Regional Short Film Program
From the south through the metropolitan region to the north – filmmakers from all over Hesse and the Rhine-Main region are presenting their works in the regional short film competition.
Only small-stage art? – No, even our shortest and tiniest productions get to shine on the big screen! From the brilliant submissions for the regional short film programme, four line-ups have been selected this year, each as versatile and captivating as the next.
They include, among others, a factory approach to love, a whirring suburban rumour mill, a hallucinatory washing machine ride, car smuggling to the East, three hungry miniature wizards, an exploration of the world of football “Kutten”, a dreamlike taxi drive through Georgia, deadly strawberries, dating confessions from a bird’s nest, a costly, bloody nose job, the Yok Yok story, and the suppressed desire to fly.
This year, the films of the regional short film programme are competing for the Lichter Short Film Bembel, which comes with a 2.000 Euro prize - made possible thanks to the generous support of the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen.
Regional Short Film Program
Section
Location
Country
Language
language version
WED, 29. Apr
19:30 h
THU, 30. Apr
20:15 h
Regional Short Film Program II
Section: Regional Short Film Program
Thursday 30 April 2026, 20:15 h, Esplanade im Festivalzentrum
FRI, 1. May
20:30 h
Regional Short Film Program III
Section: Regional Short Film Program
Friday 1 May 2026, 20:30 h, Elysee 1 im Festivalzentrum
SAT, 2. May
20:30 h
Regional Short Film Program IV
Section: Regional Short Film Program
Saturday 2 May 2026, 20:30 h, Elysee 2 im Festivalzentrum
Regional Short Film Program I
Duration: 130 min
Location: Pupille – Kino der Uni
Wednesday, April 29 – 19:30 h
Buy tickets
FLACHDACH
Germany 2026 | Feature film | Maja Lindner, Emil Basting | 9 min
Crayon cases, a lace tablecloth, washing the Mercedes in the sun: in “Flachdach”, breaking out of the supposed family idyll takes things quite literally to new heights. Like a rather desperate Icarus, the forgotten son clings onto the plane, only to crash down again onto the hard ground of reality. Can he still escape those innate suburban clichés?
AM SEE
Germany 2025 I Feature film I Tillmann Zizka I 9 min
Summer, sun, a lake. The two friends, Kian and David, enjoy the time spent together, with music and joints. But there is something unuttered between them. A thought that you, as a man, would better abstain from sharing. But as torsos get undressed and the music fades, gazes will speak for themselves.
EDGING
Germany 2025 | Feature film | Teija Künzl | 6 min
Bzzzzt … Anyone who is in a flow hates being interrupted – let alone several times in a row. Especially when it is that kind of imaginative, dreamlike self-love flow. “Edging” not only seeks out the pearls in the shell, it polishes them – at least until the doorbell rings.
CN: Pornography
KATZENWÄSCHE
Germany 2025 | Animation | Emelie Dahlmeyer, Julia Wetscheck | 3 min
If you believe there is no way to get cats into any kind of waters other than with force, then you don’t know the “Waschsalon” - the laundrette - yet. “Katzenwäsche” throws a small psychedelic party including a pet cat.
ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS
Germany 2026 | Experimental, Animation | Siri Black | 10 Min.
Who taught images to move? “All Future Generations” is an experimental film that explores the history of 2D animation through Disney classics. Early animation techniques and audio recordings shed light on the nature of seeing as well as gendered labour.
HALIMA – EINE ANLEITUNG ZUM STARKSEIN
Germany 2025 | Feature film, Documentary | Linda Verweyen, Kollektiv Halima | 24 min
A young woman makes her long way home alone after a painful surgery. She has undergone FGM/C (Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting).
BLIND, INS AUGE
Germany 2025 | Experimental, Documentary | Atefeh Kheirabadi, Mehrad Sepahnia | 20 min
Woman, Life, Freedom – Ten thousands of people in Iran have already lost their lives in the struggle for a self-determined life and the overthrow of the Islamist regime. During the protests in 2022, government forces deliberately targeted demonstrators’ eyes with gunfire. An experimental exploration of documentary footage and the editing process.
REGALE VOLLER GESCHICHTEN
Germany 2025 | Documentary | Mina Asgari | 17 min
The Yok Yok is a fixture in Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel – open, colourful, and diverse just like its environment. This portrait of the owner Nazim Alemdar answers questions about the meaning of “Yok Yok”, the role Alemdar’s father played in creating the business idea and why he won’t take “Pfand”.
FIVE GUYS
Germany 2025 | Animation | Jule Hermann | 2 min
One burger, but please without misogyny, guy! Not your business if it were 5, 10 or 15. Better think before you hit send on the voice message, guy.
Regional Short Film Program II
Duration: 130 min
Location: ESPLANADE
Thursday, April 30 – 20:15 h
Buy tickets
PAPER PARTS
Germany 2026 | Animation | Thomas Range | 5 min
Adapting, changing, giving up parts of ourselves – our society demands this from us, time and again. Sometimes it backfires, which this film shows excitingly and funnily.
DIE UNVORZEIGBARKEIT DESSEN, WAS NIE HÄTTE GESCHEHEN SOLLEN
Germany 2025 | Documentary | Silke Schönfeld | 25 min
What was it like back then? The director engages in a conversation with her mother and her aunt, who trace the continuities of Nazi education ideologies in their own childhood in the 1950s and 1960s. These were marked by the education book “Die deutsche Mutter und ihr erstes Kind” (engl: “The German Mother and Her First Child”), written by the lung doctor Dr. Johanna Haarer, which, incidentally, was published under a different title until 1987.
▷3:00
Germany 2026 | Animation, Documentary | Joey Arand | 3 min
When you have an open wound, the soul, too, is often hurt. For a non-binary person, the long-yearned-for top surgery does not have to be the best day of their life. We need many various role models for trans people, such as Benni in this wonderfully illustrated voice message.
SUBJEKT
Germany 2025 | Feature film | Leila Eshraghi | 19 min
What is shown in an interview? Is it an authentic reflection of its subject? – Maryam has a small television crew in her kitchen. She is supposed to talk about her experience of migrating from Iran to Germany. But the constant interruptions and transgressions by the interviewer, Bruno, show how much of one’s autonomy can be stolen by the gaze of the camera.
THE WHIMSICAL WIZARDS OF SAUCE
Germany 2025 | Animation | Tom Braunschedel, Nick Pajunk | 4 min
The cauldron of the three little wizards is bubbling and sizzling – but they are still missing a couple of important ingredients. The three of them have to leave their little room and find themselves in a giant kitchen. Like mice looking for cheese, they face the obstacles and dangers of the human kitchen – with slapstick and magic.
MAY I GO BLIND
Germany 2026 | Feature film | Satenig Sajelian, Julius Pfeiffer, David Goralsky | 15 min
A taxi driver in a big city, with fruit in his trunk as a reminder of more carefree days. In quiet moments, the unspoken finds its way. The expression “may I go blind” is used in Armenia to show compassion.
WIE GEHT’S DIR?
Germany 2025 | Feature film | Leo Dorian Stiebeling | 13 min
“How are you?” – perhaps the most loaded question of the 21st century. It can create distance, be asked and answered honestly, and also connect. Mae does not know how to answer and rejects her friend, since nobody can understand her depression and her struggles, and she has to manage them alone. Or does she?
TW: drug use, self-harm, suicidal actions
NOSEJOB
Germany 2026 | Feature film | Leo Geisler | 19 min
What do you do when your own nose bothers you? Definitely come up with something crooked! So what if your brother gets a biff on the nose? An entertaining gangster flick with a grand hotel charme.
