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Festival info

Cinema for everyone

FILMFEST HAMBURG is a film festival for the public.

According to the motto »Filmfest for everyone – everywhere in Hamburg«, the first film festival opened in Hamburg in 1992. To date, around 3000 national and international film productions have celebrated their world, European or German premieres at FILMFEST HAMBURG. The festival has grown continuously over the years, with the number of visitors increasing tenfold since 1992. When Albert Wiederspiel took office in 2003, the first MICHEL Children’s and Youth Festival took place.

 

Every autumn, FILMFEST HAMBURG attracts more than 45,000 cinema fans.Over ten days, around 130 national and international feature films and documentaries are shown on 14 screens. The programme spectrum in ten sections ranges from cineastically sophisticated art house films to innovative mainstream cinema and a colourful film and event programme for the youngest cinema-goers. FILMFEST HAMBURG presents the first productions of young German and international filmmakers as well as the films of established directors. In addition, it brings television productions to the big screen before they are broadcast on TV.

 

Directors and actors such as Clint Eastwood, Jodie Foster, Steven Frears, Peter Weir, Jim Jarmusch, Wong Kar-Wai, François Ozon, Isabelle Huppert, David Cronenberg, Tilda Swinton, Wim Wenders and Sandra Hüller received the Douglas Sirk Award, introduced in 1995, as personalities who have rendered outstanding services to film culture and the film industry.

2023 FILMFEST HAMBURG has granted a total of 125,000 euros in award money, including the Hamburg Producer Award for International Cinema Co-Productions, endowed with 25,000 euros, donated by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

 

Other awards include the Douglas Sirk Award, the Hamburg Producer Award for German Co-Productions sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the Hamburg Producer Award for German Television Productions and the Special Award for Serial Formats – both sponsored by the Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten (VFF), the FILMFEST HAMBURG Audience Award, donated by the Hapag-Lloyd Foundation, The Political Film of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the MAJA, donated by Hamburg cinema operator Hans-Peter Jansen, the Art Cinema Award, the NDR Young Talent Award as well as the Film Critics’ Prize. For the first time, the Albert Wiederspiel Award for International Film Direction was presented at FILMFEST HAMBURG. Award money of 10,000 euros is being provided by the Hapag-Lloyd Foundation.

 

As a platform for cultural exchange and dialogue, the majority of the films will be presented by the filmmakers themselves in Hamburg. With an extensive supporting programme including an Explorer Conference as part of the FILMFEST HAMBURG INDUSTRY DAYS, the festival in the north will become an important meeting place for the regional, national and international film industry.

 

In autumn 2024, FILMFEST HAMBURG invites the public to the 32nd festival edition for the first time under the direction of Malika Rabahallah in the cinemas Abaton, Alabama, CinemaxX Dammtor, Metropolis, Passage and Studio-Kino. The last-named is the new venue for the MICHEL Children and Youth Film Festival.

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