Focusing on Short Film

Versatile, international, inspiring - that's the festival programme at FILMFEST DRESDEN. Every year in April, the festival presents the best short films from around the world in Dresden and attracts up to 20,000 visitors, including circa 500 accredited guests.

Since its early days, the Competition Programmes have represented the centrepiece of the festival programme - with either International, National as well as Central German focus. In their 11 separate screening programmes, roughly 70 films from up to 20 countries world-wide flicker across the silver screen. Each year approximately 3.000 films from more than 100 countries are submitted for nominations to the competitions. The films submitted may not be more than two years old and no longer than 30 minutes. At the end of each festival the juries pick the best films in the various categories and award a total of ten Golden Horsemen and six special awards endowed with prize money amounting to € 72,000.

In addition to the competitions, the festival also has an extensive selection of special programmes focusing on a wide range of subjects and countries, as well as retrospectives and children's films. This also includes a series dedicated to a specific area each year with several film programmes dealing comprehensively with it. Up to 250 films are screened annually in the special programmes.

The festival section etc. - events.trainings.connections with masterclasses, workshops, panel discussions, talks, exhibitions and receptions supplement the film programmes and are aimed at both accredited media professionals and interested members of the public. Late night programmes and parties offer opportunities for diversion and mutual exchange. After the festival, professional visitors can view all the competition entries and selected special programmes in the Film Library.

In addition to the annual festival, various thematic film tours and the summer open-air events have increasingly established themselves as an important mainstay for FILMFEST DRESDEN. With the programmes "fully political" and LUCA-Short Film Tour for Gender Diversity as well as various best-of programmes, award-winning short films are also made accessible to a large audience outside the festival. This goal is also pursued by numerous other programme cooperations, including film.land.sachsen and various international film presentations at home and abroad. In total, the FILMFEST DRESDEN reaches an additional 25,000 viewers each year with these events.