FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH is entering its next round. The seven-day festival will offer a top-class program of student films from all over the world. The best thing about it is: the filmmakers will once again be in Munich to present their films in person.

The wait is over! To find out more about the films we’re screening, check out the complete program of #FSFMUC 2022 here.

The festival will begin on Sunday, November 13, with a festive Opening, which will include a screening of one of this year’s two Oscar-winners from the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). The festival will end on Saturday, November 19, with the Award Ceremony and a lavish party. During the week of the festival, from November 14 to 18, a total of 40 short films from 21 countries (of production) will be presented in ten screenings. The films were selected for the festival’s international competition by a committee comprised of media artist, author, and filmmaker Guadalupe Figueras; writer, curator, and musician Ruairí McCann; and film curator Mathias Barkhausen.

AN OSTRICH TOLD ME THE WORLD IS FAKE AND I THINK I BELIEVE IT

THE SEINE'S TEARS

I WAS ATTACKED

As usual, the films in the program include a wide range of themes and aesthetics. What stands out this year is the large number of animations. No fewer than thirteen films will give us a glimpse into the fascinating minds of the filmmakers and their protagonists and use captivating aesthetics to transport us to strange make-believe worlds. In the hilarious short film AN OSTRICH TOLD ME THE WORLD IS FAKE AND I THINK I BELIEVE IT by Lachlan Pendragon, which received this year’s Student Academy Award, a call center employee discovers that nothing is as it seems. Also receiving a Student Academy Award was the French film THE SEINE’S TEARS, which focuses on the Paris Massacre of 1961. I WAS ATTACKED by Mexican director Sara Massieu goes in a completely different direction, as Massieu illustrates the experiences of numerous women affected by sexualized violence. In the Polish animated film FIVE MINUTES OLDER, on the other hand, two twin sisters observe how a road trip can really test a relationship. In ELLA and WHEN ALONE, we learn what effect masturbation has on us.

A major theme in these short films by young directors is often the conflict and anxiety experienced by young adults, such as in the film LULLABY by Magdalena Chmielewska, which tells the story of a young woman who suffers from agonizing insomnia. The short film ADANE AND YALEO, in which two Ethiopian-Israeli brothers are caught up in a rapidly escalating situation when they are stopped by the police, is another example. In BLACK HOLE LEGION, young Inuit people in Greenland try to cope with severe environmental degradation and the loss of their culture. Their often difficult relationship with their parents is not an insignificant factor in this. In the Lebanese entry TALK TO ME, a father resolutely attempts to turn his son in for drug abuse. In the animated documentary film LOVE, DAD, director Diana Cam Van Nguyen deals with her relationship with her father, which is characterized by love and detachment in equal measure. And I WAS NEVER REALLY HERE by director Gabriel B. Arrahnio is about the search for one’s own heritage and sexuality.

BLACK HOLE LEGION

TALK TO ME

LOVE, DAD

Other films provide (fictional) insights into the travails and struggles of working people. In the impressive musical NEON PHANTOM by Brazilian Leonardo Martinelli, bicycle couriers lament their existence as disenfranchised and exploited wage slaves. The documentary HARVESTING OUR TEA takes us to the damp and verdant mountains of northern Turkey, where women are fighting for equal rights and the future of tea cultivation in equal measure.

Two other documentaries deal with migrants and refugees. In NO CONOZCO LA HISTORIA DEL FUEGO, four refugees run into each other 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. People face a hostile environment in the ARALKUM, a desert left behind by the evaporation of the Aral Sea along the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

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). A creative way of overcoming the pain of a breakup is found (ALBA VULVA), a woman at a retreat must deal with her emotional scars (SILENT ONE), and in a Slovakian village, old family secrets come to light (LIQUID BREAD).

All the films and their descriptions can be found here.

We’ll be announcing the details of our program of free supporting events and the line-up of this year’s festival jury next week!