German Competition
German Competition 1: Inner Space
German Competition 2: Permanent Damage
German Competition 3: The Magnificent Four
German Competition 4: Out there
German Competition 5: Mothers/Fathers
Never Fear Deep Insights!
Just the other day our festival director said to us: »Stop saying DW. Nobody understands it! The proper name is Deutscher Wettbewerb (German Competition). Let‘s strive for transparency at all times!« And he is right, our Herr Festivaldirektor. Transparency is important. That’s why we are about to give you an exclusive look behind the scenes!
For starters, about 600 films had been submitted to the DW, er, sorry, the German Competition. And then there is us, the selection committee, and we have seen them all. We spent a long, long time in the dark, taking in the newest creations from Germany’s short film scene with a blend of necessary sobriety, indispensable humour and incomparable resoluteness. The screening marathon was more than just a tedious selective process. Instead, it turned out to be a learning process that started out with the self professed demand for films with style.
Our attention was grabbed and our retinas were trained by crime stories, relationships, documentaries, animations both pretty and grotesque, confusing cinematic experiments, and shorts belonging to the genre internationally recognized as »doesn’t quite fit into anything«.
While we were devouring crisps and other unhealthy snacks, we verbally disassembled family drama, experimental films, documentaries and animated shorts, always minding to point our intellectual arsenal away from friendly combatants at all times.
And the result is a beauty to behold (in the cinema): 22 gems from the vault of German short films await! And all of them fit in well with this year’s motto: Strong films in a strong festival’s strong competition with a strong audience. If only Charles Bronson were still here to see it!
Film selection: Marein Budiner, Alexandra Gramatke, Peter Haueis, Sebastian Hofer, Anke Lindenkamp, Manja Malz
