Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

FIRST STEPS Awards for Filmakademie Students and Films

A major success for Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and its Animationsinstitut: Four FIRST STEPS Awards 2024 were won by students and productions from the renowned Ludwigsburg-based film school. At the prestigious awards ceremony on September 30, 2024, held at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, creative works and impressive emerging talents were honoured, capturing the attention of this year’s expert jury. With innovative concepts, gripping stories, and outstanding cinematography, FABW students secured several of the highly sought-after prizes.

In the Short Steps category, the animated film PEAR GARDEN by Shadab Shayegan stood out. Produced at the Filmakademie’s Animationsinstitut, it tells the story of six-year-old Lili and her first visit to her grandmother after she underwent a mastectomy. The jury commended the film’s “quiet tones” and remarked: “Through sensitive storytelling and impressive imagery, PEAR GARDEN invites us to feel the fragility and strength of the human condition.“

Short Steps Winner Shadab Shayegan / PEAR GARDEN, FIRST STEPS 2024, (c) Eventpress / Fuhr

The Feature Film category was won by VENA (directed by Chiara Fleischhacker), cinematographer Lisa Jilg received the Michael Ballhaus Award for her outstanding work on VENA, and Samuel Gheist (Diploma 2024) won in the Screenplay category for his series pilot BITE BACK.

The FIRST STEPS Award is the most significant accolade for graduation films from film schools in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. With a total prize fund of € 132,000, it is the highest-endowed young talent award in the German-speaking region. Each year, awards are presented across ten categories, recognising directors, producers, cinematographers, actors, and screenwriters. In 2024, 13 productions from Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg were nominated. Nominations alone come with a prize of €1,000 each.

Source: Press Release Filmakademie / Animationsinstitut, October 2, 2024

All First Steps 2024 Winners

In Memoriam: Angela Jedek

It is with great sadness that we learned of Angela Jedek‘s passing. As an animation supervisor and director, she was a true pioneer with heart. As a beloved member of the The M.A.R.K.13™ family, alumna of the Animationsinstitut at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and a treasured friend and colleague of the Stuttgart animation community, she left a mark that will never fade. As an animator, she contributed her talent to the feature films “I, Robot”, “Maya the Bee Movie”, and “Knight Rusty”, among others.

In a portrait for the Filmakademie, she once shared, “For me, the special thing about my job is when I get to animate characters and manage to give them emotions that make the viewer forget they are animations“. This love for her craft touched and inspired so many.

Our deepest sympathy goes out to her family, her husband, and her children. Our hearts and thoughts are with them, and we wish them much strength during this difficult time.

Angela Jedek, © grischa schmitz

Nominations for the First Steps Awards 2024 announced

First Steps Award 2023 Sara Fazilat © Clemens Porikys

The First Steps Awards is the most important German prize for young filmmakers. This year, the expert jury has made its choice from over 200 entries and announced the nominees. The winners will be announced on Monday, September 30 at the Theater des Westens in Berlin and broadcast as a livestream in the ARD Mediathek from 19:30 CET. The nominations alone are associated with a prize of 1,000 euros.

Among the nominees is MORIA SIX by Jennifer Mallmann, produced by our CREATORS from FFL Film- und Fernseh-Labor Ludwigsburg and funded by MFG, was nominated in the “Documentary” category. The film takes a critical look at the new European refugee policy, using the example of the controversial conviction of six refugees who were held responsible for the devastating fire in the Moria camp on Lesbos in September 2020.

Three projects created at the Animationinstitut of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg can also hope to win a First Steps Award. The animated film DODO by Yi Luo has been nominated in the “Short Film” category. DODO tells the poetic story of Dodo and her father, a big blue bird. One day he flies away and never comes back. Since then, Dodo has stopped growing. The film was awarded the Lotte Reiniger Prize by the MFG as the best entry in the animated short film competition at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film in April. More about DODO

PEAR GARDEN (director: Shadab Shayegan) is nominated in the “Short Steps” category and uses a purist drawing technique to sensitively tell the story of a grandmother who has lost her breasts through a mastectomy and the associated fears of her grandchild. More about PEAR GARDEN

SCRUBBY (director: Paul Vollet) is also nominated in the “Short Steps” category. The titular creature wants to live in its mother’s thick fur forever. But in his search for security, Scrubby realizes that even strong people sometimes lose their strength and need someone to lean on. More about SCRUBBY

We congratulate everyone involved and keep our fingers crossed!

Moria Six, (c) Sina Diehl
Dodo, image: FABW
Scrubby, Image: FABW
PEAR GARDEN, Image: FABW

Sources: MFG News, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg Press Release

Complete List of First-Steps Awards Nominees

Jobs at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg’s Animationsinstitut

The Animationsinstitut is part of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and one of the world’s leading institutions for Animation, Visual Effects, Technical Directing, Animation/Effects Producing and Interactive Media. In their Research and Development Department, a highly skilled and motivated team of researchers, engineers and artists works on the next generation of tools, workflows and content for Film, Animation, VFX and XR-Immersive Media.

