Hof International Film Festival

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© Hofer Filmtage - Tom-Hof

The Hof International Film Festival is a film festival that takes place every October in Hof in Bavaria . In addition to foreign productions, the focus is primarily on German films. Over six days, around 130 films (approx. 90 feature and documentary films and 40 short films) will be presented in more than 200 screenings in two cinemas and a total of eight cinemas. All films (with the exception of the retrospective) are shown as German premieres or world premieres.

history

The festival was initiated by Heinz Badewitz and Uwe Brandner , who were also members of the Hofer “New Jazz Group”, along with the artist Werner Weinelt, who later moved his gallery to the Galeriehaus pub. Baditz, who headed the festival until his death in 2016, and Brandner moved to Munich, where they have been making short films since 1963. Baditz and Brandner had difficulties in finding a cinema to show their short films. Since Bathitz came from Hof and knew the Hof cinema operators, they decided without further ado to organize the film show in the Upper Franconian town. So in 1967 a Hof short film festival with a 2½ hour program was created.

In 1968 he was invited to the German Competition for the Oberhausen Short Film Festival with his second short film. The scandal surrounding Hellmuth Costard's contribution "Particularly Valuable" led to Hof, as the filmmakers withdrew their works from the festival in Oberhausen in protest . That was the starting shot for the second Hof International Film Festival in 1968. The film days are initially a pure public festival without competition and film prizes. Hof quickly developed into the annual meeting point for the "young filmmakers", the filmmakers of the New German Cinema . Many directors present their debut films here and have remained associated with the festival for years. For the 25th anniversary of the festival, Wim Wenders coined the term "Hof: Home of Films" in 1991. The motto of the film days is: "We don't need stars - we make them" (Heinz Badewitz).

In 1984 the horror film Nightmare celebrated its world premiere at the Hof International Film Festival with the film character Freddy Krueger . In addition, director George A. Romero made a guest appearance at the 1978 film festival in Bavaria with his horror film Zombie - Dawn of the Dead . In a completely surprising death, while preparing for the 50th anniversary festival of the Hof Film Festival in March 2016, the 50th Hof International Film Festival took place, as usual, in the last week of October of the year. They were organized by the Hof Film Festival team and the many volunteers. The film program was curated by Linda Söffker , Alfred Holighaus and Thorsten Schaumann .

Since the 51st Hof International Film Festival 2017, Thorsten Schaumann has been the Artistic Director of the Hof International Film Festival. He launched the HoF PLUS program, which accompanies the film days during the festival with panel discussions on current topics in the industry, and initiated HoF RENDEZVOUS, which will present films from the previous year's program of the film days during the year.

In 2018, a cooperation with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival took place for the first time .

The Hof Film Festival is accompanied by a traditional football match - FC Filmwelt Hof versus FC Hofer Filmtage. Every year on the Saturday of the Film Festival, a selection of actors, directors and producers play as FC Hofer Filmtage against the eleven of the Hof Filmworld, consisting of employees and fans.

Movies

The festival covers almost the entire spectrum of film beyond the mainstream. When it comes to the origin of the films, the focus is on German films. Productions by German film schools (especially debut films) make up a large part of this. Many productions from abroad are also shown: from all over Europe as well as the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Of the total of 130 films, around 90 are usually feature films / documentaries and around 40 are short films. These will be selected from around 2000 to 2500 entries.

Guests

Ever since the festival was founded, it has been typical that many directors and actors of the invited films are present in Hof and answer questions from cinema-goers or take part in discussions during the film days. After the performance in Hof, some of the guests succeeded in making a lasting impression on the German and international film scene. Here is a selection of the personalities:

Retrospective / work show

Every year, a retrospective is dedicated to extraordinary directors. A section of the artist's life's work is included in the program. Among other things, there are discussions with the guest. The focus so far has been:

Prices

The New German Cinema Award offers a chance for the next generation . The prize, endowed with 10,000 euros, is donated by Bavaria Film , Bayerischer Rundfunk and DZ Bank . The award goes to the “best film” which premieres among the German films in the program of the Hof International Film Festival. An independent jury will decide which young filmmaker will be honored.
  • Film Prize of the City of Hof ; City courtyard
This prize was awarded for the first time in 1986. It consists of an artistically designed object from pages from film days catalogs from previous years. The winner is actually rewarded with films. The award was designed by Christina Mosif and Konrad Grässler as part of a work at the vocational school for product design in Selb. The Hof Film Prize is aimed at people who are closely associated with Hof and the festival.

The award winners are usually not represented with work in the official program in the award year.

