Country: Germany

Short

|

6 min

|

Melatonin

Melatonin

Marla fights a nocturnal battle against her intrusive thoughts that attack and harras her physically while her restles bed runs through the night under a pulsating, psychedelic sky.

Marla lies awake at night. She desperately tries to reach sleep, but the harder she tries, the further it slips away. Following the moon's enchanting flute melody, her bed begins to march through the night in rhythm with her own pulse, carried by her inner restlessness. Around her, her nocturnal demons manifest: small, twitching creatures born from her thoughts, multiplying and burrowing into her mind. Marla fights with all her might to capture, smother, or tear them apart. But the demons seem to delight in the struggle. A grotesque power play unfolds. The more intensely Marla fights, the faster her bed gallops through the night. The world around her grows more chaotic, more vibrant, more distorted - a psychedelic vortex of shapes, colors, and inner states. When the sun finally rises, the demons retreat. Marla has lost the night, but the storm subsides. Exhausted, she gazes at the sparkling sunrise, where for the first time, she senses a hint of calm.

Producer
Eliza Plocieniak-Alvarez
eliza@blauepampelmuse.com
Director
Gwenola Heck
hello@gwenheck.com

Target audience

Young Adults and Adults

Production company

Blaue Pampelmuse

Estimated budget

115 000

Funding secured

20 000 EUR - producers equity and deferrals (Germany)

Stage of the project

Development (existing script)

Feature

|

|

The Climbing Girl

The Climbing Girl

When a fearless girl from a city that has forgotten the Earth discovers a clue to her mother’s fate, she and her friends descend into the forbidden world below, finding hope, truth, and a reason to rise again.

In the floating city of Biovertika, 13-year-old Sina dreams of freedom and defying gravity. Raised by her father after her mother’s mysterious disappearance, she spends her days climbing the city’s endless towers with her best friend #Zu, daughter of a powerful VertiGo executive. When a damaged drone crashes into Sina’s room carrying a cryptic message ending in “.mom,” she becomes convinced her mother is alive - somewhere beneath the clouds. Together with #Zu and two unlikely allies, Ogassi, a blind tinkerer, and Kayl, a shy boy with a bionic arm, Sina sets out to uncover the truth. Their journey leads beyond the gleaming towers to the forbidden world below, where they discover that Biovertika’s survival depends on draining Earth’s last resources. A poetic, emotionally charged animated adventure about courage, friendship, and hope - reminding us that the future can only rise when we dare to look at our roots.

Producer
Christopher Zitterbart
c.zitterbart@watchmen.de
Director
Benjamin Quabeck
ben.quabeck@gmx.net

Animation technique

Digital 2.5D

Production company

Watchmen Productions

Estimated budget

9,000,000 EUR

Funding secured

FFA Treatment and Script funding, development equity 50.000€

Stage of the project

in development

Feature

|

90

|

Recordanza

Recordanza

Seeking a fresh beginning in Berlin, a young Syrian writer moves into an apartment, where the opening of a peculiar cabinet leads to the entanglement of different realities.

After moving to Berlin, young writer Milad finally finds a furnished apartment where he hopes to rebuild his life. But there’s one rule: a locked room he must never enter. When curiosity wins, he discovers a mysterious plate that reveals people and their stories when objects are placed upon it. As Milad explores the forbidden room, he unearths the apartment’s dark history and begins to experience surreal encounters with his parents, ex-girlfriend, and younger self. Reality and memory blur, and each use of the plate pulls him deeper into the lives of those who lived there before. What begins as a new start becomes a haunting struggle for freedom from the plate's curse. He wanted a place to start over — but instead, he becomes another chapter in the apartment’s unfinished story.

Producer
May Odeh
hello@mayana.film
Director and Scriptwriter
Jalal Maghout
jalalmaghout@gmail.com
Creative producer
Zorana Mušikić
zorana@mayana.film

Country of production

Germany, Palestine and Syria

Target audience

"Recordanza" will speak to a growing, transnational audience deeply engaged with themes of displacement, trauma, identity, and healing. Our core target audience consists of socially conscious, politically aware viewers between 20–35 years old, who are active on digital platforms, follow current global affairs, and are drawn to bold, thought-provoking cinema. Our secondary audience includes arthouse and festival-oriented viewers aged 25–55, who regularly attend international film events and seek out visually striking and emotionally complex films that explore underrepresented narratives.

Production company

Mayana Films

Estimated budget

3,966,395.00 EUR

Funding secured

Kuratorium junger deutscher Film Germany (Script Development Grant: EUR 25.000); Red Sea Film Fund Fund Saudi-Arabia (EUR 17.200)

Stage of the project

Development (existing script)

Feature

|

72 min.

|

Onno & Ontje – friends are the best present

Onno & Ontje - friends are the best present

"Onno and Ontje – Friends are the best present" is a heartwarming film for young children and families.

On a quiet island, fisherman Onno and his wife Olga’s peaceful life changes when playful otter Ontje arrives. As Christmas nears, chaos and a snowstorm threaten their holiday—but Ontje learns the true meaning of friendship and togetherness.

