275 submissions. 9 selection committee members. 23 films chosen: The Triple Axel Competition comes packed with numbers — because in 2026 it revolves around the theme “3”! Our fantastic selection committee has chosen short films (from amateurs to professionals), each no longer than three minutes. And it is precisely this brevity that makes the Triple Axel so fascinating: within a single program, you dive into a wide variety of minds, worlds, and scenes. One, two, THREE — let’s go!

<3 – kleiner drei (<3 – less than three), Petra Stipetić, Germany 2026
▷ 3:00, Joey Arand, Germany 2026
00:03, Meret Baudler, Jana Düsel, Emlyn Schüller, Theodor Rust, Germany 2026
3 ???, Gieso Ristau, Germany 2026
3fache Begegnung der dritten Art, Kalle Anker, Germany 2026
3 Girls, Stefan Möckel, Germany 2025
3 Leute, die 3 Minuten auf TriX 3 Mal Rosenkohl verfilmen (3 People Filming 3 Minutes on TriX 3 Times Brussels Sprouts), Dagie Brundert, Judith Lewis, Germany 2026
Aschenbecher (Ashtray), Kumaran Herold, Germany 2026
Drei (Three), Julia Kammermeier, Germany 2026
Drei Akkorde Punkverbot (Three Chords Punk Ban), Olaf Held, Germany 2026
Drei & Error (Dry & Error), Dorit Kiesewetter, Carsten Knoop, Germany 2026
EINS, ZWEI, DREI, THE TRIPLETS TRIO, Carol & Edward Lyon, United Kingdom 2026
Einsatz in Manhattan 1 – 3 (Manhattan Mission 1 – 3), Holger Braune, Germany 2024
Family with Benefits, Linua Land, Germany 2025
My Aunt with a Poodle, Holger Mohaupt, United Kingdom 2026
Oz Troikas, Simon Ellis, Vereinigtes Königreich, Australia 2026
Pollux, Andreas Kersten, Florian Rau, Gunnar Grah, Germany 2025
So Many Different Things, Sakshi Jain, USA 2025
The Holy Trinity, Razi Uddin, Germany 2026
The Three Ages of an Anchorman, Gabriel Tempea, Austria 2026
Three Stars, Anouk Witkowska Hiffler, United Kingdom 2026
Trio, Fridtjof Stensæth Josefsen, Morten Borgestad, Norway 2025
Trois mots (Three Words), Franie-Eléonore Bernier, Canada 2026

Film selection: Sebastian Apel, Axel Behrens, Silja Ebeling, Duygu Köysürenbars, Anna Leimbrinck, Helena Reger, Klara Schmidt, Sven Schwarz, Andrea Steinbrück

Filmstill: Family With Benefits, Linua Land

When was the last time you listened to someone – and changed your opinion as a result? Who do you enjoy listening to? And who do you listen to far too rarely?

From June 2–7, 2026, the 42nd Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg wants to push back against contemporary dynamics of hyper-accelerated media consumption and cancel culture. Instead, we create a space for questioning, enduring, and negotiating – a cinematic credo of empathy. Together with you and this years’ festival motto »Listening«.

»Listening also means asking: who listens to whom – and under what conditions? As a festival, it is more important than ever for us to offer emancipatory movements the screen they deserve.« – Maike Mia Höhne, Artistic Director

The »Laboratory of the Present« section foregrounds feminism as our 2026 main focus, presenting five curated programs that explore themes such as emotional resistance, collective knowledge, trans* identities and feminist peace movements. Together, they examine how gender, labor, and political struggle are experienced, represented, and contested. Curators are Maxa Zoller, Gertrude Malizeni, Dr. Elisa Linseisen, Sophie Holzberger, Selina Robertsen, Sarah Wood and Lucía Salas.

Another central focus is the concept of waiting, explored by the Palestinian curator Yazid Anani. In two programs, waiting is not presented merely as a pause; rather, we experience how it disciplines the body and regulates mobility.

Additional sections expand the dialogue: the »Archive of the Present« highlights South American resistance and AIDS-related image archives, while »Voices« turns to Kosovo and Iran, presenting films that engage with civil rights, visibility, and the imagining of alternative futures.

Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg also brings together a wide range of panel discussions, industry gatherings, informal meet-ups, parties, exhibitions and plenty of yet unexpected highlights. At the same time, Junges Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg Mo&Friese invites younger audiences aged 4 to 18 to explore a lively and diverse program.

More details are on the way. Until then, you can catch all latest news and impressions on Instagram. We can’t wait to see (and listen to) you again very soon!

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.

Photo: Christian von Polentz

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

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.

Catherine Colas, ARTE
Laurence Rilly, ARTE

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

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, 2025, 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.

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.

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

Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg is a collective encounter – it lives and grows through everyone participating. One option to do so? Host one (or more) of our lovely film makers! 😍

We are always looking for private accommodation. If you have a spare bed or couch, we love for you to get in touch via guest@shortfilm.com. As a thank you, you receive free tickets to our programs!

Your flat is tiny but your friend’s is not? Feel free to share our instagram post with everyone who might be interested! Thank you.

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.

Filmstill: Triple Again, Shaian Ebrahimi

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! ❤️‍🔥

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.

Filmstill: Casi Septiembre, Lucía G. Romero

Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg is Germany's film festival with the fairest working conditions! During the Berlinale, the team was honored with the Fair Festival Award. The prize was awarded for the third time by the AG Festivalarbeit in ver.di at the short film reception of the AG Kurzfilm.

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 surveyed in categories such as working atmosphere, equality, payment and participation. For the year 2024, Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg received the highest rating from the team and is therefore considered the fairest film festival in Germany.

The missionary had one, companies claim it and heroes and heroines are on it for ages: a mission. For our Triple Axel Competition 2025, we are particularly interested in that version of mission that seems impossible.

Of course, Tom Cruises action movies come to mind immediately, but doesn't everyone - and many train stations as well - have a mission that is perhaps programmed to fail? We are also happy to see cryptic interpretations, so brainstorm ideas and make films for our Triple Axel 2025: as always, the aim is to make a film on the given topic ("Mission Impossible") in no more than three minutes. Whoever achieves this will be in the running for the audience prize (1,000 euros) on a legendary night at the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. You can submit your mission to us from November. Looking forward, happy failure!

We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 40th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg!

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Jury: Manuel Abramovich, Aboozar Amini, Flóra Anna Buda, Lucía Salas, Greta Snider

HAMBURG SHORT FILM AWARD (3.000€):
Kim Torres: The Moon Will Contain Us
Jury Statement: "We would like to award the main prize to a film that creates a true collaboration. Two generations meet, and by doing a film they form a community. This community decides to trace a memory, which could be also a memory of the future. By exploring sensitively a place and the ways everyone has to walk through it, and the details of this relationship, this film creates its own ways to do films, one that is imaginative, affective, and shared."

DEFRAMED AWARD (2.000€):
Jonelle Twum: I Think of Silences When I Think of You
Jury Statement: "A unique perspective on migration that is rarely seen on cinema. Using the archive vividly, this film reclaims home movies and family movies in a way that is both joyful and though-provoking. We want to give the Deframed award to this film which, with very few elements (a fragment of the past and a few images from the present) creates a whole affective universe."

HAMBURG SHORT FILM CANDIDATE FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS:
Sara Kontar: 3350 KM
Jury Statement: "There are some people amongst us who only have music left to connect with their fading memories. What they do is to look for those lost words, those melodies that can give a sense of home. We would like to award the European Film Academy nomination to 3350 km by Sara Kontar."

SPECIAL MENTION:
Zuza Banasińska: Grandmamauntsistercat
Jury Statement: "​​A film in which 1 + 1 is not 2 but three: a feminist perspective of the archive, which doesn’t use images, but has a conversation with them to create an idea of what places people occupied in them, and what places they can occupy now. Recovering pieces of East-European heritage, this film creates room for thoughts about the past and the present. We would like to give a special mention to Grandmamauntsistercat, by Zuza Banasińska."

GERMAN COMPETITION

Jury: Toby Ashraf, Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck, Gerald Weber

JURY AWARD (2.000 €):
Eva Könnemann: That's All from Me
Jury Statement: "Eva Könnemann skillfully interweaves reality and fiction, combines video letters with crowded long shots and goes to unexpected places to find answers to her question: How do you remain an artist once you have become a mother? With its subtle humor and precise sense of timing, the film develops a unique magic and puts a smile on your face while the wild geese fly into the sky."

SPECIAL MENTION
Miranda Siegel: Ignore Your True Feelings at Your Own Peril
Jury Statement: “Before we hear the sound of convenient elevator music, Miranda Siegel throws up. She continues to do so every day and documents this inconvenient truth even during her stay in the psychiatric ward. Her severe struggle against her own body is juxtaposed with her dry sense of humor in this smart and stunning video journal that makes visible what is otherwise hidden – from society or from oneself. Kudos to her courage, frankness and irony in solving this and other puzzles."

TRIPLE AXEL COMPETITION (1.000€):

Olaf Held: Spätsommer 91
The Audience Award is supported by the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung.

ARTE AWARD:

José Luis Jiménez Gómez: The Reign of Antoine
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€):

Franzis Kabisch: getty abortions
Der Publikumspreis, dotiert mit 1.500 Euro, geht wettbewerbsübergreifend an einen Film aus dem Internationalen oder Deutschen Wettbewerb.

MO&FRIESE AWARDS:

Friese-Award: The Mystery of Missing Socks – Oskar Lehemaa, special mention: Semiotics of the Home – Hsin-Yu Chen/Jessi Ali Lin
Mo-Award: The Creators – Madeleine Homan, special mention: Circle – Yumi Joung
Neon-Award: Bubbling – Che-ming Chang, special mention: Papillon – Florence Miailhe
Nomination ECFA Short Film Award: Yuck! – Loïc Espuche, special mention: Death to the Bikini! – Justine Gauthi

The Jury Award in the German Competition, endowed with 2,000 euros, is awarded by a three-member jury. The Jury 2024 is:

Toby Ashraf works as a curator, moderator and film critic. He has written for taz, Sissy and numerous other publications and moderates film and literature talks for the Berlinale and the international literature festival berlin, among others. In 2015 he won the Siegfried Kracauer Prize for Best Film Criticism. In 2014, he founded the Berlin Art Film Festival, which he curated and directed independently until 2018. Toby Ashraf has curated film series for the Goethe Institutes of North America and Calcutta, among others, and was part of the advisory selection committee of the Panorama section of the Berlinale in 2022. In 2023 he was artistic co-director of the FIRST STEPS Awards.

Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck works as a filmmaker, videoartist and film curator, and creates videoprojections for theater, opera, dance and music concerts as well as video installations for exhibitions and museums. She teaches at art schools and has been working for film festivals as a programmer, presenter (Berlinale Shorts, Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Filmwinter Stuttgart, Pictoplasma) and member of the jury for more than 25 years. She co-runs the shorts/ salon, and since 2019 she is head of Berlinale Shorts, the official competition for short films at the Berlinale.

Gerald Weber studied history, geography, philosophy and film studies in Vienna and Barcelona. He is a founding member of »Projektor: Diskussionsforum Film und Neue Medien« and was co-organizer of the international symposium »film[SUBJECT] theory« (1996). Since 1997 he has been working for sixpackfilm in the distribution of Austrian documentary, short and experimental films. As part of sixpackfilm, he has organized numerous film-related events and presentations of Austrian and international film and video art in Austria and abroad. Weber also gives lectures, moderates film talks and works as a curator and journalist.

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, to a film that deals with reality in a poetic, formal, analytical and unconventional way, ignoring all rules in a forward-looking way. It also awards the Hamburg candidate for the "European Short Film" award category of the European Film Academy. The Jury 2024 is:

Manuel Abramovich is a filmmaker and artist born in Buenos Aires in 1987 and based in Berlin. His work explores different ways of staging intimacy. His films have been awarded worldwide, among them Blue Boy (Berlinale Silver Bear and Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis 2019), Soldier (Berlinale 2017), and Pornomelancolia (Best Cinematography at San Sebastian). He was a member of the Berlinale Talents Selection Committee in 2019 and 2020 and is a member of the Deutsche Filmakademie. Besides his work as a director, he is a film mentor and a teacher at several film schools and universities. Since 2021, he has been directing »DIP: Documentary, Intimacy, and Staging«, a one-year online program for international artists and filmmakers. He is currently finishing his fifth feature film Croma.

Aboozar Amini trained as a visual artist at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and received his Master of Fine Arts in filmmaking from London Film School. He is an alumnus of IDFA Academy, Berlinale Talent Campus, Cannes Cinéfondation La Résidence and a fellow at Akademie der Künste in Berlin. His works include video art, documentaries, and fiction aimed at orchestrating and transcending the facades of reality in order to creep under its lingering surface, inviting us to explore a heightened, nuanced perception of the world.

Flóra Anna Buda was born and raised in an artistic environment in the outskirts of Budapest. Her studies in fashion, her love for drawing and interest in storytelling led her to animation. Her MOME graduation film called Entropia premiered at the 69th Berlinale and won the 33th Teddy Award. She became an intern at Miyu Productions where later she made her first professional film 27. The film had its premiere at Festival de Cannes where it won the Palme d’Or for short films and went on to win the Crystal du Court Métrage at Annecy Festival. Currently, she is developing new projects. One of her main goals is to keep searching for new ways of creating diverse universes, telling honest stories and finding a way to create an artistic project out of her recent interest, with an open mind.

Lucía Salas is an Argentinian writer, programmer, and filmmaker based in Spain. She is a co-editor of the film magazine La vida útil, programmer at Punto de Vista and Woche der Kritik, teacher in the curatorial studies program at Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola. She collaborated with Con Los Ojos Abiertos, Jugend ohne Film, Viennale, IFFR’s Critic’s Choice, DocumentaMadrid, DocLisboa, Margenes, among others. She has co-directed the non-fiction feature Implantación (2016) and several short films together with LaSiberia Cine. She studied Image and Sound Design at the University of Buenos Aires, has an MA in Aesthetics and Politics from CalArts (thanks to a Fulbright scholarship) and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Communications program in the cinema department at Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Greta Snider has made films since discovering the art form at Antioch College in Ohio, and promptly moved to San Francisco to join a thriving low-budget experimental film scene, where she continues to make, screen, and teach about cinema. In her work, Snider utilizes a combination of original and archival material to create nonfiction art cinema of a personal nature. Her single screen films on 16mm lean heavily on the creative use of montage, interweaving the personal and historical in a number of short essay films. Her stereoscopic performances and installations take the materiality of film and family photos, to reshape themes of memory, loss, and personal histories in a more intimate, affective experience. She has screened in museums throughout the world, and also in bars, alleyways, and once, at an all-night international rave party in a penthouse in Tokyo’s district Shibuya. Snider teaches experimental filmmaking at San Francisco State University, where she is faculty advisor to The Archive Project.

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
Neo Nahda, May Ziadé, Lebanon/UK, 2023 (withdrawn)
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, Switzerland, 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, 2024
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

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

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

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

Samstag, 3. Juni 2023, 22:15 Uhr

Schnappt euch unsere Funkkopfhörer, packt eure Picknickdecken und Kissen aus und schaut mit uns Kurzfilme zwischen Parkbänken und Balkonromantik – das Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg lädt zum Open Air!

In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Quartiersmanagement von ProQuartier und mit Unterstützung des Bezirksamts Altona zeigen wir am Samstag, den 3. Juni ab 22:15 Uhr im Quartierspark der Mitte Altona ein Kurzfilmprogramm mit Filmen aus dem Stadtteil, übers Zusammenwohnen und dem einen oder anderen Klassiker.

Wer Lust hat, findet Getränke und einen kleinen Happen auf die Hand bei der Blauen Blume. Dort stehen auch Toiletten zur Verfügung.

Die Veranstaltung findet nur bei gutem Wetter statt. Von Änderungen erfahrt ihr an dieser Stelle.

Der Eintritt ist frei. Die Funkkopfhörer werden gegen einen Pfand von 10 Euro pro Stück ausgegeben.

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, to a film that deals with reality in a poetic, formal, analytical and unconventional way, ignoring all rules in a forward-looking way. It also awards the Hamburg candidate for the "European Short Film" award category of the European Film Academy. The Jury 2023 is:

Nawar Al Qassimi
As the Vice President of Sharjah Art Foundation, she is responsible for the Foundation’s strategic planning, and strengthening the Foundation’s role as a catalyst and advocate for the arts in Sharjah, UAE; in the region; and around the world. Al Qassimi is a member of the Sharjah Tourism Advisory Committee and was a jury member for the Karama Film Festival in 2020.

Patrick Holzapfel
He works as a writer, film critic and curator. His articles and stories are regularly published in numerous publications in German and English language. He is editor-in-chief of the website Jugend ohne Film. In 2016 he received the Siegfried Kracauer scholarship of the German Film Critic Association. He has curated several retrospectives in Vienna, Berlin, London, and Bern. Currently he is working on his debut novel and a translation of stories told to him by a stone.

Adina Pintilie
She is a filmmaker, visual artist and curator; from 2022, she is also a professor for cinema at the HFBK University of Arts Hamburg. Spanning cinema, installation, performance and virtual reality, her works stand out through a uncompromising exploration of the human psyche and an ongoing questioning of film language conventions. Her feature film Touch Me Not won the Golden Bear at the 2018 Berlinale. Pintilie's visual art project »You Are Another Me – A Cathedral of the Body« has been selected to represent Romania at the 2022 Venice Art Biennial. Her film Don’t Get Me Wrong won the Golden Dove for Best Documentary at Dok Leipzig 2007. She is a member of the European Film Academy.

Emilie Poirier
She has been working in programming at the Montreal Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC) since 2017. She is now head of short film and feature film programmer. She is also a member of the preselection committee at Busan International Short Film Festival as well as an independent curator, moderator and writer.

Yulia Serdyukova
She is a documentary film producer, photographer and curator. Member of Freefilmers cinemovement, co-founder of Filma. Feminist Film Festival. In her work and activism, relies on queer feminist approaches.

The Jury Award in the German Competition, endowed with 2,000 euros, is awarded by a three-member jury. The Jury 2023 is:

Clara Helbig
She is a filmmaker and curator and works now as a programmer for the leading arthouse streaming service MUBI. Clara's artistic practice explores the interconnectivity between different actors and life forms on our planet and has been shown internationally at exhibitions and film festivals. In 2021, her short film disjointed won the German Short Film Award in the Documentary category.

Dani Rosenberg
The Death Of Cinema And My Father Too, his debut feature film, was part of the Official Selection in Cannes 2020 and won the Jerusalem Film Festival. His short and medium length films were shown in numerous international festivals including Cannes, Berlinale, HotDocs and IDFA. His comedy-drama series Milk & Honey has been purchased for adaptation in Germany and France. The Vanishing Soldier is his second feature film.

Ulrich Ziemons
He is – together with Ala Younis – co-head of the section Forum Expanded of the Berlin International Film Festival. Since 2006 he has worked as curator and project manager for Arsenal (Institute for Film and Video Art in Berlin) in the scope of Berlinale and in other contexts. From 2014 to 2020 he was a member of the short film selection committee of Dokfest Kassel. He has curated film programs for, among others, Kunstverein Leipzig, Kochi Muziris Biennale, National Museum of Contemporary Art Seoul and Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival. In 2014 he published the book "Aufzeichnungen eines Storm Squatters", a monograph on George Kuchar’s Weather Diary video series.

