There is more to it than that.

Competitions. What else is there to say? An attempt to reduce a nearly indigestible amount of submissions (3832 to be exact) to the very few that enthuse selection commitee, audience and jury equally.

The burden of the free choice mainly effected the International Competition, where films from 104 producing countries had to be considered, while the NoBuget Competition had to meet at least their self entitled regulation.

The German Competition makes the choices according to national boundaries, although these become more and more diffuse, due to mobility and migration. In any case, the German Competition has experienced an expansion with the annexation of the Hamburg short films, which were formerly shown in the "Made in Hamburg" programme. Nevertheless, to maintain the local patriotic spirit, all film from and about Hamburg will be screened together during the Hamburg Cultural Foundation's Short Film Night.

The Three-Minute-Quickie also explores the tension between migration and locality with this year's topic "Heimat (Home)". Whether the social relevance of the topic or the 20th anniversary of the festival's own competition is responsible for the record-breaking number of submissions, should be left undecided.

Much younger, but nonetheless maturing, the Mo & Friese Children's ShortFilmFestival, which will will celebrate its 9th birthday this year, also dares to enter the cinema at night, for the Mo & Friese Late Night Special.