Dear audience, dear festival team,

exground filmfest once again promises ten exciting days of cinema with around 200 films and over 100 filmmakers from Germany and abroad, who will present their works in person and engage in dialogue with the audience. The festival team has put together a diverse programme that offers us rare insights into other cultures and at the same time brings highlights from major international film festivals to Wiesbaden.

Don’t miss the film FRISCH, directed by Damian John Harper and funded by Hessen Film & Medien GmbH, which is participating in the “Made in Germany” feature film competition. This dark thriller, which received multiple nominations for the New German Cinema Award at Munich International Film Festival, is vying for the Audience Award, endowed with EUR 3,000 in prize money. GOTTESKINDER, directed by Frauke Lodders and screening in the International Youth Film Competition, is also particularly worth seeing. The director received the Hessian Film Award for Best Screenplay and is currently presenting her film at festivals in Germany and abroad, such as the renowned Warsaw Film Festival. Another highlight is the “Wiesbaden Special”, which features productions realised by up-and-coming filmmakers from RheinMain University of Applied Sciences.

You can also look forward to a new section with an annually changing thematic focus. With “Flight and Expulsion”, this year’s focus is on a topic that could not be more relevant. The inaugural edition of the “Amnesty International Wiesbaden Film Award” will honour the best film in this section. In this way, exground filmfest is doing its part to create spaces for discussion around films, spaces that we urgently need as a society. With this dedicated work, as well as its outstanding programmes and top-class guests, exground filmfest has developed into an internationally recognised festival and has become an integral part of Wiesbaden’s cultural calendar.

I wish the festival team exciting festival days and all of the guests unforgettable cinema experiences.

Anna Schoeppe, CEO of Hessen Film & Medien GmbH