1st Hof International Film Festival 1967
2nd Hof International Film Festival 1968
3rd Hof International Film Festival 1969
4th Hof International Film Festival 1970
5th Hof International Film Festival 1971

The festivals 01-05

1967 to 1971

01 / 1967

On May sunday in 1967: A few young film directors from Munich, Heinz Badewitz among them, take their latest shorts and travel to Hof to screen them there.

The reason, according to Badewitz, “As I come from Hof, I knew a cinema owner who was willing to give us a venue. It turned into a nice little program of 2.5 hours. And as the event needed a name, we called it ‘The first Hof Shorts Film Festival.’ Nobody seriously thought of a repeat.”

Festival films

02 / 1968

“The event had a wonderful feeling. Occasionally, I would go on stage and announce, ‘Another film maker has just arrived with a film reel under his arm. Do we want to see the film?’ ‘Yes, we do’, they’d say.”

Festival films

03 / 1969

“Not an event planned by the city or the government, rather it was the filmmakers themselves and the audiences who created and shaped the festival.”

This time, the audience did indeed film themselves – at the opening event. At the final screening two days later, the outcome was presented: fun in blurred images.

Festival films

04 / 1970

“Two years ago we heard the complaint that the young cinema doesn’t exist out in the sticks. It still doesn’t. It exists even less. Not just the young cinema doesn’t exist, the good old cinema doesn’t exist either. What does exist, though, is the old rubbish. And that’s government-funded.”

“Since 1967, Hof has a film festival. Since 1969, Hof has a film club, a ‘Cine Center’. That does leave room for hope.”

Festival films

05 / 1971

“The Hof International Film Festival has other things to do than to chase the unheard-of, the novelties, the latest fads as do most other festivals.”

Festival films

Home of films
Thanking the Hof IFF’s sponsors: