Filmkreis Shorts

Filmkreis Shorts Information

Nach 5 Jahren Pause kehren die Filmkreis Shorts in der 7. Ausgabe in unser Programm zurück. Wir präsentieren euch wie gewohnt ein bunt durchmischtes Programm von ca. 2 Stunden Länge mit aller Art von Kurzfilmen, die wir aus zahlreichen internationalen Einreichungen ausgewählt haben.

Die wortwörtliche Krönung des Abends wird eine Preisverleihung sein, um die besten Kurzfilme angemessen zu küren. Das macht nicht nur eine von uns ausgewählte Jury – auch ihr als Publikum habt die Chance, für euren Favoriten zu stimmen und ihm so zu einem der Publikumspreise zu verhelfen. 

 

Filmkreis Shorts Information in English Language 

After a 5-year break, the Filmkreis Shorts are returning to our program for the 7th edition. As usual, we will be presenting a varied program of around 2 hours with all kinds of short films that we have selected from numerous international submissions.

The literal highlight of the evening will be an award ceremony to honor the best short films. This will not only be done by a jury selected by us - you as the audience will also have the chance to vote for your favorite and thus help it to win one of the audience awards.

 

Jury Awards (incl. Jury Statements)

  1. Ben's Birthday (300€)
    • The camera is always at the protagonist's eye level, giving the impression of being right in the middle of it all and yet not part of it. Lost between shopping trolleys that are pushed through the aisles without consideration, the film shows the child-hostile environment from the perspective of a nine-year-old boy. 

      But Ben not only has the problem that he can only reach the sweets on tiptoe, unlike the blonde girl, everyday racism marginalises him and his father. The camera angles and choice of images in particular create an excellent visual space between powerlessness and familiar atmosphere. The film intelligently conveys that this powerlessness does not only apply to children, but is also experienced by adults. Especially when attacks are so low-threshold that there seems to be no meaningful defence against them, and when the (German) environment remains silent. Ben's feeling of isolation is not only conveyed on the visual level, but also on the audio level: In a decisive moment of conflict, we are in the car with Ben and can only vaguely hear the voices of the adults.    

      The diffuse feeling of powerless unease - that something unfair is happening, but as a child you can't grasp what - is conveyed in ‘Ben's Birthday’ with a keen eye for the mechanisms of power and marginalisation. We would also like to make special mention of the outstanding acting performance by Nathan Blanchet, who plays Ben. 
  2. Spider-Zan (200€)
    • Superheroines are now also part of blockbusters, women are role models for women. At least in theory. The fact that heroism is still a purely male thing in the minds of most people becomes clear right at the beginning with a toy figure: Negar, the film's protagonist, brings her little sister Nasim a climbing toy figure, which is first dubbed Spider-Man. It is only through Nasim's creative use of the Persian language that Spider-Man becomes Spider-Zan, a woman.         

      The story of a small emancipation, which initially revolves around hiding and concealment, is told in a visually stylish yet restrained manner. The film has a clever narrative structure and not everything is ‘told’ to us: the origin of Negar's facial wound is left open and offers room for interpretation. What is certain, however, is that this blemish is tainted with shame - and the burden of hiding it lies solely with Negar. Negar's heroine's journey takes place exclusively in her neighbourhood. In a door-to-door odyssey, it's literally about saving face. A short story of resistance, however small and mundane it may be. Maryam Kohdabakhsh skilfully uses the symbolism of the fragile mirror to show how Negar is in conflict with social norms. 
  3. Why Did You Come Back Every Summer (100€)
    • Silence is the greatest guarantee that things will stay the way they have always been. The goal of 22-year-old Lucia is to speak - about what happened to her and what was made possible by others looking the other way. However, an angry phone call at the beginning of the film already hints at Lucia's chances of achieving justice.  

      When Lucia speaks to the women in her family, she stands alone - this isolation is also expressed visually through a play with image formats. At first, the protagonist is literally constricted and marginalised by a narrow frame. It quickly becomes apparent that all of the women have something to lose. And it is more comfortable not to acknowledge your own complicity instead of changing old family dynamics that are set in stone. The moment Lucia speaks out publicly, the camera's gaze widens and opens up new spaces.

      Blaming the victim for sexual abuse seems absurd and yet is portrayed in a frighteningly realistic way. The criticism of the reversal of responsibility is aptly summarised in the reproachful question ‘So why did you come back every summer?’.

      Juli Suàrez in a short space of time manages to depict - and question - the entrenched loyalties in a patriarchal family structure in a stylistically confident manner.  


