34 Filmfest Dresden Announces Complete Festival Programme

FATHER FIGURE by Bibi Fadlalla, 2019 (Programme "Move Your Body, See Your Body, Protect Your Body“)

BURNING PALACE by Mara Mattuschka and Chris Haring, 2009 (Programme "Tribute Mara Mattuschka“)

THE TRANSFIGURATION by Stephan Ganoff, 1983 (Programme "Discourse Europe: Focus Bulgaria – Equity > Equality“)

Programme Highlights: Gender Diversity Focus, Encounters, Kids and Youth Programmes

This year, the gender diversity and justice theme extends across the complete programme of the 34 Filmfest Dresden. After taking the subject of activism last year, this year’s theme represents the second section of the festival’s main three-part focus on “diversity”. Even the festival trailer, created by Brenda Lien, addressees this thematic area. The artist Brenda Lien was already represented at Filmfest Dresden with CALL OF COMFORT and is screening her work FIRST WORK, THEN PLAY in this year’s programme (National Competition).

Several of the series in the festival’s special programmes concentrate on its thematic focus, such as the "Move Your Body, See Your Body, Protect Your Body" programme, which is presenting the facets and traditions of the ballroom scene in New York. This year’s tribute programme, which is devoted to the experimental film artist Mara Mattuschka, is also focusing on the human body. In the “Discourse Europe: Focus Bulgaria” section, the short films in the “Equity > Equality” programme are exploring gender categories, as well as the concepts of masculinity, femininity, identity and sexuality. The “Queer Voices” discussion (in the special programmes) takes sexual and gender diversity, as well as the queer film oeuvre as its focal point. In his masterclass, the film and art curator and activist Samuel Girma is providing insights into his work, as well as his viewpoints on queerness and being Black. Samuel Girma is also a member of this year’s jury for the LUCA GenderDiversity Film Award.

The festival’s thematic focus is not only reflected in its programme, but also in Filmfest Dresden’s structural organisation. The Gender Justice Advisory Group, which was newly founded in 2022, is now supporting the festival in terms of its gender-sensitive development.

The multiple award-winning and renowned French-Canadian artist Caroline Monnet is focusing on identity issues at the festival. For this year’s Filmfest Dresden, she has curated the “Focus Québec” programme and is presenting a selection of her current video installations at the “Where Do We Come From – Where We Are Going?” exhibition in the Kunsthaus Raskolnikow gallery. In her work, Monnet explores questions of identity within the tense situation of having indigenous and European roots, as well as the (post) colonial dynamics between North American and Europe.

The traditional Sandwich Talks are again being held “live” this year in the Filmgalerie Phase IV venue and provide the filmmakers from the competition sections with an opportunity to speak about their artistic and thematic approaches. In this regard, each Sandwich Talk focuses of a differing aspect and addresses the various thematic or stylistic trends in this year’s competitions.  

With “once around the world” as its motto, this year’s Kids and Youth Programme is inviting young film fans from five years and older to discover the latest children’s shorts from across the world and delve into foreign cultures and exciting adventures. After the screenings, the audiences will have an opportunity to hold discussions with the filmmakers in attendance. The selection was compiled together with the FILMFEST DRESDEN Young Curators – a group of young film enthusiasts from Dresden and its surroundings.

 Festival Trailer by Brenda Lien 

Golden Horsemen / Photo © FILMFEST DRESDEN

All Juries at the 34 Filmfest Dresden

The 16 prizes and awards in the National, International and Regional Competitions of the 34th Filmfest Dresden – endowed with prizemoney of €71,000 – will be awarded by eight independent juries:

Invited to join the International Jury are: John Canciani (Switzerland, Italy, UK), Artistic Director of the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur festival, the Bulgarian film critic and curator Mariana Hristova and the Italian director and producer Martina Scarpelli.

The decisions on awarding the prizes in the National Competition will be taken by: The freelance film critic and moderator (rbb, MDR broadcasters) Knut Elstermann, the filmmaker Veneta Androva (AIVA, Golden Horseman National Competition & LUCA Film Award at the 33 Filmfest Dresden), as well as the theatre and film actress Karina Plachetka (Staatsschauspiel Dresden theatre).

The Golden Horseman Sound Design will be awarded by: The film scholar, curator, translator and head of the MuVi programme section at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen Jessica Manstetten, the film score composer and producer Daniel Hoffknecht, as well as the musician and music producer Johannes Gerstengarbe, who is the owner of the Ballroom Studios, which has already sponsored the film sound design prize for the eighth time.

The LUCA – GenderDiversity Film Award is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. The jury members include:
Kerstin Honeit, cultural worker and curator in the fields of film and art, Lion H. Lau, a freelance editor and screenwriter, as well as the curator, filmmaker and activist Samuel Girma, who is also holding a masterclass on the subject of Black queerness at Filmfest Dresden.

For the second time, a jury is awarding the “fully political” Film Award: The director Arkadij Khaet (MASEL TOV COCKTAIL, Film Promotion Prize at the 32nd Filmfest Dresden in 2020), Dr. Roland Löffler, Director of the Saxon State Centre for Political Education (SLpB), and the writer Sabine Michel (MONTAGS IN DRESDEN).

The decision to award the Dresden Short Film Award of the German Film Critics Association will be taken by: The journalist Dunja Bialas (artechock, etc.), the journalist and filmmaker Frédéric Jaeger (critic.de, etc.) and the journalist Tina Waldeck (Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, etc.).

Furthermore, in the International and National Competitions, two Youth Juries, each consisting of three members, will select their favourites.

Together with the juries, the audiences at Filmfest Dresden also have an opportunity to decide on their favourites in the International, National and Regional Competitions (Regional Film Night).

 Awards Overview 

 All Juries 

New Main Partner: Film Nights on the Banks of the Elbe

This year, the festival’s longstanding cooperation partner “Film Nights on the Banks of the Elbe” has become the new main partner of Filmfest Dresden.

Sylke Gottlebe: “We’re really pleased that the Film Nights on the Banks has increased its commitment to its long-term partnership with Filmfest Dresden this year and is supporting both the festival and short film doing so. And of course the Film Nights are also the sponsor of the ever-popular Regional Film Night Audience Award that is bestowed annually.”

Matthias Pfitzner, Managing Director of the Film Nights on the Banks of the Elbe: “The aim with being its main partner is to support Filmfest Dresden in terms of its commitment to short film. Initiatives such as the KurzVorFilm – intended to establish short films as supporting films to the main features – as indeed the much-loved Short Film Programme screened as part of the Film Nights programme have attracted large audiences over the last few years, so we’re very much looking forward to continuing this.”

 Overview of all Partners and Sponsors of the 34 Filmfest Dresden 

Downloads

 Online Programme 

 Programme Booklet (PDF) 

 Fact Sheet 

Press Info: Accreditations, Film Stills

Accreditation for press representatives is still possible until March 18 at this email. A selection of film stills from the program and photos are available at the link below.

 Film Stills 

Previous News on Filmfest Dresden

Feb 9, 22
34 Filmfest Dresden Announces Competition Films

In the competition sections of the 34 Filmfest Dresden (being held from 5 to 10 April 2022), a total of 73 (co-)productions from 36 countries are in the running this year.

> Read more

Jan 17, 22
Foretaste of the 34 Filmfest Dresden: Special Programmes on Gender Equality Theme

Together with its competition sections, as always Filmfest Dresden is presenting a highly diverse range of special programmes, with country-based and thematic highlights, as well as retrospectives, youth and children's films. This year, several series are focusing a light on gender equality.

> Read more