That was the Festival 2011!
We’re over the moon! With an audience record of 16,000, the 27th International Short Film Festival Berlin came to a euphoric close on Sunday. 500 films from 68 countries were shown in 50 programmes during a successful festival week. More than 500 accredited guests attended this year’s festival, 220 international and german filmmakers and 100 industry professionals,. Prizes amounting to € 36,000 were awarded in six competition categories.
A particular highlight of this year‘s interfilm Festival were the foreign focuses on Switzerland and Southeast Asia as well as the thematic spotlight on environment.
Ambitious events and new programme formats also triumphed: At Sound & Vision we turned down the sound on 8 short films and invited 8 music acts and sound artists to create live soundtracks. The sold out show at the Volksbuehne’s main stage was an impressive aural and visual feat. The first-ever Film+Fertig was such an entertaining success that it looks as though the competition is here to stay: 5 film crews made 5 films featuring 5 criteria in 5 days. The winner was announced at the lively Film+Fertig awards ceremony.
Further festival events included the cinematic guessing-game at interfilm Quiz Night, a film project exchange at Pitch me! as well as Film Salons and out-of-the-ordinary programming such as Bike Shorts (literally that), Critically Short (film critics’ favourite films), Decibel (short films about musicians and music), music videos and various parties. Once again interfilm celebrated the seemingly infinite diversity of filmmaking in highly original and unforgettable ways!
We called in the digital revolution and ended up with brilliant image quality: this year we decided to take the leap and screen festival films using a hard disk player. We were blown away by the system’s stability! The audience were treated to a stunning visual feast! Just 10 % of this year’s films were sent on 35mm while the rest, after uploading, instead of being shown in a Beta MP4 format, could be projected onto the screen in HD.
KUKI – the 4th International Short Film Festival for Children and Youth Berlin drew 4,100 young (and not-so-young) cinema buffs to the movie theatres at Filmtheater am Friedrichshain, 3,000 of which were pupils who attended the diverse school programmes.
The most popular KUKI programme proved to be the Spanish Foreign Language programme, “Que Onda?” which attracted approximately 650 cinema goers. In addition to the opening matinee event with a 320-strong audience, the kindergarten programme was literally bursting with 600 squealing and giggling young children!
Visitors and guests about the festival:
„I was very impressed how visiting filmmakers received such warm and gracious hospitality. Based on my other world festivals experiences, INTERFILM is one of the highest quality international short film festivals in the world showcasing an unusually rich and eclectic selections of art, special interest, and art house films from a sweeping range of cultures around the world.“ John Graham (Director “Move”)
“It was a truly fantastic and memorable festival with great films and great people. Thank you!” Harry Chapman (Director, “Invisible”)
“The festival was really great. I could see a lot of wonderful films, and it was a pleasure to talk about mine in front of the crowded audience.”
Arnold de Parscau (Director „Tommy“)
“I am very proud to have had my film screened at this event, so I must say a big thank you to you as well for letting me be a part of this.”
Tim Wheatley (Director, “The Cyclotrope Experiment”)
