INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM WEEK REGENSBURG!

From March 7 to 17, 2024, the 30th International Short Film Week will once again pay homage to the world of short film with classics, workshops and parties. The short film week (“KuFi” to those in the know) has long been an institution, both regionally and internationally, and is a clear highlight in our annual program.
A record-breaking 350 short films will be screened in over 50 film programs at this year’s 30th festival edition.
48 countries can be discovered in this year’s program, one of them in particular: Canada is the focus this year and will provide historical insights and allow indigenous voices to have their say.
Most programs will be shown at least twice. There will also be additional specials on film. This year, the films will be shown in the Regensburg venues Ostentorkino, Wintergarten, Filmgalerie im Leeren Beutel and W1 – Zentrum für Junge Kultur, because the festival has set itself one task above all: to present the cinema as a place for encounters and as a place for unique film experiences. The M26 in Maximilianstraße will be transformed into the festival center and serve as a meeting point for guests and filmmakers.

We are especially looking forward to the opening ceremony at the Ostentorkino on March 7 at 8 pm. Afterwards, the Nuremberg band [LEAK] will be playing at 22:00 (admission free). A Wall is a Screen will certainly be the first highlight on Friday, March 8. This group of artists from Hamburg has been offering free city walks of a special kind since 2003, and now do so all over the world. With short films that are thematically and architecturally meticulously adapted to the surroundings, they guide you through Regensburg’s nocturnal urban space. This time it will be Stadtamhof. The starting point is at 20:00 at the Stone Bridge. ZÜNDFUNK (Bayern 2) and its DJs will be back at the Zündfunkparty in the Leerer Beutel on March 9, 2024. There will be two areas with wildstyle music, from electro to indie guitars, from hip hop to seventies cumbia, from vintage soul to post dubstep.
We are also looking forward to the record films on March 12, 2024: six DJs will bring their individual touch to the cinema experience. They will each set a short film to a new soundtrack on the turntables. And all live in front of the audience’s eyes and ears!
Another popular live event is Poetry in Motion on March 9, 2024 at W1, where eight poets will set short films to their own lyrics on site.

Record films DJ Flake, Photo: Sabine Franzl

At the heart of the Short Film Week are the five competitions:

From Kenya to Uzbekistan – 43 films from almost 2,000 submissions from all over the world will be competing for three prizes in the International Competition: Firstly, the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation’s main prize of 5,000 euros will once again be awarded for the best short film, which has been sponsored by Bayerischer Rundfunk since 1998. A notable innovation this year is the BMW Group Award for Social Sustainability, endowed with 4,000 euros. This prize, donated by BMW Group Plant Regensburg, will be awarded for the first time to a film that takes a sustainable stand for social issues. In addition, a jury of young talent, the Jury of the Young, will award the City of Regensburg Short Film Prize of 1,000 euros. In the Architecture Window, ten international films will be competing for the Architektufernster Prize of 1,500 euros, donated by the Architekturkreis Regensburg e.V., the Lower Bavaria-Upper Palatinate Architecture Meeting Point of the Bavarian Chamber of Architects (TANO) and Schnitzer& GmbH.
This year, 23 films will be screened in the German competition. There are a total of three prizes to be won here: the Candis Prize for the best German film, endowed with 1,500 euros and donated by Ferdinand Schmack jun. GmbH, the Sustainability Prize from REWAG and Stadtwerk.Regensburg, also worth 1,000 euros, and the Max Bresele Memorial Prize, worth 500 euros, for a film with political relevance, donated by Kunstverein Weiden e.V., which manages the estate of Max Bresele. In the Bayernfenster, 19 films from the Free State of Bavaria will be competing for the FFF Sponsorship Award, donated by the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern in the amount of €1,500, as well as for the Max Bresele Memorial Award.
In the Regionalfenster, a total of 19 films from the Upper Palatinate and Lower Bavaria will be shown, two of which can win the Regionalfenster Award in the amount of €500 each, donated this year for the first time by Oberpfalz Marketing.
The OberpfalzPlus program is a new addition this year. Four films will be shown that deal with the topic of forests and water. What is special here is that the films were either shot by people from the Upper Palatinate or in the district of the Upper Palatinate under relatively elaborate production conditions. All of the regional productions have also been nominated for the FFF Sponsorship Award.

Contemporary excesses of intoxication and disillusionment are shown under the thematic focus ‘Katzenjammer’ – sometimes with, sometimes without cats.
In a retrospective, the festival takes a look at its 30-year history and shows highlights from the three decades, compiled and presented by former festival directors. Special programs: On the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 08, an empowering film program with strong women’s voices will be shown in the evening (March 08, 18:30). The program A Single Life deals with the dignified treatment of the oldest and weakest members of our society. Admission is on a donation basis and the proceeds will be donated to the Hospiz-Verein Regensburg e.V. (March 10, 15:00). The dance films were curated this year for the first time in collaboration with Wagner Moreira, dance director and chief choreographer of Theater Regensburg, who will also present the program (March 11, 21:30 and March 12, 20:00). Late Nights: Those in the mood for entertaining to quirky genre cinema are in good hands with the late night film programs. The Midnight Movies, Trash’n Fun, Sexy Shorts and Party Films promise good entertainment away from the mainstream, and the so-called Donaublut is also back on the program with regional films ranging from horror to mystery. This year, for the first time, the Donaublut will also award an audience prize of 222 euros, donated by Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Regensburg city association. The country focus this year is on Canada. “That’s how it is with Canada – much loved as a vacation destination, a country of immigration, highly respected, and yet so completely unknown,” writes journalist Gerd Braune in his ‘Country Portrait of Canada’. So it’s high time to take a closer look at this vast country. In four short film programs and an exhibition, Canadian creatives talk about their country and its people. A historical program shows films from 1952 to 1991 that focus on the overwhelming nature, the development of the country and metropolitan life. The Canada Today program focuses on multiculturalism and interculturalism, among other things. For Canada Indigenous, Jason Ryle – a renowned expert on indigenous cinema – has been invited to curate a guest program, which he will present in person on 9 March. The relations between Bavaria and Québec, Canada’s only francophone province, will also be considered. Portraits Croisés is a cooperation project between the Munich University of Film and Television (HFF) and the Institut national de l’image et du son (L’INIS) in Montréal, which has been running since 2008. Four short documentary films resulting from this cooperation will be screened in Regensburg. This will be followed by a Québec reception with music in the W1 Kultur-Café. Families won’t miss out either: the Impulse program is intended as a well-tolerated introduction to the world of short film and is aimed at young people aged 12 and over or 16 and over, but also at anyone who has had little contact with the short film format to date.

At a uniform family price of 4 euros, the programs are intended to entertain on the one hand, but also to stimulate reflection by addressing various current topics such as gender identity or racism. The children’s film program for the whole family is once again available on both weekends for the youngest from the age of 4. In addition, the Medienfachberatung Oberpfalz is offering a screenplay workshop for ages 16 and up (March 10, 15:30) and school classes can once again book various language and themed programs and come to the cinema from March 4 to 8. This year’s award ceremony will take place in the Filmgalerie. This year’s winning films will be selected there on March 15 and the ten prizes will be presented by the award sponsors.

So: On the kufi, get set, go! www.kurzfilmwoche.de

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