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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

Call for Entries ITFS 2025

ITFS, Photo: Reiner Pfisterer

The 32nd Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) will take place from May 6 to 11, 2025. With focuses on artistic animated films and the promotion of young talent prizes totalling over 45,000 euros will be awarded across five competitions. Filmmakers worldwide are invited to submit their works starting September 1, 2024.

The submission deadline for the following short film competitions is November 15, 2024:

  • International Competition for animated short films 
  • Student Competition for animated short films
  • Tricks for Kids – competition for animated short films and series for children 
  • Trickstar Nature Award – competition for animated short films on nature and the environment

The submission deadline for the feature-length film competition AniMovie is January 15, 2025.

Film submissions are handled via the online submission platform Shortfilmdepot. Registration forms and regulations as well as more information about the festival, the competition categories, and the contact persons can be found on the ITFS website.

The STUTTGART ANIMATED WEEK leverages synergies with parallel events: At the same time as ITFS, the co-production market Animation Production Days (APD) and the FMX – Film and Media Exchange conference take place. This unique combination of festival, conference, and market draws up to 6,000 professional visitors to Stuttgart each year.

Source: Press Release ITFS

ITFS, Photo: Reiner Pfisterer

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

Open Call for THE CREATIVE LÄND CHÄLLENGE

Image: MFG

Who realizes the best in their field in our country? To answer this question, MFG Baden-Württemberg is organizing a new competition: THE CREATIVE LÄND CHÄLLENGE. As part of the new campaign THE CREATIVE LÄND, the MFG is looking for high-quality, value-oriented work from eleven areas of the cultural and creative industries. Full-time creative professionals with their company headquarters or main residence in Baden-Württemberg can take part. Deadline: September 23, 2024.

Under the motto “Share your values – Show your works”, the new competition challenges the creative industries in Baden-Württemberg to showcase their work in a synopsis. Because breathtaking and inspiring things are happening in many areas, but often enough only the industry itself takes note. THE CREATIVE LÄND CHÄLLENGE gives all participants the opportunity to present themselves as part of a powerful cultural and creative sector and thus achieve broader recognition and visibility. This is aimed not only at their own sphere of influence, but also at companies from other sectors that are enthusiastic about new ideas and creative collaborations.

The competition is open to all full-time creative professionals from the following eleven sectors: Architecture, book market, performing arts, design, film, art, music, press, broadcasting, software and games as well as advertising – in other words, everyone, regardless of whether they are freelancers, small offices, agencies or large publishing houses. Professional works that deal with the developments and challenges of the present, for example topics such as regionality, cross-innovation, democracy or sustainability, have the best chances. A high-caliber jury will select the best entries. In addition to an exhibition of the works, there is also a prize of €1,000 and a broad-based social media campaign. The award ceremony and vernissage will take place at an evening event on December 4, 2024.

Not from one of the eleven sectors yourself? Or nothing suitable in your drawer at the moment, but perhaps a hot tip for colleagues? Then you are welcome to draw the attention of all those whose work deserves more visibility to the competition. The social media campaign for the competition also offers the opportunity to share and forward posts.

The MFG offers Zoom consultation hours for interested parties. Here you can find the time slots, the application form and everything else about the competition.

THE CREATIVE LÄND CHÄLLENGE is a competition organized by MFG Baden-Württemberg. Prizes are awarded to works from all eleven sub-sectors that represent the cultural and creative industries in Baden-Württemberg in a high-quality and value-oriented manner. It is part of the “THE CREATIVE LÄND” campaign and is sponsored by the Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Tourismus Baden-Württemberg.

Emmy Nominations 2024!

The nominations for the Emmy Awards 2024 have been announced!

The series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was nominated in the category “Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Season Or A Movie”. Accenture Song VFX (with – among others – visual effects supervisor Emanuel Fuchs), Scanline VFX and PIXOMONDO were involved in the creation of the series. RISE also have every reason to celebrate: they contributed to the visual effects of the series “Fallout,” which has been nominated in the same category.

