Das Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis ist seit 1980 das zentrale Nachwuchs-Filmfestival im deutschsprachigen Raum. Es legt Wert auf Filme mit gesellschaftlicher Relevanz, frischem Blick und persönlicher Handschrift. Neben Wettbewerben für Spielfilm, Dokumentation, mittellange und Kurzfilme bietet es Workshops, Networking und ein breites Rahmenprogramm. Viele heute bekannte Filmemacher:innen starteten hier ihre Karriere — das Festival gilt als Sprungbrett für den deutschen Nachwuchsfilm.
Auf Sonar entdecken
Zuhause ist dort, wo die Sternfrüchte sauer sind
24 Min., Dokumentarfilm , KurzfilmFilmmaker Huy Nguyen chronicles a transcontinental relationship with his grandparents, shaped by intimacy and distance. Speaking with them for the first time about a family taboo—love and emotional connection—he embarks on a personal journey that brings the intergenerational tensions within his family to the surface.
Motherland
4 Min., Kurzfilm , MusicMOTHERLAND returns to the persistent question of belonging between two cultures, as artist ANOTHER NGUYEN searches for reconciliation with herself and her roots.
Wohnen auf Zeit
8 Min., Dokumentarfilm , KurzfilmJasmin Phan returns with her father, Thao, to the dormitory where he first arrived in Germany forty years ago. Their search uncovers new facets of his life and reframes reunification through the eyes of a former contract worker—a personal encounter with family and history.
Dunkelblau, wie ich mich fühle
20 Min., Dokumentarfilm , Experimentalfilm , KurzfilmAmid the concrete tower blocks, fifteen-year-old Gerda Müller confronts her loneliness alongside filmmaker Lan Mi Lê. Moving through a tangle of emotions, she explores questions of identity, family and friendship—and answers the dark blue of her life with song, performance and TikTok videos.
Erst Nachts konnten wir traurig sein
8 Min., Dokumentarfilm , KurzfilmIn 1987, many Vietnamese people arrived in Germany as contract workers, hoping to build a new life. Nguyen Thi Le was one of them. On her sixtieth birthday, she looks back on her early years in Germany—a time marked by loneliness, homesickness and hope.
Last Year in Utopia
73 Min., Dokumentarfilm , ExperimentalfilmLast Year in Utopia documents an experimental set-up: a staged group media experiment, isolated from the outside world, is reconstructed on the site where the original events unfolded. The boundaries between autonomy and heteronomy dissolve in new role assignments as the film makes the power structure behind the artificially created utopia visible.
