Festival Management Restructure at FILMFEST DRESDEN
The international short film festival FILMFEST DRESDEN has appointed a new Festival Director from 1 July. Sylke Gottlebe is assuming the management conducted to date by Karolin Kramheller, Katrin Küchler und Alexandra Schmidt.
"Over the last seven years, the festival has developed in an excellent manner, and we would like to thank Alexandra Schmidt, Karolin Kramheller and Katrin Küchler with all our hearts for their commitment and dedication to it," said Andrej Krabbe, Managing Director of Filminitiative Dresden e.V., the non-profit organisation that runs the festival. "At the same time, with Sylke Gottlebe we’ve now been able to appoint an experienced short-film expert to the position of Festival Director, and we’re looking forward to seeing what her plans and aims are for its future."
Sylke Gottlebe returns as Festival Director of FILMFEST DRESDEN
Sylke Gottlebe, who has been actively involved in the short film scene since 1996, was already the Festival Director of FILMFEST DRESDEN from 1997 to 2001. For which reason, she has a clear view of the tasks and work she is now facing: "I’ve great respect for the work done by the festival management to date. I’ve been part of FILMFEST DRESDEN since it was founded, and I can say that it is a completely different festival today to what it was like when I left the management in 2001 for my parental leave. It has moved beyond being a festival solely for the audiences to becoming a top international date in the calendars of the film and media professionals who now attend it."
Current Management Facilitate Structural Transition
The management to date have shown the same commitment to achieving a smooth transition to the managerial change as they did when developing the festival over the last few years. Since the beginning of June, Sylke Gottlebe has been familiarising herself with her future work, before Katrin Küchler leaves FILMFEST DRESDEN at her own request at the end of the month to pursue new professional and career opportunities. Alexandra Schmidt and Karolin Kramheller will continue to accompany and support the new management transition, before leaving the festival in July and October. "The association’s Management Board and the festival team regret the departure of such highly dedicated festival managers, and we wish Katrin Küchler, Alexandra Schmidt and Karolin Kramheller much success on their new career paths in the future," Andrej Krabbe added.
Anniversary Year with Current Team
While changes have occurred on the managerial level, the key team in the festival office has remained in place. "I’m really delighted that the present team with their expertise and commitment are going to continue working for the festival, and we intend to spend the next few weeks together developing ideas for the festival’s 30th anniversary next year. I hope that with my national and international experience, as well as with the insights I’ve gained into the film industry, I’ll be able to establish new features and other highlights in the festival," Sylke Gottlebe explained. "Up to now, FILMFEST DRESDEN has managed to have a unique character of its own over each of the last three decades – and I’m really looking forward to the challenge of shaping and advancing the festival in its fourth decade," Sylke Gottlebe added. Her aim is to have a powerful festival that promotes the short film scene more intensively, and that festival areas, such as the children and youth film section, are strengthened and further developed.
About Sylke Gottlebe
Sylke Gottlebe, born 1964, has been involved with short film since 1996. She was the director of FILMFEST DRESDEN from 1997 to 2001. When the German short film association AG Kurzfilm was founded in May 2002, Sylke Gottlebe managed the development and expansion of this federal German body representing short film and was its Managing Director for eleven years. As a member of the Administrative Council of the FFA (Germany’s main federal film funding body) and a member of the Supervisory Board of German Films (the German film exporting body), she has gained extensive knowledge of film policy processes and issues. In order to strengthen and network the German short film scene, she has initiated a wide range of projects in Germany and abroad, and she coordinated the first Short Film Day event throughout all of Germany on 21 December 2012, among others. From 2008 to 2013 she was appointed to the Cinema Programme Award Jury of the German Federal Representative for Culture and Media (BKM). In addition, following many years of jury work in the German Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW) film and media evaluation body, she has been a member of numerous film councils and groups, such as in the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, among others. For two years, Sylke Gottlebe was responsible for the Pardi di Domani short film section at the Festival del Film Locarno. Since 2014, she has been a member of the international viewing and selection committee at FILMFEST DRESDEN. That same year she was appointed to the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, where she focuses on the "film and movie city of Dresden". Since 2015, she has been a member of the German Short Film Prize Jury in the fiction film category.
Sylke Gottlebe has three children and lives in Dresden.
About FILMFEST DRESDEN – International Short Film Festival
FILMFEST DRESDEN (www.filmfest-dresden.de/en), which was founded in 1989, is counted among the most renowned and best-endowed short film festivals in Europe. Each year over the six festival days in mid-April, it brings the latest short film productions from Germany, Europe and the world to the cinema screens in the capital of Saxony, and attracts about 25,000 visitors, including 550 accredited media professionals. Prize money totalling €66,000 is awarded in the National and International Competitions for animated and fiction films, together with four special prizes. These include the DEFA Promotion Prize Animation, the ARTE Short Fiction Film Prize, the "Golden Horseman" Sound Design, as well as the Saxon State Ministry for Science and the Fine Arts Promotion Prize, which is endowed with €20,000.
Each year, more than 2,000 short films from 100 countries are submitted for selection to the National and International Competition sections. In addition to the competitions, the festival also has an extensive range of special programmes that focus on specific themes and countries, as well as retrospectives and film programmes for children and adolescents. Since 2012, the festival’s "etc. - events.trainings.connections" section has organised panel discussions, talks, workshops, exhibitions and receptions for media professionals attending the festival as an addition to the film programmes.
FILMFEST DRESDEN is listed as an official reference festival by Germany’s main film funding body, the FFA. It is a member of AG Kurzfilm, the federal German short film association, the European Film Academy (EFA) and the Filmverband Sachsen e.V., the film association in Saxony, as well as being involved in the Netzwerk Kultur Dresden local culture network, the WOD initiative for a cosmopolitan Dresden and the Kulturloge Dresden, which brings culture to low income individuals.
The 30th FILMFEST DRESDEN is being held from 17 to 22 April 2018.
Should you have any questions, please contact the press section of Filminitiative Dresden e. V. at presse@filmfest-dresden.de