Praise of Slowness, Hicham Gardaf, United Kingdom/Italy, 2023
Kinderfilm, Total Refusal, Austria, 2023
krahët e punëtorëve (Workers' Wings), Ilir Hasanaj, Kosovo, 2024
O Gün Bu Gündür, Uçuyorum (Ever Since, I Have Been Flying), Aylin Gökmen, Switzerland, 2023 (withdrawn)
Preoperational Model, Philip Ullman, Netherlands, 2024
Qareen ki sargoshi (Whispers of a Qareen), Maaria Sayed, India, 2024
Radije bih bila kamen (I Would Rather Be a Stone), Ana Hušman, Croatia, 2024
Shrooms, Jorge Jácome, Portugal, 2023
Slimane, Carlos Pereira, Germany, 2023
Solo la Luna Comprenderá (The Moon Will Contain Us), Kim Torres, Costa Rica/USA, 2023
Sombras Nada Más (Nothing But Shadows), Kathy Mitrani, Columbia/USA, 2023
Songs of Love and Hate, Saurav Ghimire, Nepal/Belgium, 2024
Tako Tsubo, Fanny Sorgo & Eva Pedroza, Austria/Germany, 2024
The Interior Frontier, Justin Clifford Rhody, USA, 2023
The Porn Selector, Lou Fauroux, France, 2024
the river that never ends, JT Trinidad, Philippines, 2022
The Wool Aliens, Julia Parks, United Kingdom, 2023
Va Saraye Setamkaaran Bad Manzalgaahist (And How Miserable is the Home of Evil), Saleh Kashefi, Iran, 2023
What Else Grows On The Palm Of Your Hand?, Dhiaa Biya, Belgium/ Morocco, 2023
You can't get what you want but you can get me, Samira Elagoz & Z Walsh, Netherlands, 2023
Zarafet ve Şiddet Arasında (Between Delicate and Violent), Şirin Bahar Demirel, Netherlands/Turkiye, 2023
Харалтіда (Kharaltida), Vasyl Lyah, Ukraine, 2023
休息一下 (Break no.1 & Break no.2), Lei Lei, People’s Republic of China , 2024
บัวบ้า (Crazy Lotus), Naween Noppakun, Thailand, 2024
مست دل (Mast-del), Maryam Tafakory, United Kingdom/Iran, 2023
피크닉 (PICNIC), Kawon Lee, South Korea, 2023

Filmstill: Whispers of a Qareen, Maaria Sayed

Selected films 2023: German Competition share

Blue, Woman, Dress, Jinhyun Kim, Germany/South Korea, 2023
Club Bunker, M + M, Germany, 2023
COMPASSION AND INCONVENIENCE, Vika Kirchenbauer, Germany, 2024
Curro, Yalda Afsah, Germany, 2024
Das feine Zirpen einer Dunkelziffer (Silent chirping of invisible Digits), Vera Sebert, Germany, 2023

detours while speaking of monsters (detours while speaking of monsters), Deniz Şimşek, 2024
Eine einzelne Tat (A Single Incident), Constanze Wolpers, Germany, 2023
En el Mismísimo Momento (At that very moment), Federico Luis Tachella, Rita Pauls, Argentina/Germany, 2023
fühlst du dich angesprochen? (Does this apply to you?), Evelyn Deller & Selena Knoop, Germany, 2023
GAZE IN BATTLE, Ayla Pierrot Arendt, Germany, 2023
Gestern, Ich Denke An Morgen (Yesterday, Thinking About Tomorrow), Tom Otte, Germany, 2023
Gezielt Mittelalterliche Überlegungen (The Bear Within), Finn Ole Weigt & Paula Milena Weise, Germany, 2024
Ich hab dich tanzen sehn (I saw you were dancing), Sarah Pech, Austria/Germany, 2024
Ignore Your True Feelings at Your Own Peril, Miranda Siegel, Germany, 2024
Il compleanno di Enrico (The Birthday Party), Francesco Sossai, Germany, 2023
Pacific Vein, Ulu Braun, Germany, 2024
Pirouette, Ann Oren, Germany, 2024
Stille Nacht (Silent Night), Philipp Schaeffer, Jonathan Schaller, Germany, 2024
Stadtmuseum / Мой Рай (City Museum / My Paradise), Boris Dewjatkin, Germany, 2023
That's All From Me, Eva Könnemann, Germany, 2024
What fog?, Philip Widmann, Germany, 2024
X or Y or Z, Mirelle Borra, Germany, 2023