They currently have the following vacancies:

Virtual Production Engineer (m/f/d), part time (50 %)
The responsibilities include:
Technical support in the virtual production environment incl. Mocap, Ncam, LED wall (incl. controller), studio lighting, high-end graphics workstation
Supervision of virtual productions at the FABW incl. basic lectures
Support for non-linear production formats (XR) with new technologies
Job posting and application

Lecturers to conduct a workshop on “Diversity-oriented teaching”
The six major German film schools (German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB), Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), International Film School Cologne (ifs), Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) and Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg) drew up a joint position paper with specific voluntary commitments entitled “Together for Gender Equality” at the beginning of 2018. A common goal of the film schools and part of the voluntary commitment is to strengthen the diversity skills of teaching staff. To this end, workshops are to be offered for teachers at the film schools between October 2024 and July 2025.
Job posting and application

To the job page of Animationsinstitut

Photo: Animationsinstitut, FABW

Start-up BW Summit 2024 on July 11

The Start-up BW Summit 2024 is a trade fair and congress with exhibiting start-ups, pitches and keynotes plus a festival on the Börsenplatz in Stuttgart with music and informal discussions. Start-ups, representatives of start-up ecosystems and companies as well as investors from Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Europe and the world meet at the Haus der Wirtschaft to pitch, network, exchange ideas and learn from each other.

You can expect a varied program with top-class speakers, a trade fair with start-ups, pitches and competitions as well as many offers for founders and all those who want to become one. The complete program can be found here.

MFG Baden-Württemberg will be represented in the “Länd of Start-ups” and has invited three innovative start-ups and young start-up teams from the cultural and creative industries: Eloquio from Heidelberg, Mucks! Games from Ludwigsburg (recently awarded the German Computer Game Award, the alumni from Animationsinstitut also created the trailers for FMX and ITFS 2024) and to teach from Stuttgart.

Participation in the summit is free of charge, registration is requested.

More information and sources:
Start-up BW Summit 2024 | MFG | Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Tourism Baden-Württemberg

German Reception at Annecy 2024

The Festival d’Animation Annecy (June 9 to 15, 2024) took place last week. And traditionally, German Films, Animation Germany, AG Kurzfilm – Bundesverband Deutscher Kurzfilm, AG Animationsfilm / ASIFA Germany, Animation Media Creators Region Stuttgart, Animation Production Days, FMX, Animationsinstitut of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg and ITFS invited to the German Reception at the Annecy lake.

We thank all participants and attendees for the great afternoon and the many wonderful conversations!

Photo: Louis Nauche
Photo: Louis Nauche
Photo: MFG
Photo: MFG
Photo: MFG

TechTalks on June 18, 2024!

The TechTalks Stuttgart event series presents technical topics from the fields of visual effects (VFX) and animation for scientists, creative professionals, students and the interested public. After the keynote speeches, people can spontaneously take to the microphone on their own behalf. The next event will take place on June 18, 2024, at 18:00 CET at Das Gutbrod, Friedrichstr. 10, 70174 Stuttgart.

Admission is free! Please register in advance at contact@amcrs.de. Please note: The event will be recorded, but is not hybrid.

Program Schedule:

„Chancen und Herausforderungen von Analogfilm im LED-Volume“ (Opportunities and challenges of analog film in the LED volume)

Samuel Ramm, Sebastian Burk and Luis Zappe studied Audiovisual Media at the Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart.
The project “What you can’t see” was created as part of their bachelor’s theses, which dealt with innovations in LED virtual production. Its premise was to prove that shooting on analogue film material in an LED volume is possible, despite widespread skepticism, and to uncover the associated effects on the workflow in the LED volume as well as colors and moiré, In addition, an AI model for background separation was developed to simplify post-production. Together with Hyperbowl, Studio L’Equipe, Arri Rental Munich, Oh, Boy! Films and Silbersalz, they carried out a series of tests and tested theoretical findings onset for practical suitability.

„3D Gaussian Splatting für LED Wall Production?“

Luca Malz dealt with the topic of 3D reconstruction of photos in his bachelor’s thesis. The innovative “3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS)” approach is based on machine learning and opens up promising prospects in the media industry thanks to its photorealistic 3D reconstructions. In “3D Gaussian Splatting for Virtual Production”, Luca Malz compares the results of photogrammetric scans and 3DGS and refers to the integration into an LED wall virtual production workflow.

„Lens Flare Capture“

Vincent Maurer studies Technical Directing at Animationsinstitut and presents his scientific research project on the subject of lens flares. How does a flare actually occur in the lens and how can it be realistically reconstructed? Using motion control, image processing and machine learning, Vincent is trying to find new ways to generate realistic lens flares.

