300,000 euros for ten cultural film projects

In total, the jury for the simplified funding program supported ten projects that address a wide variety of sociopolitical issues. Jury members included Christian Becker, filmmaker, editor, and producer; Barbara Groben, producer ; and filmmaker Carolin Schmitz.

Feature Film

DEMOCRACY WORK IN PROGRESS - 85,000 euros
Written and directed by Mihály Schwechtje
Production: wunderfein film

The young activist Júlia disappears in Budapest after a demonstration in a completely absurd manner amid bureaucratic chaos. An unmotivated investigator struggles his way through a corrupt, self-obsessed panopticon of the state apparatus. A dark satire about power, arbitrariness, incompetence, and a grotesque crime.

ON LEAVING AND STAYING - 60,000 euros
Screenplay, Direction: Danech San
Production: Weydemann Bros.
Mera and Bopha, both 18 years old, are best friends. They live in a small fishing village on an island off the Cambodian coast. Mera meets a soldier online who is stationed on a remote island. The two of them go to visit him there. The next morning, Mera has disappeared. Bopha must now learn to live without her.

Short Film and Animation

DINNER IS READY - 25,000 euros
Written and directed by Marion Kellmann

This compilation film examines the stereotype of the perfect housewife in American films from the 1940s to the 1960s. For the documentary, scenes are examined and placed in a new context, thereby exposing the uniform portrayal of female characters from that era while also serving as a cinematic wake-up call against current reactionary movements.

KAIBA – MY FATHER’S SEA – 22,750 euros
Written and directed by Shoko Matsuyama

This experimental short film combines documentary fragments with staged scenes. At its core is the director’s father’s dream: a storm rages, and the house drifts out to sea. As a child, Matsuyama had the same dream, which evokes memories of a distant tsunami. Images of an estranged father and hidden memories emerge from the sea. The sea thus becomes a repository of memories.

SECOND HORIZON - 16,500 euros
Director: Meri Mikaelyan
Screenplay: Rita Schwarze

This experimental documentary follows the landscape of the Arazdayan Steppe along the Araks River—a landscape that has been shaped for over a century by canals, cotton cultivation, and artificial waterways. Today, fish ponds and salt flats offer resting places for migratory birds that have adapted to the transformed land. Drawing on archival texts and oral tradition, the film reflects on how landscapes absorb, resist, and ultimately reshape imperial interventions.

Screenplay

SHE WAS OFTEN HERE - 10,000 euros
Screenplay: Sabah Boumeshouli

Seventeen-year-old Yasmin searches for her missing sister Rashida and, in the process, encounters her family’s silence and voids that no one is willing to fill. Without answers, she begins to invent her own truth—until she reaches her own limits.

SKIRMISH - 10,000 euros
Screenplay: Cédric Ernoult
After a grueling stretch in a protest camp, N. and A. want to take a break and earn money as street jugglers. But they soon find themselves caught up in the contradictions of the class struggle, and their paths diverge.

Project Preparation

CINEMA EUROPA – SPACES OF LIGHT AND SHADOW – 25,000 euros
Director: Daniel Huhn
Production: Benda Film

Huhn tells the story of cinemas—both large and small—between Paris and Kyiv, between Berlin and Milan. The documentary focuses on the specific stories of individual (and very diverse) cinemas. Between glamour and everyday life, between red velvet and crumbling stucco, these cinemas are imbued with Europe’s traumas and dreams. We meet the people who keep the cinema alive—as a place of resistance, remembrance, and hope.

TALLBOY (AT) - 25,000 euros
Director: Julius Dommer

Millions of metric tons of munitions are rusting away in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. With unique access, this documentary follows the construction of the world’s first autonomous, floating disposal platform and the work of two eccentric salvage specialists as they attempt to save the oceans. Dommer weaves their work into an immersive cinematic experience that brings to life what is happening on the ocean floor.

THE PROFIT MACHINE: GOVERNMENT DEBT - 24,500 euros Directors : Cornelia Uebel, Klaus Martens

The Federal Republic of Germany has decided to cover a large portion of its financial needs on the international financial markets. How and from whom does the government borrow these enormous sums? The documentary explores specialized financial products and a discreet multi-billion-euro business.