A Polish film by a Swede is the Best Film of this year’s MUNICH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FILM SCHOOLS. Altogether 11 films won awards totaling €56,500 Euros.

The film ECHO by Magnus von Horn won the Young Talent Award for Best Film donated by the VFF (German Royalty Collecting Company of Film & TV Producers Ltd.) along € 7500 Euros. Horn, originally from Gothenburg, Sweden, attends the film academy in Lódz.

In this prizewinning psychodrama, two teenage boys are accused of murdering a girl and, as part of the investigation, are forced to reenact the brutal crime. The jury, headed by director Hans Steinbichler (WINTER JOURNEY, GERMANY 09) called it: "A huge topic in a small form."

Israeli student Yaelle Kayam won two awards for her film DIPLOMA – Best Screenplay and the Prix Interculturel for best film fostering intercultural dialog. The ARRI Award for Best Documentary went to the Slovakian film ARSY – VERSY. Awards went to films from Australia (ARTE Short Film Prize), India (Student Camera Award), USA (Production Design Award), Finland (ProSieben Prize) and Sweden (Spezial Prize of the Jury President). The Panther Prize for Best Production of a German Film went to SOFT SKILLS from the Munich University of Television and Film.

The festival competition consisted of 61 films from 27 countries and almost all of the screenings were completely sold out.

More on the 2009 award winners

Cordially

Michael Amtmann
Press Spokesman
phone: +49-89-381904-30
presse@filmfest-muenchen.de

The award-winning director comes on board as president of the jury of the 29th MUNICH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FILM SCHOOLS

Director Hans Steinbichler (HIERANKL, WINTER JOURNEY, AUTISTIC DISCO, GERMANY 09) will preside over the jury of five experts that awards the most important prizes at the festival. Festival organizer Andreas Ströhl: "In his generation of young German filmmakers, Hans Steinbichler is exceptional. His films have had a unique style from the outset of his career. We’re very pleased to have him as jury president."

Hans Steinbichler screened his first two films at the festival as a student at the Munich film school. "I remember the great expectations I had of the jury very well", commented Steinbichler, "I recognize the responsibility I have now and take it very seriously."

The 2009 jury also includes two film experts from Germany, an internationally successful Prague-based actor and one of the award winners from last year’s festival. Fabienne Liptay is a junior professor for film history at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. Natalie Lambsdorff is a commissioning editor at Bavarian Broadcasting. Russian-born actor Ivan Shvedoff has acted in numerous German and foreign films. Slovenian writer-director Matevz Luzar won last year’s Prix Interculturel as well as the Luggi Waldleitner Award for Best Screenplay in 2007.

From the 15^th until the 21^st of November, 61 films from film schools in 27 countries will be competing for prizes totaling 56.500 Euros. The Festival Jury picks, among others, the winners of the Best Film - VFF Young Talent Award, the ARRI Award for Best Documentary, the Luggi Waldleitner Award, the Student Camera Award and the Arte Short Film Award.

The complete festival program is posted here on our website along with print quality photographs that can be downloaded. You can also check us out at twitter and facebook.

Cordially

Michael Amtmann
Press Spokesman
phone: +49-89-381904-30
presse@filmfest-muenchen.de

The 29^th MUNICH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FILM SCHOOLS opens on November 15^th with Desperados On The Block.

A film about the lives of students kicks off this year's festival. Tomasz Emil Rudzik's feature film focuses on the bleak lives of foreign students whose paths cross in a dismal Munich student housing 'block'. Andreas Gruber, the Artistic Director of the festival: "An ideal opener for this festival: a film by a film student about students. At our festival students from all over the world come together and form lasting bonds."

Desperados On The Block is the story of three students, one from China, one from Latvia and one from Romania. Rudzik deals with their daily off-campus travails with a keen sense of observation and a good dose of humor. Rudzik actually lived in such a student housing facility for a while. It was there that he gathered the material for the screenplay for this, his diploma film at the University for Television and Film Munich.

As the festival's opening night film, Desperados On The Block is out of competition. From Nov. 16^th to the 21^st, 61 films by film students from 27 countries around the world will be competing for prizes totaling € 56,500.

The complete festival program is posted here on our website along with print quality photographs that can be downloaded. You can also check us out at twitter and facebook.

Journalists can be accredited free of charge by contacting info-presse@filmfest-muenchen.de. The deadline is November 6^th. Please bear in mind that we can only give accreditation to journalists who are officially covering the festival.

Cordially

Michael Amtmann
Press Spokesman
phone: +49-89-381904-30
presse@filmfest-muenchen.de

61 Films are competing at the MUNICH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FILM SCHOOLS for Awards worth roughly € 56,000

61 films by emerging filmmakers from 27 countries have made it to the competition at the 29^th MUNICH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FILM SCHOOLS. They will be screened from November 15 - 21 and are vying for prizes totaling € 56,000. The competition consists of 38 short theatrical films, 12 documentaries and 11 animated films.