Producer
Eliza Plocieniak-Alvarez
eliza@blauepampelmuse.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

6-9 kids

Animation technique

3D (CGI), drawing

Production company

Blaue Pampelmuse

Stage of the project

in development

Looking for

Co-producer, Sales agent / distributor, Broadcaster, Animation studio

Short

|

7 min.

|

Two for Me, One for You

Zwei für mich, einen für Dich

When two people quarrel, a third rejoices

Nov

11

Wed 10:00

Short Films Pitching

The bear lady finds three delicious mushrooms in the forest on her way home. forest. Her friend, the weasel, immediately roasts them in the pan. But three mushrooms for two? How is that supposed to work?

Director’s statement
“Two for me, one for you” is based on an extraordinary children's book that has been translated into various languages and won several awards.

Who deserved the third mushroom more? What would have been fair?

Director
Jan Gadermann
jan.gadermann@posteo.de
Producer
Fabian Driehorst
fabian@fabianfred.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Pre-school (3-6)

Animation technique

Stop motion

Production company

Fabian&Fred

Estimated budget

180 000 EUR

Funding secured

30 000 EUR - FFA Film Fund; 50 000 EUR - MOIN Film Fund; 16 000 EUR - Fabian&Fred (own invest)

Stage of the project

Development (existing script)

Looking for

Co-producer, sales agent, distributor, broadcaster, puppet builder

TV series

|

10 x 10-12 min.

|

Electric Water

Electric Water

A 19-year-old returns to her Greek village, where a whale’s mysterious death and echoes of her past stir. As the two mysteries entwine, she’s pulled into secrets long hidden beneath the waves.

Nov

12

Thu 14:00

TV Series Pitching

Electric Water follows 19-year-old Thala as she returns to her father’s remote Greek village after months in Athens. Seeking calm, she instead discovers a Cuvier’s Beaked whale stranded on the shore. Thala tries to save it—but fails. Haunted by the encounter, she joins marine biologist Christina and her crew at sea. There, Thala uncovers a hidden crisis: military sonar, illegal fishing, and pollution are devastating marine life. Interwoven with her journey is the whale’s own story—an immersive dive into the deep, where disorienting soundscapes turn the ocean into a battlefield of sound for creatures who navigate by it. As Thala gets closer to the truth, she begins to feel her own life entangled with the ocean’s fate. Electric Water is a powerful coming-of-age mystery about the connection between humans and nature. It’s a story of discovery and awakening—and a reminder that what happens beneath the surface shapes us all.

Director’s statement
No matter where I’ve been, I’ve always felt at home by the sea. Growing up in Israel-Palestine, I witnessed how violence and militarism scar people, nature, and the Mediterranean. When reality felt too heavy, I found peace in the water. Electric Water explores the unseen depths of our oceans—Earth’s largest, most vital ecosystem—and the harm caused by human activity. Over the past three years, I’ve researched ocean noise, climate impact, and interspecies relationships, working closely with the Pelagos Cetacean Institute in Greece. The collaboration with Ana, Carl, and Pelagos—along with lived experience and deep research—led to the creation of this series. Blending 2D and stop-motion animation with magical realism, it invites us to reflect on our place in nature. It asks: which creature will we choose to be? With my extraordinary team, I believe Electric Water can challenge perception and ignite action—at sea and beyond.

Director and Producer
Gali Blay
gali@dsblay.co.il
Scriptwriter
Carl Gerber
johannescarl.gerber@gmail.com
Scriptwriter
Ana Bielak
Producer
Sina Dena
info@counterintuitivefilm.de
Producer
Alec Barth
post@alecbarth.de

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Teenagers, young adults and adults

Animation technique

2D (vector based), stop motion

Production company

Counterintuitive film

Estimated budget

3 000 000 EUR

Funding secured

12 000 EUR - Berlin Senate fund for women filmmakers for development (Germany), private donations

Stage of the project

We already have episodic treatment and the script of the pilot episode.

Looking for

Co-producer to do the stop motion animation, broadcaster and a distributor.

Student short

|

7 min.

|

Lunar Landscape

Lunar Landscape

A mystical, desolate modernity comes alive at night, through the growls and moans of its lonesome, wild inhabitants.

Nov

11

Wed 14:00

Student Films Pitching

Near the motorway, where the city ends and the country-side begins, three unlikely strangers share a moment of togetherness in the course of a peculiar night. A woman who spends her time working an unfulfilling job and works out at an all-night gym is confronted with her own loneliness while observing a couple in a hotel. A lone Fox, is forced to look for a safe place to raise her young on the other side of the highway. A couple in a failing relationship try to find intimacy in a hotel room besieged by insects from the nearby forest. They all sleeplessly wander the uncanny landscapes around the highway, before their stories mysteriously converge, meeting, in an eerily empty, traffic intersection, where they find a moment of rest on their journeys.

