Great cinema in a short format

Short films have been a fixed element of the Hof International Film Festival program since its beginnings, and the Festival remains faithful to this tradition in its 59th edition as well. What began in 1967 as a pure short-film festival has developed over the decades into an important showcase for short cinematic forms that, more than ever, capture the pulse of the times and display the first attempts of young filmmakers.

With 69 short films, up to 50 minutes in length, the program year is particularly strong. The themes address, among others, flight/escape, climate change, wars, as well as questions of democracy and interpersonal relationships. The films open up new perspectives, question existing narratives, and show how powerful the short format can be. The program offers a stylistic range—it features documentaries, animated films, and feature films from around the world. The 59th Hof International Film Festival thus once again proves that the short film is not a side show, but an independent art form with relevance, depth, and innovative power.

What awaits you: 

Director Carsten Degenhardt connects past and present in his political short PROLOGUE TO THE DARKNESS by confronting quotes from AfD politicians with the language of the NS era. Tuna Kaptan, awarded the New German Cinema Förderpreis at the 57th International Hof Film Festival in 2023, presents his new short ISHAQ this time. The film tells the story of a German grandmother who tries to bring her grandson back from Iraq after her daughter was killed by IS. In the Ukrainian-Belgian production GAMLET, filmmaker Jan Beddegenoodts follows a famous Ukrainian street artist who, despite the war in the country, receives orders from his commander to keep painting.

In her documentary QUEER EXILE, filmmakers Lou von Sohlern and Matilda Mokina accompany three Russian queer people as they experience exile in Germany in different ways. The film was awarded the Starter Film Prize by the City of Munich.

Emma Bading, who regularly presents her films in Hof and was awarded the Jury Short Film Prize by the City of Hof last year, is again involved with a new work: together with Lasse Lehmann she shot the short AFTERLIKE. An influencer couple aims to gain more reach and drinks a toxic vape liquid live on TikTok for it.

Also Dominik Graf, a frequent guest in Hof, is showing his short film DOPPELGÄNGER this time. A Munich student is haunted by the unsettling claim that his doppelgänger is roaming the city. What begins as a rumor develops into a journey between mistrust, identity, and the question of whether reality and paranoia can still be separated.

With his feature debut Stumm vor Schreck, Daniel Popat won the Hof Film Festival Critics’ Prize in 2022. This year he presents his short film GERMANY AGAIN IN AUTUMN, which can be seen as a homage to Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

In the documentary THE ESSENTIALS, filmmaker Florian Hoffmann highlights three professions without which our society would not function. He follows a cleaning worker, a DHL courier, and a care assistant. The empowerment of women is the focus in LADY ATTILA by Apolline Andreys. The story is about Agathe, who loves tractors but also rock music. A special story is told by David Füsgen with HARD CASH, in which a man after a night shift in the factory discovers that he can cough up coins — and a huge amount of them.

The documentary FLYING ANIMALS by Lea Zitzenbacher becomes especially emotional. She has accompanied children living with serious illnesses who move in a tightly scheduled cosmos of examinations and hospital stays. Through drawing, they retain access to fantasy worlds and to each other. The film makes these universes accessible to us adults with the help of animation. In THE GOOD WOMAN, Masha Mollenhauer addresses Poland’s restrictive abortion law and powerfully shows how such laws endanger women.

Many young talents, who have often already developed their own handwriting, present their first films in Hof. They come not only from German film schools such as Berlin, Babelsberg, Munich, Ludwigsburg, Cologne, or Hamburg, but also from near and far abroad. Thus Hof will screen two short films from New Zealand. In NAUSEA by Queen Brat, it’s about an unexpected connection between two strangers in the remoteness of New Zealand. And in PACK RAT, Lucy Suess tells the story of a 15-year-old who fights for her place in a boys’ gang.

From China comes a co-production with the HFF Munich: HELLO… by Ivan Dubrovin follows a young man who suffers from depression and has trouble finding a partner. Iranian director Mohammad Hormozi describes in his short film OROSI the story of an Iranian musician trying to cross the border by land. Brazilian Victor Quintanilha presents JACARÉ, about a teenage boy driven by curiosity and longing for the sea who dares to embark on an adventure that will profoundly change him.

This is only a small preview of the large, diverse offering of short films, each shown before the feature films. Because the film submissions this year were so numerous and exciting, we are presenting three programs of selected short films with SHORT STORIES on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25, 2025.

The 59th Hof Film Festival will take place from October 21 to 26 in Hof and online in the plus7daysstream until November 2, 2025, inviting you to be inspired by the variety, courage, and creative power of short films.