Innovation

The Innovation Competition is the place for everyone who loves surprises and enjoys embracing the unusual and pushing their boundaries. Here, stories are told differently, perspectives are shifted in unexpected directions, and new techniques are used in original ways — for example, when a film is digitally colored on a computer, but by hand, frame by frame. The result is an unusual aesthetic that moves between analog and digital sensibilities.

In this category, narratives may unfold asynchronously or across multiple screens at the same time. Elements of dance and theater, diary and fairy tale storytelling, science fiction and documentary essay merge into hybrid forms of narration. These films follow their own rhythm — one that can only be experienced in full intensity in the darkness of a cinema auditorium.

From 341 submissions, a large selection committee has chosen 20 short and medium-length films as well as five feature films. Here, the cinema screen quite literally stares back, and sometimes the house itself becomes the protagonist. From artful animation to body-cam documentaries, a wide spectrum of films comes together — some of which require entirely new genres to be invented.

Jury prizes

Best Visual Innovation

endowed with 1.500 EUR

Best Narrative Innovation

endowed with 1,500 EUR

Best Technical Innovation

endowed with 1,500 EUR

On April 19th 2026 the expert jury of this section will announce the winning films in the Kleines Haus of the Theater Bremen.

The nominated films 2026:

One Hundred Four

When The Phone Rang

Brother verses Brother

Seeing Through The Darkness

Olivia

2551.03 The End

The nominated Short Films 2026:

Time After Time – Short Films Innovation #1

Heroines & Pain – Short Films Innovation #2

Goodbyes & Dreamworlds – Short Films Innovation #3

Welcome to the Dark Side –
Short Films Humour/Innovation #4

On Hold

Jury 2026

Julian Quentin

Born in 1999, Julian lives and works in Zurich and Cologne. They studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), where their graduation film was funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. Julian’s work operates at the intersection of cinema and media art, blending film, performance, and installation with queer perspectives and a dense visuality. Their works have received several awards and have been showcased at international film festivals as well as in various exhibition contexts.

Sandra Ehlermann

Sandra Ehlermann first studied Theater, Film, and Television Studies in Cologne, followed by Film Directing at the Babelsberg Filmuniversität “Konrad Wolf.” For 20 years, she worked as a script reader and consultant, including for major German broadcasters such as WDR and ZDF. From 2014 to 2025, she operated Scriptmakers, a unique casting service for screenwriters featuring 600 online profiles.

Today, she works as a freelance dramaturge and producer and leads Writers’ Circles. She produced the documentary COME WITH ME TO THE CINEMA – THE GREGORS (Germany 2022) by Alice Agneskirchner and is currently establishing a new fiction department under the umbrella of Tondowski Films as a freelance producer.

She is a co-founder of the Screenplay Award at Achtung Berlin, a member of the Fiction Commission of the Zurich Film Foundation, and Chair of the Board of VeDRA (the German Association for Film and Television Dramaturgy).

Theo Jessel

Theo Jessel is a British documentary filmmaker and graduate of the National Film & Television School. He works across premium feature documentaries and series, and has held key creative roles on projects for Arte, BBC, National Geographic and Discovery+. His passion draws on observational cinema, focusing on intimate access and character-driven stories as they unfold in real time.

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