Director’s statement
As in my previous work, place is the central element in this film, specifically a liminal zone on the city's edge, built for transit rather than habitation, not quite urban or natural, it is unsuitable for the lives of humans and animals alike. The film observes the lonely inhabitants of this microcosm: a woman navigating sterile, consumption-driven spaces; a fox, a lone mother surviving in a man-made world; and a couple physically close yet emotionally distant. Each longs for something—intimacy, safety, connection— and the film contrasts their emotional journeys with the alien and impersonal surroundings they must navigate. By the end of the film none of the characters have reached the end of their journeys, but they find a moment of rest and connection in one another, while the landscape around them finally reveals an eerie beauty.

Director
Foivos Chalkiopoulos
foivos.chalkiopoulos@filmuniversitaet.de
Producer
Louis Kaiser

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Adults

Animation technique

Drawing

Production company

Filmuniversity Babelsberg Konrad Wolf

Estimated budget

3 000 EUR

Funding secured

3000 EUR - Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Germany

Stage of the project

Production

Looking for

Sales agent, distributor, broadcaster, festival representative

Short

|

7 min.

|

Two for me, one for you

Zwei für mich, einen für Dich

The bear lady finds three delicious mushrooms in the forest on her way home. The Weasel immediately stews them in the pan. But three mushrooms for two? How is that supposed to work?

After the bear lady has found three delicious mushrooms in the forest, her friend the weasel stews them immediately. But then the two have a problem: three mushrooms for two? How is that supposed to work? Both come up with one argument after another as to why one should get more than the other. They are so busy arguing that they only realize too late that the clever vixen turns the corner and simply grabs a mushroom and eats it straight away. This solves the problem and peace returns. If only the weasel didn't have another dessert: three wild berries.

Director’s statement
“Two for me, one for you” is an extraordinary book that has been published in several languages and has won several awards. It has also been performed as a play in Germany and Austria.

The story remains in the memory and raises questions for young and old: Who deserved the third mushroom more? What would have been fair? An exciting topic that also encourages reflection and discussion thanks to its topical references.

For the stop-motion animation, the characters are designed as felt puppets to create a rich and warm atmosphere and bring the drawings into a three-dimensional world to be explored.

Director

Jan Gadermann


Producer
Fabian Driehorst
fabian@fabianfred.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

pre-school

Animation technique

stop-motion

Production company

Fabian&Fred

Stage of the project

in development

Looking for

Co-producer, Sales agent / distributor, Broadcaster, Animation studio

Short

|

15 min.

|

Daylight

Tageslicht

Lolly tries to piece together her experiences as a call girl. Through conversations with sex workers, she gains new perspectives on desire, coercion and her own past.

Lolly, a shy woman fascinated by brothels, wanders tirelessly from one sex club to the next, trying to collect stories from others. In her efforts to strike up conversations with pimps and sex workers, she is tempted to put her own skin in the game. The film moves between past and present, weaving together conversations with sex workers, Lolly's own memories of a paid sex date and a job interview that leads her to consider working in a sex club herself. As the stories unfold, the movie invites the audience to ask themselves the question: If the thing that makes you feel alive is also the thing that could destroy you, would you run away from it or walk towards it? A series of glimpses, always too brief, that capture the beauty and horror of what tries to stay out of sight at all costs.

Director’s statement
Two years ago, I started researching brothels. I spoke to about 15 women, and each one told me parts of their story, often in a light-hearted, humorous way. When I shared my own experiences, they laughed – with an empathy and understanding that I had never experienced before.

Without judgment or conclusion, “Daylight” leaves the audience to contemplate the complex web of empowerment, vulnerability, exploitation and hope.

Director
Ayala Shoshana Guy
ayala.guy@gmail.com
Producer
Fabian Driehorst
fabian@fabianfred.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Young adults, adults

Animation technique

2D (vector based), drawing

Production company

Fabian&Fred

Stage of the project

in development

Looking for

Co-producer, Sales agent / distributor, Broadcaster

TV series

|

7 x 7 min.

|

Libby’s Wind Journey

Libbys Windreise

One day, Libby decides to leave her familiar life behind and embark on an eternal journey in search of freedom and a sense of home, guided by the "Wind of Change."

The story follows Libby, an adventurous, curious, and sometimes stubborn character, as she leaves behind her monotonous life in a small village. She bravely leaps into the "Wind of Change" and embarks on a journey filled with magical encounters and inner growth. A key companion on her journey is a quirky little house on wheels that Libby meets along the way. Their relationship is marked by conflicts, challenges, and mutual support. The house becomes a symbol of responsibility and attachment as Libby focuses on her inner quest.

Director’s statement
"Libby's Wind Journey" is an animated mini-series (7 episodes, each 7 minutes long) that poetically and whimsically explores themes like freedom, responsibility, and the search for an inner home.
The series combines a calm narrative style with surreal elements. The visual language weaves everyday life with a touch of myth and fantasy. The story raises universal questions about identity, relationships, and change.

