Festival

Welcoming Adresses

Cinema is an invitation to see the world in a different light. The big screen tells stories that broaden our daily horizons and enrich our lives by giving us a fresh look at familiar situations. It is therefore a great experience especially for children and young people.
The International Schlingel Film Festival is offering this cinematic experience for the 14th time now. Over the years, Chemnitz has become a European center of children‘s flms and has earned itself a permanent place in the hearts of the audience - even abroad, where the festival flms go on tour. The Schlingel flms focus on children and young people from all over the world, which is part of its recipe for success. Above all, the festival takes the taste of the public seriously: its European Children‘s Film Prize is the only one awarded by a jury made up of children. The young jurors come from nine European countries. This cross-border cooperation is an important experience for the participating children.

The decisions of the juries are considered competent and fair in the cinema scene, and also
the festival organizers enjoy international recognition. For example, this is refected in the
fact that this year a flm of the Moscow Disney studios will celebrate its world premiere
in Chemnitz. Moreover, the European Union acknowledges the international impact of
the “Schlingel“ by including it into its media promotion as the only German children‘s flm
festival. Thus, the “Schlingel“ is also a showpiece of the media state of Saxony. I thank all those who make this wonderful festival possible in fnancial and organizational terms. Above all, the festival team, the children in the juries of the various competitions, and the teachers who support and accompany them.

I wish the festival an enthusiastic audience at the cinemas in Saxony and later abroad. I wish
the visitors a memorable cinematic experience, and I wish the city of Chemnitz cheerful
festival days with an atmosphere of the big wide world.

Dear children, dear visitors
to the SCHLINGEL festival,

stories conquer the screen, they tell us of adventures, trials of courage and friendship, make us laugh and sometimes cry.
We can experience this also at the 14th International “Schlingel” Film Festival. In October 2009 Chemnitz will become a stronghold for young cineasts again. For the 14th time, children from all over Europe meet in our city to watch new productions of the children‘s film scene together. The members of the European Children‘s Jury have come from Copenhagen, Athens, Vienna, Warsaw, Moscow, Stockholm, Prague and Budapest to select the best flms together with children from Chemnitz and Zwickau. A professional jury will award further prizes.
These flm experts know that it is not so easy to produce flms. What looks so simple at the cinema requires good preparation, exciting ideas, a lot of commitment and meticulous craftsmanship. Directors, set builders and actors often work on it for many months. Panorama, a new programme section this year, focuses on this exciting feld of flmmaking. It provides an insight into the production of international children‘s and youth flms. Once again I have gladly accepted the patronage of the 14th Schlingel edition. Many children from different countries discover how wonderful it is to look at the screen and beyond. This is now recognized at European level too. In addition to promotion granted by the city of Chemnitz and the Free State of Saxony, Schlingel will be the frst Children‘s and Youth Film Festival supported by European funds. This is a good acknowledgment of the many years of dedication.

I wish all our guests an exciting Schlingel film festival.

Barbara Ludwig
Mayoress of Chemnitz
and Patroness of the Festival

Europe loves European Festivals

A privileged place for meetings, exchanges and discovery, festivals provide a vibrant and accessible environment for the widest variety of talent, stories and emotions that constitute Europe’s cinematography.
The MEDIA Programme of the European Union aims to promote European audiovisual heritage, to encourage the transnational circulation of flms and to foster audiovisual industry competitiveness. The MEDIA Programme acknowledged the cultural, educational, social and economic role of festivals by co-fnancing 85 of them across Europe in 2008.
These festivals stand out with their rich and diverse European programming, networking and meeting opportunities for professionals and the public alike, their activities in support of young professionals, their educational initiatives and the importance they give to strengthening inter-cultural dialogue. In 2008, the festivals supported by the MEDIA Programme have screened more than 18 700 European works to more than 2.9 million cinema-lovers.
MEDIA is pleased to support the 14th edition of the International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience SCHLINGEL and we extend our best wishes to all of the festival goers for an enjoyable and stimulating event.

Fourteen years ago, the first SCHLINGEL was given green light. At that time, 13 films tried to win the public’s favour. This year’s International SCHLINGEL Film Festival for Children and Young Audience with 118 flms from 39 countries is more extensive and
more international than ever before. One world premiere from Russia and one from Iran, an international, two European and 14 German premieres will be celebrated at this year’s SCHLINGEL. A total of 5114 minutes or about 120 kilometers of flm rolls will be shown. For the frst time the festival venue is not only Chemnitz. For one day SCHLINGEL will give a guest performance in Zwickau, the fourth largest city of Saxony. Another new feature is the Panorama section. It offers the festival an opportunity to
supplement its program, especially with European films. On fve evenings we want to present one flm each night, which allows a glimpse into the lifestyles of young people in other countries and times. Such as the East German people in autumn 1989, they all
face a major challenge of mastering their lives in view of political changes. The festival has the special honour of presenting the honorary Schlingel to Hans and Christel Strobel. Before the Wall came down, Hans Strobel from Munich and Christel Strobel from
Dresden created a bridge between East and West Germany. They regularly invited GDR children’s flm directors to Munich to participate in the children’s flm section of Munich Film Festival. In the “old“ Federal Republic of Germany, they played an important part as a journalistic mouthpiece. The SCHLINGEL festival will pay homage to them with a „carte blanche“. A particular concern of the festival is „eye to eye contact“. So not only directors and producers present their flms in Chemnitz, they are often  accompanied by their young and grown-up leading actors to establish direct contact with the audience. The 14th SCHLINGEL will start on 5 October. We cordially welcome all festival guests to Chemnitz and wish them a pleasant and interesting time.