Positive result of FFDD21
The 33 Filmfest Dresden came to an end last Sunday after six successful festival days. Nine Golden Horsemen and seven special prizes worth 70,500 euros were awarded at the festive awards ceremony on Saturday evening at the Schauburg Filmtheatre. All in all, Filmfest Dresden had about 12,400 festival visitors, of which about 10,400 came to the film screenings and events in the Dresden venues. About 2,000 people used the digital transmissions of the award ceremony, panels, talks on the website and on Facebook. The 34th Filmfest Dresden is scheduled to take place next spring at its traditional time slot, from 5 to 10 April 2022.
"Once again we were very fortunate to have our festival take place locally and are overwhelmed by the positive response to our offerings," said festival director Sylke Gottlebe. "Despite a drop in attendance, probably due to the unfavourable weather for our open-air on Neumarkt, we are pleased that many screenings, including the children's and youth film programmes and also our competition programmes were well attended."
"After the long cultural and social dry spell, the many wonderful moments during the festival are indescribable, especially outside the pure cinema experience," adds festival director Anne Gaschütz. "The encounters between filmmakers, for example, who met and networked in Dresden for the first time, are a beautiful confirmation for us that it was right to postpone the festival and let it take place in analogue."
Among the most successful events of the 33rd Filmfest Dresden were various programmes at the Film Nights on the banks of the Elbe, such as the Short Film Night, the 10th Central German Film Night and the Kids Special: Sometimes with, sometimes after, sometimes's better. The special programmes "Focus Québec", "Discourse Europe: Focus Great Britain" and the focus programmes on activism were well attended. As in previous years, the popular series "Seriously! WTF?" at the Thalia was once again sold out. The exhibition opening "Non Konform" at the Raskolnikow Gallery and the programme "Regional Focus: Hüben wie drüben" at the Clubkino in the Lingnerschloss attracted many guests. The children's and youth film programme also enjoyed great popularity, with audience favourites being determined here for the first time: In the Kids 1 programme, MISHOU by Milen Vitanov and TOBI UND DER TURBOBUS by Verena Fels were selected. In Kids 2, JÁMA (THE PIT) by Markéta Kubátová Smolíková and APPLE TREE MAN by Alla Vartanyan won. In the Kids 3 programme, MIGRANTS by Hugo Caby, Antoine Dupriez, Lucas Lermytte and Zoé Devise was voted the audience favourite. In the Youth 1 programme, SEE YOU, SIR by Yayu Lin was the favourite.