Director

Alica Khaet


Producer
Eliza Plocieniak-Alvarez
eliza@blauepampelmuse.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Teenager and young adults

Animation technique

Drawing

Production company

Blaue Pampelmuse

Stage of the project

in development

Looking for

Co-producer, Broadcaster, Animation studio

TV series

|

13 x 4 min.

|

Kito & Maja

“Kito & Maja” is a 13-episode animated series, with each 4-minute episode focusing on a different character from Lusatian legends and fairy tales.

When young siblings Kito (4) and Maja (6) visit their Grandma Dora’s old, creaky house, they find a mysterious wooden box hidden in the attic. Inside, glowing dream globes await, each one unlocking a different Sorbian legend.

Director’s statement
Throughout each adventure, Kito and Maja transform into the legendary creatures of the tales. Just like in the classic French series Il était une fois… la vie, they take on the roles of the story’s main characters: Maja becomes the money-bringing Dragon or the eerie Midday Woman, while Kito becomes the friendly wizard Pumphut or the small Devil, among others.

Each story is filled with magic, wonder, and humor, as the mythical creatures behave just like children. This fresh approach helps bring the legends closer to young audiences, making them both fun and relatable.

Director
Eliza Plocieniak-Alvarez
eliza@blauepampelmuse.com
Producer
Carol Leander Ratajczak
carol@blauepampelmuse.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Preschool

Animation technique

2D (vector based), 3D (CGI)

Production company

Blaue Pampelmuse

Stage of the project

in post-production

Looking for

Sales agent / distributor, Broadcaster, Festival representative

TV series

|

190

|

Whorytale

Whorytale

Two young women find themselves on the frontlines in the battle against patriarchy. An empowering animated series for adult and young adult audiences with adventure, dark humor and horror.

Milla and Kalla, two women in their twenties, go into sex work and are visited by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and sexuality. As they gain control over their lives and livelihoods, the barrier between the natural and supernatural worlds begins to break, and Milla and Kalla are faced with the forces of patriarchy who cannot allow a world where women make their own choices to emerge. When Milla becomes pregnant and Kalla disappears mysteriously, a final battle looms between the forces of a new and better world, and a misogynistic backwards looking past.

Director’s statement
Amor omnia vincit? Ours is a story of young women who hit a wall when trying to live the life that has been preordained for them. They find that the biggest obstacle to living a good or even a decent life are patriarchal structures with all kinds of hierarchies and concepts of property and ownership.

The novel Huorasatu was published in 2011. It was at least a decade ahead of its time, but still caused quite a splash in the Finnish book scene. It was nominated for the Finlandia prize, greatest literary honor in the country, and then promptly disappeared from the scene, and from the shelves of all but the most underground bookstores. There was an obvious attempt at silencing, that kind of worked – for a while – but no secrets stay buried. Between university students, gender politics enthusiasts, lovers of progressive genre literature, word of mouth kept building; have you read it? Can I borrow it?

Director

Sipola Oskari


oskari@welhofilmi.fi
Producer

Frank Lenhard


frank.lenhard@pixablestudios.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Adults

Animation technique

3D, performance capture, real time engine rendering

Production company

pixablestudios | mastersolution AG

Stage of the project

in development

Looking for

Co-producer, Sales agent / distributor, Broadcaster, Animation studio, Animator(s), Sound designer

TV series

|

8 x 22

|

Goodbye Closet

Tschüss Schrank

When Berta unwillingly inherits a bar 'Schrank,', she discovers that once its regulars confront their secrets, they leave the bar for good -Berta hatches a plan to help them all come out of their own closets—so she can finally close the bar forever and free herself from its burden.

When Berta’s mother retires from running the family’s quirky bar, ‘Schrank,’ she hands it off to her daughter—much to Berta's dismay. Berta has always hated the place, especially the strange, secretive regulars. The one rule? Never engage with the clients. Easy enough, especially since the bar itself, which seems to have a mind of its own, discourages it. But when boredom kicks in, Berta starts chatting with the patrons and discovers that by helping them confront their secrets, they leave for good. Seeing a chance to finally be free, she devises a plan to push every customer to face the truth and close the bar for good. With eccentric regulars, a sentient bar, and a reluctant heroine trying to escape it all, Schrank is a sitcom about secrets, strange customers, and one woman’s quest to shut it down—one confession at a time.

Director
Zohar Dvir
1zohardvir@gmail.com
Producer
Fabian Driehorst
fabian@fabianfred.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

young adults

Production company

Fabian&Fred

Estimated budget

2.500.000 Euro

Funding secured

74.000 Euro, Regional Filmfund Hamburg, MOIN

TV series

|

26x6 min.

|

A Whale, a Submarine and the Sound in Between

A whale, a submarine and the sound in between

The first episode follows a Cuvier’s beaked whale in the Hellenic trench as sonar from anti-submarine warfare drills invade.

