Mo & Friese Kid’s Short film Festival celebrated its 15th year anniversary
by Shelly Schoeneshoefer

The Festival included 10 different sections of films plus workshops where the children could participate and learn more about making films. I had the opportunity to see several films and was surprised that the films came from twenty - two countries although most of them were German. Many of the directors were the kids themselves as well as being coordinated by a classroom teacher or a school. There were animations, documentaries or even dramas. One of the sections I was most impressed with was “Gib Mir Fünf! Mut Tut Gut” or in English The High Five category where the focus is on children filmmakers and the slogan is Be Bold, Be Brave. This section is a competition where the children are supposed to make the films themselves and are to be under the age of 14 years of age.

Each year a new theme is announced and the kids have to get to work. It was amazing to see how many good films were made. What I like the most was that the awards were given to films strictly made by kids and you could see the difference between a child’s point of view and adults. First Place went to a fourteen - year - old girl Margareta Kosmol who borrowed her sister \' s Christmas present, a camera, and made an amazing documentary in Armenia called Netze (Nets)The film was so mature that the jury wanted to see proof that she was indeed under the age of fourteen. The second film was Echlappe´ by Moritz Misa and Nick Hempel which examined the moment a boy runs away from home and what were his options. The third film was a family production plus one friend who created a clay animation on a figure named Vernon. The kids ranged from thirteen down to 4 years old and even brought their clay figures to share with the other kids. The winners received a total sum of €600 donated from Geolino.