For the 22nd time, Eberswalde will be the venue for an international film festival this fall, the Provinziale. This means that we have long since reached adulthood, and some of the provincialists who were still young people when this attractive cultural format was founded are no longer so.
Nevertheless, 2025 may go down in festival history as a year of rejuvenation. Not only are new people joining the team, but this year also marks a real highlight for the youth film work of Sehquenz e.V. A selection of the short films that were made this year thanks to funding from the Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung and Sparkasse Barnim will therefore be honored in a special youth film afternoon. There will also be a special screening of the feature film “Das Zeitvermächtnis” (The Legacy of Time) by three young filmmakers from Eberswalde.
The 15-member team has now viewed and discussed approximately 550 submissions from 57 countries and compiled a selection for the competition. Thirty-three films have made it into the competition, including seven feature-length documentaries and seven short documentaries, eight animations, and eleven short films. The competition films come from 18 countries, including Switzerland, Bulgaria, Cuba, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Argentina, France, Italy, Canada, Slovakia, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Portugal, Denmark, and Iran. Not only are these films worth seeing, they also deepen our understanding of the relationship between people and space and all related topics: settlement and land use, tourism, migration, war, and peace.
In 2025, we will also be offering even more special programs: With “Hanami” by Denise Fernandes, we have a feature film outside of the competition on the program on Sunday. We are also looking forward to a new edition of the “Night of the Farm Film” with Antje Schiffers and Thomas Sprenger, as well as “Von Icke bis Platt,” a documentary by Gerald Backhaus about “how people originally spoke in Berlin and Brandenburg.” The popular children's program on Saturday morning as part of “Guten Morgen Eberswalde” is of course also on the agenda for the festival week.
Another new feature is the Provincial Network Workshop for filmmakers and creative professionals (registration required), which will take place for the first time this year on the initiative of Sarah Sandring and Tobias Jall. This will also make the film festival a meeting place for film production in our region.
The circle of supporters and sponsors of the Provinziale is diverse. In addition to the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, we have always been able to rely on the support of the Barnim district and many municipal companies – e.g., the car dealership at Wilhelmsbrücke or the Wiese bakery. Since last year, we have been delighted to receive generous support from the EWE Foundation, which has created scope for the above-mentioned additions to our program. Kochkommode and Krumme Gurke have joined us as new cooperation partners. We are very grateful to everyone who contributes to the success of the film festival.