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)

45th Parallel, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, UK, 2022
Africans With Mainframes, Kima Hibbert, USA, 2023
Afterlives, Michael Heindl, Austria/Tanzania, 2022
Alpha Kings, Enrique Pedráza Botero/Faye Tsakas, USA, 2022
Amok, Balázs Turai, Hungary/Romania, 2022

Andy et Charlie (Andy and Charlie), Livia Lattanzio, France, 2022
Apostles of Cinema, Cece Mlay/Darragh Amelia/Gertrude Malizana/Jesse Gerard Mpango, United Republic of Tanzania, 2022
Bezuna, Saif Alsaegh, USA, 2023
Bigger on the Inside, Angelo Madsen Minax, USA, 2022
Buurman Abdi (Neighbour Abdi), Douwe Dijkstra, Netherlands, 2022
Chomp It!, Mark Chua/Li Shuen Lam, Singapur, 2023
Dang wo wang xiang ni de shi hou (Will You Look at Me), Shuli Huang, People's Republic of China, 2022
Der Molchkongress (The Newt Congress), Immanuel Esser, Matthias Sahli, Switzerland/ Germany, 2022
Dildotectónica (Dildotectonics), Tomás Paula Marques, Portugal, 2023
Divlje cvijeće (Wild Flowers), Karla Crnčević, Croatia/Spain, 2022
Fala da terra (Voice of the Land), Benjamin de Burca/Bárbara Wagner, Brazil, 2022
I Can See The Sun but I Can't Feel It Yet, Joseph Wilson, UK, 2023
If You Don’t Watch the Way You Move, Kevin Jerome Everson, USA, 2023
Il faut regarder le feu ou brûler dedans (Watch the Fire or Burn Inside it), Caroline Poggi/Jonathan Vinel, France, 2022
Ilanga Alikho (The Sun is Missing), Advik Beni, South Africa, 2022
Mini-Mini-Pokke no Okina Niwa de (In the Big Yard Inside the Teeny-Weeny Pocket), Yoko Yuki, Japan, 2022
Koerkorter (Dog-Apartment), Priit Tender, Estonia, 2022
La herida luminosa (Daydreaming so Vividly about our Spanish Holidays), Christian Avilés, Spain,
Leila, Fariba Haidari, Sweden, 2023
Les Sports X-trem, Gio Ventura, France, 2023
Los órganos internos de la Madre Tierra (Mother Earth's Inner Organs), Ana Bravo Pérez, Netherlands, Colombia, 2022
Nå er jeg her, jeg også (Now, I also, am here), Camilla Figenschou, Norway, 2023
On The Birthday of The Wind, Dang Tung Bach, Australia, 2022
Our Pain, Shunsaku Hayashi, Japan, 2023
Pacific Club, Valentin Noujaïm, France, 2023
Pastoral Malaise, Ufuoma Essi, UK, 2022
Repetitions, Morgan Quaintance, UK, 2022
Saving Some Random Insignificant Stories, Anna Vasof, Austria/Greece, 2022
Terra Mater, Kantarama Gahigiri, Ruanda, Switzerland, 2023
Terror Has No Shape, Luis Arnias, USA, 2021
The Altar, Moe Myat May Zarchi, Myanmar, 2022
The Memo, Badlands Film Group, People's Republic of China, 2022
Through a Shimmering Prism, We Made a Way, Rhea Storr, UK/Bahamas, 2021
Un genre de testament (A Kind of Testament), Stephen Vuillemin, France, 2023
Upwards Tide, Daniela Zahlner, Austria, 2022
Wo de peng you (All Tomorrow's Parties), Dalei Zhang, People's Republic of China, 2022
West Lounge, Kevin Jerome Everson, USA, 2023
صوتك بس (Your Voice Only), Rana Wael Matar, Saudi-Arabia, 2023
هاتف صدى Hatef Sada, Anouch Basbous, France, 2021

Filmstill: La herida luminosa, Christian Avilés

Anima Overdrive, Andrea Winkler, Stefan Panhans, Germany, 2022
An Uncontacted Tribe, Hanna Noh, Germany, 2022
Can´t Help Myself, Anna Ansone, Latvia/Germany 2022
Der andere Tag (The Other Day), Timo Schierhorn, Germany, 2022
Dos amigos vuelven a casa solos de noche, (Two Friends Walk Home Alone at Night), Marlon Weber, Germany/Argentina, 2023

Drei Bäume sind kein Wald (Three Trees Don't Make a Forest), Leonhard Hofmann, Germany, 2023
Einmal wieder dieser Junge sein (Being That Boy Again), Jan Koester/Lisa Violetta Gaß, Germany 2022
Es gibt keine Angst (Afraid Doesn't Exist), Anna Zett, Germany, 2023
Farewell Recording for an Observer of an Unknown Time and Place, Rita Macedo, Germany, 2023
Fleischwolf, Noah Fritzsche, Germany, 2022
Flut (Flood), Almourad Aldeeb, Germany, 2022
Hochofen II (Blast Furnace No.2), Su Yu Hsin, Germany, 2022
I Am A, Dagie Brundert, Germany, 2022
I Will Take Your Shadow, Ayala Shoshana Guy, Germany, 2022
In Limbo, Gusztáv Hámos/Katja Pratschke, Germany, 2022
Into The Violet Belly, Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi, Germany, 2022
Mut Me Lule, Mona Rizaj, Germany/Austria, 2023
No Animal, Christoph Girardet/Matthias Müller, Germany 2022
Ralentir La Chute (Slow Down The Fall), Franziska Unger/Camille Tricaud, Germany, 2023
Ready for Ransom, Simon Dickel, Germany, 2022
Ring, Tanita Olbrich, Germany, 2023
Speaking Flowers, Conrad Veit/Charlotte Maria Kätzl, Germany, 2023
SSRC, Yalda Afsah, Germany, 2022
Tricky Disco, Sebastian Weise, Germany, 2022

Filmstill: Einmal wieder dieser Junge sein (Being That Boy Again), Jan Koester/Lisa Violetta Gaß

A Night at the Movies, Gabriel Tempea, Austria, 2023
At Night – Mozzie, Alert Carol/Edward Lyon, UK, 2023
Big Monster, Esther Weber, Germany, 2023
Bingo, Teemu Saarinen/Karo von Rutenhjelm, Finland, 2020
Electric Manoevres in the Dark, Vera Geisler/Reinhard Westendorf, Germany, 2023

Howl by Gogol, Uliana Shalygina, Russian Federation, 2022
La fête est finie (The Party’s Over), Pierre Ives Clouin, France, 2023
Magical Caresses: Sweet Jesus, Lori Malépart-Traversy, Canada, 2022
Mr. Kuddles, Micha Gress, Germany, 2023
Nacht über R32, Felix Dierich, Germany, 2023
Nachtleuchten, Rafaela Range, Germany, 2019
Nachtschwärmer, Claire Walka, Germany, 2023
Night Train, Sofia Gutman, Israel/France, 2022
Prelude, Eginhartz Kanter, Austria, 2022
Proton in der Dunkelrutsche, Dorit Kiesewetter/Carsten Knoop, Germany, 2023
Rêves Party (The Sandman), Amélie Prevot/Marion Christmann, France, 2022
RIP, Morgan Quaintance, UK, 2022
Sleep Tight, Jonas Potthoff/Malte Pell/Tobias Sodeikat, Germany, 2022
Tehran, Masoud Moein Eslam, Iran, 2015
The Evenings Entertainment, Adams Vaicis, Latvia, 2023
The Terminator, Simon Ellis, UK, 2023
Until Dark, Kalle Anker, Germany, 2023
Vergissmeinnicht, Luzie Ilgner, UK, 2022

Filmstill: Big Monster, Esther Weber

Here's this years Selection Committee for the German Competition 2023:

Florian Fischer, born 1981 in Tübingen, studied communication design, photography and visual studies. He was a participant in the Werkleitz Media Master Class and Berlinale Talents. In 2017, he was a fellow at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and currently works as an author and media artist in Leipzig and Hamburg. His film "Umbra" won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlinale 2019 and screened in the German Competition of the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg in the same year.

Nadine Mayer moved from Stuttgart to Hamburg to study for her Master's degree in Culture and Media Management. In 2011 she started working for the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg at the info counter, was responsible for the film market and joined the selection team for the German Competition in 2014. At the same time, she got to know the artist group "A Wall is a Screen", with whom she travels the country to project short films on walls. Her main job also revolves around moving images, most recently as a producer of documentary films for TV.

Stine Wangler studied at Leuphana University in Lüneburg and at Glamorgan University in Wales. She wrote her thesis in cultural studies about short films on the internet. Since 2012 she has been working at the Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg and is responsible for world sales and purchase of licenses for short films. On the side, she occasionally works as a photographer. Since 2013, she has been a viewing member of the German Competition at the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg.

David Kleingers is head of the digital department and strategic development at the DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum. As a film journalist and historian, he has published numerous articles and book chapters on German, European and international cinema. He is also curator of the Maple Movies Festival, dedicated to contemporary Canadian film.

Deniz Şimşek is a filmmaker and media artists living in Berlin. Having studied film in Istanbul at MSFAU, she is currently studying art and media at the UdK Berlin, under Prof. Thomas Arslan. Her works have been shown internationally in exhibitions, art and film festivals, including the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Kasseler Dokfest, European Media Art Festival and Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. Deniz is part of the 5th edition of the Federal Association AG Kurzfilm and German Films’ Emerging Artists program.

We proudly present: Our selection committee for the 2023 International Competition!

In her artistic films and video works, Vanessa Nica Mueller deals with questions of individual and collective memory, the human being in relation to urban space and nature, as well as with the tension between the familiar and alienation. She studied film and time-based media at Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and at the École supérieure d'art Marseille. In addition to realizing and producing her own films, she works as a lecturer in the field of film education. In 2018 she was in Lebanon for an extended film research as part of a grant from the Goethe Institute and in 2021 she was a guest at Urbane Künste Ruhr as Artist in Residence 2021.

Sarnt Utamachote (ษาณฑ์ อุตมโชติ) is a nonbinary filmmaker, curator and co-founder of un.thai.tled, an artist collective from the German Thai diaspora with whom they curated the un.thai.tled Film Festival Berlin and Beyond the kitchen: Stories from the Thai Park. The video installation I Am Not Your Mother (2020) was exhibited at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the short film Soy Sauce (2020) was screened at OutFest Fusion LA, Xposed Berlin and Queer East London 2021, among others.