Filmstill: COMPASSION AND INCONVENIENCE, Vika Kirchenbauer

Selected films 2023: Triple Axel share

0.1 g, Raymond Hoepflinger, Switzerland, 2023
6 minutes/km, Catherine Boivin, Canada, 2023
Amongst the Roots & Veins, Nikolai Azariah, United Kingdom, 2024
bath salts, Murat Haschu, Germany, 2024
Das Salz des Lebens (Salt of Life), Sebastian Vetter, Germany, 2024

Das Salzsäckchen (The Salt Bag), Thomas Range, Germany, 2024
Entropy, Julia Münstermann, Germany, 2024
Grottenschlicht (Plain as a pit), Dorit Kiesewetter & Carsten Knoop, Germany, 2024
High Sierra, Michael Cedlind, Sweden, 2023
Knetmann Sad and Salty, Jule Carlotta Hermann, Germany 2024
Midnight Egg, Holga Rosen, Germany, 2024
Salt Eats Film, Dagie Brundert, USA, 2019
Salty Bliss, Mia Baden, Germany, 2024
Salz is’ genuch (Enough Salt), Holger Mohaupt, Germany, 2024
Salzmedley (Salt Medley), Stefan Möckel, Germany, 2024
Spätsommer 91 (Late Summer 91), Olaf Held, Germany, 2024
Suppenkasper (Soup lad), Kalle Anker, Germany, 2024
The Bonny Moorhen, Jonathan Farr, United Kingdom, 2023
The Male Gaze Recipe, Alma Weber & Joey Arand, Germany, 2024
Vier Ecken Salz (Four Corners of Salt), Lars Florian Walklang, Germany, 2024
Vom Sehen im Salz. Oder: Zehn Strategien, in einer Unendlichkeit der eigenen Endlichkeit ins Auge zu blicken (Of Seeing in Salt. Or: Ten strategies to face the own finitude in an infinity) Philipp Hartmann, Germany, 2024
Wacholder (Juniper), Andreas H. Drescher, Germany, 2024
Water Nation, Kim Spierenburg, Netherlands 2023

Filmstill: Of Seeing in Salt, Philipp Hartmann

It's getting Cloudy! share

Our anniversary motto is "Cloudy". We focus on the nebulous, ever changing structures and various societal weather conditions. We look at ambiguities, taking in consideration the global political situation, and explore what impairs our view. The view upwards is individual, because even in childhood everyone saw something different in the sky, and transient. With the help of filmic positions, we seek a way through these ambiguities and make visible what is hidden behind the cloud cover.

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.

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. 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 unconditional demand for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages.

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.

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.

*According to the working definition of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/)

Selection committee International Competition 2024 share

Our selection committee for the 2024 International Competition chooses films from 4,000 submissions. Presenting this year's program:

Anna Feistel, Alejo Franzetti, Theresa George, Ghasideh Golmakani, Maike Mia Höhne, Sebastian Markt, Moritz Maul, Nora Molitor, Felix Piatkowski, Yulia Serdyukova und Sarnt Utamachote.

Our selection committee for the 2024 International Competition chooses films from 4,000 submissions. Presenting this year's program:

Anna Feistel is a programmer, curator and arts mediator based in Hamburg. She studied Literature, Art and Media Studies at University of Konstanz and Sapienza Università di Roma. Her passion for short films ignited many years ago organizing a student short film festival and working in a communal cinema. She worked as art mediator for Art Basel, MKG Hamburg and Kunstverein Konstanz. Since 2016 she has worked in several positions at Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg including the distribution department, festival administration and school cinema week. Since 2019 she is part of the international competition selection committee and the programme coordinator of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg.

Alejo Franzetti was born in Buenos Aires and moved to Berlin in 2012. He is a member of the selection committee of Berlinale Shorts since 2017 and of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg since 2019. He graduated in Film-Direction at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires and was Meisterschüler by Thomas Arslan at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He has made films of different lengths and genres, such as "El contrabajo" (short), "La destrucción del orden vigente" (feature), "Panke" (medium length). His work has been shown at venues such as Torino International Film Festival, Mar del Plata International Film Festival, Festival Márgenes, Entrevues Belfort, Bafici, Anthology Film Archives. He was co-founder and programmer of INVASION, the Argentine film festival in Berlin. He has also engaged in projects such as Full Circle Lab, Talents Buenos Aires, Fakultät Null, Cinema en curs. He also collaborates as author and director at Kurzschluss - Das Kurzfilm-Magazin (arte).

