Final press announcement from 17.04.2024

9th Filmfest Bremen reports constant attendance figures

Last Sunday’s matinee awards ceremony concluded the international and regional competitions of the 9th Filmfest Bremen. Despite the early summer weather and the associated poor cinema figures nationwide, one thing is certain: the attendance figures for Filmfest Bremen remained constant compared to the previous year and could have been exceeded again in other weather conditions. The festival program attracted over 14,000 visitors to a wide variety of events. Program director Ilona Rieke explains the high audience response in part by the strong presence of the participating filmmakers: “We had a particularly profound, varied and high-quality program this year. When this is also accompanied by so many filmmakers coming to Bremen, it also ensures increased interest from the industry and the audience,” was the conclusion of the program director of the 9th Filmfest Bremen. “We were delighted with 33 German premieres from all over the world and welcomed guests from China, the USA, South Africa, Chile, Canada and Israel,” added festival organizer Marc Sifrin. Around 100 films from 22 countries were screened from the 10th to the 14th of April. “In addition, John Malkovich made us and the city of Bremen a great gift with his visit,” said festival director Matthias Greving. Greving thanked everyone involved for the successful Bremen Film Awards Gala and the very personal contributions: “Being able to celebrate the versatile and unique actor and producer John Malkovich together in the sold-out Theater am Goetheplatz was a great honor for the audience and the festival.” The 23rd Bremen Film Prize was awarded by Sparkasse Bremen in front of a full house at a festive gala on April 10 th at the Theater am Goetheplatz. Sparkasse board member Klaus Windheuser presented the 8,000 euro prize together with the “Goldener Mops” festival trophy to actor and producer John Malkovich for his complete cinematic oeuvre. The Hollywood actor spent three days in Bremen and answered questions from festival director Greving and the expert audience in a “Masterclass” in the Bremen Schauburg on the evening before the gala.

For all those who were unable to attend: A recording of the MASTERCLASS is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZksUxBBia2M

In addition to the MASTERCLASS, there were 25 other programme offerings for the industry, from animation workshops and “Speed Dating for Filmmakers” to “Female Gaze” and women’s network meetings as well as the panel “Decolonization in Film”. Over 300 specialist accreditations and a total of over 1,300 participants were recorded in the industry offering. “Another indication that Bremen is becoming increasingly visible as a film location and meeting place for the film scene,” Ilona Rieke and Matthias Greving are pleased to report.

Photos and impressions of the festival and the award ceremony can be found under the following link: https://cloud.filmfestbremen.com/s/ZoWRsPaFq6p9PG9

In the international humor/satire competition, the decisions were made by a renowned jury of experts. Actor Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones, Stranger Things), producer Viktoria Salcher (Mermaids don’t cry, Alphabet) and director and author Christian Frosch (Murer – Anatomy of a Trial) awarded the following prizes: The jury prize of 5,000 euros for the best feature-length film went to the Canadian, black-humored suspense film A SHIT DAY by Kevin T. Landry. The jury chose BINAUD & CLAUDE by Mélanie Laleu from France as the best medium-length film, which received prize money of 2,500 euros. BASRI AND SALMA IN A NEVERENDING COMEDY by Khozy Rizal from Indonesia received prize money of 1,500 euros for best short film.

WILL YOU LOOK AT ME by Shuli Huang from China won the jury prize for “Best Narrative Innovation” in the international Innovation competition and received 1,500 euros in prize money, as did HAPPY NEW YEAR, JIM by Andrea Gatopoulos (jury prize for “Best Technical Innovation”). The Bremen State Media Authority donated the “Best Visual Innovation” jury prize worth 1,500 euros for ARDENT OTHER by Alice Brygo and also the “Special Mention” for WHEN I BLEED by Miri Klischat, endowed with 500 euros. The expert jury was made up of cultural journalist Jenni Zylka (section head of Perspektive Deutsches Kino/Berlinale), British filmmaker Sarah Aspinall, Thorsten Schaumann (artistic director of the internationale Hofer Filmtage) and Björn Hoffmann (Pandora Filmverleih).

