The Film Criticism Workshop takes the festival visit at the 18th LICHTER Filmfest as a basis for joint reflections: What can film criticism be today? What is a good text? How do you write professionally and originally - and under time pressure? Viewing films in quick succession can be a special challenge and an opportunity for direct comparison. With a practical and in-depth approach, the basic craft and the intellectual foundations of film criticism will be learned and practiced while writing about the films presented at the festival. In addition to the actual writing process, other forms of media, such as podcasts, video formats and short form commentaries (e.g. Letterboxd), and the role of digital networks will be discussed and explored.

Guided by the film critics Bert Rebhandl (Berlin) and Carolin Weidner (Cologne), participants will write their own texts, which will appear daily on the critics' blog on LICHTER’s online channels. The LICHTER Filmfest in Frankfurt/Main provides a special setting, as it combines a comprehensive look at world cinema with debates about German cinema. 

The Film Criticism Workshop will be held April 21-26, 2025, as a face-to-face event. 

The project takes place in cooperation with the Institute for Theater, Film and Media Studies (TFM) of the Goethe University, the Hessian Film and Media Academy (hFMA) and the LICHTER Film Festival.

An impression of the reviews from the last years can be found on the critics blog and on Letterboxd.

Participants of the workshop will receive festival passes and thus free entry to almost all LICHTER events.