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). She also supervises the Border Crossers Program of the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Literary Colloquium Berlin. She is co-founder of transdemo e.V., member of LaborBerlin e.V. and curates and coordinates interdisciplinary projects in Berlin's independent scene.

Alejo Franzetti was born in Buenos Aires. He is a member of the selection committee of Berlinale Shorts and of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. 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, 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 formative projects such as Talents Buenos Aires, Fakultät Null/Interflugs, and Cinema en curs.

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. Currently, 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.

Sebastian Markt studied history in Vienna and Berlin, worked among other things in art house cinemas and has been working as a film critic for about ten years. He is a founding member of the main association Cinephilie, where he is primarily involved in the field of cultural film education. As a curator and festival programmer, Sebastian Markt is also active for the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg and the junge dokfest Kassel. Since September 2022 Sebastain is the new head of the Generation section of the Berlinale.

Maike Mia Höhne is a German film director, film curator, professor of film, mother of two children. She lives and works in Hamburg. From 2007 to 2019, she played a key role in shaping the profile of the short film section Berlinale Shorts at the Berlin International Film Festival as curator and director. In 2019, she took over as artistic director at Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. Since 2019, she has been a professor at the University of Applied Science Europe at the Hamburg Campus in the Department of Art & Design for the Film program.

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.

Anna Feistel 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 in a communal cinema. Since 2016 she has worked in several positions at Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg. She is a member of the selection committee and programme coordinator of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg.

We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 38th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg!

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Jury: Edwin, Florian Fischer, Andrea Lissoni, Jyoti Mistry, Caroline Monnet

HAMBURG SHORT FILM AWARD (3.000€):
Pavel Mozhar - Handbook
Jury Statement: "Political and social violence continues to dominant our lives and screens. The challenge is how to create representations of human atrocities without reproducing the spectacle of violence. Set in a sterile environment of a small room, that replicates the size of a holding cell, the testimony and experiences of incarcerated activists is recounted through a set of sobering instructions of staged physical brutality. This documentary of reenactments pushes the boundaries of the genre by employing a clinical eye on violence. The gaps demand that an audience complete the visual representation in their own imagination and this leaves one with a haunting and chilling feeling that endures long after the film is over. For cinematic excellence and a film that creates a signature language to expose contemporary political and civil violence in society through a manual of instructions for state practice as violence, the winner is: Handbuch by Pavel Mozhar."

DEFRAMED AWARD (2.000€):
Maria Estela Paiso - Ampangabagat Nin Talakba Ha Likol (It's Raining Frogs Outside)
Jury statement: "A contemporary generation is dealing with increased mental health concerns, emotions of entrapment and isolation where socio-political concerns are replaced by identity politics. Using a memorable breath of haptic and tactile images and innovative animation techniques this film is a deeply emotive exploration of feeling trapped by the inner demons of social expectations and one’s own desires. Even though the film offers a dark exploration of isolation, its balance of playful counterpoints is a poetic expression of the vulnerabilities of a young generation. The Deframed Award for an artistic film goes to: Maria Estela Paiso for Ampangabagat Nin Talakba Ha Likol – It’s raining frogs outside."

HAMBURG SHORT FILM CANDIDATE FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS:
Leonor Noivo - Madrugada (Dawn)
Jury Statement: "Cycles of labour: invisible labour of women’s work, the cleaning of homes and the endless routines of daily life which are often the unseen, and the unspoken parts of women’s lives that are passed on in generations. How do daughters make peace with their mother’s lives in which they have watched and witnessed the sacrifices mothers make in the name of love and protection? In an exceptionally raw and daring film that combines several genres, this docu-fiction is an exploration of the connections between women, labour, and desires. This intimate portrait of a generation of women unfolds the corrupted transmission of communication of unresolved feelings of loss. The jury selection for the EU award is: Leonor Noivo’s Madrugada - Dawn."

SPECIAL MENTION:
Evgenia Arbugaeva, Maxim Arbugaev - Haulout)
Jury statement: "A radical act of commitment and stunning photography brings us to one of the most urgent socio-political circumstances of our times. The Anthropocene remains the crisis of our epoch but this film neither succumbs to hysteria nor to the commercial manipulation of information of climate change. Instead in an exceptional and deeply affecting observation we are shown directly the vulnerability of nature at the hands of humans. At once lyrical, but profoundly disciplined – this film captures kinship by creating an intense interspecies dialogue that carefully balances the contradiction of being enclosed in a small, confined space with the vastness of nature. In a patient and committed process this film is a testament to cinema’s capacity to take us to far flung places on the globe but which demands our urgent attention because it effects the immediacy of our lives and futures. For a poignant posthumanist film we give special mention to: Haulout by Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev."

GERMAN COMPETITION

Jury: Andreas Fock, Matt Lloyd, Genne Spears

JURY AWARD (2.000 €):
Sylvia Schedelbauer - Oh, Butterfly!
Jury statement: "Waves roll under an echoing lament for a lover across the ocean. The jury awards a multi-layered work of exhaustive research that places family history in dialogue with one of the most frequently reproduced works of twentieth century opera. The filmmaker uses archive footage organically to create a vivid and ornate palimpsest, touching on themes of race, Empire, migration and performance. This is a work of both rigour and excess; we applaud the filmmaker’s ambition, sensitivity and mastery of her material. The German Short Film Award goes to Oh, Butterfly! by Sylvia Schedelbauer."

SPECIAL MENTION
Mona Keil - Saft
Jury Statement: “To a film that efficiently summarizes a pandemic experience through a haunting, spellbinding and animated internal world. The special mention goes to an intense and well-crafted piece of unforgettable images: Saft by Mona Keil.”

TRIPLE AXEL COMPETITION (1.000€):

Kumaran Herold - Shining
Der Publikumspreis wird von der Hamburgischen Kulturstiftung unterstützt.

ARTE AWARD:

Morgan Quaintance - A Human Certainty
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€):

Daniel Aguirre - Pink Rider
The Audience Award is presented with kind support of Play Studios. It is awarded to a film from the International or the German Competition.

MO&FRIESE AWARDS:

Friese Award: Ursula Ulmi – IDODO, special mention: John Croezen – Fantastischer Flugwettkampf
Mo Award: Marcel Barelli – In der Natur, special mention: Wassili Franko & Paul Spengemann – Pocket Call
Neon Award: Laura Wadha – Born in Damaskus, special mention: Mark Albiston – Datsun
Nomination ECFA Short Film Award: Britt Raesh, Luce und der Stein
GIB MIR 5! Competition: Frieda Durago – Sei keine Flasche, Filmkids.ch – Le Train, Jessica, Leenay & Fatma – Können Katzen fliegen

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, to a film that deals with reality in a poetic, formal, analytical and unconventional way, ignoring all rules in a forward-looking way. It also awards the Hamburg candidate for the "European Short Film" award category of the European Film Academy. The Jury 2022 is:

Edwin
He is a filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Edwin studied film at the Jakarta Institute of Arts. His short “Kara, the Daughter of a Tree” became the first Indonesian film selected at Director's Fortnight in Cannes in 2005. His feature film debut ”Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly” got a Fipresci Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009. “Postcards from the Zoo”, his second feature, was in competition at Berlinale 2012. His latest project, “Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash” won a Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival 2021.

Florian Fischer
Florian Fischer, born 1981 in Tübingen, studied communication design, photography and image science. He was a participant in the Werkleitz Media Master Class and Berlinale Talents. In 2017, he was a scholarship holder at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and currently works as an author and media artist in Leipzig and Hamburg. His film "Umbra" won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlinale 2019 and was screened in the German Competition of the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg in the same year.

Andrea Lissoni
Since 2020, he is the Artistic Director of Haus der Kunst, Munich. He was formerly Senior Curator for International Art (Film) at Tate Modern, London, and curator at HangarBicocca, Milan. At Tate he launched and co-curated new exhibition formats, as the 2017 and 2018 Live Exhibition, the collection display and the live programme at the opening of the new building in 2016. His curatorial work is characterized by a focus on transdisciplinarity and subcultures.

Jyoti Mistry
She works with film as an interplay between cinematic traditions and installation art. Her films have screened at festivals including Toronto, Winterthur, Rotterdam and Durban, among others. Jyoti Mistry has been artist in residence at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam and the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and was a member of the International Short Film Jury at the 68th Berlinale. She is currently professor for film at the University of Gothenburg.

Caroline Monnet
Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe/French) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Montréal. She studied in Sociology and Communication at the University of Ottawa (Canada) and the University of Granada (Spain) before pursuing a career in visual arts and films. Her work has been programmed internationally at TIFF, Sundance, Rotterdam Film Festival, and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, among others. In 2016, she was selected for the Cannes Film Festival Cinéfondation residency in Paris.

An overview of all awards of the festival can be found here.

The Jury Award in the German Competition, endowed with 2,000 euros, is awarded by a three-member jury. The Jury 2022 is:

Andreas Fock
He is the founder and director of Filmfest Sundsvall in Northern Sweden. Andreas Fock worked at the Swedish Film Institute for several years with short film related matters; first being in charge of festival distribution for Swedish shorts at the International Department, then being the film commissioner for short films at the Film Funding Department between 2013 and 2016. Although mostly involved with festivals, distribution and funding, he co-wrote the script to the short “Public Gatherings” (dir. Ivana Lalovic, 2021).

Matt Lloyd
Matt Lloyd has worked in film exhibition in Scotland for over twenty years. He was short film programmer of Edinburgh International Film Festival between 2004 and 2008. Matt was director of Inverness Film Festival from 2006 to 2008, and produced two unique festivals in the Scottish Highlands for the Oscar-winning actor Tilda Swinton and filmmaker Mark Cousins. He has directed Glasgow Short Film Festival for eleven years, in which time it has grown from a modest two day event into Scotland’s leading international short film festival.

