Good things happen in cinema
The program of the 58th Hof International Film Festival focused on solidarity and respect in the face of global and social challenges, on the search for identity, unity and humanity, under the heading…
“Good things happen in cinema.”
The festival celebrated numerous new discoveries, especially the debut feature films, such as JUPITER by Benjamin Pfohl (New Talent Award, Critics’ Award, Best Setting) with Mariella Aumann as the impressive main actress of 14-year-old Lea, whose family falls for a cosmic cult. Lea must decide whether to follow her parents or make her own way on earth. In SCATTERED SUNSHINE (Friedrich Baur Gold Award), Lucas Dülligen explores the world of disoriented David, who leaves an addiction clinic to return to a life of excess. Jurijs Saule presents a psychological showdown in MARTIN READS THE QURAN: an exciting conversation about belief and unbelief, good and evil with Zejhun Demirov as a sympathetic family man with Iranian roots and Ulrich Tukur as a professor of Islamic studies.
Emma Bading was represented with three films: as director of the short films DOMESTICATED and SHUT UP AND SUFFER (Jury Short Film Award), which deal with the topics of femininity and role models in an entertaining and expressive way, and as actress in THE MAN FROM ROME by Jaap van Heusden.
Documentaries from all over the world, as strongly represented as ever before, confronted us with serious topics such as environmental destruction, wars and their consequences, climate change, human rights and the shift to the right in society. In fascinating portraits, they featured artistically active individualists such as the “Atelier23” group in the opening film ZEPPELIN OBEN RECHTS, the sculptor Flavio Paolucci, the actress Barbara Sukowa and the author, lawyer and film critic Dietrich Kuhlbrodt.
The HoF PLUS supporting program gained importance with almost 40 events taking place over five days, including talks, panels, award ceremonies, 7 minutes pitch and new formats like Night Talk, Industry Dialogue, Festival Podcast and a cooperation with the Theater Hof. Finally, on 21 December, the shortest day of the year, the Audience Short Film Award of the City of Hof was presented to Jonas Baumann for NO MORE POOL TIME. In addition to the winning film, the audience’s three favorite films included the short documentary WINDGEIST by Ester Miron and FIRE DRILL by Maximilian Villwock.
The chronicle of the 2024 festival is a team project by the Friends of the Hof International Film Festival.
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