PIXOMONDO were also involved in the series “3 Body Problem” and “Winning Time”, both of which were nominated in several categories.

The 76th Emmys will be awarded on September 15, 2024 in Los Angeles. We are keeping our fingers crossed for all nominees!

All Emmy Awards Nominees

Goldener Spatz for Fritzi & Sophie!

At the 32nd German Children’s Media Festival Goldener Spatz, the episode “Eine Reise, die alles verändert“ (A journey that changes everything’) from the eight-part TV series “Fritzi & Sophie – Eine grenzenlose Freundschaft” won the Goldener Spatz in the “Series Animation” category! Like the “Fritzi” feature film, the series about two friends who experience the politically turbulent time of the fall of communism in 1989 is based on the children’s book “Fritzi war dabei” by Hanna Schott and celebrated its world premiere at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) at the end of April.

The ARD co-production “Fritzi and Sophie” is produced under the auspices of MDR together with WDR and SWR by Balance Film in Leipzig, Trickstudio Lutterbeck in Cologne and our CREATORS from Studio Film Bilder (producer: Thomas Meyer-Hermann) and was co-funded by MFG. It was directed by Matthias Bruhn, Ralf Kukula and Thomas Meyer-Hermann. After the broadcast on KiKA from October 3, 2024, all episodes will also be available in the ARD Mediathek, on kika.de and in the KiKA player.

The children’s jury’s statement:
“We liked the episode “Eine Reise, die alles verändert“ and therefore deserved a ‘Goldener Spatz’, as it takes up the important topic of divided Germany and implements it beautifully and comprehensibly. The story was told in a captivating and exciting as well as informative and emotional way. The fact that the episode remained exciting throughout meant that you were always on the edge of your seat. Thanks to the bright, but not too bright colors and the beautiful animations, the series is suitable for many different age groups.”

Richard Lutterbeck (Producer), Festival Director Elisabeth Wenk, Ralf Kukula (Director & Producer), photo: Carlo Bansini

Source: MFG

Congratulations to everyone involved!

All winners of the „Goldener Spatz“

PRIX JEUNESSE 2024 for Animanimals!

“Animanimals” (KiKA/SWR) has been honored at this year’s PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL in Munich. The multi-award-winning preschool format won in the “Shorts” category.

KiKA, SWR, Julia Ocker/Studio FILM BILDER

The animated series “Animanimals” picks up on the peculiarities of animals, which become the starting point for the crazy twists and turns of each story. In the PRIX JEUNESSE-winning episode, the cat wants to cook itself some mouse soup, but doesn’t have the heart to throw its beloved friends into the pot.

The series, which has no dialog, has already won over 50 awards, including the Grimme Prize in 2019. “Animanimals” is a production by our CREATORS from Studio FILM BILDER on behalf of KiKA and SWR. The author is animator Julia Ocker, the editors responsible are Stefan Pfäffle (KiKA) and Benjamin Manns (SWR).

The PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL is considered the world’s most renowned meeting place for media professionals in children’s and youth television. Experts from all continents come together to award the best and most innovative children’s media programs with the coveted PRIX JEUNESSE trophies.

Source: Press Release KiKA, May 30, 2024

Further information on the PRIX JEUNESSE 2024 br.de

Prize Winners PRIX JEUNESSE 2024

FFL nominated for the CINEURO Award 2024!

At the traditional “Meet & Greet” of the CinEuro partners at the 77th International Film Festival in Cannes, it was announced which film projects have been nominated for the CinEuro Award. Among them are our CREATORS from FFL Film- und Fernsehlabor in Ludwigsburg, who are hoping to win the award for their planned feature film project “Schweizer Kühe“!

