International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg

Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival (German: Internationales Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg) is an annual film festival held jointly by the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. The festival was established in 1952. In Mannheim there are six cinema centres and 19 single cinemas.

The festival presents arthouse films of international newcomer directors. Established in 1952 originally in the city of Mannheim, it is the second oldest filmfestival in Germany (with the eldest being Berlin). Since 1994, it is held jointly by the cities Mannheim and Heidelberg, Germany. The festival takes place annually around November (2011: 10–20 November).[1]

Contents

Festival profile

Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival aims at industry professionals as well as the audience, with over 1000 professional participants and circa 60 000 people attending the screenings in both cities. Subsequent to each screenings there are public panel discussions with the film's representatives.

The festival presents films of independent newcomer directors and who are internationally widely unknown, focussing on arthouse and auteur films. The films selected must be premieres and thus films screened at Cannes, Locarno, Venice and any German festival are excluded.

In 2010, MANNHEIM MEETING PLACE was launched for the first time. The project succeeds the Festival's former co-production market MANNHEIM MEETINGS, focusing on the improvement of marketing opportunities of completed film projects. However, coporoduction meetings will still take place.

During the history of the festival, (debut) features of now famous directors such as Jim Jarmusch, Thomas Vinterberg, Bryan Singer, Atom Egoyan, François Truffaut, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Lars von Trier, or Rahmin Bahrani were first introduced to an international public at the festival.

Competition and awards

Master of Cinema award

In addition, since 1998 in sporadic intervals, the honorary Master of Cinema Award is issued to outstanding cineastic artist:

2009 – Atom Egoyan 2006 – Aleksandr Sokurov 2004 – Wim Wenders, Edgar Reitz 2003 – Raoul Ruiz 2002 – Zhang Yimou 1999 – Otar Iosseliani 1998 – Theodor Angelopoulos

List of award winners

2010

2009

2008

References

External links