Regional Short Film Program III
Duration: 130 min
Location: ELYSEE 1
Friday, May 01 – 20:30 h
Buy tickets
BOY MEETS GIRL
Germany 2025 | Experimental | Joey Arand | 1 min
A story as old as time: boy meets girl, girl meets boy – meet-cute activated. But does that really work? A film genre encounters itself.
VIEL KALKÜL, WENIG ROMANTIK: DAS BALZVERHALTEN UNSERER VÖGEL
Germany 2025 | Animation | Mara Weinert | 21 min
Online dating is crazy, a fact that FLINTA* people know all too well. With humour and glee, they share their experiences of unpaid work, disrespect, and frustration – a witty and beautifully presented critique of modern Dating.
TÁXISMEMORIA
Germany 2025 | Animation, Documentary | Mariia Maiorova | 11 min
An experimental animation that imprints itself on all the senses: women who were imprisoned in the gulag – the network of prisons and labour camps in the Soviet Union, recount what they experienced and lived through.
MANDARINEN
Germany 2025 | Feature film | Lucie Linn Stoll | 10 min
Why is it so hard for us to forgive ourselves, and why do we fly off the handle at the slightest mistake? ''Mandarinen‘‘ explores the relationships between fathers who struggle to confront their own emotions. When their memory begins to fail them, their adult daughters step in to pick up the pieces.
ABANDON ALL HOPE!
Germany 2025 | Feature film | Lena Grobusch, Laura Krabes | 26 min
Just like the inscription on the gates of hell, the title of this anthology promises both damnation and salvation. In three episodes, it explores the horror of being trapped in a menstruating body. Without leaving out any mucus, blood, or period products, the film glows with resilience and coolness – feminist genre cinema at its finest.
KUTTE
Germany 2025 | Documentary | Sylvie Hohlbaum | 15 min
The patches on a denim jacket tell a story: At a flea market in Offenbach, Sylvie Hohlbaum comes across a football denim jacket bearing the SV Darmstadt logo and is immediately fascinated with it. Who was the original owner of this iconic denim jacket? What is the story behind it? The film takes us through various fan cultures and decades, and deep into a rabbit hole studded with rivets and stitching.
RISEN FROM RUINS
Germany 2025 | Feature film | Harry Besel | 20 min
Buy a cheap car, repair it, revamp it, smuggle it across the border with a buddy, bribe the border patrol, and sell it for a good price there. Never change a running system. But what happens when changes come anyway?
Regional Short Film Program IV
Duration: 130 min
Location: ELYSEE 2
Saturday, May 02 – 20:30 h
Buy tickets
FROM ECUADOR WITH LOVE
Germany, Ecuador 2025 | Documentary, Experimental | Jonathan Brunner | 9 min
A rose is a rose is a rose? This documentary shows that a rose is first and foremost a product that travels from a rose farm in Ecuador through many hands and undergoes a complex journey before it reaches us in the Global North. Winner of the ZF Short Film Award 2026.
WAS BLEIBT?
Germany 2025 | Documentary | Marvin Menné | 30 min
“We’re driving to Lake Constance” – a short note on the table of Margit “Dosi” Kempker. However, she can’t remember it; she has Alzheimer’s. Her granddaughter Carla takes her on the long journey from Spandau to Nonnenhorn, where Dosi grew up. Always inquisitive and with dry humour, she experiences a journey through her memories, but what will remain of them?
HARIKA
Germany 2026 | Feature film | Seyit Beran Ergün | 29 min
A summary walk through a small town. Two boys. A water balloon. A chihuahua. A gentle observation of small, everyday moments. Winner of the 2026 MAX OPHÜLS PRIZE for Best Mid-Length Film.
GHETTOREINIGER – 79FREIBURG
Germany 2026 | Documentary | Samuel Niccum | 39 min
Dean Kölblin is the rapper Tilidean and at the same time a heroine-hotspot-cleaner. Amid homelessness, drug use, syringes and faeces, he fights for a better life – for himself and for his city.