Info Flyer (PDF)

TechTalks Stuttgart is an initiative of the following institutions:

Animation Media Creators Region Stuttgart | MFG Baden-Württemberg | Film Commission Region Stuttgart | Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart | Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg | Animationsinstitut

TechTalks Stuttgart on Facebook

FMX 2024 Presentations available online!

FMX, Photo: Dominique Brewing

The Stuttgart Animated Week 2024 came to an end on Sunday, April 28, 2024, with the grand awards gala at the ITFS. Note down the dates for next year in the calendar right away – the next ITFS will take place from May 6 to 11, 2025, and the FMX – Film & Media Exchange from May 6 to 9, 2025.

If you were unable to attend FMX this year or would like to watch individual FMX presentations again – most of the conference content will be available online via FMX On Demand until May 31, 2024. Watch out for the turquoise VoD flags in the FMX Program Schedule indicating which presentations are included in FMX On Demand. Tickets are available at the FMX Ticket Shop, the FMX On Demand Guide explains in detail how to get access.

FMX 2024, Panel “EU XR”, Photo: D. Brewing
FMX 2024, World of Gra, Photo: D. Brewing
FMX 2024, Improve Profitability in VFX and Animation, Photo: D. Brewing
FMX 2024, Being the Change through Mentorship, WIA, Photo: D. Brewing

ITFS Awards for Animationsinstitut Graduates!

On Sunday evening, April 28, 2024, the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film 2024 came to an end with the festive awards gala. Among the winners are also animated film projects by graduates and alumni of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg’s Animationsinstitut!

Yi Luo, Photo: ITFS, Reiner Pfisterer
Dodo (directed by Yi Luo)

In the International Competition, the Lotte Reiniger Promotion Award for Animated Film (award for the best graduation film with a cash prize of 10,000 Euro, sponsored by MFG Film Funding Baden-Württemberg) goes to

Dodo, Director: Yi Luo, Producer: Jiayan Chen (Germany 2023)
More about the film and the complete credits

Jury Statement:
We saw a film that deals with the trauma of losing a father in a crucial stage child’s development. Executed in a very impressive art style that meticulously draws the viewer into the essence of the story.

Bianca Scali, Photo: ITFS, Reiner Pfisterer
it’s just a whole (directed by Bianca Scali)

The Award for the best student film with a cash prize of 2,500 Euro, sponsored by LFK Landesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Württemberg and MFG Film Funding Baden-Württemberg goes to:

It’s just a whole, Director: Bianca Scali, Producer: Paulina Larson (Germany 2023)
More about the film and the complete credits

Jury Statement:
We would like to give the award to the film “It‘s just a whole“  for the brilliant way in which the artists lead us into a dramatic experience in which one negotiates one’s existence  facing a sometimes cold reality, loneliness and the  primal fear of disappearance. For the film’s unique animation style in which graphics, sounds and textures are used in a way that immediately convey emotions that are transposed into physical reactions.

At the Grand Prix (State of Baden-Württemberg and the City of Stuttgart Grand Award for Animated Film with a cash prize of 10,000 Euro), director and Animationsinstitut alumna Sofiia Melnyk was honored with a Special Mention for Mariupol. A Hundred Nights (Ukraine 2023).

All winners of the ITFS 2024

We wholeheartedly congratulate all the winners!

Our CREATORS @ ITFS on Sunday, April 28, 2024!

The last day of STUTTGART ANIMATED WEEK – a week full of events and inspiration, great meetings with old and new friends, an incredible amount of new background knowledge about current developments in art, technology and research, hopefully many new project ideas and collaborations and above all films, games and other media projects and experiences – has almost arrived! We hope you’ve made it this far – here come the events our CREATORS are involved in at the ITFS on Sunday, April 28, 2024. We are keeping our fingers crossed for all nominees for the grand ITFS 2024 award ceremony!

ITFS, Photo: Reiner Pfisterer

12:30
ITFS Gloria 1
International Competition 2: Welcome to the Dark Side!
Dodo (Yi Luo), Mariupol. A Hundred Nights (Sofiia Melnyk), Animationsinstitut / FABW alumni
https://www.itfs.de/en/events/international-competition-2-welcome-to-the-dark-side-3/

15:00
ITFS Cinema
School Presentation: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg & Animationsinstitut
Animationsinstitut / FABW diverse projects
https://www.itfs.de/en/events/school-presentation-filmakademie-baden-wurttemberg-animationsinstitut/

15:30
ITFS Gloria 2
German Premiere! AniMovie Kids Special: Giants of La Mancha
The M.A.R.K. 13 – Group
https://www.itfs.de/en/events/animovie-kids-special-giants-of-la-mancha/

Giants of La Mancha