With fantastic musical accompaniment by Beate Wein and Aaron Christ, we kicked off our festival week to a sold-out house.

Gabriele Canu from SADPARA, Betina Kuntzsch from HIMMEL WIE SEIDE. VOLLER ORANGEN, and Ilona Vashkelite and Pavel Medvedev from THE VISIONARY FROM ARTYUSHKINO presented their work in person and engaged in lively conversation.

The evening culminated in the "Nacht des Bauernfilms" (Night of the Farm Film) with Antje Schiffers and Thomas Sprenger, who were our guests for the third time.

Photos: Torsten Stapel

We were delighted to see a full house at the youth film afternoon, where we mainly presented a selection from our FILMKNACK project: the young people brought their parents, friends, and teachers with them and were thrilled by the warm applause for their films.

In the subsequent competition block, guests presented their films: Peter and Nevelin Vulchev had come from Bulgaria for the short feature film UND DAS WAR'S FÜR DIESE WEIHNACHTEN (And That Was It for This Christmas), Jeroen Ceulebrouck and Elise Leonard from Belgium presented their animation DER RABE (The Raven), and Christian Goretzky presented the German animation MAMA MICRA.

To round off the event, we showed the feature film HANAMI by Denise Fernandes. Beate Wein and Nicolas Schulze provided musical accompaniment throughout the day.

Pictures: Torsten Stapel

People in high spirits left Haus Schwärzetal early yesterday evening, as our first networking event for regional filmmakers had come to an end with mutual interest and many helpful suggestions. We are delighted about this.

Afterwards, Beate Wein enticed everyone into the hall with her piano playing, where Guillem Cabra from Spain presented his film BINU, HISTÒRIA DE DUES ESTRELLES (BINU: A Two-Stars Story), and there was a long discussion with the audience in the festival club.

We also had visitors in the second block of the day, with Mihkel Reha presenting his Estonian animated film 10 AINULAADSET PAIKA MIDA KINDLASTI KÜLASTADA (Top 10 Things To See).

Pictures: Torsten Stapel, Sarah Sandring, and Sascha Leeske

Today was, for once, a “normal” competition day.

Accompanied by music from Yatziv Caspi & Eklekt1k, we watched two long documentaries—the Polish film KOKA by Aliaksandr Tsymbaliuk and the Canadian-Slovakian film SHIFTING BASELINES by Julien Elie.

We also screened the Danish-Greenlandic short film ANNGEERDARDARDOR by director Christoffer Rizvanovic Stenbakken and the Argentine short documentary MIENTRAS TANTO ESTOY ACÁ by Gastón Calivari.

It was a truly successful evening about fishing and space travel.

Pictures: Torsten Stapel

On Wednesday, Julien Sallé came to Eberswalde to present his documentary LA NOSTRA ISOLA and engage in conversation with Thomas Winkelkotte and the audience at the festival club.

The competition in the feature-length documentary category continued with JAQUES. Filmmaker Lysandre Leduc-Boudreau traveled from Quebec to present it. It was a long evening, as the audience was visibly moved by this portrayal of an unusual person, and Gregor Glass had his hands full as moderator.

Many thanks to Beate Wein for her music, which made us ready to travel to all kinds of places around the world!

Pictures: Torsten Stapel

VON ICKE BIS PLATT is the name of Gerald Backhaus' documentary about Berlin-Brandenburg dialects. Yesterday afternoon, she visited us—along with her filmmaker.

Afterwards, we showed COLOSTRUM, a cautious approach to two worlds in documentary film, and talked about it with filmmaker Sayaka Mizuno in the festival club.

Finally, Beate Wein and Monojo enticed us to the third round, a mixed block with many guests: Matúš Vizár presented his animation FREE THE CHICKENS to a packed hall, film composer Lucas Castillo had come to Eberswalde for the short documentary FIRST TASTE, and George Georgakopoulos presented his short feature film THERMOKIPIO (The Greenhouse).

Pictures: Torsten Stapel