OPENING Ceremony

To start off the festival, we will be screening three outstanding works by up-and-coming European filmmakers, all of which have received major national and international awards this year, at the opening gala of the 42nd FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH on November 12.

To complement this excellent lineup of films, the three prize-winning entries for this year’s Climate Clips Award will also be presented during the opening ceremony of the Filmschoolfest. Every year since 2008, the Nagelschneider Foundation has presented awards to the three best clips on the subject of environmental protection and climate change.

THE WAY BACK (DER RÜCKWEG)

Germany 2023 • Director: Moritz Adlon • Fiction • 23 min • German with English subtitles

On a beach outside Leningrad in the winter of 1941, two women, a mother and daughter, make their way back to the city with a handful of meat. The meat could save them both from starvation — had the daughter not already devoured it. The long walk back into town tests the bond between the two. THE WAY BACK earned the 2023 First Steps Award in the category of short film.

ISTINA (TRUTH)

Serbia, Germany 2023 • Director: Tamara Denić • Fiction • 28 min • Serbian with English subtitles

A photojournalist is threatened by far-right gangs in Belgrade and flees to Germany with her daughter. But then she also experiences increasingly strong hostility and threats in her new home. TRUTH earned a Student Academy Award in 2023.

27

Hungary, France 2023 • Director: Flóra Anna Buda • Animation • 11 min • Hungarian with English subtitles

Flora Anna Buda’s impressive animation about a 27-year-old woman liberating herself from her parents earned the Palme d’Or for best short film at Cannes this year. This film has also been nominated for the European Film Award and can be seen in our short film reel.