THREE NOMINATIONS FOR FABW
The twelve films nominated for the German Short Film Award 2025 have been announced. Out of a total of 230 submissions, three films by students from Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg were selected. The award ceremony will take place on November 20, 2025, in Hamburg at the Kulturfabrik Kampnagel.
In the category “Feature film with a running time of 15 to 30 minutes”, the student team of AT HOME I FEEL LIKE LEAVING can celebrate the nomination. The film is competing in the same category with another FABW production, among others: MAJINI.
In the category “Animated film up to 30 minutes in length,” the film DETLEV, produced at the Filmakademie's Animationsinstitut, made it into the preliminary selection.
In AT HOME I FEEL LIKE LEAVING (directed by Simon Maria Kubiena*, screenplay: Simon Maria Kubiena & Nicola Jakobi, producers: Fabian Leonhardt and Lena Zechner), a young woman returns to her remote home village in the foothills of the Alps after her father disappears in the forest. While the annual solstice fire is being prepared, she drifts through the day, torn between her responsibility for her infantile father and her longing for closeness and lightheartedness, which she experiences with a childhood friend.
In MAJINI (directed by Joshua Neubert & Victor Muhagachi, screenplay: Joshua Neubert, producers: Leon Harms*, Franziska Unger, Fabienne Sailer), thirteen-year-old Fari must overcome his fear of deep water and go out to sea with his older brother Danford to fish when their father falls ill. Afraid of coming home empty-handed, Danford steers the boat further and further out to sea. Alone on the open sea, the boys become entangled in an increasingly dangerous masquerade of masculinity.
In DETLEV (director and screenplay: Ferdinand Ehrhardt, producers: Saskia Stirn & Ferdinand Ehrhardt), a man in his forties who is always cold drives to a lonely gas station every evening and orders a microwave-heated Hawaiian toast. Detlev indulges in this bizarre ritual because it is the only thing that gives him warmth. However, when a stranger observes him one night, his world begins to fall apart.
The German Short Film Award is the most important and highest-endowed award for short films in Germany. It is presented every year in November by the Minister of State for Culture and Media.
With this award, the German government honours outstanding achievements in the field of short film. A total of 255,000 euros is awarded annually for nominations (15,000 euros each) and the film prizes in gold (30,000 euros each), as well as an additional 20,000 euros for the best medium-length film.
Further information is available at:
www.deutscher-kurzfilmpreis.de
*Simon Maria Kubiena and Leon Harms are scholarship holders of the foundation Baden-Württemberg Stiftung and participated in an international partner programme as part of their studies.