The nominees for the CinEuro Award 2024: 2. from the left Matthias Drescher, FFL (Photo: CinEuro, Alban Pinchon)

About the project:
SCHWEIZER KÜHE | LES VACHES SUISSES
Production: FFL Film- und Fernseh-Labor (DE), Co-Production: Tellfilm (CH), Director: Matthias Dinter / Screenplay: Ulrike Maria Hund & Matthias Dinter
Southern Germany 1945: When the small village of Hemmingen is occupied by French troops, 10-year-old Paul devises an adventurous plan to save the village’s cows from being confiscated by the Muslim soldiers of African descent. In the process, he befriends the officer Aziz – who, however, falls in love with Paul’s mother Martha…

The CinEuro Award is a cross-border initiative that was launched last year by various CinEuro partners. In addition to MFG Filmförderung, the initiators are the northern French Région Grand Est, Film Fund Luxembourg, Saarland Medien GmbH, the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry for Family Affairs, Women, Culture and Integration, Wallimage, screen.brussels, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, the Ministry of the German-speaking Community of Belgium and, for the first time, the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg. The aim is to support the creation of projects that highlight the links between several partner regions through specific themes, characters or places.

The finalists selected from the submissions, i.e. the respective screenwriters, producers and directors, will present their projects to the jury and other accredited participants on July 3 at the international co-production meeting Forum Alentours in Strasbourg (July 2 to 4). On the same day, the international jury of experts will select the winners, whose names will be announced at the subsequent reception at ARTE.

We keep our fingers crossed for all nominees!

Source, further information and all nominees: MFG Baden-Württemberg

cineuro.eu

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!

The Winners of the AniX Awards at ITFS 2024

The first award winners of the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) 2024 have been chosen: In a joint awards ceremony – the AniX Awards – the German Animation Screenplay Award, the Trickstar Business Award, and the ASIFA Prize were presented on the evening of April 25, 2024 at the Festival Centre in the Haus der Katholischen Kirche.

Marcus Sauermann, Stefanie Larson (AMCRS), Silke Wilfinger (jury member), Photo: ITFS
on the left: Gisela Schäfer (gretels gold), Sunna Isenberg, Photo: AMCRS

The prize for the best German screenplay for an animated feature film in the amount of € 2,500 sponsored by the Animation Media Creators Region Stuttgart (AMCRS), goes to:

Das NEINhorn, Authors: Marc-Uwe Kling, Marcus Sauermann), Producer: Nicole Kellerhals, Production: X Filme Creative Pool

A Special Mention goes to

Die Olchis – Dino-Alarm! (The Ogglies – Rexy Alarm!), Author: Toby Genkel, Producer: Sunna Isenberg, Production: Gisela Schäfer, gretels gold GmbH

We are delighted that gretels gold – one of our CREATORS – is among the honored!

The prize for the German screenplay with the greatest international market potential in the amount of € 1,500 sponsored by Pink Parrot Media goes to:

Out of Frame, Authors: Keiron Self, Giles New, Producers: Emely Christians, Sonja Matthes, Production: Ulysses Film Production

The jury consisted of: Peter Keydel (Producer, Mago Production, Barcelona/Düsseldorf), Nicole Kellerhals (Producer, Dramaturge, Berlin), Marco Kreuzer (Dramaturge/Script Consultant, member of the board of VeDRA – Verband für Film- und Fernsehdramaturgie e.V.), Tania Pinto de Cunha (Vice-President, Partner, Head of International Sales & Acquisitions, Pink Parrot Media, Madrid), Holger Weiss (CEO & Founder, Executive Producer, M.A.R.K. 13 Group, Stuttgart) und Silke Wilfinger (Founder & Owner, SILKWAYFILMS, Munich).

The Trickstar Business Award, the prize for the best innovative and forward-looking business model in the animation sector in the amount of € 7,500 sponsored by Verband Region Stuttgart, goes to Black Goblin, Ana Betancourt (CEO), United Kingdom, a Special Mention to Zeuniks, David Aguirre Hoffmann (Art Director & Illustrator), Germany.

Furthermore, the ASIFA Prize was awarded to the Czech director and animator Michaela Pavlátová.

We congratulate all the winners!