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As one of the leading film fests in Germany, the Hof International Film Festival has become well-established as a platform for young German directors and is widely regarded as important arena for discovering new talents, second only to Berlin. Of equal importance, however, are the independent movies from all over the world that make up roughly half the program consisting of 130 odd feature films, documentaries and shorts.

Usually, the directors themselves present the screenings; few want to miss out on the opportunity to discuss their film’s merits (or otherwise) with the German premiere audiences in person. Thorsten Schaumann has assumed responsibility for the artistic direction of the Hof International Film Festival, which he curated together with Linda Söffker and Alfred Holighaus in 2016 for the 50th edition of the festival.

Heinz Badewitz, the festival’s artistic director up to his untimely death in March 2016, was one of the pioneering initiators – it was due to his ties with the city of Hof that the first shorts program (which lasted all of 2½ hours) featuring his own productions as well as those of his co-film freaks was screened here way back in May 1967. This event went down in history as the First Hof Film Festival.

The legendary soccer match goes back to this matinee screening as well. Ever since, the FC Film World – festival staff and fans – has been playing the FC Hof International Film Festival, a selection of actors, directors and producers. In 1976, Brian de Palma was the first director to be honored with what has become the traditional retrospective; in this section, an internationally renowned director presents an overview of his work.