A Whale, a Submarine and the Sound in Between creatively explores a world rarely seen – the ocean. The ocean makes up 99% of the space where life can develop and is our largest habitat. My short makes seen the unseen to illustrate the dangerous impact us surface-dwellers can have in our own search for safety. We start in the dark of the ocean, a world that becomes illuminated to us through the clicks and song of our whale: a lush landscape of green plants in white sand and coral reefs filled with fish and other ocean-life. When the Homeland Security boats’ sonar goes off, it disorients the whale, literally. While we cannot see sonar, echolocating is exactly how the whales see, navigate, and hunt in their world.

Director’s statement
Ever since I was a kid I always felt at home in the ocean, no matter where I was in the world. If I was next to or in the ocean, I felt at home in my heart. Noise pollution is a silent killer and not very many people know this is happening, or when they read about a beached whale they don’t know why it happened.
In A Whale, a Submarine and the Sound in Between, I question “How far are we willing to go in order to feel safe?” when the effects of our military maritime drills and tactics drive whales to beach themselves at a rate of about 2,000 whales per year worldwide.
I know that the military wants to keep us safe, but we are putting other living beings at risk. Through the magic of animation and the impact of storytelling, I hope to shed light on the whales’ plight and help people “see” this world through the whales’ eyes.

Director

Gali Blay


gali@dsblay.co.il
Producer

Sina Ataeian


sina.ataeian@gmail.com

Country of production

Germany

Animation technique

Drawing, stop-motion

Production company

Counterintuitive film

Stage of the project

in development

Looking for

Co-producer, Sales agent / distributor, Broadcaster

Short

|

7 min.

|

Ant

Ant

Lyonel is having a terrible time; he's pretty sure he's invisible to his scout group. As he watches ants in a line on a tree, effortlessly belonging, he wonders what they know that he doesn't.

Nov

17

Tue 10:00

Short Films Pitching

Ten-year-old Lyonel hates everything about this trip. He hates the constant rain, the slugs they have in their shoes in the morning, the boring scout food that he hasn't even tried yet. And yes, even the other kids, to whom he seems invisible anyway. Pretending to have a stomach ache doesn't protect him. The thick wall he built around himself becomes thin as the transparent raincoat he is wearing. When a girl approaches him and asks if he is homesick, he bursts into tears and confesses he wants to return home. At that moment, the group starts taking care of Lyonel. The other kids even turn out to be quite nice! By the time he realizes that he might want to stay, it's already too late. Arrangements are being made for his departure, and soon he finds himself alone on the way home.

Director’s statement
With this film, I want to invite to reflect on how we can find a sense of belonging and resilience through embracing vulnerability. We all know the feeling of not quite fitting in. To be part of a community is one of our fundamental needs. At Lyonel’s age, I was a scout myself, facing similar challenges. Once, I pretended to be sick to take the bus home because in fact I didn’t connect to the group. In moments of struggle, recognizing and naming our feelings can be incredibly helpful. These are skills that are not self-evident, they require learning. Like especially many men of my generation, I learned this late, and still struggle with it today. I aim to “zoom in” on my protagonist and open his emotional world to the audience as unfiltered as possible: his sadness, his yearning for warmth and belonging, and his confusion. Just when he believes he's gained clarity, he realizes the situation has silently shifted again. These are moments of growth, of coming of age, in small (ant) steps.

Director, Producer and Scriptwriter
Jonatan Schwenk
jonatan.schwenk@gmail.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Adults 10+, all genders

Animation technique

Drawing, puppeteering, stop motion

Production company

Jonatan Schwenk

Estimated budget

250 000 EUR

Funding secured

FFA (DE) 19 138 EUR (Project development) FFA "Short Tiger Award" (DE) 5 000 EUR (Pre-Production) FFA (DE) 34.518 EUR (Production)

Stage of the project

development (existing script)

Looking for

Animator, (co)producer, broadcaster, international sales, character designer, puppeteers, puppeet maker

Houston?

Houston?

A man stranded and isolated on a space station dwells in a nostalgic 1950s fantasy to escape his gloomy reality. A mysterious signal from outside interrupts his solacing monotony.

Joe is left stranded alone on an old run down space station, one of many orbiting the once blue planet. All his attempts to reach the base in Houston or the other stations has been met with static noise. In an effort to escape his loneliness and the fear of his inevitable doom he finds comfort in a collection of picture ads from the 50s. Joe spends his days busying himself with cooking, cleaning, and doing that what he imagines a housewife in the 50s would have done, anything to drown out the constant howling and screeching of the dying station. One day the neighboring station crashes into the atmosphere, revealing a string of stations in the distance who will all be sharing the same fate. Then suddenly he sees a blinking light coming from one of the now revealed stations. A signal! Joe struggles to decipher the message but it makes no sense to him. So, he is left with a choice; go back to his comfortable 50s room or risk everything and attempt to reach the station.