Genne Speers
Genne Speers is a scholar of the archive, film and art history as well as a practicing archivist, counter archival activist, programmer and arts administrator. Currently the Director of the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC). Founded in 1967, the CFMDC is a distribution centre and de-facto archive for one of the most important collections of analogue, artist made film and queer works in Canada. Speers holds an MA in Film Archiving from the University of East Anglia and is defending her PhD this spring from York University.

An overview of all awards of the festival can be found here.

In cooperation with Kampnagel and the International Short Film Festival Dresden we are showing a special event presenting the short films of Ukrainian directors. It was curated by festival director of the international short film festival Wiz-Art in Lviv Olha Raiter, who is currently staying in Bautzen. Six short films from Ukraine will be shown, reflecting life and everyday life before the war. The donations from this event will directly benefit the filmmakers* in Ukraine.

Short film programme: "In Joy and Sorrow"
Thursday, 5 May, 7pm at Kampnagel

The program shows:

The Surrogate by Stas Santimov, Ukraine, 2020.
A man destroys the nest of an unknown, scary creature. But it's not the scariest creature he'll encounter tonight.

Chacho by Vitalii Havura, Ukraine, 2020
Yanush has grown up in a conservative Romani community in a small Ukrainian town. He is about to get married, exactly what his parents want. But Yanush is gay and in love with another young man, Pasha. Together they decide to sneak away from the wedding and leave town, but can Yanush really do it?

Leopolis Night by Nikon Romanchenko, Ukraine, 2021.
Polia, Solomiia and Mariia are playing at the local theater. After the spectacle, they meet a man and walk together through the city at night. Polia seems to fall in love with him. In the morning he leaves town and they will not see each other again.

Dedicated to the Youth of the World II by Yarema Malashchuk & Roman Himey, Ukraine, 2019.
Yarema and Roman document Cxema, the biggest rave in Ukraine that emerged after the 2013-2014 revolution. The party offered the new generation a chance to reclaim the city, explore it and express themselves. The film was shot at Dovzhenko FilmStudios on April 21, 2018.

In Joy by Maryna Roshchyna, Ukraine, 2018.
Kate is a young, lonely mother. She falls in love with a man, but doesn't have the courage to tell him she has a son. As their relationship quickly develops, the revelation becomes more complicated. She is faced with a choice between her personal life and her responsibility to her son.

Deep Love by Mykyta Lyskov, Ukraine, 2019.
Love story with characters. The tape consists of plot and style independent episodes, which have a unified mood and meaning. The film was shot without words, a funny story meditation on interpersonal relationships is revealed through sounds.

Tickets

Foto: In Joy, Maryna Roshchyna

#31# (appel masqué), Ghyzlène Boukaïla, France/Algeria, 2021
2gether, Kim Ekberg, Sweden, 2022
A Human Certainty, Morgan Quaintance, UK, 2021
Amazon Woman, Anna Vasof, Austria, 2021
Anxious Body, Yoriko Mizushiri, France, 2021
Aromana, Vukan Zarkovic, Serbia/Netherlands, 2022

Au revoir Jérôme!, Adam Sillard/Chloé Farr/Gabrielle Selnet, France, 2022
Ayana, Anouk Meles, Switzerland, 2021
Becoming Male in the Middle Ages, Pedro Neves Marques, Portugal, 2022
Bird in the Peninsula, Atsushi Wada, France/Japan, 2022
Broken, Nan Khin San Win, Myanmar, 2021
Building an Edge, Britany Gunderson, UK, 2021
Dear Darkness, Antoinette Zwirchmayr, Austria, 2021
Displaced, Samir Karahoda, Kosovo, 2021
Fearkingdom, Linn Löffler/Kornel Szilagyi, Germany, 2022
Fruto do Vosso Ventre, Fábio Silva, Portugal, 2021
Golden Jubilee, Suneil Sanzgiri, USA, 2021
Handbuch, Pavel Mozhar, Deutschland, Belarus, 2021
Haulout , Evgenia Arbugaeva/Maxim Arbugaev, UK, 2022
Isn't It A Beautiful World, Joseph Wilson, UK, 2021
It's Raining Frogs Outside, Maria Estela Paiso, Philippines, 2021
Las Picapedreras, Azul Aizenberg, Argentina, 2021
Le Palais Oriental, Liana & Renaud, France, 2021
Madrugada, Leonor Noivo, Portugal, 2021
Moune Ô, Maxime Jean-Baptiste, French Guiana, 2022
نظربازی Nazarbazi, Maryam Tafakory, Iran, 2022
Odorless Blue Flowers Awake Prematurely, Panos Aprahamian, Lebanon, 2021
Parasite Family, Prapat Jiwarangsan, Thailand, 2022
Pervading Animal, Graeme Arnfield, UK, 2021
Virtual Voice, Suzannah Mirghani, Sudan/Qatar,2021
Pink Rider, Daniel Aguirre, Sweden, 2021
Regular, Nata Metlukh, USA, 2022
Starfuckers, Antonio Marziale, USA, 2022
Sycorax, Lois Patiño/Matías Piñeiro, Portugal, 2021
The Demands of Ordinary Devotion, Eva Giolo, Belgium, 2022
The Guy on the Bed, Mike Hoolboom, Canada, 2021
The Lighting, Chihying Musquiqui, Germany/Taiwan/Togo, 2021
under the microscope, Michaela Grill, Austria/Canada, 2021
urban solutions, Arne Hector/Luciana Mazeto/Minze Tummescheit/Vinícius Lopes, Germany, 2022
Wasteland No. 3: Moons, Sons, Jodie Mack, USA, 2021
Zumindest bin ich draußen gewesen, Jan Soldat, Austria, 2021
كل نجومك على صباطي All of your Stars are but Dust on my Shoes, Haig Aivazian, Lebanon, 2021
醉死梦生 Dreaming, Nelson Yeo, Singapore, 2021

Filmstill: Starfuckers

1 Kilo – 3 Euro, Ani Mrelashvili, Germany, 2022
backflip, Nikita Diakur, Germany/France, 2022
Bird in Italian is Uccello, Gernot Wieland, Germany, 2021
Blind Date, Jan Soldat, Germany/Austria, 2022
Briefe an Schewik, Itamar Gov, Germany, 2021
Dead body pose, Ann Oren, Germany, 2022

Der Tote im Livestream, Christian Bau, Germany, 2022
Die Hüter des Unrats. Eine kurze Geschichte des Abfalls, Susann Maria Hempel, Germany, 2022
Echodrom (Nachts im Bach), Gudrun Krebitz, Germany/Austria, 2022
Eine Hexe in Vorbereitung zur Walpurgisnacht, Helena Aljona Kühn, Germany, 2022
En-countering Cyberfeminism, Malin Kuht, Germany, 2021
Exterior, Kaspar Peters, Germany, 2021
First Work, Then Play, Brenda Lien, Germany, 2022
HOMESICK, Bjørn Melhus, Germany, 2022
Lamarck, Marian Mayland, Germany, 2022
Oh, Butterfly!, Sylvia Schedelbauer, Germany, 2022
Pocket Call, Paul Spengemann, Germany, 2021
Rüdiger, Philipp Hartmann, Germany, 2022
Saft, Mona Keil, Germany, 2022
Sonne Unter Tage, Alex Gerbaulet/Mareike Bernien, Germany, 2022
Sortes, Mónica Martins Nunes, Germany /Portugal, 2021
Summer Fling, Jasmin Preiß, Germany, 2022
The Capacity for Adequate Anger, Vika Kirchenbauer, Germany, 2021
Unterwegs im Namen der Kaiserin Prequel, Jovana Reisinger, Germany, 2022
Zoon, Jonatan Schwenk, Germany, 2022

Filmstill: First Work, Then Play

Blocks, Adrian Jaffé, Germany, 2022
Boxcar Wizards, Julie Goldstein, USA, 2022
Calor da Gota, Júlia Balista, Brazil, 2022
Cherchez la Femme - Ida Pfeiffer, Julie Gavras/Mathieu Decarli, France, 2021
DAMN IT!, Elena Walf, Germany, 2021
Die Meise der Pinguinin, Carsten Knoop/Dorit Kiesewetter, Germany, 2022

Es ist genau genug Zeit, Oskar Salomonowitz/Widrich Virgil, Austria, 2021
First Kiss (With A Girl), Clodagh Chapman, UK, 2020
Fishing No.: 1, Andrej Polukord, Lithuania, 2018
Mimi - On Thin Ice, Ipek Köysürenbars, Germany, 2022
Mitch-Match Series #31, Géza M. Tóth, Hungary, 2021
On Very Thin Ice With Smokers!, Edward Lyon, UK, 2022
Polkappen der Erinnerung, Joachim Hofmann, Germany, 2021
Première Garde (First Guard), Arsène Chabrier, France, 2021
Schöner als Zuhause, Marie Pauline Bagh, Germany, 2022
Shining, Kumaran Herold, Germany, 2022
Soapless Soap, Tamar Sharvit, Israel, 2021
Swan Attack, Gary Parker, UK, 2022
The Tales of Nasreddin Hodja - Deadly Danger, Miklós Gerdelics. Hungary, 2021
Thin Ice 3000, Vincent Wittich, Germany, 2022
White Hole, Kalle Anker, Germany, 2022
You Talking' to Me?, Carlo Galbiati, Italy, 2021
房间内外 Inside and Outside the Room, Fengzhou Yang, People’s Republic of China, 2021

Filmstill: Fishing No. 1

Sneak peak at the programme 2022
In large parts of the world, what we call "future" is already a tangible reality. Under the motto Echoes from the Near Future, the 38th Short Film Festival Hamburg brings numerous of these perspectives to Hamburg and lets them echo in cinematic spaces. The aim is to identify a common future through constructive, artistic contributions from the present.

