Dresden Cine Film Festival 2026

A short festival diary

Thursday

As always, the Motorenhalle in the backyard of the Riesa Efau is not easy to find as the main venue for the Schmalfilmtage, but if you’ve been there before, you know the drill. After a super-friendly reception, I buy the festival pass at the box office for 30 euros – a bargain when you consider how much work goes into it and what you get for it.

After a friendly champagne reception, there is a short introduction of the organizers and a somewhat longer introduction of some sponsors, but immediately afterwards the first real item on the programme: The theme is “Keeping a House” and comprises three films. I like CLOTHESLINES (Roberta Cantow), even if it is a little long at 33 minutes. The author filmed clotheslines in New York over a long period of time and has the women who have to use them regularly speak and tell their stories on the soundtrack. A successful collage.

Even here, and increasingly as the festival progresses, I realize that contributions lasting more than ten minutes are often a little hard to digest when they are so repetitive. There are also simply a lot of them here. But that was fine as an introduction.

I really liked the second film, INVISIBLE HANDS (Lia Sudermann & Simon Nagy from Vienna, present), which congenially makes invisible care work visible, drawing on twelve hours of found footage. The soundtrack took the whole thing to another level and made visible in the film what was not directly visible: all the work behind the mainly filmed scenes of typical 70s home movies. Coffee parties, confirmations, birthday parties and Christmas parties were probably rarely organized by the cameraman.

This was followed by the “International Found Footage” competition, which, with four blocks of three films each, offered a fairly manageable program of around 80 minutes, but lasted over two hours in total due to the moderation and program presentation. Here, too, it was the few films of more than ten minutes in length that were a bit of a strain on my attention. Overall, however, there were some very nice works. I particularly liked the films that relied more on reorganization than on an overload of film artefacts and rhythmic looping or the repetition of very short partial scenes in an almost stroboscopic manner.

My top 3:

I THINK I SAID “YES” (Pere Ginard), an outstanding work in black and white with red partial virage and truly ingenious imagery, which looked like a lot of manual work and very little digital effect. A feast for the eyes.

ON THE GLUE (Dave Johnson), a montage from a documentary about the horrors of glue-sniffing in a London neighborhood in the 70s.

IN THE HANDS OF TIME (Greta Bonnaud), a short, crisp compilation of a family’s amateur films, skillfully garnished with painted colorations and a carefully applied scratching technique. A difficult, because often overused means, but here it is often skillfully used to emphasize rather than dominate.

The other contributions were by no means bad, but either too long or too overloaded with effects for my taste. MONUMENT (Jeremy Drummond), for example, would have been much more powerful in five minutes than in almost 17, in my opinion. Over the course of the festival, I was able to observe two patterns:

On the one hand, the artifacts of the analog – running marks, glue spots, perf holes, layer resolution – are rolled out so dominantly that they suffocate the actual content rather than underlining it. Like a soup with far too much salt. On the other hand, I am personally bothered by a technique that is only possible digitally and borrows heavily from the aesthetics of music videos: the inflationary repetition of super-short snippets. In OVERWORK (Céline Berger), a reinterpretation of a collection of 16mm educational films from the Federal Labor Office, this apparently even happens over long stretches in stroboscopically alternating individual images. Not for people with a tendency to epilepsy – and simply impossible to realize at the Steenbeck. However, I particularly liked the calmer beginning of OVERWORK. Here, too, less is more.

This was also confirmed by the technically very similar films DIZZY CAVALRY (Patrick Doyon) and OUR EYES MEET SQUINTING (Olive Harrington): Both rely on collaging, photogram-like copying of 8 and 9.5 mm film onto 35 mm respectively and on playing with the time axis and interference. I liked Doyon’s one-minute piece much better; Harrington’s six minutes were more focused on the “trip”, but I was less taken by it and found it less gripping and less congruent.

The jury prize was ultimately deservedly awarded to OVERWORK (Céline Berger), while the audience prize went to WATER DISSOLVES ITS IMAGE, THE LANDSCAPE DISAPPEARS (Delfina Carlota Vazquez), which I personally couldn’t get into at all. That’s how colorful tastes are.

Well prepared, I walked through the icy Dresden at 4 degrees and looked forward to the

Friday

After a luxury breakfast at the hotel and a lovely walk through Dresden’s Neustadt district in glorious weather, I met up with old cinephile friends for a chat at lunchtime. None of the workshops were on my program this year, as appealing as they sounded. In the end, the festival participants are just as important as the content; you have to create space for yourself. It’s worth it.

