With SMART7, the next alliance of European film festivals is launched to drive the sector forward.

With the aim of further professionalizing the film festival sector, 7 European film festivals have now joined forces under the Smart7 label. Among them are the New Horizons IFF (Poland), IndieLisboa (Portugal), the Thessaloniki IFF (Greece), the Transilvania IFF (Romania), FILMADRID (Spain), the Reykjavik IFF (Iceland) and Vilnius IFF Kino Pavasaris (Lithuania). Following the merger of the Europa Film Festivals, of which Filmfest Hamburg is a member, and MIOB (moving

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What (or where) is European cinema? one of the central questions at many film festivals.

Whereas last May the Lichter Filmfest Frankfurt International explored these questions in breadth with its second edition of the Zukunft Deutscher Film conference in a Forum Europa, the IDFA followed up in November with its first Europa conference. In cooperation with Arte, the conference kicked off IDFA’s extensive industry program. Introduced by a keynote address from Christian Salmon, the event focused specifically on the influences of streaming services on filmmaking

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Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt publishes study on Frankfurt film festivals

Film festivals fulfill numerous functions: They enrich the cultural offerings of the city of Frankfurt. They represent the international film scene and create access to films that do not find a place in the regular cinema program. They are an important forum for social discourse and invite filmmakers, professional visitors and film enthusiasts to Frankfurt. These are some of the findings that were examined in more detail in the context

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Growing interest for film festival experts

It has long been apparent that cinema makers follow their passion for film by taking over the management of film festivals or even initiating their own film festivals. In recent years, on the other hand, festival makers have become more and more attractive for cinema companies to take on leading positions themselves. How valuable the expertise of festival makers is becoming for the management of cinemas was recently demonstrated in

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The Great Celebration of Short Film on 21 December

For the eleventh time, all of Germany celebrates the Short Film Day on the shortest day of the year: programmes with and around short film are shown, in cinemas, on the town square, on the walls of houses or online. The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen will present three highlights from the German 2022 competitions online and free of charge from 0 a.m. to midnight, along with three interesting conversations

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Decentralised has recently taken centre stage

Numerous new trends could be identified when looking at a number of film festivals last year, regardless of their profile and location in Germany. One central trend, which is also reflected internationally in many cases, is decentralisation. With the Kiezkinohad already taken this path in 2010, the Berlinale is now pursuing it even more strongly. Berlinale directors Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian emphasise in the press release: „In addition, however,

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Visibility, Networking, Support – the new credo of the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section

It is not only with the Berlinale Talents and the World Cinema Fund that the Berlinale pursues sustainable talent promotion. Emerging talents in Germany are also presented and supported in their further work. A new aspect is the effort to give more visibility to all film art works and thus to emphasise film as a collective art form. In the future, special talents of the individual art departments of the

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Goethe Institute now awards documentary film prizes at Germany’s most important documentary film festivals

The Goethe-Institut is an ambassador of German culture and thus also of film culture worldwide. With 158 Goethe-Instituts in 98 countries, the latest developments in German cinematic art have been presented abroad for years. Due to its special film aesthetics and its versatility, the German documentary film has always been a constant in the repertoire of the Goethe-Institut. With its real-life stories, portraits of personalities, and questions about social upheaval,

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The association of Hessian film festivals is addressing pressing issues of the future

In addition to the young federation of German film festivals working under the name AG Filmfestival at the federal level, a number of interest groups such as Queerscope have previously also networked at the state level to strengthen film festivals in many areas and enable them to have a stronger voice in politics. For example, the Hessian film festivals already initiated a network, that of mutual support, 20 years ago.

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The KulturPass – an incentive system for young people’s interest in culture such as the cultural sector

With a cultural budget of 200 euros, the federal government wants to motivate young adults to open up to cultural projects and productions, while at the same time acting as a driver for restrained cultural consumption as well as promoting the cultural demand of tomorrow. The „KulturPass“ is to be launched next year and will initially be available to all young people in Germany who turn 18 next year. According

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