Hof International Film Festival

The Hof International Film Festival is a German film festival that takes place annually in late October. The focus is on German language films complemented by a few foreign language productions.[1][2] The festival is located in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the town of Hof.

Hof International Film Festival
South African film maker Michael Oblowitz at the "Hof International Film Festival" on 26 October 2013
StatusActive
GenreFilm festival
FrequencyAnnually
Location(s)Hof
CountryGermany
Inaugurated1967 (1967)
FounderHeinz Badewitz
Participants130
Attendance28000

Newcomer directors and producers get to premiere their debut motion pictures in Hof. Every year one film director is honoured with a retrospective of their work. Directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Peter Jackson, Jim Jarmusch, Amos Kollek, Mike Leigh, Ulrich Seidl, Tom Tykwer, Wim Wenders, Sönke Wortmann and Maren Ade have attended the festival in the past. German director Oliver Herbrich premiered eight films in Hof.[3] Most major German media cover the festival every year.[4][5]

Usually 130 movies are shown from Tuesday to Sunday. In 2014 the Festival had about 28000 visitors.[6]

History

In 1967 Heinz Badewitz[7] and two fellow film students organized a three hours movie theater night in Hof showing a few motion pictures. They called this event the 1st Hof Short Film Festival, having developed the idea after disappointing output at International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.[8][9] In Munich, where they studied at the time, cinema rentals had been too expensive to start a project of that kind. This event grew over the years to become Hof International Film Festival, also receiving international attention.[10] Badewitz led the Festival from the beginning until his death in 2016. The 50th anniversary edition of the festival was curated in 2016 by Linda Söffker, Alfred Holighaus and Thorsten Schaumann. Since 2017, Schaumann has been the artistic director. In 2018, there was a cooperation between the Hof International Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for the first time.

Hof International Film Festival is completed by a traditional soccer match – FC Film World vs. FC Hof International Film Festival. Every year a team of actors, directors and producers play against a team of eleven players from the festival organisation and festival supporters.

References
  1. "Selected German Film Festivals: Hof". German Films.
  2. "Selected German Film Festivals: Hof". Goethe-Institut.
  3. Festival website. "Oliver Herbrich between 1980 and 1993 (14th to 27th festival)".
  4. "Bilanz der Hofer Filmtage 2012". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  5. "Bilanz der Hofer Filmtage 2012". Die Zeit. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
  6. https://www.welt.de/regionales/bayern/article133659924/28-000-Besucher-bei-125-Filmen.html
  7. "Biography Heinz Badewitz". Berlinale.
  8. "Der Anstoss kam aus Oberhausen". Frankenpost. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
  9. "Es lebe die Wurst". Die Zeit. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
  10. "Schmid wins prestigious Hof film award". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2001-10-29.
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