The Festival 2012
Welcoming Adresses
Movies are more than moving pictures: They stimulate our imagination, they can make us sad, thoughtful, but also cheerful. They transport us into other worlds and connect us with things that are sometimes far away from our everyday lives. This applies to children’s films as well as films for adults. In short, they open our horizons and expand our imagination.
In recent decades, moving pictures have developed just as fast as the associated technologies. Scenes that could hardly be shot some time ago are now portrayed on the screen with immense detail. Thus, it has become increasingly difficult to find out what is real, what is fiction? Not everything that we see is the truth. At the same time, what we do not see can become the truth. The responsibility bestowed upon every director and every spectator has therefore increased.
The International Children’s Film Festival SCHLINGEL addresses this issue. Apart from the actual film programme, it also provides added value in professional terms: through workshops, discussions with directors and actors, as well as various seminars. Thus,discussing purposes and contents of the films is not left to each individual alone, but imagination and stories can be shared and discussed together. As the longtime patron of the film festival, I thank the organizers for their successful and important work. I wish all visitors impressive, exciting and eventful days.
Stanislaw Tillich
Minister President of the Free State of Saxony
and Patron of the Festival
Dear visitors to the SCHLINGEL,
when many, many more children and young people can be seen in the city centre, inquiries from the media and professional visitors are piling up and a SCHLINGEL appears in the streets, it is time again: The festival begins.
The International Film Festival SCHLINGEL in Chemnitz is inviting you for the 17th time already. I am pleased that this great project feels at home and in such good hands in our city. It has become a regular event in the international film industry. The festival is still organized locally; it has remained an event our children and families are invited to participate in. Thus children and adolescents experience a glimpse of cinematography beyond the mainstream, get to know the cultures and situations of other children all over the world, meet filmmakers and actors and can learn about the background of the productions in workshops or film discussions.
I am also sure the Saechsischer Kinder- und Jugendfilmdienst e.V. will be an excellent organizer again. The programme promises very good movies, making it difficult for the juries to select the best productions. A highlight of this year’s Schlingel will be the honorary Schlingel to be presented to Gojko Miticˇ, who has reached great popularity especially due to his role of a Red Indian. I am very pleased to welcome the young and older personalities in Chemnitz and I wish the festival many visitors.
Barbara Ludwig
Lord Mayor of the city of Chemnitz
For the 17th time, the International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience SCHLINGEL attracts thousands of enthusiastic cinemagoers to Chemnitz. With more than 100 films, the festival offers a wide and impressively diverse forum to current cinema productions for children and young people. The selection committee could choose from over 700 international productions from 71 countries for this year’s programme – a remarkable figure, which speaks for the international perception of the SCHLINGEL festival.
A highlight is the European Children’s Jury, where young people from different countries choose the best contribution. The joint movie experience provides an opportunity to deal with age-specific issues that concern adolescents of all cultures. Thus, not only strange new worlds, but also similarities are discovered in the cinema, which thereby makes a contribution to the personal development of young people. Thanks to an extensive seminar offer, festival visitors acquire media competence at the same time. Cultural education is a major focus of the federal government, which therefore supports projects such as the Film Festival SCHLINGEL and nationwide initiatives such as “Vision Kino”.
I would like to thank the SCHLINGEL festival team under the direction of Michael Harbauer for their passionate commitment to the children's and youth films. Visitors can look forward to outstanding productions from around the world in the forthcoming days. I wish all of you exciting insights and moving cinema experience.
Bernd Neumann
Minister of State
to the Federa Chancellor
Federal Government Commissioner
for Culture and the Media
As a co-organizer, the Saxon State Agency for Private Broadcasting and New Media (SLM) is convinced of the quality and the brilliance of the SCHLINGEL festival.
This German Children's and Youth Film Festival is really committed to children's films. It encourages children to watch films and makes sure children's films are watched. It is almost symbolic that the Czech Republic is in the focus of attention this year. Thanks to the artistic level and the high sensitivity of Czech children's films, not only young viewers have experienced memorable cinema and TV afternoons. As the sponsor of the main prize in the junior film contest of this International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience, the Saxon State Media Authority wants to point out that films combining both entertainment and demand are rarely produced for this target group.
Our world is full of wonderful stories; the festival films bring a great variety of them to Chemnitz. We will be attentive hosts and pass on what the guests tell us in their films. We wish the young viewers enjoyable hours at the cinema. We wish the juries good decisions, the films to find their way to a wide audience beyond festivals and the supporters the certainty that the SCHLINGEL is always worth taking efforts for.
Dr. Uwe Grüning
President of the
Media Council of SLM
This year, 103 films from 36 countries will enter the SCHLINGEL stage. In the second year already, Galerie Roter Turm with its CineStar cinema is the main venue and home to the Festival Centre, the Film Bar and Festival Restaurant.
Under the motto “contact between equals”, not only directors and producers will present their films in Chemnitz. They will be accompanied by their young and older leading actors to get in direct contact with the audience. The format “Schlingel-Talk” makes this possible even outside the cinemas. Particular attention is paid to the European Children's Jury this year. For the 10th time already, children from various European countries have come together in order to award the European Children's Film Prize, endowed by the Saxon State Ministry of Science and Arts. For the first time, two children from the Chemnitz twin town of Ljubljana will be members of the jury. I am especially glad to welcome a jury of the Goethe Institute for the first time in the festival's history. The youth and children’s film prize of the Goethe Institute will be awarded in the national competition “Focus Germany”.
It is a great honour for the SCHLINGEL festival that Gojko Miticˇ is the first actor to receive the “Ehrenschlingel” (honorary award). Films like “The Sons of Great Bear” and “Chingachgook, the Great Snake” have impressed children of more than one generation. Traditionally the SCHLINGEL takes a particular interest in current children’s and youth film productions in geopolitical Eastern Europe. This year we want to pay special attention to the Czech Republic and appreciate the film productions of our neighbours with a current focus.
Michael Harbauer
Festival Director