22nd Interfilm – Berlin International Short Film Festival
Ron Holloway, Berlin, 15 November 2006

Ride the Berlin underground from mid-November through the holiday season, and you will see on an overhead screen some of the cartoon winners and other highlights of the 22nd “Interfilm” – aka Berlin International Short Film Festival (7-12 November 2006). Programmed by founder-director Heinz Hermanns, “Going Underground” is surely one of the best advertising plugs on the festival circuit – indeed, it has become so popular that one can only estimate how many millions view annually the highlights of the Interfilm festival. Now in its sixth year, this subway series works its magic just after the festival has closed as a way of saying “see what you just missed but make a note of it for next year!”

Interfilm 2006 drew an audience of 14,000 for its five-day program of circa 500 films from 48 countries. A festival record was broken when some 4000 films were sent for consideration. Rather astonishing, for this festival manages without much official government support and depends almost entirely on the generosity of two-dozen sponsors and partners, many of whom are often seen sharing in the fun. The secret of the festival’s success lies in the six competitions with separate juries, to which are added a score of sidebars, roundtables, and workshops. More often than not, the six screens at the city’s premier art houses, the Babylon duplex and the Hackische Höfe multiplex, were packed to the gills with a young crowd. Ditto for the music videos and assorted DVD entries. And you had to get to the Volksbühne venue on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz early to get a seat for “Eject IX – The Long Night of Fall-By-The-Wayside Films,” a popular sidebar now in its ninth season.

Interfilm opened with a salute to Italy’s legendary animation director, Bruno Bozzetto. Honored with a 12-film retrospective at this year’s festival, Bozzetto introduced his Allegro non troppo (1976), his hilarious evergreen spoof of classical music. Other retros honored Czech surrealist artist Jan Svankmajer and Czech animation director Michaela Pavlatova. Programs bore such catching titles as “Quick Flick,” “Love Troubles,” “Staying Alive,” “Ordinary Madness,” “Forever Young,” “Business As Usual,” “Family Affairs,” “Public Intimacies,” “Encounters and Collisions,” “Favela Stories,” “Midnight Movies,” and “The Female View,” among others. Since Interfilm works closely with other international short film festivals – altogether, 18 are listed on the festival website www.interfilm.de – salutes were given to “Classic New York,” “Australia Special,” and “Cortitos” (productions from Spain and Latin America). For animation fans there were the “Best of Anifest 2000-2006” (Czech Republic), “Best of Cartoon D’Or” (awards at European animation festivals), and “Asianima” (animation from Asia). Poetic cinema was highlighted in the “Zebra Poetry Film Award” program, Berlin media artists had their day in the experimental “Flash-Kino” show, and advocates of clips and commercials could enjoy a sixpack from Sweden titled “Four Seasons Traktor.”

Heinz Hermanns doesn’t pay much attention to booking “first run” festival entries in his six competitions. Rather, “I look for shorts relatively unknown to the Berlin public, for films that point new directions, for stylistic innovations by talented filmmakers.” Judging from the packed houses, he can also boast of a festival second in importance only to the Berlinale.

Note by the editor: Interfilm Berlin and INTERFILM are different organisations without any connections.

Awards

International Competition
Best Short Film
Deweneti (Senegal/France, 2006), dir Dyana Gaye
Best Animation
História trágica com final feliz (Tragic Story with Happy Ending) (Portugal/France/Canada, 2005), dir Regina Pessoa
Best Camera
Michal Stajniak, Porno (Porn) (Poland, 2006), dir Jan Wagner
Honorable Mentions
Teddy (Netherlands, 2005), dir André Bergs
Sintonía (Wave Length) (Spain, 2005), dir Jose Mari
Eramos pocos (One Too Many) (Spain, 2005), dir Borja Cobeaga

International Competition
“Confrontation – Films against Violence and Intolerance”
1st Prize
Nasija (Spain, 2006), dir Guillermo Rios Bordon
2nd Prize:
Winterlong (Bulgaria, 2005), dir Timo Kalevi Puukko
Honorable Mention
And There in the Dust (South Africa, 2004), dir Lara Foot-Newton, Gerhard Marx

International Competition – Documentary
Best Documentary
Grajdansoe Sostoianie (Civil Status) (Russia, 2005), dir Alina Rudnitskaya
Honorable Mention
Klovnebarna (The Clown Children) (Norway, 2005), dir Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
Anophtalmus (Germany, 2005), dir Katharina Pethke

International Competition “Eject”
Apple on a Tree (Germany, 2006), dir Astrid Rieger, Zeljko Vidovic

German Competition
1st Prize
Knospen wollen explodieren (Exploding Buds) (2005), dir.Petra Schröder
2nd Prize
Die Umschulung (The Retraining), (2006), dir Marion Kellmann
Honorable Mentions
Apple on a Tree (2006), dir.Astrid Rieger, Zeljko Vidovic
Phantom (2006), dir Jan Eichberg
Leroy räumt auf (Leroy Cleans Up) (2005), dir Armin Völckers

Children’s Competition “KuKi – Shorts for Kids”
1st Prize
Big Girl (Canada, 2005), dir Renuka Jeyapalan
2nd Prize
Penguin’s Christmas (Netherlands, 2004), dir Arjan Wilschut
Honorable Mention
Horn Ok Please (Northern Ireland UK, 2005), dir Joel Simon
Audience Award
Zhivotnoe (The Animal). (Russia, 2005), dir Evgenia Golubeva