Distributing Europe

Short Films to the Big Screens!
All over Europe, film distributors are working on this challenge. There is an interesting landscape for distributors of experimental films. From now on, we are going to invite them to Hamburg. This year we are presenting a selection of films from the Hamburg distributor of experimental and artistic films VETO. VETO explicitly refers to the Hamburg based Filmmachercooperative which used to produce and distribute films beyond all commercial exploitation for some time 50 years ago. »Short Matters« are the short film programmes of the European Film Academy that annually awards the best short film. The Hamburg Short Film Festival joined in 2019, nominating a candidate for the next European Short Film Award from the films of the International Competition. And since there are features in cinemas as well, we need you. When do short films become too long? And what makes it a good supporting film? Those are the kinds of questions the Distribution of the Hamburg Kurzfilm Agentur are facing again and again. In order to avoid not seeing the forest for the trees, we are tapping the most precious source of knowledge and wisdom: You, our audience at »Short Before Long«. There is much to explore.

Short Before Long – We’re Searching for Supporting Film Favourites!
Friday, 8th of June | 6.15 pm | Zeise 2
We want to know which short films you’d enjoy watching before going on to French comedies, German relationship tragedies, Swedish crime flicks or American blockbusters. We procured this programme’s films at international festivals and from the submissions to the Hamburg Short Film Festival. Choose your favourites during the audience voting and decide which films will make it into the distribution catalogue.

VETO
Saturday, 8th of June | 5pm | Festival Center, Lampenlager
VETO Film was founded in 2013 by seven filmmakers and artists from Hamburg and has the goal to promote current positions in contemporary film and video art from Hamburg. Experimental, unconvential film has a rich history in Hamburg. The »Hamburger Filmschau«, founded in 1968 by the Hamburg Filmmaker Cooperative, might hereby be considered as the »Other Cinema's« time of birth in the city, with its effects reaching far outside the city limits. In the following decades experimental film has continued to be and still is very much alive in Hamburg. And time and again these films emerge from the surroundings of the University of Fine Arts (HfbK).

SHORT MATTERS!
What the academy award is to America, the European Film Award is to Europe. Every year the European Film Academy awards the best short film. In 2018, fifteen European festivals, including the Berlinale, the Venice Film Festival, Rotterdam and Locarno, submitted 15 exemplary short films from Belgium, France, Georgia, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. The European Film Academy (EFA) unites more than 3,500 European film professionals with the common aim of promoting European film culture. The various EFA Activities culminate in the annual presentation of the European Film Awards, produced by EFA Productions. In 2019, the European Film Awards will be presented for the 32nd time and will include 24 categories (among these the People’s Choice Award, Young Audience Award and European University Film Award). For the first time in the festival’s history, the International Jury of this year’s Short Film Festival Hamburg will nominate a film of the international competition for the European Film Awards.