Editor

For the 27th time, the Munich International Festival of Film Schools is inviting the next generation of filmmakers to town and screening the best student films of the year from around the world. The festival is the most important of its kind worldwide. It gives audiences the rare chance to get a look at current trends and meet tomorrow's top directors. The festival will be screening 39 films from 28 film schools from 20 countries at the Munich Filmmuseum (St.-Jakobs-Platz 1).

Over 300 films from 82 schools in 40 countries were submitted. An independent selection committee (Mira Staleva/Filmfestival Sofia, Laetitia von Baeyer/film project manager for the Berlin based German Academic Exchange Service and Munich based film journalist Hans Schifferle) selected 30 shorts, 5 documentaries, 3 animated films and one experimental film to compete for nine prizes worth altogether € 50 000.

This year's jury president is world-famous cameraman Michael Ballhaus, cinematographer for many of Martin Scorsese's films. The jury consists of last year's winner Talya Lavie from Israel, the animation artist Till Novak from Mainz, Turkish film jounalist Esin Kücüktepepinar and Munich producer Mathias Lösel.

The students will be on hand in Munich to present their films in person, which also gives them the chance to get to know each other. For audiences, it's the chance to discover tomorrow's top directors today. Cannes winners such as Lars von Trier or Thomas Vinterberg were total unknowns when they screened their first films in Munich. In 2007, the Romanian Cristian Mungiu (4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS) won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1999, he participated in the Munich Filmschoolfest – as did later Academy Award winners Nick Park (WALLACE & GROMIT), Caroline Link (NOWHERE IN AFRIKA), Jan Sverak (KOLYA) and Florian Gallenberger (QUIERO SER). Not to mention the many leading German directors, including Sönke Wortmann, Rainer Kaufmann and Detlev Buck, who faced their first paying audiences in Munich.

For more information please visit our website: www.filmschoolfest-munich.de