Audience Awards

  1. Thursday (200€)
  2. Taximan (125€)
  3. Collage (75€)

Jury Membe

  • Philipp Aubel | Frankfurt am Main (Queer Filmfest Weiterstadt)

    • Philipp Aubel betreut als Projektleitung den Arbeitsbereich Junge Filmszene im BJF, pflegt das Info-Netzwerk und bereitet die 60. Werkstatt der Jungen Filmszene vor. Philipp Aubel ist studierter Gymnasiallehrer (Latein und Geschichte), sehr filminteressiert und hat während seines Studiums u. a. das Kurzfilmfestival „OpenEyes“ in Marburg mitorganisiert. Ehrenamtlich ist er Mitorganisator des "QUEER Filmfest Weiterstadt".

 

 

Samstag, 29.3.2025 20:00 Audimax
antisocial

Antisocial ist ein Stop-Motion-Kurzfilm, der in einer dystopischen Welt die Isolation des Individuums und den Widerstand gegen eine allgegenwärtige Macht thematisiert. Die Geschichte folgt einem Cowboy, der sich in einem surrealen, von anarchischen Würmern bevölkerten Raum behaupten muss. Ohne Dialoge, aber mit einer eindringlichen visuellen Sprache, erschafft der Film eine Atmosphäre, die zwischen Absurdität und existenzieller Tiefe schwankt. Die reduzierte Ästhetik, kombiniert mit einer handgefertigten, rauen Stop-Motion-Technik, betont den bewussten Kontrast zu glattpolierten digitalen Produktionen und unterstreicht die antikapitalistische Haltung des Projekts.

 

Neben der Animation ist auch die Musik eine Eigenproduktion: Der gesamte Soundtrack wurde von der Band Pedagogic Torment komponiert, in der ich selbst als Musiker tätig bin. Antisocial ist damit ein vollständig unabhängiges Ein-Mann-Projekt, das von der ersten Animation bis zum finalen Soundmix in Eigenregie entstanden ist.

 

Tobias Rothacker
Taximann

Alle Taxifahrer der Stadt sind sich einig: Doris wollen sie nicht mehr mitnehmen. Die selbsterklärte Grand Dame und berüchtigte Alkoholikerin macht nur Ärger. Doch als Doris scheinbar alle Ressourcen erschöpft hat, findet sie in den Untiefen des Telefonbuchs den „Taximann“. Dieser erklärt sich bereit, sie nach hause zu fahren. Es gibt nur einen Haken: Er ist noch verrückter als sie.

Leander Behal
Cycling against Ghosts
Livia Giuliani
Donnerstag

Eine Nacht, in der Vater und Tochter durch die Straßen der Stadt streunern. Auf der Suche nach etwas zu essen. Aber eigentlich auf der Suche nach einer Beziehung zueinander. Sie streiten nicht. Sie haben sich nur nichts zu sagen.

Maja Bresink
Wurzeln und Triebe

Rita und Paul haben mit den Erwartungen zu kämpfen, die sie in ihrer Beziehung aneinander stellen. Eines Nachts im Schlafzimmer versuchen beide, ihre Rollen zu spielen, doch letztlich haben sie mit einem Machtungleichgewicht und Missverständnissen zu kämpfen.

Angela Regius
Sunflower Shadows

As a teenage boy, Pooya, who lives with his mother, faces a challenge with his mother and the young female painter Tala who lives next door.

Ben's Geburtstag

Ben is nine years old today. Thus, his father lets him choose three sweets on a trip to the supermarket. His innocence is clouded when he observes his father being accosted by a stranger at the supermarket checkout shortly afterwards. Little Ben doesn't understand much from a distance, but his father's ethnicity seems to play a role. Ben doesn't know exactly what has happened, but for the first time he realizes that something has.

Robert Decani
Why Did You Come Back Every Summer

Lucia, a 22 year old student reveals the abuse she suffered when she was a teenager, so that it will not happen again. A trip to the village where she spent her childhood will be the beginning of a process of resilience, but the silence and hypocrisy of her family will be her greatest obstacle.

Juli Suàrez
Spider-Zan

Negar is a young girl who loses something that causes trouble for her right on the day of her proposal ceremony.

Maryam Khodabakhsh
Waiting

In the world of children, minor changes cause them great anxiety. School is closed and all the children go home with their parents, but in the meantime, Hamid and Navid wait for their parents every day as usual. Hamid is more worried about this than Navid and blames his family for this.

Waiting Rooini
Collage

A girl who works in a museum tries to convince another co-worker that two visitors are flirting. And how does she know? Scientific studies say that there are six signs that show one person's attraction to another.

Marius Conrotto