Director’s statement
It all started one summer night with a mysterious light from the sea. Then came Joe's small voice, "Houston, can you hear me?" It was a quiet whisper on the wind, but I did hear him. That night I started writing Joe's story, but it wasn't until writing this that I realized that it was my story.
"Houston?" is about exploring aloneness and the fear of the passing time, that makes us flee and hide in our fantasy through contrasts. The main conflict in the story is the need for action, the station is crumbling and Joe needs a way out, and the inability to do so, because of overwhelming fear. I want this theme of contrasts and opposing ideas to shine through all layers of the film. This transfers to the visual and sound plane, with a play between 16mm and digital images, and silence and noise respectively.
We have all stranded parts of ourselves at one point or another, and I am excited to finally answer Joe's call.

Director

Carina Zidan


carina.zidan@gmail.com
Director

Louis Brückner


Target audience

young adults / adults

Animation technique

stop-motion

Stage of the project

in development

Looking for

Producer, Co-producer, Animation studio

Short

|

14 min.

|

The Heaviness of Absence

The Heaviness of Absence

In the midst of war-torn Damascus, a distressed young man tries to discover the fate of his arrested father. However, his search plunges him into a web of corruption, in which his own survival is at stake and he must sacrifice his own flesh.

Nov

11

Wed 10:00

Short Films Pitching

Zakaria, a 21-year-old student of English literature in war-torn Damascus, struggles to survive in the midst of a devastating economic situation. He battles each day just to keep his spirits up, but his mind is consumed by the horrors of the war and the uncertainty of his future. When his father, a prominent journalist named Youssef, is suddenly arrested by the secret police, Zakaria's world is turned upside down. Desperate to discover his father's fate, Zakaria embarks on a dangerous journey that introduces him to a corrupt network of individuals who can help him secure his father's release. Along the way, he meets a taxi driver who offers his assistance, but at a steep price. Zakaria decides to sell his kidney to pay for the deal, but wakes up from the surgery to learn that he has no kidneys! The doctor explains to him that he is in fact completely empty from the inside out. Zakaria is left alone with his fate. The thought that he too could be arrested torments him and he gradually sinks into his fear and loneliness.

Director’s statement
"The Heaviness of Absence" is a psychodrama that seeks alternative approaches to the subject of the Syrian war--in particular, the phenomenon of missing people. Since the beginning of the war in 2011, more than 150 thousand people have disappeared, most likely arrested by the secret police and other war parties. Their families don't know about their destinies, if they are alive or not.
The film tells the story of one of those absent people, through his son, Zakaria, whose world is turned upside down when his father disappears.

Director
Jalal Maghout
jalalmaghout@gmail.com
Producer
Karsten Matern
karstenmatern@gmx.de

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Young adults and adults of any gender

Animation technique

2D and 3D animation

Production company

Wait-a-Second!

Estimated budget

110,000

Funding secured

12,000

Stage of the project

In development

Looking for

Co-producer, Sales agent / distributor, Animation studio, Post-production studio, Animator(s), Sound designer

Student / Rising Stars

|

8-10 min.

|

My Grandmother Is a Skydiver

My Grandmother is a Skydiver

My grandmother plants Tulips in the garden while Kharkiv is constantly being bombed. She complains that the bees don't pollinate her flowers, so there will be no fruits in summer.

Nov

11

Wed 14:00

Rising Stars Pitching

A granddaughter experiencing the invasion of Ukraine reflects about past generations, who were constantly going through deportations, different forms of wars and genocides. She has a phone call with her young grandmother Alfiya, who is currently living her best and peaceful years in Soviet Central Asia, by actively doing parachuting and studying midwifery. In this reflective space, the granddaughter tries to define her ethnic identity, break the endless circle of generational trauma and reflect about the purpose of human life.

Director’s statement
The research for the project began in early 2022, when I became interested in the life of my grandmother as a progressive woman, who comes from Central Asia.
After the start of the full scale invasion, the story got deeper subtext. The aggressor country colonized the lands of Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asia. Many cultures, languages and ethnic groups were erased. Although the terror continues, all these topics remain marginalized. The film doesn’t consist of political statements, but through the personal story built on poetic images of skydiving and birth, the dialogue between granddaughter and grandmother, usage of various languages in the narrative - we move to the global catarsis, overcome the generational trauma, decolonize and unlearn.

Director
Polina Piddubna
polina.piddubna@yahoo.com

Country of production

Ukraine / Germany

Target audience

Adults

Animation technique

2D (vector based) and Drawing

Production company

Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf

Estimated budget

EUR 50 000

Stage of the project

In production

Looking for

Co-producer, Sales agent / distributor, Broadcaster, Festival representative, Animator(s), Music Composer

26 x 5:30

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My name is…

My name is...

An animated series for preschool children on how to deal with emotions.

Nov

04

Wed 16:30

Out of competition

It’s not easy for Fear or for Shame when everyone avoids them or finds them embarrassing! That’s why they stand in front of the camera to show how helpful they can be. Cute funny monsters want to present themselves in front of the camera from their best side. There is just one big problem - the emotions overemphasize sometimes and that gets them into trouble. But luckily, at the end of each episode, they learn to calm down with the help of some useful self-regulation exercises. And they manage to show that they are actually very, very useful. Maybe even a kind of a superpower?! One more thing: emotions want to be very pedagogical. BUT they are not professional filmmakers, so the short episodes are full of humour and adventures!