"We were very impressed by the feeling for film structure so many of the young filmmakers have," said Gisela Wehrl, a writer-producer from Leipzig, who, along with Munich film critic Thomas Willmann and Csaba Zoltán Papp of Magyar Filmunió in Budapest, was a member of the festival’s selection committee.

75 film schools from around the world submitted almost 250 films in all. Among the 61 films selected for competition are productions from Europe, the Americas (8 films), Asia (14) and Australia (3).

Gisela Wehrl added: "It was particularly difficult with the German, Israeli and Scandinavian films." The Scandinavians have altogether 7 films in competition, Israel 6, and Germany 11 from eight film schools. South Korea has 3 films.

Most of the directors will be in Munich to present their films in person. They follow in the footsteps of many now famous filmmakers who got their first reactions from audiences at this festival. Some of them are: Cannes Golden Palm winner Lars von Trier (DANCER IN THE DARK), Oscar winners Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (THE LIVES OF OTHERS), Caroline Link (NOWHERE IN AFRICA), Nick Park (WALLACE & GROMIT), Jan Sverak (KOLYA) and Florian Gallenberger (QUIERO SER).

The Munich International Festival of Film Schools takes place November 15 - 21 in the Munich Filmmuseum München, St.-Jakobs-Platz 1. The complete program will be posted here on our website as of October 22.

Journalists can be accredited free of charge by contacting info-presse@filmfest-muenchen.de. The deadline is November 6^th. Please bear in mind that we can only give accreditation to journalists who are officially covering the festival.

Cordially

Michael Amtmann
Press Spokesman
phone: +49-89-381904-30
presse@filmfest-muenchen.de

The Munich International Festival of Film Schools presents the best films by tomorrow's most talented up and coming directors from around the globe

The festival will be taking place in Munich from November 15^th to the 21^st. For the 29^th time, this internationally acclaimed event will be screening the cream of the crop of films by students at film schools in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. In 2009, emerging directors from 38 countries submitted almost 250 films for participation in the festival's competition. "The quality and diversity of the films submitted this year is particularly impressive", according to Andreas Ströhl of the Internationale Münchner Filmwochen, the organization that holds the festival. "And we'll be screening the best of them."

Of all the films submitted, only one out of five will be selected for competition by an independent selection committee, composed, this year, of film producer Gisela Wehrl from Leipzig, Munich film critic Thomas Willman and Csaba Zoltán Papp of Magyar Filmunió in Budapest. All of these theatrical, documentary and animated films will be screened in Munich's Filmmuseum in November.

With awards totaling more than € 55,000, the Munich International Festival of Film Schools is one of the most significant festivals for student films in the world. In addition to the official competition, there are two awards in special competitions. His Royal Highness Prince Luitpold of Bavaria's award, the König Ludwig Trophy, goes to the winner of the best König Ludwig beer commercial and the winner receives € 10,000. For the second time, the Nagelschneider Foundation is awarding € 5,000 to the winner of ist Climate Clips competition for the best short on climate change and renewable energy.

Journalists can be accredited free of charge by contacting info-presse@filmfest-muenchen.de. The deadline is November 6^th. Please bear in mind that we can only give accreditation to journalists who are officially covering the festival.

Cordially

Michael Amtmann
Press Spokesman
phone: +49-89-381904-30
presse@filmfest-muenchen.de

Michael Amtmann is FILMFEST MÜNCHEN’s new press spokesman. He succeeds Zoran Gojic, who held the position from 2004 until late 2008.
“We’re very pleased to have found someone for this important role who knows the movie industry well and at the same time is an experienced journalist and a team player.” Festival director Andreas Ströhl is delighted.  “An ideal combination”.
Michael Amtmann has worked for many years as a producer, director and writer for various film productions, mostly in the documentary field. He is a graduate of the Deutsche Journalistenschule and brings a wide scope of press and publicity experience to the job.
“FILMFEST MÜNCHEN is Germany’s largest summer film festival and being involved with it in this capacity is an exciting assignment” Michael Amtmann commented. He will assume his responsibilities at FILMFEST MÜNCHEN as of March 16, 2009.  
The 2009 FILMFEST MÜNCHEN takes place from June 26 through July 4. 

Contact:
Michael Amtmann
Press Office
Internationale Münchner Filmwochen GmbH
Sonnenstr. 21
80331 München
Tel.: +49-89-381904-30
Fax: +49-89-381904-61
presse@filmfest-muenchen.de
www.filmfest-muenchen.de