33rd International Short Film Festival Berlin 2017 took place 20 - 26 November 2017

With an overall audience of 21,000 the interfilm – 33rd International Short Film Festival Berlin came to a successful close on Sunday 26 November. 500 films from 80 countries were shown in seven festival days. Prizes totalling € 32,000 were conferred in six competitions.

The festival team celebrated the eclectic world of short film in four Berlin districts with 700 accredited guests, 300 of whom were international. Full-scale revelry was also practised: At the Mozilla Bar @ Roter Salon alone, 100 cases of beer were happily consumed.

For events such as the wild eject night, or the live soundtracks at “Sound & Vision” and the 360 degree surround-cinema "Virtual Reality meets Full Dome” experience, audiences practically broke down the doors trying to get in! Alongside the six competitions, audience favourites included the master classes at interforum and the foreign focus programs dedicated to former Yugoslavia and the USA as well as “Metropolis:Tel Aviv”, “Arab Shorts”, “Queer Fever”, “Music Videos”, “SciFi Shorts” and the “European Film Award” and much, much more. Click here for the Festival Overview

Find festival impressions here

For its 10th anniversary edition, KUKI The International Short Film Festival for Children and Youth Berlin hit a new record with a total audience of over 7200. Young juries conferred €6500 in six competitions.
 

Award winners in the International, German, Confrontations and Green Film competitions

The € 6000 cash prize from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg for the Best Film in the International Competition (IC) was awarded to the Norwegian production “The Absence of Eddy Table” (view film still) by Rune Spaans. - The Jury explained their decision with this statement: “A visual explosion, an insane world built with imagination and an eye for detail, rich cinematography that is simultaneously sharp and crisp, and foremost characters that are, in a bizarre way, more human than ever. Not only perfectly written and directed, this delightful piece of art also uses narrative design to convey many more layers to the story than its original premise and takes us out of so-called reality, setting us free from all conventions. Owing to its bold choices and by pointing out the most universal story of all times about how far we are prepared to go if our heart is struck by someone … or something. The jury’s attention was captivated by the most horribly beautiful short of the year. A film that can only be overlooked by those who fear the unknown.”

The IC Jury conferred the Best Live-Action award (€ 2000 from SAE Institute Berlin) to Belgian director Peter Ghesquiere for his film “Downside Up”, a comedy about trisomy 21: When Eric is born, it rapidly becomes clear that he is different from the others: He’s missing a certain vital chromosome.

The award for Best Animation (€ 1000 from Spindler & Klatt) went to “A Love Story” by Anushka Naanayakkara from England. The Best Cinematography award (€ 5000 post production from ARRI) was conferred to Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi for the Polish Film “Locus”.

In the German Competition the jury gave the 1st prize to “Sog” by Jonatan Schwenk: “First prize goes to a film taking a multi-level approach to the topic of how we interact with our surroundings. How do we respond to the unaccustomed, the unfamiliar? With interest or even empathy? Or do we reject the unknown as our enemy? Artfully minimal and animated with great sensitivity for fine nuances, this film shows us the consequences in a manner open to a variety of interpretations.”

The award for Best Film in the Confrontations Competition (€ 2000 from The Federal Agency for Civic Education) was given to the Dutch film “Gamechanger” by Christian van Duuren. The Jury statement reasons: “For having expressed a powerful social and human alarm by showing with disturbing and effective naturalness, the traumatized interiority of an adult who irrupts into the innocence of a childlike universe.”
 

Audience awards in the Documentary, Confrontations, Green Film and eject competitions

In the Documentary Competition the audience chose to give the Best Film award (€ 1000 from Mozilla) to “Volt Egyszer Két Balerina (Once Upon A Time There Were Two Ballerinas)” by Linda Dombrovszky (Hungary, 2016). Further audience awards were conferred in the Confrontations Online Award (€ 1000 from Heinrich Böll Stiftung) to the Lebanese film “Obedience” by Farah Shaer and in the Green Film Online Award (€ 1000 from fritz kola) to the German entry, “Berta” by Julius Dommer. Naturally the audience once again selected “The weirdest and most wonderful short film” at eject_XX (€ 1000 from Ampelmann): “Museumswärter” by Alexander Gratzer (Austria, 2016).
 

interforum - Script Pitch winners

Within the framework of the interforum section, the screenplay competition Script Pitch took place for the fifth consecutive year. Winner of the Best Pitch is Elisabeth Chatelain from the USA for her project “Paper Geese”. The ESP JURY AWARD went to Léa Triboulet from France for “MAÏSSA”. The dazoo Award (Individual guidance fort he implementation of a personal festival strategy from daazo) went to “6pm Traffic” by Raluca David from Romania.

Click here for a complete list of this year’s interfilm competition winners

Click here for a complete list of this year’s KUKI competition winners

 

Thanks for the films!

We are sincerely grateful for all the filmmakers who sent us a multitude of entries from all over the world. Of the 6000 films from 120 countries we selected 500 festival films.

Cheers and festival dates in 2018

During the festival our guests commuted to eight locations in four central districts. interfilm thanks our official partner Audi City Berlin for the safe and swift rides. And many thanks to all further partners and sponsors

The interfilm team is already looking forward to the next edition:
interfilm -  34th International Short Film Festival Berlin from 19 – 25 November, 2018 - submit films from February 1st.

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