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INDEPENDENT DAYS | 20. International Film Festival Karlsruhe

  

The international film festival INDEPENDENT DAYS celebrates a big anniversary this year from April 1st to 5th, 2020 in Karlsruhe. For the 20th edition, the festival makers around festival director Dr. Oliver Langewitz can come up with some ideas. 162 films from 40 countries on all five continents make Karlsruhe a showcase for independent filmmaking worldwide. Both feature films and short films are shown, the shortest film contribution lasts one minute, the longest with the Canadian contribution “Year of Innocence” 149 minutes, which tells the story of various women's fates in China.

  

As in previous years, the program is organized around the competition blocks of the Audience Award, in which viewers determine which films are shown as part of the grand finale on Saturday, April 4, at 7 p.m. This year's themes are: “Audience Award 1: A Very Sad Symphony” (Wednesday, April 1, 7:15 pm), “Audience Award 2: Rogue and Rebel” (9:15 PM), Run on Thursday, April 2 “Audience Award 3: At the Boiling Point” at 7:15 pm and “Audience Award 4: Outsiders and Underdogs” at 9:15 pm. The last two preliminary round blocks on Friday, April 4, are “Audience Award 5: Heartbeats” at 7:15 pm and “Audience Award 6: Crazy People” at 9:15 pm.

  

The festival starts on Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. with the opening gala, which provides an overview of this year's program. Here, viewers can find out what the trends of contemporary independent cinema are and which topics have particularly moved the filmmakers this year. A highlight of the festival will also be the short film retrospective, which shows films from the last 20 years of the festival. This runs on Saturday, April 4, at 3 p.m.

  

As a European film festival that bears the European Union's EFFE label (Europe for Festivals - Festivals for Europe), the INDEPENDENT DAYS also have a special focus on Europe. For example, films from Russia, Poland, Spain, Italy, France, Austria and Switzerland are shown. A total of eleven film prizes worth more than 13,000 euros are waiting for the Award Gala on Saturday evening at 9 p.m. In addition to the film prize of the Kulturstiftung der Sparkasse Karlsruhe, which is endowed with the highest prize of 2,500 euros, the only one year old KARLINA, who also serves as the festival's mascot, has established itself as an absolute audience favorite. Other prizes awarded with this trophy produced by the Majolika Karlsruhe are, for example, the Newbie Award for the best debut film offered by the Karlsruhe Trade Fair Center, the film award of the city of Karlsruhe, the indie award for the best full-length film or the City of Karlsruhe awarded Female Award for the best female directorial work.

  

In addition to the main venue, the traditional SCHAUBURG cinema, two film programs will be shown for the first time on Thursday, April 2 this year at the ZKM - Center for Art and Media. On the occasion of the new label “Karlsruhe - UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts”, the program committee has curated film works that deal with the medium of film in a particularly artistic way. These run at 7 pm under the title “Short Interventions” and at 9 pm in the “Eclipsed” program in the ZKM media theater.

  

Two programs will also be shown in the official film festival club DIE STADTMITTE on Friday, April 3, 2020. At 8:45 p.m. "Dieter Meiers Rinderfarm" by Jeremias Heppeler, a radical documentary experiment: Argentina. The performance is linked to a short concert by the political-poetic punk band founded in the film. The Brazilian film “Taste Matters” by Andre Pellenz, in which a chef falls in love with the manager of the restaurant, is already running at 7 pm.

  

All in all, many film screenings are world, European or German premieres. In addition, numerous filmmakers will personally present their film works and report to the audience in film discussions about the background of their productions. In addition to single tickets (9.50 euros, reduced 8.00 euros), festival passes are also worthwhile, as they allow access to several film blocks. These can be ordered through the festival office.

  

www.independentdays.de