In addition to the three competitions (International Competition, German Competition, Triple Axel) and curated film programs, the festival also presents exhibitions, open airs, discussions and other events. This year, the programs in the Laboratory of the Present section look at three themes: The biggest focus is on a variety of different Asian perspectives, and with five curated programs, sets a clear Asian focus that also runs throughout the festival. Curators include filmmaker Pimpaka Towira (Thailand), Berlin-based Chinese filmmaker and queer activist Popo Fan, and international artist collectives, including the activist group Collective, based in Taiwan. Filmmaker, curator and film curator Mark Toscano, who has been active in the Academy Film Archive for many years, explores the themes of intoxication and ecstasy through an analog film program at the festival. The "Hamburg Positions" negotiate living spaces in Hamburg and beyond, looking in particular at the practice of squatting.

In the Archive of the Present, Tobias Hering devotes himself to migrant film in Germany. Curated by the Indonesian collective Lab Laba Laba (Edwin, Lisabona Rahman and Rizki Lazuardi), the exhibition Open Space will feature installative works that explore different ways of interpreting the concept of "home." In addition to the cinematic and artistic programs, seminars, workshops and discussion events will provide space for current social and professional issues. At the same time, the Forum opens up to the public with moderated thematic discussion rounds.

After two years of pandemic, the festival center in 2022 will finally be the POST at Kaltenkircher Platz in Altona again. In addition to pop-up cinemas indoors and outdoors, the exhibition hall Open Space, festival café, bar and music in the evening, the POST is above all a space for getting to know each other, having fun and engaging in dialogue - and therefore open to all and free of charge. Cinema screenings will take place, as usual, at 3001, B-Movie, filmRaum, Lichtmess, Metropolis and Zeise.

More information about the 38th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg very soon!

Filmstill: Solaris © Tromarama

Here's this years Selection Committee for the German Competition:

Nadine Mayer moved from Stuttgart to Hamburg to study for her Master's degree in Culture and Media Management. In 2011 she started working for the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg at the info counter, was responsible for the film market and joined the selection team for the German Competition in 2014. At the same time, she got to know the artist group "A Wall is a Screen", with whom she travels the country to project short films on walls. Her main job also revolves around moving images, most recently as a producer of documentary films for TV.

Stine Wangler studied at Leuphana University in Lüneburg and at Glamorgan University in Wales. She wrote her thesis in cultural studies about short films on the internet. Since 2012 she has been working at the Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg and is responsible for world sales and purchase of licenses for short films. On the side, she occasionally works as a photographer. Since 2013, she has been a viewing member of the German Competition at the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg.

David Kleingers is head of the digital department and strategic development at the DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum. As a film journalist and historian, he has published numerous articles and book chapters on German, European and international cinema. He is also curator of the Maple Movies Festival, dedicated to contemporary Canadian film.

Deniz Şimşek is a filmmaker and media artists living in Berlin. Having studied film in Istanbul at MSFAU, she is currently studying art and media at the UdK Berlin, under Prof. Thomas Arslan. Her works have been shown internationally in exhibitions, art and film festivals, including the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Kasseler Dokfest, European Media Art Festival and Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. Deniz is part of the 5th edition of the Federal Association AG Kurzfilm and German Films’ Emerging Artists program.

Hanna Schneider is a film and literature scholar. She has been the co project manager of SchulKinoWoche Hamburg since 2013. In the same year, she began working at the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg - initially in the organizational areas of partner communication and fundraising, as well as a screener for the International Competition. Since 2018, she has been the viewing director for the German Competition. She also works as a film mediator, especially for children and young people, and writes film educational texts.

We proudly present: Our selection committee for the 2022 International Competition!

Sarnt Utamachote (ษาณฑ์ อุตมโชติ) is a nonbinary filmmaker, curator and co-founder of un.thai.tled, an artist collective from the German Thai diaspora with whom they curated the un.thai.tled Film Festival Berlin and Beyond the kitchen: Stories from the Thai Park. The video installation I Am Not Your Mother (2020) was exhibited at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the short film Soy Sauce (2020) was screened at OutFest Fusion LA, Xposed Berlin and Queer East London 2021, among others.

Nora Molitor studied Intercultural Communication, Spanish and History in Saarbrücken and Paris. 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) and BIEFF (Bucharest). She also supervises the Border Crossers Program of the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Literary Colloquium Berlin. She is co-founder of transdemo e.V., member of LaborBerlin e.V. and curates and coordinates interdisciplinary projects in Berlin's independent scene.

Alejo Franzetti was born in Buenos Aires. He is a member of the selection committees of Berlinale Shorts and the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. He studied 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, 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 has been co-founder and programmer of INVASION, the Argentine film festival in Berlin that helds since 2014.

Marian Freistühler is a filmmaker based in Hamburg, Germany. He studied film at the University of Fine Arts (HFBK) Hamburg and co-founded the production company Ohne Falsch Film whose films were shown at several international festivals. For producing the short documentary ALTURAS (D 2020, 30’), Marian received the German Short Film Award 2020. His bachelor graduation film ISLANDS IN THE CITY (D 2021, 23’) was selected in Clermont-Ferrand and Hof, among others. He has been a programmer at Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg since 2020.

Theresa George studied ethnology, political science and journalism at the University of Leipzig (2005-13) and has since been working as a freelance film anthropologist between cultural theory and film (mediation). She teaches Visual Anthropology (HafenCityUniversity, University of Bremen), works for film festivals (Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Kasseler DokFest, 2Rivers Festival), conceives film series / lectures / installations in diverse collaborations and co-developed numerous film projects (e.g. for Helena Wittmann, Philipp Hartmann, Luise Donschen, Adnan Softic). Currently, 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.

Sebastian Markt Sebastian Markt studied history and philosophy in Vienna and Berlin. He is the head of programming for Berlinale Generation and part of the programming team for dokfilmwoche Berlin. He writes on film for the publications Sissy, Perlentaucher, Indiekino and Die Zeit, among others. He is a projectionist.

Maike Mia Höhne is a German film director, film curator, professor of film, mother of two children. She lives and works in Hamburg. From 2007 to 2019, she played a key role in shaping the profile of the short film section Berlinale Shorts at the Berlin International Film Festival as curator and director. In 2019, she took over as artistic director at Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. Since 2019, she has been a professor at the University of Applied Science Europe at the Hamburg Campus in the Department of Art & Design for the Film program.

Felix Piatkowski, born in Rostock, 15 years in Hamburg studying media culture, working at the media center, in the cinema and since 2008 at the international short film festival Hamburg. Moved to Berlin in 2017 and turned to psychoanalysis, but never turned his back on Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg and has now been there for 15 editions.

Anna Feistel 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 in a communal cinema. Since 2016 she has worked in several positions at Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg. She is a member of the selection committee and programme coordinator of Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg.

Lighthouse: Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg präsentiert...
Diesen Sommer sind wir bei verschiedenen Veranstaltungen mit einer Auswahl von Kurzfilm Programmen zu Gast. Hier die aktuellsten:

7. August
Lighthouse @ fux Lichtspiele Open Air: Die Stadt von Morgen
Zu Gast bei den fux Lichtspielen in Hamburg-Altona (Bodenstedtstr. 16), Beginn 21:00 Uhr, Tickets nur an der Abendkasse, Kontaktdaten müssen am Einlass angegeben werden.
DIE STADT VON MORGEN
“Architektur war meine Art, meine Ideale auszudrücken:
Einfach zu sein, eine Welt zu schaffen, die allen gleich ist, Menschen optimistisch anzusehen,
dass jeder ein Geschenk hat. Ich will nichts als allgemeines Glück. Warum ist das so schlimm?", fragt Oscar Niemeyer,
einer der größten Architekten und Stadtplaner des 20. Jahrhunderts. Wir blicken auf Orte, die einst als neue, menschenfreundliche Visionen von Stadt geplant waren. Wir schauen auf zweckgerichtete Räumen und ihrer Umnutzung, wirtschaftsfreundlicher Stadtplanung und künstlerischem Widerstand, architektonische Visionen und ihre aktuelle Realität. Ein Kurzfilmprogramm.

1. CITY NORD - JOCHEN BRAUER SEXTETT
   Deutschland 1971 | 1:40
   Das Jochen-Brauer-Sextett und die City Nord. Die schöne, neue Welt der 1970er Jahre.
2. DIE DRITTE GENERATION DES WOHLFÜHLENS
   Ulrike Hemberger, Karl Hoffmann, Rainer Hällfritzsch | Deutschland 1998 | 11:48
   Die Daimler-Benz AG errichtet seit 1994 auf dem Potsdamer Platz in Berlin einen neuen Stadtteil. Der Konzern empfiehlt sich als guter Mitbürger. Man schenkt der Öffentlichkeit einen nagelneuen Potsdamer Platz. Aber wem gehört das Ganze nun wirklich?
3. FUTURO - A New Stance for Tomorrow
   Mika Taanila | Finnland 1998 | 29:00
   Ein Dokumentarfilm über unsere kürzlich vergangene Zukunft. Er handelt von den Ideen und Visionen der späten 1960er Jahre, in der Architekten und Designer in Plastik die Lösung für die meisten unserer Probleme sahen.
4. SCAPE DELUSION
   Cora Durmann | Deutschland 2021 | 4:45
   Die Suche nach Intimität mit dem urbanen Glasimperium. Die Geburt von Hamburgs höchstem AutoCAD-Phallus.
   Als trügerische Versöhnung zeigt »Scape Delusion« die intime Interaktion zwischen Mensch und Architektur, die die Regisseurin als eine maßgebliche Ursache für die Raumentfremdung in der modernen computergezeichneten Stadt begreift. Der Film endet mit der Illusion einer irdischen Geburt des Elbtowers, der kommenden Krone der Hamburger Hafencity.
5. SERIAL PARALLELS
   Max Hattler | Deutschland, Hongkong 2019 | 9:00
   Hongkong ­ Stadt der Wohnsiedlungen, die sich dem Horizont entgegenstrecken. Die Umdeutung der für die Stadt charakteristischen Architektur zu parallelen Filmstreifen ­ Serial Parallels. Die Annäherung an Hongkong passiert über die Technik der analogen Fotografie. Das Gestern trifft auf das Heute.
6. BLACK MOON
   Amie Siegel | USA 2010 | 20:00
   Als Science-Fiction der Gegenwart ohne Dialoge durchquert Siegels "Black Moon" mehrere Filmtropen - Action, Waffen, einsame Lagerfeuer, das Ende der Welt - und verweigert sich, wie seine Bande bewaffneter Revolutionärinnen, einem festen Genre oder einer Erzählung. Angesiedelt in der post-apokalyptischen Landschaft von abgeschotteten Wohnsiedlungen in Florida und Kalifornien, werden die Häuser und leeren Straßen zu Protagonisten einer stillen Erzählung, einer Dokumentation der jüngsten Vergangenheit.
7. VACANCY
   Matthias Müller | Deutschland 1998 | 15:00
   Brasilia, "Hauptstadt der Hoffnung", "die letzte Utopie des 20. Jahrhunderts" (Umberto Eco), wird heute als "Weltkulturerbe der Menschheit" bewahrt. Ein Schauplatz - so alt wie der Filmemacher. Eigene Bilder von 1998 treffen auf Amateurmaterial und Spielfilmsegmente von 1960. "Vacancy" zeigt den utopischen Ort als einen von Menschen verlassenen; allein Wärter und Putzkolonnen bevölkern ihn wie Statisten.

