FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH: Connected by culture!

Thursday, 10/20/2022

The 41st FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH is presenting 40 short films from 21 countries in its international competition. Filmmakers from all over the world are coming to Munich to present their films in person. In addition, there will be three specials: two with current productions from the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF) and one with a selection of films to mark the 50th anniversary of the Steve Tisch School at Tel Aviv University.

Festival director Diana Iljine: “The overall high standard of the films by up-and-coming directors in our international competition is beyond impressive. I admire these young filmmakers time and time again for their courage and the uncompromising approach they take to challenges facing society and to their own experiences and insecurities.”

About the program

International competition

The program includes a wide range of themes and aesthetics. What stands out this year is the large number of animations, such as the hilarious short film AN OSTRICH TOLD ME THE WORLD IS FAKE AND I THINK I BELIEVE IT by Lachlan Pendragon, which is being presented with a Student Academy Award this year. A second recipient of the Student Academy Award is the French film THE SEINE’S TEARS about the Paris Massacre of 1961, while I WAS ATTACKED by Mexican director Sara Massieu goes in a completely different direction, visualizing accounts of the experiences of women affected by sexualized violence. And in the Polish animated film FIVE MINUTES OLDER, viewers see the extent to which a road trip can test a relationship.

A major theme in these short films by young directors is the conflict and anxiety experienced by young adults, such as in LULLABY by Magdalena Chmielewska, which tells the story of a young woman who suffers from agonizing insomnia, and ADANE AND YALEO, in which two Ethiopian-Israeli brothers are caught up in a rapidly escalating situation when they are stopped by the police. In BLACK HOLE LEGION, young Inuit people in Greenland try to cope with severe environmental degradation and the loss of their culture. An often difficult relationship with one’s parents is not an insignificant factor. This is the case in the animated documentary LOVE, DAD, in which director Diana Cam Van Nguyen deals with her relationship with her father, which is characterized by love and detachment in equal measure.

Many of the films are extremely political, focusing on job insecurity, the consequences of globalization, and climate change. In the impressive musical NEON PHANTOM by Brazilian director Leonardo Martinelli, bicycle couriers lament their existence as disenfranchised and exploited wage slaves. In the documentary HARVESTING OUR TEA, women fight for equal rights as well as for the future of tea cultivation. And people in the ARALKUM desert are confronted with the consequences of climate change and the loss it brings.

The situation of migrants and refugees is a further theme. In NO CONOZCO LA HISTORIA DEL FUEGO, four refugees meet in a secluded forest, while in WE KNEW HOW BEAUTIFUL THEY WERE, THESE ISLANDS, a gravedigger restores dignity to people who have died while fleeing their homeland.

In some of our films, people fall in love (BALTHAZAR AND MADALENA) and rebel against their mother (FRUITS AND VEGETABLES), while other films deal with death (LOVE DEATH AND EVERYTHING BETWEEN, THE FORGOTTEN) and the question of just punishment (WILL MY PARENTS COME TO SEE ME).

The films in the international competition are grouped into ten modules of four short films each, which will be screened in the Audimax of the HFF from November 14 to 18. These films were chosen for the international competition by a selection committee comprised of media artist, author, and filmmaker Guadalupe Figueras; writer, curator, and musician Ruairí McCann; and film curator Mathias Barkhausen.

Specials

HFF Special 1 & 2

These specials present a total of ten current productions from the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF).

HFF Special 1: Monday, Nov. 14, 2 pm

HFF Special 2: Saturday, Nov. 19, 1 pm

both in the HFF Audimax

Steve Tisch School Special

To mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Steve Tisch School of Film & Television at Tel Aviv University — to this day an institution with cult status which has produced generations of leading Israeli film and television professionals — FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH will be screening three productions from the 1990s (LINK to films).

Steve Tisch School Special: Saturday, Nov. 19, 4 pm

in the HFF Audimax

School screening

This year for the first time, FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH is offering a special screening of four selected films from the international program specifically for school classes (grade 7 and up) and their teachers. The films will be given a voiceover in German.

Interested teachers may contact filmschool@filmfest-muenchen.de.

School screenings: Tuesday, Nov. 15, 9:30 am, registration required

You’ll find the complete program of #FSFMUC 2022 here.

Details of our program of free supporting events, the awards, and the juries will be announced next week.

Opening and Award Ceremony

The Opening of the 41st FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH will be held on November 13, the Award Ceremony on November 19 (both events by invitation only).

Tickets

Advance sales start on November 7 on the Filmschoolfest website and via München Ticket (individual tickets: 6 euros / festival pass: 30 euros).

Media accreditation

If you are interested in being accredited, please contact presse@filmfest-muenchen.de. Please understand that due to limited capacity, only journalists who are covering the festival may be accredited. Deadline for accreditation: November 9, 2022.