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Animated film by Anna Samo

Felix Leffrank deals with the ups and downs of an artist’s life in colourful, computer-animated images. During his ordeal between depression, writer’s block, anger and urban loneliness, a story-teller is accompanied by three weird birds who sometimes appear as annoying neighbours, sometimes as inner demons. Jung, Freud and the psychologist Dr. Breuer in the shape of a grey cat promote self-reflection, but the most helpful thing is probably a beer with friends.

What does it mean to make an animated film accessible to people with impaired vision? Can audio description convey what’s happening on the screen and what is, especially in animated film, often entirely a product of the imagination? Anne Isensee (Golden Dove for “Megatrick” in 2017) tackles these complex questions with a light touch, humour and verbal wit. She pulls off the feat of producing a concentrated cinematic investigation into the multi-layered quality of (all) perception.

Inspired by my job on the assembly line of a factory, Fill3 depicts a production process. The film begins with a stereotypical factory setting that evolves into an an increasingly strange production system.

A stunning circular pictorial history of church domes, mosques and synagogues treated like clockworks.

What actually happens after ovulation? Seriously! This short film takes you on a fantastical journey through the life of an egg cell.

The whale swims proudly through the sea, but all the animals are afraid of his huge size and his broad grin. Will he find new friends to play funny games?

He lives in a white expanse, where a monotonous balance reigns and with cheerful indifference wanders through a uniform whiteness. The exit from the enclosed space is hindered by the lack of contact…

Staging macho "bromances" between men like Vladimir Poutine and Xin Junping, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, using G-udit and $chwanger's superimposed faces as they rap in their melancholy style.

A grey evening in Düsseldorf. Birds pass over the noisy city. A young man seeks refuge in the “Fortuna news stand” and drinks coffee to keep his exhaustion at bay, but nods off regardless. Flocks of birds follow him into his daydream, in which he tries to escape his isolation and sense of being trapped.

Throughout Bernd Ziegler's professional life he has killed six people because they threw themselves in front of his train. How does a train driver handle this?

The telephone wakes its uncounted brothers and sisters. The lady in the bathtub has two faces. Shall I help a beautiful man when forks and teeth fight in the skies?

This film describes a feeling of longing, longing for sun, longing for salt, and longing for the sea.

Cubert's life is determined by work. Endless repetitions of the same tasks, dull routines, a perfect construction of monotony. Suddenly he is wrenched out of his daily grind and is confronted with a seemingly inescapable system. His quest for an exit leads him deep into a labyrinth of monotony - and to the bounds of his sanity.

Grandfather was an employee at the Hottingen telephone switchboard in the 1960s. The conditions at his workplace became such an increasing burden for him that he saw no other way out but arson. The biographical short film interweaves animation with historical documents.

A lone astronaut wanders through the desert of a forgotten planet. Instead of dates, only dust; instead of chats, only silence. But how do you find intimacy when the only match is your own reflection?

After a Paper character rearranges his body to become fashionable in a paper world of fast fashion, he gets confronted by the parts he left behind...

A young woman with endometriosis seeks relief from her pain in an underground clinic.

It's always the same in the Elbe, says the mermaid from the Danube Delta. The idea originated in Cologne on the Rhine. It's not easy in the overturned film water, but dreams and hopes remain. They are not easy to understand, but a mermaid does not want to be understood, she wants to whisk you away to her realm.

Short animation film about a boxing match.

A dance film about overcoming inner obstacles. Through your own actions, negative experiences can be transformed into positive ones. These moments of happiness make every effort worthwhile.

Two small dogs steal a sausage from a butcher's shop, find a baby in a cradle, and chase after a cat—with the cradle in tow.

This animated film was made for the washing powder "Famos" produced at soap factories in Riesa-Gröba and Düsseldorf. We see a German housewife doing the washing the traditional way – i.e. putting it out to bleach on the grass. Unfortunately, some hens walk all over it. All that work for nothing! So the sun, who has observed all these goings-on, recommends "Famos" as a bleaching agent.

Mushroom picking is actually a peaceful activity – but hardly anyone thinks about how the mushrooms feel about it. A young mushroom discovers the beauty of nature with curiosity. His neighbor, an old, grumpy toadstool, shows little joy in company or nature. Undeterred, the young mushroom seeks closeness – until a sentence from the old man changes everything: "They'll eat you!" Before he even understands what that means, the mushroom is torn from the ground and finds himself in a nightmare: knives, pots, fire – a kitchen full of dead mushrooms. Desperately fighting for survival, he manages to escape and return to the clearing. The old fly agaric can hardly believe that the little one has made it. For the first time in a long time, his heart warms.