Director’s statement
We all have emotions. Emotions are good, normal and useful. They tell us about our needs, give us energy to act or help us to withdraw ourselves when necessary. You just need to learn to listen to them and cope with them. Why is it important for both children and adults to understand and recognise their emotions? Recognising your emotions and learning to manage them is one of the most important developmental steps. Emotions are necessary for us to behave rationally. Scientists show that it is thanks to them that we can choose and act more wisely. Emotional intelligence, or the ability to recognise and name both our own emotions and those felt by others, is considered so important that it is taught in schools and at companies. Our actions often stem from the emotions we experience. By understanding emotions we can more consciously guide our actions. “To be able to talk about our emotions, we must learn to recognise them. Otherwise they will lead us around by the nose. We should never be ashamed of them or laugh at them because they are part of our personality and intelligence.” Catherine Dolto

Director
Eliza Plocieniak-Alvarez
eliza@blauepampelmuse.com
Producer
Carol Leander Ratajczak
carol@blauepampelmuse.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

children 4-6

Animation technique

3D, CGI, Collage

Production company

Blaue Pampelmuse

TV special

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26′

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Grandma’s Pond

As Chloe, 12, is supposed to take care of her little brother, he disappears. The young girl and her grandma go looking for him on a mysterious island.

Chloe, a sensitive teenager, Emil, her mischievous 6-year-old brother, and their mom Rose are at Grandma’s for the summer. Mom is very serious, Grandma is childish. They don’t get on. The old lady entertains the kids by talking about an imaginary island on the pond behind the house, but Mom doesn’t like these tales. She especially thinks Chloe is too old for such stories, and that it’s time for her to grow up. Chloe is torn between Grandma and Mom: stay a child or become a grown-up? One afternoon, as her mother has asked her to take care of her little brother, he disappears. Chloe panics. Grandma is convinced Emil has been kidnapped by a creature of the Island. Chloe and Grandma sneak away from Mom and travel to the island – Chloe realizes it really exists! There, Chloe must find her little brother, using her imagination and maturity at the same time. She will understand one can grow up and still be a child at heart. She’ll show it to her mom and Grandma, and reconcile them.

Director’s statement
I grew up in a big family. I learned everything from them. I inherited their values, their traditions and also the ones from their parents and grandparents. Like plenty of other friends, though, I also have family members who don’t get along. Who quarrel about conflicts from the past, conflicts that seemingly can’t be solved. Suddenly, there seems to be a break, a wall. And a new generation that might not have access to the heritage of traditions, tales and knowledge. I want to make a film about family. About transmission, about reconciliation and growing up. A film about kids exploring an old world of tales and myths that is almost lost. I am very much influenced by the eerie and poetic stories by Neil Gaiman, like The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Director and Producer

Friedrich Schäper
friedrich@studiohuckepack.de
Director

Ivan Zuber
Scriptwriter

Anastasia Heinzl


anastasia.heinzl@gmail.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

children aged 6–11, family

Animation technique

2D vector based

Production company

Studio Huckepack

Co-production company

Laïdak

Short

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12′

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Second Hand War

Second Hand War

Bitter pills and rumour mills: This animated doc seeks out traces of the women who lived and loved, struggled and resisted in a small Czechoslovak town in WWII.

Nov

04

Wed 10:00

Short Films pitching session

Třeboň, Occupied Czechoslovakia: a German soldier comes every day, pointing a gun at a mother and demanding milk, bread and butter; a young girl watches as the four thousand German soldiers camping behind her house are replaced by as many Soviet soldiers; a little girl pretends to be a mannequin in her grandmother’s shop to hide from SS officers; a high school student helps her friend sew a Jewish star on her coat and take her first steps wearing it in public.These are some of the extraordinary tales of “ordinary” women from a small Czech town during World War Two. The animated short documentary “Second Hand War” (wt) foregrounds wartime snapshots that didn’t make it to the history books, focussing on women’s experiences. The version of history portrayed is fragmentary and contradictory, combining first-hand accounts and gossip passed down through the generations, privileging the fragile poetry of human subjectivity over verifiable facts. Fragments of personal connections to this period of history are pieced together to create a subtle overview of daily life under occupation and what it meant to be a woman at that time, while at the same time revealing the gaps in our collective memory.

Director’s statement
We developed the idea for this film while working on our previous shorts “Black&White” and “All Her Dying Lovers”, which are what first brought us to Trebon. We went to research a scandalous urban legend about a nurse from WWII, but during the interviews people kept telling us other stories about women from that time. We were really struck by how rarely we hear about the “female” side of history, and how everyday experiences and struggles get overshadowed by battles and tanks. We were captivated by what we heard, and thought those tales also deserved to be told. We believe history is always a current subject, and recently it has taken on a particular relevance as arguments over who gets to write history and what should be preserved are raging through social media. Although our focus is specifically feminist, we feel that our film will also speak to these wider debates, and that the combination of oral history and expressive animation is the perfect format for it.

