This competition mirrors the entire range of contemporary short film productions and presents a selection of short films of all genres. Unlike many other short film festivals, we give our audiences the chance to watch narrative shorts alongside documentaries, animated films and experimental short films. It is exactly this careful mix of types and genres which makes our festival's International Competition so special. This way, an experimental world premiere from Thailand may be screened right after a Coming-Out story from Poland or the most recent winner of Locarno. This careful placement adds a kind of wonderful surplus value because it creates cross connections across continents and displays aesthetic parallels as well as flickering counter currents.

34 short films compete for the Hamburg Short Film Award (3,000 euros), which is chosen by a jury of three. The audience votes for the best short film from both the International and the German competition, and the winner receives the Audience Award (1,500 euros).

Best of Internationaler Wettbewerb: Sunday June 11th | 20:00 h | Zeise 1

Film selection: Jan Feddersen, Theresa George, Birgit Glombitza, Steffen Goldkamp, Frank Scheuffele,
Hanna Schneider, Helena Wittmann

More Infos about the programmes you will find here:

International Competition / Programme 1

International Competition/ Programme 2

International Competition / Programme 3

International Competition / Programme 4

International Competition / Programme 5

International Competiton / Programme 6

Internationaler Wettbewerb / Programm 7

Internationaler Wettbewerb / Programm 8

Change of Perspective

In times in which the world seems to be changing at an ever faster pace and old certainties are lost, people will desperately attempt to learn as much as possible in order to get a clear picture of the world and gain some understanding of the past, present and future. But once the viewer gets too close, the big picture is blurred out, and all that is left are small, seemingly unrelated, details. Short films can help overcome these cognitive deficits by opening up new perspectives, allowing the viewers to get an impression of the bigger picture.

People from all over the world on their not always metaphorical journeys making a stopover as well as male gazes reducing women to their physicality or mere objects of projection demonstrate the fragile nature of the line between ›Rest and Unrest‹. The constraints of individual biographies, culture and society are often stronger than anticipated, and not every ›Predetermined Breaking Point‹ enables the individual to escape. Upon closer inspection, ›Profits, Paint and Particle Physics‹ reveal overlaps, the inherent beauty of ugliness and the long shadows of small things. Beyond the glare of the spotlights, miscarriages of justice, destructions in the name of environmental protection and deeply rooted traumata stay hidden ›In the Darkness, out of Sight‹. In the end the question arises whether there is more to ›The World as Will and Representation‹ than just propaganda, ideology, violence, mass media and consumerism.

As always, we hope our audience will enjoy the programmes, and we are looking forward to collectively create new impressions and points of view which will challenge the apparent truths we have come to cherish.

Text Lars Frehse

Film selection Lars Frehse, Alexandra Gramatke, Ella Hebendanz, Anne Jagemann, Nadine Mayer, Stine Wangler