I would have liked to make a different film is an experimental documentary essay film where the director herself confronts the painful and tragic memories of family history she is still dealing with today. "At the beginning of November 2018, I decided to make an autobiographical film. Briefly, I thought I could just do it. I could simply read the report of the psychiatric hospital: The patient reported that from the 11th to the 15th year of life she had been sexually abused by her father... - They say it is treatable. - Maybe I would be just as sad today if all this had not happened?"

Suse Itzel, 1984*, is an artist, filmmaker and author. Itzel studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK) and completed her postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Art Cologne (KHM) in 2024. Itzel's artistic practice includes video installations and spatial constructions that examine topics related to spaces, buildings and human living environments. Through literature, she explores autobiographical topics such as child sexual abuse and trauma. Her work tries to find a creative vocabulary to address her experiences with speechlessness. She exhibited in the Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, at the Goldsmith College in London, Japanese Cultural Institute in Cologne, Gerhard-Marcks-Haus in Bremen, the Kunsthaus Hamburg, Falckenberg Collection in Hamburg, Ludwig Forum in Aachen. She was a scholarship holder at the Center for Literature Burg Hülshoff in Münster. Itzel is based in Cologne.

Bent Time is an experimental film reflecting director Paul Haas' youth in North Saxony, East Germany during the early 2000s. The film explores masculinity and youth identity through three protagonists—Gerd, Benny and Karlo—caught in a tense triangular relationship. Overshadowed by the local right-wing extremist scene, it reveals how social conditions shape a generation's worldview and the struggle of adolescent self-discovery.

Paul Haas, 1992*, is a visual artist specializing in media art, sculpture, and film. He studied Media Art at the Bauhaus University Weimar and later pursued Fine Arts at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. His artistic practice explores the intersections of material, memory and the body, often employing both documentary and fictional techniques in his film and video works. Haas has exhibited internationally, with group shows at venues such as the Museum of Odessa Modern Art, Ukraine, transmediale, Berlin, and Goethe-Institut Dublin. His solo exhibitions include Storema at the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, 2020 and Verbogene Zeit at the 1822-Forum in Frankfurt, 2024. He won the Städelschule Rundgang Film Prize in 2023 and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Art Hub Copenhagen. Haas lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.

‘Tako Tsubo’, also known as stress cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome, is a rare, acute-onset dysfunction of the heart muscle, similar to that of a heart attack. It usually results from extraordinary emotional or physical stress. In the movie Tako Tsubo the protagonist Mr. Ham decides to have his heart removed to free himself from his complicated emotions.The doctor assures him that, in this day and age, this procedure is no longer a problem. Tako Tsubo celebrated its world premiere at the 74th Berlinale, 2024 and is still touring  international festivals.

Eva Pedroza, 1982* is a multidisciplinary artist combining traditional art practices with contemporary film- and animation techniques. In her practice, Pedroza visualises themes like duality, emotional landscapes and the blurring of borders between seemingly opposing concepts. Her work, distinguished by experimental processes and narrative elements, has found recognition through exhibitions, film festivals and cooperations. Pedroza lives in Berlin.

Fanny Sorgo is an multidisciplinary artist. She studied Scenic Writing and Narrative Film at the University of Arts Berlin and works as a writer, performer, composer and director in the fields of music, film and theatre. Her writings and plays have been presented at various theatres around Europe, such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 2023 she started to release her own music. Sorgo lives in Vienna.

You can’t get what you want but you can get me is a story about the love, transition and lives of two transgender men. In this documentary essay they show the struggles and victories of transgender people and all humans to pursue their most genuine selves. You can't get what you want but you can get me had its premiere at IFFR in 2024 and has been shown in international festivals around the world.

Samira Elagoz, 1989*, is a Finnish-Egyptian transmasculine artist and filmmaker known for his provocative and experimental works that explore themes of identity, intimacy, and masculinity. Elagoz graduated with a BA in choreography from the Amsterdam University of the Arts in 2016. His artistic practice often combines performance art with film, creating a unique brand of doc-fiction that challenges viewers to engage with complex social and personal issues. Elagoz has toured in various international film, visual art, and performance contexts, such as the Venice Biennale, where he won the Silver Lion; IDFA, Rotterdam Film Festival, CPH:DOX, Eye Filmmuseum, Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki and The White Chapel Gallery, London. Some of his earlier film works are Craigslist Allstars (2016) and Seek Bromance (2021). Elagoz lives in Berlin.

Z Walsh is a Brooklyn-based transgender director, producer, model and artist. Walsh focuses his artistic work on photography. Amongst New York’s and Los Angeles’ creative communities he is well-known for his raw, full-hearted depictions of both his subjects and himself. His passion lies in elevating trans voices and opposing trans masculinity invisibility and erasure.

The film Berlin-Lichtenberg uses images from a home movie from 1943. The intention of the filmmaker is to capture contemplative moments of his own family life in Berlin’s district of Lichtenberg - the wife with a child on a walk, leisure in the restaurant by the lake  - but is undermined by the images that were captured unintentionally of a  group of forced female laborers on the way to the barracks of a forced labor camp located behind a touristic restaurant - these images do not appear as deliberately searched motifs, but as a casual documentation of the constant presence of forced labor in Nazi Germany. The amateur recordings are reassembled and provided with subtitles that describe and expand the silent images. 

Franz Wanner, 1975*. Wanner’s research-intensive works call into question techniques of power legitimation and place local realities in global contexts: with his work Die Befragung (2018), he examined secret service practices and current notions of citizenship, state welfare and state secrecy; with the installation Dual-Use (2016) he pointed out tendencies of social militarization, thereby triggering a parliamentary question to the state government in Munich. Selected Exhibitions: Helmhaus, Zürich (2025), KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin (2024), Museum Villa Stuck, München (2024, 2023) Goethe-Institut Paris (2020); Museum of Moscow; Public Art Munich / Münchner Kammerspiele, Magasins Généraux, Paris (2018); Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München (2017, 2016); Kunsthalle München; Platform München; GEDOK Stuttgart (2015); Fotomuseum München, Forum für zeitgenössische Fotografie; GFLK Halle Süd, Galerie für Landschaftskunst Hamburg; basis e.V., Frankfurt am Main (2014); Museum für Photographie Braunschweig; Forum für zeitbasierte Kunst und politische Kultur, Leipzig (2013); Ural Industrial Biennal of Contemporary Art, Ekaterinburg; Spektre Gallery, New York; Noordkaap Gallery, Dordrecht (2010); Today Art Museum Beijing (2008); Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai; General Public Berlin (2007); Haus der Kunst München (2006); Centro Cultural Telemar, Rio de Janeiro (2005) Wanner lives and works in Munich and Zurich.