Self Portrait

AG Kurzfilm (the German Short Film Association) was founded in May 2002 as a representational and lobbying body for German short films. The members of this umbrella association for German short films are film schools and art academies, film festivals, short film distributors and distribution companies as well as publicly funded institutes in the film and cinema industry.

The association‘s ambition is to generally improve public awareness of German short films. In this regard the association functions both at home and abroad as a contact source for political bodies, the film industry, cinema businesses and festivals as well as a service centre for filmmakers, producers and institutes involved in short film. Since 2004, the German Short Film Association has represented German short film via, for instance, its seat on the administrative council of the FFA (Germany‘s main federal film funding body).

A major focus of the association‘s activities is the systematic and coordinated presentation of German short film abroad. Since the association became a shareholder of the restructured German Films Service + Marketing GmbH, short film now enjoys a more prominent position in the marketing and promotion of German film abroad. This includes, among others, processing and forwarding enquiries from foreign festivals for special German short film programmes, an information service for festival submissions and deadlines, publicising and recommending current productions to foreign programme curators and maintaining an extensive presence at the most important short film market in Clermont-Ferrand as well as at the International Film Festival Berlin. Working together with German Films, short films are selected as supporting films for features as well as for the short film programmes of the Festival of German Films screened abroad.

On the domestic level, this lobbying body for short film concentrates on tasks such as coordinating activities to improve the awareness of short films, networking and of course implementing individual projects with federal German or international aspects.

Among the important projects in this regard are the annual publication of the » German Short Films « catalogue with a selection of the 100 most interesting current German short films and an extensive service section on German short film, as well as the shortfilm.de short film portal operated in partnership with the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. This contains international themes and contributions, as well as news, information and dates on the wide-ranging German short film scene.

At the end of 2007, the German Short Film Association presented for the first time ever a magazine entitled » SHORT report « dedicated specifically to German short film. In an extensive review of 2007, the short film highlights of the year were appraised here. In addition the magazine also cast light on those short film issues currently under discussion, with contributions from a number of different viewpoints. The SHORT report is published in German and English so as to provide German short film with an even better forum in an international context. Furthermore, AG Kurzfilm supports German filmmakers with information on festival submissions and deadlines, facts on film funding and applications, grants to participate in foreign festivals as well as advice and information on marketing short films.