At 3 pm, however, the festival program continued for me: a highlight, the presentation of the prototype of the re8mil reloadable cartridge. An impressive project by a detail-loving, likeable tinkerer with a lot of grit and stamina. The cartridge is a handcrafted precision marvel reminiscent of watchmaking. Each roller is mounted on ball bearings, the parts are screwed together and the feel is already a delight. Even adjusting the ASA notch with small magnetic switches is addictive. Edmund Ward’s enormous effort in the search for the best possible materials and implementation details will pay off as soon as the cartridge is ready for the market. For now, however, a smaller, closed beta test is still pending – there are simply too many Super 8 cameras to be able to carry out sufficient practical tests as a one-man band.

It is also very positive that a Kodak representative traveled to this presentation, who is obviously following and supporting the project benevolently. There seems to be nothing significant standing in the way of a supply of high-quality raw film pancakes. Kodak has very clearly recognized and confirmed that every contribution to the Super 8 ecosystem is a good one – a wonderful turn of events that makes the former yellow giant seem more like an agile senior supporter today. A development that can only be welcomed.

This was followed by an elaborate performance by two Martins from the Czech Republic: KLAPPER & JEŽEK presented an analog multimedia show like I have never experienced before. Found footage maltreated back in the nineties – at least bleached, toned, etched, scraped, burned – was projected onto the large wall of the Motorenhalle in the pitch-black room by three Super 8 projectors mounted on a table, along with large-format slides and painted roll film. Ježek left no dimension untouched: He danced around his equipment in hard labor, played virtuously with focal lengths, focus, individual images, slomo gear and attachment lenses, tilted and hit the projectors, tugged at the film and deliberately put burn holes in it. A truly impressive sensory spectacle. The fact that the Eumig went through all this is remarkable in itself. But the performance was taken to the next level by his BFF Martin Klapper, who used a giant table full of everyday objects and a microphone to conjure up a carefully considered soundscape.

As impressive and as pleasantly random as the whole thing was – all too often the effects take precedence over the content in such presentations – the performance was still a little too long for me. This is certainly subjective, but with the amount of content that the Schmalfilmtage has to offer, overlength is my most frequent problem. So I left the hall early after a good half hour and enjoyed the sunshine in the courtyard of the Riesa Efau with a few like-minded people while I digested the impressions.

After the already ritualized dinner at the regular Vietnamese restaurant, I continued with a wonderfully successful retrospective of DIE TÖDLICHE DORIS. Wolfgang Müller, the surviving member of the two founders, was present and provided an extremely entertaining guide through the incredibly broad spectrum of cinematic works by this legendary punk art formation and band. It was a real treat and there was a lot to laugh about. It was extremely inspiring and made me hungry for more – that’s how it should be.

The evening was rounded off with the legendary live soundtrack competition, in which invited bands and musicians each backed a short film with their sound. Presenter Matthias Hufnagl was a very pleasant, professional and witty guide through the colorful program – apart from the twice-dropped “Schmalspurfilm”, he was brilliantly prepared and found just the right amount of humor and background to bridge the short changeover phases. Mostly educational films were shown here, spiced up with a few cartoons – almost all huge, bright and projected in analog. For me personally, however, the picture/sound gap was often a little too wide this year. The musicians were undoubtedly very good, talented and diverse, but I often felt they lacked a connection to the movie being shown. Considering that all the artists were given the films in advance and were able to prepare accordingly, this is surprising.

But even here there were exceptions: My personal favorite was Chrys Schloyer from Nuremberg, who set the FWU title “termite state” to music in a minimalist, ingenious way. My number two was Ekkehard Meister with FWU’s Wildcats, who then also received the Audience Award. The jury opted quite plausibly for Philipp Gottesleben (e-cello) with Arbeitskollektiv, who very expressively emphasized the emotions dealt with in the film. As usual, the hall was bursting at the seams – Dresden simply has a wonderful affinity for culture.

By midnight I was tired and fulfilled and left the bar and the post-concert activities to the others. A great day.

Saturday

Saturday began with an unexpected personal highlight for me: the presentation of the Archeoscope developed by Jan Kulka. What is it?

“An analog, hand-operated projection apparatus for live film performances. Based on an understanding of film as an ‘articulation of light’, it attempts to make the physiology of film perception experimentally tangible. It can project all standard formats, but also different materials such as scotch tape, bandages and varnish “,

is how the likeable young man from Prague describes it. You have to see this device; it is incomparable and its effect can only be experienced directly.