A person observes their surroundings and becomes lost in the observations.

A group of children tells us about the good (and bad) experiences they have had with their neighbors.

A cool boy, stray cats, lots of carrots, and a crazy surprise!

An animated documentary that bridges the gap between research and neurodiverse everyday life. A curious, gentle hedgehog interviewer accompanies Gaura, an artist with ADHD traits. His voice opens a window to honest reflections on identity, creativity, and self-understanding. Warm and grounded, the film invites recognition beyond medical labels and diagnoses.

The four cheese cultures in Cheese Land are embroiled in a great war. When the temperature suddenly rises, the entire country is in danger of melting.

An abstract short.

An artist on the phone with a supposed Microsoft employee. She begins to talk - about heartbreak, emptiness, procrastination - and unwittingly becomes a scam-baiter.

What a beautiful day to watch the world fall apart. It feels like any other day. Waking up, cigarettes on the balcony. Two friends smoking together. Conversations about nothing, while, in the distance, an unknown chaos rises. What do they see?

Rhymed couplets express the irritation caused by an uninvited rat guest. Based on a book by Nadia Budde, this short humorously advocates for sharing space and time with others.

A sailor falls in love with a mermaid.

A young man feels lost in the modern, digital world before finding himself in a piece of clickbait.

Lily Besilly, wearing a lavender vest, shares a childhood memory from second grade in “Bernadette und Belfighor.” She and her friend, who played the dominant role, would meet at a construction site. Her friend, Princess Bernadette, crowned Lily as Princess Julia. Despite being dressed as a princess, Lily remained in shorts, indistinguishable from a boy. To escape the vampire Belfighor, they cut their palms to mix their blood, saving themselves. As they left hand in hand, Lily felt truly happy, though her hand still hurt. Cartoon characters Bernadette and Lily, holding hands, were depicted with Bernadette in a short green dress and Lily as a tomboy.

On a lonely full moon night, shadows, animal figures, and people gather in a room—a dreamlike narrative about a detective, murder, and victims.

The work deals with mutation and transformation and with the potentials of 'worldbuilding', the creation of digital, reality-expanding worlds. Visitors are taken on a tender journey into the womb of the pregnant post-human by physical and virtual performers.

A surreal political saga unfolds within the walls of Germany's most iconic police station. Reimagined in an alternative universe. A crew of journalists uncovers the station's peculiar secret: the so-called "butterfly trick" - the only means of escape.

Rushing through time from the limited space of the tram, we are presented a metaphor of how we pass through our lives - only limitedly affected by the significant events that affect us.

If you do business with the abyss that opens up in front of you, you do “abyssness”. But how long can this go on and at what price? Like every morning, a farmer enters his farm, but now a black hole opens up in the middle of it. Not only does his pistol shot echo in it, but all his garbage can also be disposed of in this way. He quickly makes money by accepting the garbage from the entire surrounding area.

Dracula's Diary belongs to the seldom seen genre of horror animations. It is a poetic cry against violence, exploitation and war. Done on a blackboard with chalks.

A German Film Award winning short animation.

In a park, the protagonist detaches from the world, rubbing off sense organs. They gradually regrow - sight, sound, touch, smell, taste - scaling from microcosmic levels to perceiving big scary reality. As their body regenerates slowly, they transform into a hybrid of the organic and the unknown, adapting to a future they can barely comprehend. Using charcoal, watercolor, ink, and microscope footage, the music video explores adaptation and the search for connection in uncertain times.

In the vast expanse of space dwell intelligent robotic humanoids known as Cyberpeople. One of them, a self-assured space ranger, risks his life to venture onto an unknown organic planet in search of an artifact. There, he encounters a fellow Cyberperson, and together they pursue their goal while battling for survival. However, as they approach their objective, their true intentions are revealed, along with the peril posed by the discovered artifact.

The author Maxwell Collins is travelling to his sister after an accident.

In a war zone, four-year-old FARAH and her brother RAMZY become friends with an enemy counterpart, SAMIR, turning the barren battlefield into a fantastical playground. Can the kids and the magic survive?