  • Hof Gold Prize
Hof Gold Prize of the Friedrich Baur Foundation awarded by the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in memoriam Heinz Badewitz . It replaces the Heinz Baditz Prize, which was awarded in 2016 and 2017.
The Hof Gold Prize of the Friedrich Baur Foundation is awarded for the best directorial work in a first feature film. The Academy selects an annually changing mentor from its film and media arts department to determine the winner. The price currently consists of a certified gold bar of 1 kg of fine gold (current retail value around 35,000 euros). In addition, the price includes artistic advice to the director on the development of a new film for over a year. All directors * whose feature film has its premiere at the Hof Film Festival are automatically competing for the Hof Gold Prize. For 2018, the director Edgar Reitz (including Heimat, Die Andere Heimat) assumed the role of mentor, and in 2019 director Bernhard Sinkel .
  • VGF Young Producer Award
Since 1994, the collecting society for rights of use to Filmwerke mbH (VGF) has been awarding the VGF Young Producer Award for the best film by a young producer. An independent committee assesses the German films submitted according to their outstanding quality and recognizable audience relevance. The prize is awarded € 60,000, making it the most highly endowed young producer prize in Germany. The prize money is not earmarked and serves to strengthen the equity of young production companies. The VGF Young Producer Award was previously awarded as part of the Bavarian Film Award ceremony. The prize has been awarded at the Hof International Film Festival (October 22-27, 2019) since 2018. The VGF underlines its commitment and that of the Hofer Filmtage for young talent.
  • Hans Vogt Film Prize
The Hans Vogt Film Prize of the City of Rehau is intended to commemorate the pioneering work of the engineer Hans Vogt , who was born and raised in the Rehau district of Wurlitz , who played a decisive role in the invention of the sound film and ensured a new era in the history of cinema. The prize has been awarded at the Hof Film Festival since 2013 and is endowed with € 5,000. It is awarded to filmmakers who are innovative and carefully concerned about the expression and quality of their film sound.
  • Granit - Hof Documentary Award
The Hof-based Hermann and Bertl Müller Foundation has been awarding the prize, endowed with 7,500 euros, since 2015 for the best full-length documentary film from German production. The prize is designed in cooperation with the European training center for the stonecutter and stone carving trade in Wunsiedel based on a design by Mohamed Naguib . The Egyptian is an award-winning sculptor and lecturer at the University of Alexandria .
  • Bild-Kunst Förderpreis - Best Costume Design Best Production Design
The prize was inspired by the "Film and Television Department of Production Design" at the HFF Munich. It has been awarded since 1997 by a jury made up of representatives from the Association of Production Design and Costume Design (VSK), the production design course of the Baden-Württemberg  -Ludwigsburg Film Academy and the Potsdam-Babelsberg University of Film and Television . Since 2008 the award has been organized by the VSK Association and the Ludwigsburg Film Academy alone; since 2009 it has been expanded to include the award for the best costume design. Since 2010 there has also been funding from the Kulturwerk Foundation of VG Bild-Kunst and Theaterkunst GmbH. The award has consisted of a certificate since 2004, is now called "Bild-Kunst Förderpreis - Best Costume Design, Best Set Design" and has been endowed with 2500 euros each since 2010.

No longer awarded prizes

  • German Film Award
The German Film Award , sponsored by HypoVereinsbank, Bavaria Film and Bayerisches Fernsehen, was awarded as a young talent award from 2005 to 2011. The award was given for an outstanding artistic achievement in a German film that was shown in the Hof Film Festival program. The award was replaced in 2012 by the New German Cinema Award .
  • Eastman Prize for Young Talent
The Eastman Prize for Young Talent , donated by Kodak GmbH, was awarded from 1984 to 2012 and honored a young director and his film. The prize was endowed with raw film material and should help with the director's next production.

Quotes

“Court is when swing-top beer bottles pop in the canon as soon as the lights go out in the cinema. Court is when the festival director in a Snoopy sweater moderates a discussion and the premiere party celebrates at the bratwurst truck. Court is when a short film is shown before each feature film and the directors stage a back four at a football game in the park. Above all, however, the Hof Film Festival is known for providing German cinema with a stage beyond the mainstream for more than 50 years, consistently in the main program and not in separate series as at the Munich Film Festival and the Berlinale. "

- Bernhard Blöchl , Süddeutsche Zeitung

"As before, after the Berlinale, but before Munich, Hof is the showcase of German cinema."

- Hanns-Georg Rodek , Berliner Morgenpost

“Even as an established festival, the Hof Film Festival has not lost its provincial yet cosmopolitan charm. Where else is the range as great as in Hof ... "

- Wilfried Geldner, Augsburg General

"Hof was and is the festival of a radical sixty-eighter and his allies who have done more for German film than the Berlinale, Oberhausen, Munich and Mannheim combined."

- Christoph Schlingensief , director

Web links

Commons : Hof International Film Festival  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Festival website: Oliver Herbrich presents 8 films between 1980 and 1993 (at the 14th - 27th festival). Retrieved April 1, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Rainer Hübsch, Christine Walther, Eliane Hagedorn: 25 years Home of Films . Ed .: Hof International Film Festival. Hoermann Verlag, Hof / Saale 1991, ISBN 3-88267-039-8 , p. 210 .
  3. ↑ 50 years Hof Film Festival: The good ones from yesterday by Wolfgang Höbel on the homepage of the news magazine Der Spiegel , www.spiegel.de, October 25, 2016, accessed on May 15, 2020
  4. ↑ 50 years of Hofer Filmtage: The good guys from yesterday by Wolfgang Höbel on the homepage of the news magazine Der Spiegel , www.spiegel.de, text on photo 2 in the picture gallery, October 25, 2016, accessed on May 15, 2020
  5. ^ Alfred Holighaus: Speech by Alfred Holighaus on the occasion of the funeral service for the festival organizer Heinz Badewitz. Spio-FSK.de, April 4, 2016, accessed April 1, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Monster in the head. SZ-online from October 27, 2019.
  7. ↑ Schlingensief's word.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: salzburg.com. Salzburger Nachrichten , August 22, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.salzburg.com