Director
Anna Benner
annabenner@gmail.com
Director
Eluned Zoe Aiano
e.z.aiano@gmail.com
Producer
Natalia Imaz
imaz@parabellumfilm.de
Producer
Jakub Pinkava

Country of production

Germany, Czech Republic

Target audience

adults

Animation technique

drawing, rotoscoping

Production company

parabellum film Punk film

Co-production company

Estimated budget

122,605.00 €

Funding secured

Renovabis Research Grant (Award East-West-Talent-Lab at goEast Film Festival 2021), €3500, Germany Referenzförderung FFA Germany, automatic funding estimated €7275 Producers' Investment (cash, in-kind, deferrals), €7000, Germany/Czech Republic

Student / Rising Stars

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7′

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The Chicken’s Calling

(Working Title)

A school bully appears to be attacked by gigantic chickens at school, forcing the child to get to the root of its anger and face its grief.

Nov

04

Wed 13:30

Rising Stars pitching session

The whole film is from the POV of a schoolchild, a bully. Pupils get pushed, things kicked. As the pupils start to defend themselves, the child perceives them as huge chickens. Eventually the child is surrounded by angry attacking chickens. The child panics and runs away. He flees into his mind, to a time where he was friends with a baby chick. The memory of the loss of the chick appears in his mind. The child is in a deep state of grief. His sorrow turns into anger and he takes it out on everyone in school. The situation escalates. Imagination and reality fuse together, leading to a point where the child hurts a pupil. Chaos erupts and the child gets pulled away and separated. Awaiting punishment, the child interacts with a small bird, who smashed into the window. Hesitating to let the bird lose, the child starts to come to terms with his trauma. Pecking chickens in the yard are no longer attacking the child, nor even taking notice of him. Finally the child decides to let the bird fly away.

Director’s statement
I love first-perspective novels. They fascinate me and pull me into the story, making me really feel the emotions the narrator has. I feel I am the character. Films usually show the third-person-perspective, since you fully see the characters act. I want a first-person narrative. I want the audience to really be in the film, to give a view of the world that is similar to the way it is in gaming. Thus, all happens from the main character’s POV. At first, the story was supposed to show the perspective of a bullied child. While researching, I realized that no-one is mean without reasons, yet those are rarely investigated. The bully gets punished for his actions and not asked why. So I decided to swap the perspective to the mean kid. I don’t want to justify rude behavior, but show that it may be worth taking the time to dig deeper and start finding the true issue.

Director and Scriptwriter
Rebecca Osterberg
hallo@rebecca-osterberg.de

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

adults

Animation technique

stop motion

Production company

Hochschule Wismar

Estimated budget

5000

Feature

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80 min.

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The Island of Salamanders

The Island of Salamanders

Washed up on a wild island with her father, a businessman at large, 10 year old Juliet meets an astonishing giant salamander.

Nov

05

Thu 13:30

Feature Films pitching session

Washed up on a wild island with her father, businessman at large, 10 year old Juliet meets an astonishing giant salamander. The animal and its fellows have been vegetating on the nearby small island surrounded by sharks. The girl and the beast become friends. However the old Pramana warned her: if the salamanders are freed, they will invade the world …

Director’s statement
The Czech writer Karel Capek (1890-1938), a true visionary, the man who invented the word robot, imagined how things could go off the rails almost one century ago. And here we are now. His unclassifiable novel masterpiece, War with the Newts (1936), depicts our world as it has actually become today - on the verge of ruin. We have extracted the essence out of this literary monument dealing with political, economical, geographical, scientific, cultural issues, and have created an original story with it. Its narrative, its structure and all the characters have all been invented. We have developed them into one single present-day setting. It is a story we want to tell from the point of view of a 10 year old child, with her energy, her enthusiasm and her hope - so typical of her age. It is a family film. It should talk to children and to the child we still hold inside of ourselves.

Director and Scriptwriter
Catherine Maximoff
contact@lescontesmodernes.fr
Producer
Patrice Nezan
contact@lescontesmodernes.fr

Country of production

France

Target audience

8-12 years old & family

Animation technique

Unreal Engine, 3D with a 2D render

Production company

LES CONTES MODERNES Artichoke Fabian&Fred

Estimated budget

5.000.000

Funding secured

Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, development, France

XR

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10'

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Swarm

Schwarm

Immersive mockumentary about migratory birds after climate change.

Apr

28

Tue 11:30

XR Pitching Session

Springtime in Europe. We are joining a flock of small birds on their dangerous migration to the South.

Director’s statement
Humor and awareness for the planet we inhabit. Those are the two values I wish for to be spread into the world.

Director

Maarten Isaäk de Heer
maarten@maartenisaakdeheer.com
Producer

Evelyn Brancard
brancard@berlin.de

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

all audiences

Animation technique

VR animation with photogrammetry

Production company

Menetekel Film

Looking for

co-producer, financing, sales agents, festivals, visibility

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CEE Animation is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and co-funded by state funds and foundations and professional organisations from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

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