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER (DIE KULISSEN DER MACHT) by documentary filmmaker Dror Moreh from Israel received the Audience Award for Best International Film, worth 7,500 euros, in the still young “German Premieres” competition. The film examines and reflects on the political decision-making processes and reactions, particularly in the USA, to political crises and crimes against humanity over the past four decades. The audience awarded the second prize of 2,500 euros to the Chinese emancipatory drama TILL LOVE DO US PART by Ran Li.

In the regional competition BREMEN & UMZU, the decisions were made for the first time by a jury made up of award winners from previous years. Nadine Niemann (filmmaker and editor at Radio Bremen), director Patrick Büchting (Morgen irgendwo am Meer) and director Niclas Mehne (Schlussklappe) awarded prizes to three winning films in this section. “Best Bremen Film” was awarded to the documentary FILMMAKERS ON HOLD by Christine Jezior, endowed with 3,000 euros and donated by Bremen’s Senator for Culture. The film was made remotely and portrays the film and acting scene in New York during the first lockdown in 2020. The prize to the “Best Film from the Bremen region” went to the drama JENSEITS DER BLAUEN GRENZE by Sarah Neumann, which was made with the help of Lower Saxony producer Arto Sebastian. In the last summer of the GDR in 1989, budding Olympic athlete Hanna decides to flee by swimming across the Baltic Sea. The prize money of 3,000 euros was donated by the BAB (Bremer Aufbau-Bank), as was the prize money for the newly awarded “Best Short Film from Bremen & Surroundings”. This went to the tragic-comic family drama KRUSTE by Jens Kevin Georg in the amount of 1,500 euros.

The sustainability prize of 2,500 euros, awarded by hanseWasser, went to the French satire THE ATTACK OF THE LIVING TRASH by Matthiéu Liénart, in which a couple in the process of separating must reunite in order to stand together against garbage attacks and save the world.

On Saturday evening, the gala for the Werder short film award DAS WUNDER VON DER WESER at the Theater am Goetheplatz provided another highlight in the festival program. To mark the 125th anniversary of the club, the 12 best submissions from a fan’s perspective on SV WERDER BREMEN were presented and awarded prizes. The jury, made up of actor Matthias Brandt, film producer Tom Spiess, actress Sara Fazilat, fan representative Julia Düvelsdorf, editor Markus Biereichel and stadium announcer and journalist Arnd Zeigler, awarded the best short film MEIN NORDDERBY by Leon Branko Čolić with 3,500 euros and the best newcomer film LEMSLANG by Marie Lehmann with 500 euros in prize money. An audience award was also presented: 1,500 euros went to WELCHES WAR DEINS? by Leonard Koopmann. The program was rounded off by a rocking performance by the band AFTERBURNER and a special nostalgic to comedic presentation on Werder Bremen by Arnd Zeigler in the best ZEIGLERS WUNDERBARE WELT DES FUSSBALLS style.

In the short film competition organized by WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH, first prize and 1,500 euros went to VON SPEICHEN UND SCHLÖSSERN by Konstantin Kindt. Second place and 1,000 euros went to BOSSA VELO by Alexander Derben and third place and 500 euros went to THE BREMER FAHRRADWAY by Jan Lange.

The winner of the Filmbüro Bremen’s Pitch & Pie event was Anja Badeck. She received the pitch prize of 500 euros for her series concept DEPRESSION IST EIN ARSCHLOCH, which the prize is intended to give the necessary final impetus for realization. The artistic short film project RAUCHSCHWADEN by the Luxus Filmkollektiv received an honorable mention.

The 48-hour short film competition “Klappe!”, made possible by Sparkasse Bremen, gave the starting signal for the 9th Filmfest Bremen on March 23. A total of 40 short film premieres competed for the prize money provided by Sparkasse Bremen. The 1st Audience Award and 1,000 euros went to NOCH NICHT by Julia Müller, the 2nd Audience Award and 500 euros to STUNDE DER ERKENNTNIS by the “Angsthasen” team. The Jury Prize, also worth 1,000 euros, went to ICH BIN by Jonas Kaufmann, while the Jury Special Mention and 500 euros went to ANOTHER FILM ABOUT WOMEN by Corinna & Yoonah Gerhards.

After this festival is now the next one: The 10th Bremen Film Festival will take place from March 19th to the 23rd of March, 2025.

Further information can be found at:

www.filmfestbremen.com

facebook.com/filmfestbremen

instagram.com/filmfestbremen

linkedin.com/company/filmfest-bremen