The LICHTER Art Award

The LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International has been celebrating independent local and international filmmaking since its beginning in 2008. Alongside annual competitions of short and feature films, the festival presents a quality program on international contemporary video art.

Curated by Saul Judd since 2010, the visual arts section started with the exhibition “stimulus kino – subliminal cinema,” focusing on the use of cinematic reference as a strategic technique in (and of) contemporary art. Among the participants of this first edition were Mike Bouchet, artist from New York now based in Frankfurt, and Keren Cytter, born in Israel, based in New York. Both Cytter and Bouchet had formerly been represented at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009.

An international jury chooses five finalists whose works will be shortlisted and exhibited during the LICHTER Filmfest. The winner, also appointed by the jury, will be honored with the LICHTER Art Award, a prize endowed with 1,000 Euro.

In 2011 the LICHTER Art Award was officially founded, inviting artists from all over the world to create a regular international competition accompanying the film festival. The award aims to gather and present exceptional artistic works in the contemporary field of visual arts. In 2011 Luciana Lamothe (Argentina) was recognised for her outstanding piece “Caja Tarro Silla Marco,” in 2012 Oliver Husain (D/C) won the award for his installation “Dear What’s Your Face”, in 2013 John Skoog (S/D) won for his film “Sent på Jorden”, in 2014 Bertrand Flanet (F/D) won with his installation "Unmanned Distances", in 2015 Jonathan van Essche (B) won with his film "Second of August", in 2016 James N. Kienitz Wilkins (USA) won with his film "B-Roll with Andre", in 2017 Tobi Sauer (D) won with his video work “Simba in New York”, 2018 Jakob Engel (D) was the winner with his work “Waiting for record” and in 2019 Andrew de Freitas (BRA) was the winner with his work “WEIGHT”.