Nominations for the Hessian Film and Cinema Prize announced
Once again this year, graduates of the Kunsthochschule Kassel have been nominated for the Hessian Film and Cinema Award 2024. Here is an overview:
"Starren"
Tianshu Yang and Xiaoxuan Yu's film "Starren" is nominated for the Hessian Film and Cinema Award 2024 in the category "Best Short Film".
Jury statement: Being at the mercy of the eyes of others in everyday life, their thoughts and judgments, their condemnations: A feeling we all know! For some just unpleasant, for others unbearable. The stares trigger panic, they cast a net of fear and threat around us in the midst of everyday life. Caught like a fly in a spider's web. "Staring" finds haunting images for a feeling and draws us into the spell of everyday intolerability. The simple but haunting images are reinforced by an impressive soundtrack that is both restrained and panic-inducing. Tianshu Yang succeeds in captivating the audience with her animated film in just a few minutes, all the senses are awakened and the central metaphor never lets us go!
"It's (Not) A Men's World"
Julia Gens' film "It's (Not) A Men's World" has been nominated for the Hessian Film and Cinema Award 2024 in the category "Best Graduation Film". The film was made in collaboration with Franziska Rozicki.
Jury statement: A beard is plucked, a tie is tied, a jacket is put on. Then it's off to the bus and finally to a park, where a whole series of people in different outfits are cavorting about. Julia Gens and Franziska Rozicki interview and accompany members of a community that seems to be difficult for mainstream society to access. In her documentary "It's not a men's world", she herself has been part of the cosplay community for 15 years and gives intimate insights into a world that many dismiss as a mere escape from reality. Yet for the community in this film, it is so much more: a place where they can not only get to know media characters but also develop them further, but above all a safe space that becomes a space for reflection on their own identity and queerness.
"Die Stadt ist die Gilde und die Gilde ist die Stadt"
Jonas Leichsenring's film "Die Stadt ist die Gilde und die Gilde ist die Stadt" has been nominated for the Hessischer Film- und Kinopreis 2024 in the category "Best Graduation Film".
Jury statement: "My mother asks me every year: Are you coming home for Whitsun?" These are the opening words of the documentary "The City is the Guild and the Guild is the City", in which Jonas Leichsenring embarks on a personal search for the men who were once his role models. But now he sees them differently: as men who march to and fro, drinking beer without a real goal. Jonas Leichenring returns to the place where he grew up, to Wildeshausen, where the local shooting club organizes the Guild Festival every year at Whitsun. The filmmaker takes a critical look at where traditional ideas of masculinity and the upholding of conservative values are used to legitimize one's own position in the community.
The Hessian Film and Cinema Prize
The Hessian Film and Cinema Prize has been awarded annually since 1990 by the state of Hesse as a sponsorship prize and award for filmmakers and cinema operators. The 35th Hessian Film and Cinema Prize will be awarded on October 18, 2024 at the Alte Oper Frankfurt.
Further information:
wissenschaft.hessen.de