The PROVINZIALE turns 18! We look ahead to the popular film festival in Eberswalde that will take place in October 2021.
A look ahead to the festival at Haus Schwärzetal from 9 to 16 October
Do you enjoy watching short feature films? These small works of art can tell a great story, unfold a personal tragedy or make an unexpected point in just ten minutes.
Do you like documentaries? They often reveal parts of the world you were unaware of so far. You get to know people and their fates, their work, the controversies they‘re in, their hopes and struggles.
And how about animated films? They come in unparalleled variety for both children and adults, and they can be humourous or sad, angry, witty, curious and surprising.
The Eberswalde Film Festival carries all three genres and has been an international competition right from the start. In 2021, it‘s going to take place for the 18th time. From a total of 619 submissions from 63 countries, the organisers have compiled a programme of 36 entries from 16 countries such as the US, Ukraine, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, the Netherlands, Nepal, Italy, Iraq, France, Colombia, Bulgaria, Austria, Albania and, of course, Germany.
Our festival revolves around a theme – the province. Coming, going and staying as well as issues of rural life and resource management play a special role in the films. The world often looks different when viewed from a provincial standpoint. That‘s because provinces are inhabited by people who have developed ties to their land and fellow residents. In our mobile society, that is close to being something extraordinary and, in any case, something which is often neglected in our major debates.
The Provinziale is a festival for the audience. It is true that film folk will be present, and many directors will introduce their works personally, but above all, our invitation goes out to the people from our region to meet, watch films together and rate them. This corresponds with the changes we have made to the awards system. There will be audience awards in all four competitions (long documentary, short documentary, short feature film and animated film) but only one jury award, named DER STACHEL, to honour the most successful cinematic commitment to sustainability issues. The jury, regionally sourced, features Dr Jan König, Head of the Economy and Social Department of the municipality of Eberswalde, Tobias Hartmann from the Altranft Oderbruch Museum and Christian Vahrson of the Kreiswerke Barnim utility company.
The Gateway to the Province, which has been designed by regional artists for many years, will be in the responsibility of Sabine Eggeling at this year‘s festival. On a background of black gauze, she has mounted thousands of DVD copies of submissions to the festival from all its history, which will thus be shown again before they start their journey to the recycling plant – a good example for the cascading use of resources.
This year‘s poster theme and the corresponding media design concept devised by Katja Lösche are inspired by the world of cross-stitch embroidery, bringing together tradition and digitalisation and giving the festival a very unusual visual identity.
By the way, the 2021 Provinziale will be an open-air event. This may seem a bold and unusual proposition in the month of October. It is indeed a bit risky, but we are faced with an official admission protocol for indoor public events which may be tightened at any time, and we don‘t want to check our visitors‘ vaccination status health-authority style. We want to remain focused on culture. So please wrap yourself up well, and we will supply blankets and fire bowls.
And, above all, welcome to the festival.
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2021