Hamburg International Short Film Festival

The Hamburg International Short Film Festival is rooted in an environment of independent film makers. In 1985 it took place for the first time. Back then, it still operated under its original programmatic title “NoBudget”, which was changed into its current name in 1994. The Hamburg International Short Film Festival is one of the most important and successful short film festivals for both industry and audience alike in the world today.
One of the primary concerns of the Hamburg International Short Film Festival is to accentuate the independence of short films as an art form and to create a special environment for them. Furthermore, it aims at the proliferation of short films. One of the reasons of the festival’s success is that it exists as a part of the Hamburg Short Film Agency (KFA). With its departments archive, distribution, sales and festival, the proliferation of short films can be supported and implemented on many levels.

By presenting an enormous variety of international short film productions, it offers its visitors a diverse forum and serves as a popular meeting point for professionals from both Germany and abroad. The festival’s diversity stems from countless submissions to the competitions as well as from a number of diligently curated special programmes.

The annually held national and international competitions do not distinguish between genres. Instead, all cinematic forms are invited to participate in the categories International Competition, NoBudget, German Competition and the Three Minute Quickie.

In addition to the competitions, several special programmes are presented as well, offering a closer look on carefully chosen topics. These programmes range from societal observations and retrospectives of individual film makers and film making groups to programmes with a regional or national focus. Furthermore, technical, aesthetic or formal developments are carefully examined at irregular intervals.

Furthermore, the festival offers seminars, workshops and information events, giving film makers an opportunity to gain helpful insights regarding the production of films