The LICHTER Film Festival Frankfurt International is a celebration of and for film. Carried by a high-quality regional as well as international programme, it shines a light on the facets of film art that too often miss out in the everyday of cinema and television.
LICHTER was born from the local film scene. Founded in 2008 by a group of filmmakers and film fans, it has developed from an event for a few from a pledged community in a homemade cinema housed in a studio, to an integral part of the (supra-)regional culture. The success proves those in action right. In 2017, LICHTER celebrated its 10th anniversary and proved once more how big the region’s need is to bring them, the audience, the creatives and guests from all over the world together.
The festival programme doesn’t just want to entertain. Every year, the curators are making efforts in combining cinema and discourse. Next to the regional short- and long film competition, giving a space to the diverse filmmaking of the region, is the international programme running on a theme that changes yearly. This theme captivates for more than its topicality, it also points toward socio-political questions to follow and continue debates outside of the film theatre. LICHTER already took on the themes “City”, “Revolution”, “Humour”, “Money” and “Truth”. Last year, the 11th edition of the festival revolved all around “Chaos”.
At the interface of film and other artistic disciplines
Following this, it seems even more important searching and supporting for an interface with other cultural institutions and artistic disciplines. The bridge between film, artistic means of expression and social dialogue makes LICHTER unique within German film festivals. Notable partners like the German Film museum or our partner cinema Mal Seh’n are not just venues, institutions such as the Cluster of Excellence Normative Orders of the Goethe University especially add to the content-related design of the extensive accompanying programme: In numerous workshops and discussions we question the socio-political explosive force of the yearly theme in a number of different ways. Meanwhile, the LICHTER ART AWARD launched in 2010 focuses closely on the field of video art and its current developments and directions on regional and international levels, while last-but-not-least the VR Storytelling Competition first launched in 2017 dedicates itself to the varieties of alternative realities.
Searching out the discourse
Beyond festival time, LICHTER adds to the cultural life of Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region significantly in a variety of formats like the open-air cinema Frankfurt, film and lecture series and other artistic happenings in the public space. In 2018, the newly initiated category “Zukunft Deutscher Film” (Future German Film) also purposefully thinks beyond the borders of Hesse. The Initiative and Congress are dedicated to German filmmaking generally and specially and set the objective to work closely with influencers, agitators and relevant institutions in the field of film to reinforce the relevance of German cinematic art across the borders of the FRG.
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