Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg

In the early days of cinematic history, before there were experimental films because cinema itself was still pretty much an experiment in itself, everything was short and short films were the most popular attractions at fun fairs. Today, short films are the other side of cinema: its cinematographic laboratory, its subconscious and its sense of the things not yet shown, pictured or said.

However, they are at home at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. Since its foundation 28 years ago, the Hamburg International Short Film Festival has been celebrating short films as an independent art form, while offering an opportunity for film makers from all over the world to get in touch with an eager audience and with each other.

At the Hamburg International Short Film Festival, around 14.000 visitors get to watch ca. 400 films in international and national competitions as well as in carefully curated special programmes, which showcase contemporary film art alongside earlier influential avant-garde-pieces. Apart from the national focus, which takes a look at a different country every year, there are monographic shows or explorations of specific cinematic motives through time and genres.

Among all the festivals in the world, the Hamburg International Short Film Festival Festival has to position itself with a sense of itself and an overall value that is more than just the sum of its individual parts. The competitions, special programmes and its highly atmospheric festival centre are these parts. Together with its short films, film makers and audiences they add up to much more in both actuality and in meaning.