We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 37th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg! All award-winning films can now be seen in the programme Preisträger:innen 2021.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

HAMBURG SHORT FILM AWARD (3.000€):
Mouaad el Salem - This Day Won't Last
Jury Statement: "A strong, unanimous decision by the jury to award the Hamburg Short Film Award to This Day Won't Last. Mouaad el Salem's film takes us into the hiding places of those who are not visible, whose story does not belong to the official narrative, whose voice whispers but is not the one that speaks. Filmmaking in its most necessary form. This Day Won't Last is an urgent film in style and substance, equally gentle and powerful in its exploration of sexuality and the right of all people to live freely. An ingeniously edited composition, ranging from dreams and metaphors to everyday accounts, reveals historically and systemically repressed feelings as fear in a very immediate way."

DEFRAMED PRIZE (€2,000):
Olga Lucovnicova - Nanu Tudor (My Uncle Tudor).
Jury Statement: "Very slowly, almost tenderly and imperceptibly, she pulls the rug out from under our feet. A disturbing piece of family history told with rarely seen directness that sticks. My Uncle Tudor is an unflinching and courageous look into the rarely spoken violence of the family environment. With simple means, this touching film proves that great cinema is possible on a small budget." The Deframed Prize, endowed with 2,000 euros, is awarded by the International Jury to a film that deals with reality in a poetic, formal, analytical and unconventional way, ignoring all rules in a forward-looking way.

HAMBURG SHORT FILM CANDIDATE FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS:
Kristin Johannessen - Minnen (Memories)

SPECIAL MENTION:
Special Mention: Léo Bittencourt - Vagalumes (Fireflies)
Jury Statement: "A work of pure cinema. The jury gives Vagalumes a special mention for its mysterious and sensual glimpses into the lives and rhythms of those who live in the shadows."

Jury International Competition: Chuko Esiri, Kirsten Tan, Tasja Langenbach, Nina Rodríguez, Marcel Derek Ramsay

GERMAN COMPETITION

GERMAN COMPETITION JURY PRIZE (2,000 €):
Katharina Huber - The Natural Death of the Mouse
Jury Statement: "Sitting in the cinema and experiencing this film ... that is pure freedom. The director invites us to wander across the screen and right into the thought worlds of her protagonist. Everything is possible, just because it can be thought, said, drawn: Heads roll, dear cats are allowed to purr mischievously, and flowers grow out of our feet! Katharina Huber plays with bravura on the keyboard of the animated short form and gives the viewer a simultaneously personal and self-ironic encounter that also invites us to reflect on our present condition."

Jury German Competition: Zamarin Wahdat, Monika Treut, Florian Weghorn

TRIPLE AXEL COMPETITION (1,000€):

Anna Maria Schmidt - Money the Movie.
The Audience Award is supported by the Hamburg Cultural Foundation.

ARTE AWARD:

Alisha Tejpal - Lata
Jury statement: "Lata is a film of silent observation of everyday gestures that not only have an aesthetic effect but also convey a political message. A door is opened... entry into a universe... a door is closed."
The ARTE Short Film Award consists of the purchase of a film (up to 6,000 euros) by ARTE, the Franco-German cultural broadcaster, and is awarded on an inter-competitive basis. The winning film will be broadcast on ARTE in the short film magazine "Kurzschluss".

AUDIENCE AWARD (1500€):

Güzin Kar - Your Street
The Audience Award is given to a film from the International or the German Competition.

ESA NEW WORLDS PITCHING COMPETITION:

Katarzyna Pajzderska - Hey Galaxy
Denis McCardle - Malik's Mission to Mars
Jury: Alexandra Gramatke, Christoffer Ode, Jan Peters, Iacopo Baroncini

MO&FRIESE KINDER KURZFILM FESTIVAL:

Friese Prize: Géza M. Tóth - Mitch-Match #22, special mention: B-MOLL - Oana Lacroix
Mo Prize: Guillaume Lorin - Vanille, special mentions: Paulina Muratore - Small Forest, Henrike Rothe - Here and Loud.
Neon Prize: Milou Gevers - Why Didn't You Stay for Me?, special mentions: Katarina Rešek - Sisters, Nata Metlukh - Awkward.
Nomination ECFA Short Film Award: Said Hamich, Le Depart
GIB MIR 5! Competition: Frieda Dugaro - I Am Me, Milo Gallas - Alone, Moviebande - Herzog's Wbsgdwts-Bad

I AM BECAUSE WE ARE

»I hope that money, coolness and competition will have less importance in our life«
Maike Mia Höhne, artistic director of the Short Film Festival Hamburg, in conversation with Flóra Anna Buda

Flóra, what were your first thoughts when we told you our theme for this year and asked you to do the trailer?
The feeling of togetherness. How similarly we are connected to each other, like the atoms in the molecules, our cells in our bodies, the pieces of the universe or the trees in a forest.


What does WE represent for you personally? And for your working process?
When I think about my own stories, I don’t find them unique at all. But I still find it important to talk about them. Because we all are experiencing a lot of similar feelings and life events and it is beautiful to put the focus on that and find ways to connect with each other. When that connection happens, that means WE to me.
I’m an animator and animation is often a team work. When I work on a film it means the world to me. If I manage to find likeminded individuals to build this world together, I feel the same feeling of belonging. And it usually comes with challenges, compromises and conflicts. To me it works similarly like in many other connections in life and it requires you to trust your instincts, your conscious mind and your willingness of understanding.


Pink is the beginning of life and it is very present in your flow. Any influence or just a contingency?
I wanted to find a colour that has a cheerful vibe and radiates love. I thought this magenta is quite an exciting and lively colour and could be perfect for highlighting such an important message.


Who is important for you as a role model and why?
Anais Nin, Rihanna, Niki de Saint Phalle and Miranda July. They are truly inspiring strong women with unique voices. They are not afraid of being different and weird, and they have quite divergent minds. They experiment with multiple genres and mediums, they manage to step up for important topics by staying human and reflecting on themselves and on the world in a humorous fashion.


Do you work analog or digitally? Can you describe your workflow?
It is always a bit different. I admire analogue techniques and often use them if I create a drawing, or even with animation sometimes. But, many times I need to work quite quickly, and for that, software programs are good tools. I like to experiment digitally, like in the case of this trailer. My work flow starts with an idea or concept: Then a great confusion comes, followed first by fear, then the good old impostor syndrome. As I start playing with the software, colours, shapes and textures, I end up enjoying it and the fear transforms into excitement. It can lead to this ecstatic feeling that I really like and often end up chasing. And then I go to sleep, wake up and check what I did - and it is rubbish! But then I’m not scared anymore to go into it again and step by step find the way to get the most out of my thoughts from the day before, and find an end result that works.


What are you wishes for the future?
I hope we are going to get closer to each other and I hope that different points of view are going to meet more often and I wish it would bring us a greater understanding of each other. I hope that money, coolness and competition will have less importance in our life and I hope we can manage to focus on the things that brings us closer, instead of judging on the differences.

Al motociclista no le cabe la felicidad en el traje • Gabriel Herrera • Mexico 2021
Amaryllis – A Study • Jayne Parker • Great Britain 2020
Bambirak • Zamarin Wahdat • USA, Germany 2020
Bébé Colère • Jonathan Vinel, Caroline Poggi • France, Italy 2021
Because the Sky is Blue • Wenhua Shi • China, USA 2020
Deine Strasse • Güzin Kar • Switzerland 2020
Die seismische Form • Antoinette Zwirchmayr • Austria 2020
Écoutez le battement de nos images • Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Audrey Jean-Baptiste • France, French Guiana 2021
Erde essen • Laura Weissenberger • Austria 2021
Filles bleues, peur blanche • Lola Halifa-Legrand Halifa-Legrand, Marie Jacotey • France 2020
Flowers blooming in our throats • Eva Giolo • Belgium, Italy 2020

