About Us
The Filmfest Düsseldorf is one of the biggest and most known short film-festivals in Germany and is organized completely by students of media- and cultural studies at the Heinrich-Heine-University. Since 2003 a team of around 50 people gets built to work together on the Filmfest Düsseldorf for 12 months which established a set spot in the short film industry in Germany. We are also listed at the AG Kurzfilm, which confirms this. The team is divided in a board and five more teams that take care of specific parts of the planning to get to the best possible result.
At the end of November we always celebrate the short film over three days with a competition where creative filmmakers can present their work to a broad audience and a well-chosen jury. The first two days take place at the Heinrich-Heine-University, where the biggest lecture hall gets turned into a cinema. Traditionally, we move to another location for the final evening. For the first time, the final evening of the Filmfest 2024 will take place at the Zakk in Düsseldorf.
Thanks to our long-standing engagement we are happy to be popular not only on a national but also on an international level. Since we purposefully do not give genre-restrictions we can always ensure a broad and diversified program, which you as a viewer are warmly invited to. Next to the chosen films we are happy to be able to have more program during the breaks between film blocks – the last couple years we had the possibility to work with local newcomer-musicians and due to that were able to give the audience even more entertainment. Furthermore, the catering for the viewers is a priority for us and we always try to give the best possible supply.
Films and Awards
In 2022, we selected 16 films from over 1500 international submissions to be shown in our final program. The genre, theme and experience do not matter. Whoever manages to excite the audience in less than 30 minutes deserves a spot in our program. The only criteria for the filmmakers are that you are not allowed to have published more than five films beforehand and your submitted film has to have a length between three and 30 minutes. With these criteria we want to ensure that especially new filmmakers get the chance to share their films with a big audience.
But there is no competition without a winner! Who wins is a decision made mainly by the audience. Every visitor during the three days gets a chance to vote for the shown films on voting sheets distributed before the showings. On the final day the most liked films are awarded in two categories, over and under 15 minutes. Both of the winners of the audience award get 750€ with their award. Our jury, that changes yearly, also judges the program and their favorite gets the with 1000€ endowed Jury-Award. Furthermore did the team get the chance to award a Team-Award endowed with 500€ for the last couple of years. This is due to a collaboration with the BürgerStiftung Düsseldorf.