Theresa George studied ethnology, political science and journalism at the University of Leipzig and has since been working as a freelance film anthropologist between cultural theory and film (mediation). She teaches Visual Anthropology, works for film festivals (Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Kasseler DokFest…), conceives film series / lectures / installations in diverse collaborations and co-developed numerous film projects. Her main interest lies in filmmaking and film reception in the former GDR of the 1990s, which she intends to deepen by developing the artistic research VIDEO2089.

Ghasideh Golmakani obtained a Ph.D. in cultural studies from Sorbonne University, specializing in the works of Iranian female filmmakers. Though self-taught in movie-making, Ghasideh honed her skills through her involvement in various feature film projects, including "Today/Emrooz," which represented Iranian cinema at the Oscars in 2013. Some of her more known short films were “Limbo”, “Online Shopping” and “Horn”. Her films tackle taboo topics prevalent in traditional Iranian society, using dark humor to address critical themes such as "street harassment," "child abuse," and the everyday violence experienced by women. Besides her filmmaking endeavors, she actively curates programs that spotlight Iranian women filmmakers on a global scale. Additionally, Ghasideh is a prolific writer, contributing analytical articles to various Iranian film magazines.

Maike Mia Höhne works as a filmmaker, curator, producer and professor. She has been Artistic Director of the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg since 2019. From 2007-2019, Höhne was head of Berlinale Shorts section of the Berlin International Film Festival. Her films have been digitized for the German Film Heritage and are distributed by the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art and the Short Film Agency. She is a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg and the European Film Academy. She lives in Hamburg with her two children.
Sebastian Markt studied history in Vienna and Berlin, worked in art house cinemas and has been a film critic for around fifteen years. He is a founding member of the Hauptverband Cinephilie and Lichtspiel - Netzwerk kulturelle Filmbildung. Sebastian has been head of the Generation section of the Berlinale since September 2022 and is also active as a programmer at the young Dokfest Kassel in addition to Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg.

Moritz Maul is a cultural worker based in Berlin. With a background in film studies he works in multiple positions on the festival circuit and writes for an independent magazine. He is a member of the Berlinale Shorts selection committee.

Nora Molitor studied Intercultural Communication, Spanish and History. She works for international literature, film and theater projects and festivals, including the Max Ophüls Festival, the Berlin International Literature Festival, the German-French stage festival Perspectives and Berlinale Forum Expanded. Jury activities for the FCDEP (Paris), BIEFF (Bucharest) and Encounters (Bristol). In 2023 she directed the dokumentART Festival in Neubrandenburg and in 2024 she worked in the debate team of the Berlin Critics‘ Week. She is a co-founder of transdemo e.V., a member of LaborBerlin e.V. and curates and coordinates interdisciplinary projects.

Felix Piatkowski, born in Rostock, 15 years in Hamburg studying media culture, working at the Medienzentrum, in the cinema and since 2008 at the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. Moved to Berlin in 2017 and turned to psychoanalysis, but never turned his back on the short film festival and has now been there for 16 editions.
Yulia Serdyukova is a documentary film producer and curator. Member of Freefilmers cinemovement, co-founder of Filma. Feminist Film Festival, founder of yutopia films. She is interested in producing and promoting works of independent filmmakers and grassroots initiatives that challenge colonial policies, imperialism, capitalism, patriarchy and heteronormativity. Additionally, oftentimes works as a local producer for European media on covering Russian war against Ukraine.

Sarnt Utamachote is a Southeast Asian nonbinary filmmaker and curator based in Berlin. They believe that cinema can be a tool for social engagement and collective healing. They are a co-founder of un.thai.tled, an artist collective from the German-Thai diaspora, and have curated multiple research-based exhibitions concerning postcolonial histories, the Southeast Asian diaspora, and activism in divided Germany (GDR/FRG). They work as a film programmer at XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin,Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, and at Sİnema Transtopia Berlin.

Call For Entries: 40. Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg share

We are open! Submit your short film for the 40th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg! For the International and German Competition as well as for Mo & Friese dedicated to young audiences, all genres with a maximum length of 30 minutes and not older than two years (January 2022) are accepted. We also call for submissions for the festival's Triple Axel Competition. This year's topic is: Salt.

The festival will take place from June 4 to June 9, 2024. Mark your calendars for the anniversary edition and celebrate with us 40 years short films!

Find all details here.

Award Winners 2023 share

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

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