For the Sake of Calmness • Newsha Tavakolian • Iran 2020
Giòng Sông Không Nhìn Thấy • Phạm Ngọc Lân • Vietnam 2020
I like Tomorrow • Jennifer Reeder, Nancy Andrews • USA 2021
In the Air Tonight • Andrew Norman Wilson • USA 2020
Lata • Alisha Tejpal • India 2020
Lemongrass Girl • Pom Bunsermvicha • Thailand 2021
Luz De Presença • Diogo Costa Amarante • Portugal 2021
Marriage Story • Jessica Dunn Rovinelli·• USA 2020
Miegamasis rajonas • Vytautas Katkus • Lithuania 2020
Minnen • Kristin Johannessen • Sweden 2020
Mudança • Welket Bungué • Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal 2021
Nanu Tudor • Olga Lucovnicova • Belgium, Hungary, Portugal 2020
Ob Scena • Paloma Orlandini Castro • Argentina 2021
Oceano Mare • Antoinette Zwirchmayr • Austria 2021
Once Upon a Screen: Explosive Paradox • Kevin B. Lee • USA 2020
One Hundred Steps • Barbara Wagner, Benjamin de Burca • Germany, France 2021
Pride • Claudrena N. Harold, Kevin Jerome Everson • USA 2021
Surviving You, Always • Morgan Quaintance • Great Britain 2020
Tang Jër • Selly Raby Kane • Senegal 2020
The End of Suffering (a proposal) • Jacqueline Lentzou • Greece 2020
The Hole's Journey • Ghita Skali • Morocco, Netherlands 2020
The Light of Day • Alex Eisenberg, Anne Bean • Great Britain 2020
There must be some kind of way out of here • Rainer Kohlberger • Austria, Germany 2020
Tracing Utopia • Catarina de Sousa, Nick Tyson • Portugal 2021
Two Sons and a River of Blood • Angelo Madsen Minax, Amber Bemak • Mexico, USA 2021
Vadim na progulke • Sasha Svirsky • Russia 2021
Vagalumes • Léo Bittencourt • Brazil 2020
VO • Nicolas Gourault • France 2020
We'll find you when the sun goes black • Anouk De Clercq • Belgium, Norway 2021
هذا اليوم لن يدوم / This day won't last • Mouaad el Salem • Belgium, Tunisia 2020
ថ្ងៃរះក្នុងចិត្ត / Sunrise in My Mind• Danech San • Cambodia 2020

Filmstill: Erde Essen

Film Selection:

• Pierre Bagieu
• Alejo Franzetti
• Maike Mia Höhne
• Marian Freistühler
• Theresa George
• Sebastian Markt
• Vanessa Nica Mueller
• Anna Feistel

Adrenochrom · Daniel Hopp · Germany 2020
AIVA · Veneta Androva · Bulgaria, Germany 2020
American Express · Häly Heinecker · Germany 2020
ANDERS · Nanna Maria Wibholm · Germany, Denmark 2020
BAB7 · Nizan Kasper · Germany 2020
Biting the dust · NEOZOON · Germany 2021
Centauress · Deniz Şimşek · Germany, Turkey 2020
disjointed · Clara Helbig · Great Britain, Germany 2020
Es wird Schuhe regnen (It Will Rain Shoes) · Mariola Brillowska · Germany 2021
Ewig Gast (Eternal Guest) · Maximilian Karakatsanis · Germany 2020
Das Glitzern im Barbieblut (Glittering Barbieblood) · Ulu Braun · Germany 2021
Der Heinz, der gräbt ein Loch in ein Stück Land · Karsten Krause · Germany 2021
Die klaffende Wunde (The Gaping Wound) · Jovana Reisinger · Germany 2020

From the In and Outside · Dyaa Naim · Germany 2021
Lower Ambitions · Irem Schwarz · Germany 2021
Michael Ironside and I · Marian Mayland · Germany 2020
Misty Picture · Matthias Mueller, Christoph Girardet · Germany 2021
Der Natürliche Tod der Maus (The Natural Death of a Mouse) · Katharina Huber · Germany 2020
Nicht die brasilianischen Homosexuellen sind pervers, sondern die Situation, in der sie leben (It Is Not the Brazilian Homosexuals Who Are Perverse but the Situation in Which They Live) · Eduardo Mamede, Paulo Menezes, Leandro Godinho · Germany 2021
Octavia's Visions · Zara Zandieh · Germany 2021
Revolykus · Victor Orozco Ramirez · Germany, Mexico 2020
(Steve) Temple · Tanita Olbrich · Germany, United States 2020
Was wahrscheinlich passiert wäre, wäre ich nicht zuhause geblieben. (What Probably Would Have Happened, If I Hadn't Stayed at Home.) · Willy Hans · Germany 2020
Who Is Afraid of Ideology? Part III - Micro Resistencias · Marwa Arsanios · Germany 2020
winterlieb - libawka · Maja Nagel, Julius Günzel · Germany 2020

Filmstill: BAB7

Film Selection:

• Lars Frehse
• Philipp Fröhlich
• Anne Jagemann
• David Kleingers
• Nadine Mayer
• Hanna Schneider
• Stine Wangler

10-lagige Katastrophe · Tim Bero Kauff · Germany 2021
999 · Vincent Leplat · France 2021
Anatomie eines Weltverständnisses · Alexander Fischer (aka Peskador) · Germany 2020
Armor Man · Alex Glawion · Germany 2020
BENZTOWN · Gottfried Mentor · Germany 2021
Classe Verte (Environment 101) · Lucas Zef, Arsène Chabrier · France 2020
Distance Film · Siegfried A. Fruhauf · Austria 2020
Dollar or Egyptian Pound? · Nadim Suleiman · Egypt 2020
Edge of Doom · Michaela Grill, Sophie Trudeau · Austria, Canada 2020
Fals Che Trennung · Dorit Kiesewetter, Carsten Knoop · Germany 2021
Fire · Gauri Bhonsle · India/USA 2020
Flamenco · Paulo Scatena · Germany 2021

FORTEpiano · Ernesto Loaiza · Brazil 2021
Just In Case · Céline Ahlbrecht, Insa Meyer, Alina Saltheim · Germany 2021
Lockdown Anthem · Efstathios Avramidis · Germany 2020
Mad Mask - Fury Roll · Stéphane Berla · France 2020
MITCH-MATCH series #17 · Géza M. Tóth · Hungary 2020
Moai Báhtaretne · Liselotte Wajstedt · Sweden 2020
money the movie · Anna Maria Schmidt · Germany 2021
Pech · Patrick Leppert · Switzerland 2021
Tabu · Olga Kosanovic · Austria 2020
Twice · John Smith · Great Britain 2020
Vieras · Pasi Räsänen · Finland 2020
Whale Power · Felix Klee · Germany 2021
Wirbelwinde auf dem Eis · Kalle Anker · Germany 2021

Filmstill: Forte Piano

Film Selection:
Andrea Schöler
Anna Leimbrinck
Axel Behrens
Berit Wilkes
Silja Ebeling
Tilman Bensiek

Shorts programme The Need to Dance - 20 till 25 May

New program format of the Kurzfilmagentur Hamburg: We Love it Short

Stream here for 5 Euros.

Facebook Event

Under this title we will publish several times a year curated short film programs from distribution and sales, festival, archive and also presented by guest curators. We start with an online program around dance and music, love, pain and empowerment. #1 Tanzangebot

For German residents we offer an online shorts programme on dance and hope, love and despair. With seven shorts we celebrate the emotional and political power of dance. This programme is supposed to keep up the spirit during endless lockdowns and closed clubs and Operas. Dancing is possible - even at night in the gas station.

Streaming available in German territory from May 20-25

Films:

Reizigers in de Nacht • 09'46 • Ena Sendijarević • The Netherlands 2014
The Burden • 14'10 • Niki Lindroth von Bahr • Sweden 2017
Black Bus Stop • 09'25 • Kevin Jerome Everson, Claudrena N. Harold • U.S. 2019
Juck • 17'34 • Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert, Ulrika Bandeira • Sweden 2018
Metube 3 • 10'00 • Daniel Moshel • Austria 2020
Slaves of the Rave • 02'40 • William Garratt • Great Britain 2014
One Night in Tokoriki • 18'00 • Roxana Stroe • Romania 2016

The Hamburg Short Film Festival will take place from 1 June to 7 June. This year’s motto is I AM BECAUSE WE ARE, based on Ubuntu, South Africa’s philosophy of unity. I can only be, really be, when we all are. We, as a society, must ask ourselves the question of solidarity within the small and the big picture. Culture is one of the decisive motors that keeps us, as a society, together. The collective experience of something that is bigger than its individual constituents.
The trailer for the 37th Short Film Festival was animated by the Hungarian artist Flóra Anna Buda and it shines in bright colours and picks up the festival’s motto. More and more circles encounter each other, the flickering becomes a light, a shining beacon. Life goes on! This year will be digital and analogue, together, solidary and filled with the thrill of anticipation of things to come.

OUTLOOK
The Contemporary Laboratory is the festival’s space for reflection and discussion, and in 2021, it throws a spotlight on three focal points: The Hamburg Positions are dedicated to cultural spaces and urban development. In film programmes and discussion groups, they ask what sort of structures and concepts are needed to create lasting and visionary places of public spirit. The curator Alex Moussa presents a selection of works from the contemporary African short film scene in Afrotopia – In the Present Sense. The focus is on characters and films who, intricately linked to African narrative traditions, create new ways of telling stories, develop utopias, question forms of solidarity and show spaces of possibilities unknown in Europe. We are creating a catalogue of gestures (for and according to Vilèm Flusser) in Gestimmtheiten – Das Kino und die Gesten (Attunement – Cinema and Gestures). Wipe, tip, shake – these three gesticulations alone, which we perform every day with our cell phones, show how our stock of gestures is constantly evolving. The Open Space, the festival’s exhibition format, will present Akram Zaatari’s installation Dance to the End of Love. The performative works of this contemporary artist, curator and archivist from Lebanon encourage their viewers to keep going on. Let’s dance!


PROGRAMME
Once again, the Hamburg Short Film Festival presents the short form’s state of the art. In three great competitions, the International Competition, the German Competition and the Triple Axel, film makers and artists compete for prizes of a combined value of over 19,000€. In the Contemporary Laboratory, curated film programmes introduce questions, conditions and commentaries on contemporary issues which are then discussed in the forum with guests. Furthermore, there’s the Contemporary Archive, performances, industry events and plenty of additional screenings between flicker, horror and humour. The whole programme and more detailed information will be published in May 2021.


Mo&Friese
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 show contemporary short films in their international competitions. You can find out more about Mo&Friese here).


Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg: Tuesday, 1 June to Monday, 7 June 2021
Mo&Friese Children’s Short Film Festival: Sunday, 30 May to Monday, 7 June