Filmfest Dresden
08—13.04.2025
Dresden. Cradle of chocolate manufacturing, center of German animation and home of Filmfest Dresden, first held in 1989 (only a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall). If you drive across the Elbe towards Neustadt today, it’s hard to imagine that in recent years the headlines here have been mainly for anti-democratic protest marches—not least because this part of the city is home to Filmfest with its beautiful cinemas, alternative bars, and popular film programmes and is committed to a cosmopolitan and tolerant Saxony.
Those who travel to Filmfest Dresden (the fact that the festival is exclusively about short films is only revealed by its subtitle) will encounter a motivated team (Talking Shorts co-initiator Anne Gaschütz is the best example of this!), lively interest from the local population including long discussions with filmmakers and curators, and some of the highest prize money in the entire short film scene (a total of 67000 euros). And for some years now, Filmfest Dresden, specialising in short fiction and animated films, has also been exemplary regarding accessibility. You see, Dresden is almost always worth a visit. Filmfest Dresden definitely always is.
Text by Daniel Hadenius-Ebner
Reading List

Genealogy of Violence by Mohamed Bourouissa

Pavel Mozhar on Unwanted Kinship

Yann Gonzalez on Hideous

Juck [Thrust] by Olivia Kasterbring, Julia Gumpert, Ulrika Bandeira

Shrooms by Jorge Jácome

Sorry I am late (but I brought a choir) by Håkon Anton Olavsen

Sit. Play. Stay. by Cecilie Flyger Hansen
Reading List

Oyu by Atsushi Hirai

Carlos Pereira on Slimane

Hito by Stephen Lopez

Mast-del by Maryam Tafakory

Night Shift by Kayije Kagame, Hugo Radi

Zima by Tomek Popakul, Kasumi Ozeki

A Study of Empathy by Hilke Rönnfeldt

The Veiled City by Natalie Cubides-Brady

The Miracle by Nienke Deutz


A Kind of Testament by Stephen Vuillemin

27 by Flóra Anna Buda

The Un-chaotic Cabinet That Wishes For Me To Sleep by Cilian Laurence Green

La Perra by Carla Melo Gampert

Leandro Goddinho and Paulo Menezes on Paradise Europe

Land der Berge by Olga Kosanović

Lake of Fire by Neozoon

Ardent Other by Alice Brygo

How Different Sources of Capital Direct Our Personal Agency
Reading List

An Avocado Pit by Ary Zara

Asterión by Francesco Montagner

Lake of Fire by Neozoon

Short Films From The Basque Country and Catalonia

Maria Schneider, 1983 by Elisabeth Subrin

Staging Death by Jan Soldat

It’s Raining Frogs Outside by Maria Estela Paiso

Skinned by Joachim Hérissé

Simo by Aziz Zoromba

Flores del otro Patio by Jorge Cadena