Let’s work and plunge into the pleasure of film
To lean back and watch others do the work. You could sum up the programme of this year’s Münster Film Festival that way.
Work is the theme that defines many sections of the festival. Work was explicitly called for in the announcement of the European Feature Film Competition, which will take place for the second time at this year’s festival. A feature film competition focussing on one theme, which is unique among German festivals, offers the opportunity to get an overview, though selective, if and how discussions and transformations in society are reflected in European feature films.
So this year it is “Arbeit”, or “Work! Don’t Work!” for our foreign guests, as all directors are also invited to personally present their films in Münster. Eight nominated films from eight countries vie for the Award for Best Director worth € 10,000. And in all films, be they thrillers, music film, social drama or semi-documentaries, work is the impulse or the starting ground for the plot — yet entertaining in all its visual variety.- The German-language Short Film Competition, the festival’s classic, presents young film makers and their work, which were produced at film academies or independently. All themes are welcome here, everything goes, each genre and every format up to 45 minutes running time. And here is the chance for the festival’s audience to make a difference, as an Audience Award will be presented according to your vote, apart from the two jury awards.
- And for the first time — and inspired by the theme of work — an adolescent jury will be part of the festival, also presenting an award. In school screenings, graduating students from secondary schools in Münster will watch serious, ironic and playful films about learning and working. The festival thus supports the endeavour of schools and cultural policies to foster media competence in young people. And watching films in a cinema is on another emotional scale than watching a DVD via beamer in a classroom.
- film|spiegel is a festival section that is unique in Germany, presenting the latest productions from the Netherlands; and the Münster Connection series is dedicated to film makers who live and work here or who have produced their work with the help of the Filmwerkstatt Münster. The Filmservice Münster.Land again presents its Script Development Award for stories from the region.
All the “work” could not have been done without help. So here I want to thank our long-standing sponsors, our partners in cooperation and the new sponsors for making the 12th Münster Film Festival possible.
All that’s left for me to say is to cordially invite you to spend your time off work and your welldeserved weekend with us at the Cineplex, with films never seen in münster’s cinemas and others, especially European ones, which you will probably only ever see at this festival.
Barbara Fischer-Rittmeyer
Festival director