Just this much: the device is an enormously aesthetic, high-quality machine that takes up a good cubic meter of space and would have made Daniel Gyro Gearloose green with envy. It uses four extremely bright power LEDs, has four lenses aligned in parallel along with a condenser and bellows, no rotating diaphragm and no claws, but a large number of optical sensors for external rhythmization. The intermittent image step of normal projectors is replaced by correspondingly short flashes of light. Jan describes the device as a complex instrument that he is constantly learning to play anew: the frequency, duty cycle and luminance limiting the current can be controlled manually or with feedback for each light source. Loops and samples are also controlled optically, by the film itself or a kind of optical turntable system. The 60 mm wide film channel accommodates any format. The clever, modest Kulka has spent over 15 years of development time intensively studying the physiology of perception of the eye and the brain and knows what he is talking about. Charged with curiosity and enthusiasm, I look forward to the evening’s performance and the interweaving of countless interferences.

Still a little oversaturated from the classic content of the previous days, I allowed myself a content break, skipped the program blocks on “Zoopraxograph”, “Allotments in Amateur Film” and “Guerilla Gardening” and instead spent a few hours with filmmaker friends in the beautiful, sunny Dresden Neustadt. Sometimes you have to prioritize.

What I then experienced in the engine hall at 7 p.m. is difficult to put into words, let alone reproduce. Jan Kulka did not promise too much. The effect of his light flash orgasotron is strongly reminiscent of a trip: although he only throws monochrome images onto the large wall of the Motorenhalle, after a while you start to perceive bright colors. Suddenly you see completely three-dimensional images. If you focus into infinity, the projection becomes a space that completely surrounds you. I found myself clinging to my seat several times and lost all sense of time. The journey, which lasted over 90 minutes, felt like maybe 20 minutes; the people sitting next to me grinned and said that I had made strange noises.

I was surprised that not everyone present was so taken by what was on offer and found it hard to contain my enthusiasm. It stayed with me for the rest of the evening. The effect of the Archeoscope cannot be reproduced. No medium in the world can capture or even reproduce the inherent continuity of the emitted photons. The static image frequency is missing. Anyone who ever has the chance to go on this journey should definitely not miss it.

The evening continued – almost 40 minutes late – with the well-attended International Competition. Kudos to the curators: With one exception, all the entries are well under ten minutes long, making the twelve consistently high-quality works an easily digestible 70 minutes. Unfortunately, the sound of the analog projection went on strike right at the beginning, so that the digital backup was used almost on the fly. Presumably to save time, the rest of the evening remained with digital projection, which was bright and crisp, but took some of the charm out of some of the contributions. Better that than not making it through the program in the end.

It was unusually difficult for me to choose a winner here; there really were some gems. Particularly successful for me: Nelson Yeo – DURIAN, DURIAN from Singapore, Ben Slotover – THERE WILL BE ANOTHER from the UK and the wonderfully poetic Arepo – THE INEFFABLE FIXING OF THE VOLATILE. The jury prize ultimately went to Kate Solar – (FOR ONCE I DREAMED OF YOU), also outstanding and fully deserved. The Audience Award went to Britta Sommermeyer – ERIKA WAR KEINE SCHREIBMASCHINE. An affectionate, very funny and entertaining portrait of a person and family, which is a photo show with a brilliant narrative track, rather atypical for a film. It’s nice to see that the “Sommermeyer / Francescon” conceptualization company, which was also involved here, left the usual framework, which is certainly also thanks to the author Britta Sommermeyer. Well deserved.

After a short round of talks and the award ceremony, the evening was over in terms of content and I fell into bed and a deep sleep. I would miss out on Sunday’s program due to my trip, but my full brain hardly had room for any more content anyway.

Summary

These were extremely successful cine film days. The event can really be warmly recommended to every cinephile. Content, audience and form come together here in a symbiotic way that is rarely the case. A heart-warming event for which it is absolutely worth taking a few days off work if necessary.

The organizers of the festival and the technical team also deserve a great deal of praise and thanks. It’s remarkable what was put together here on a largely voluntary basis or with the smallest of resources – only people with real passion can pull something like this off. Not only the broad inclusivity, including AI-supported live translations, which provided many hearty laughs, but also the many loving details show how much the Schmalfilmtage are a matter of the heart of the organizers. Every drink served over the counter, accompanied by a smile and kind words, handmade sandwiches, delicious soup and popcorn for the small appetite, but also the effort of the previous curation, the selection of invited artists and performers, accessibility, thoughtfulness and measure of the moderation, time management and last but not least the cleanliness were simply heartwarming.

The technology also ran so smoothly that it completely faded into the background. Good sound, no humming or crashing, projection technology at its best and every little glitch fixed within seconds – these were professionals at work who really cared about the cause. This was hugely impressive and gave the artists a stage that expressed genuine appreciation, as well as giving the audience the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in what was on offer. This cannot be valued highly enough.

I am so looking forward to next year!