Young Abdi (Sharif Nuur) looks towards the sky, pausing briefly in the chaos around him: a still from the playful, touching short film Neighbour Abdi (2022) by director Douwe Dijkstra (NL) adorns this year’s festival motif and represents our motto Just A Moment, Please!.

From June 1 to 6, we want to sharpen our focus on the essential, pay attention to the smallest things and take a breath before exposing ourselves again to the world around us. The focus on moments runs like a thread through our 20th festival edition and will show itself sometimes socio-politically, sometimes cinematically or nostalgically:

TIME FLIES BY

Around 300 films await you at our 20th edition, with a third of them competing in four competitions for (increased) prize money of almost € 30,000 and qualification for the Academy Awards and the European Film Awards, among others. In addition, you can look forward to genre gems in Late Night, audiovisual live performances, cozy open-air evenings and an expanded program for children and young people. We will celebrate our 20th birthday on June 6 with a big festival closing party—and starting April 24, with the online countdown 20 Years, 20 Films.

THE TIME IS NOW

One of the great strengths of the short cinematic form is being able to react comparatively quickly to current circumstances and the world around us. The films in the Current Comments section take up topical issues—the climate crisis, protests in Iran, the nuclear threat, or milestones in the development of artistic intelligence. There is much talk of a turning point, of a decisive moment for the future of us all—when political urgency becomes palpable, every moment counts ...

TIME STANDS STILL

In cooperation with two partner festivals from the European Network for Film Discourse (The END), Lago Film Fest and Vilnius International Short Film Festival, this year’s focus is on the moment and its visualization in cinema: films will be shown that are based on photographic recordings, whose individual images are animated in rapid succession and thus, as it were, come to life, or that use cinematic means such as freeze frames or slow motion to capture the moment or delay it as long as possible.

We will reveal the complete festival program in mid-May. Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date!

News 28.3.2023