Berlinale-Blogger 2017
BerlinalePeople: Sven Schwarz, shorts programmer

Part of an ongoing series of mini profiles on the blog German Film @ Canada on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and visitors.
 

Name & role: Sven Schwarz, Managing Director of the Hamburg International Short Film Festival and member of the Hamburg-based artist group A Wall is a Screen (which will co-produce an event with the Goethe-Institut Toronto later this year).

This is my 11th Berlinale.

Most important meeting I will have in Berlin: Quite a few meetings to plan new cooperations between the Hamburg International Short Film Festival and other international festivals. And of course the annual German Short Film association reception which gathers some of the nicest people around in a very laid back atmosphere.

Most exciting industry buzz at Berlinale 2017:
And the Golden Bear for the best short film will go to….. (and naturally as well the question who will receive the Silver Bear)
(The Silver Bear has been awarded since 1956 for individual achievements in acting, direction, and for best short film)

Short films are the best because: No compromises, no limitations, sometimes painful to watch while at the same time fantastic! (sounds strange? but totally true!).

Biggest pet peeve at Berlinale: Trying to find the best "worst“ film of the program. Strangely enough, every year I meet a friend of mine at one screening which always turns out to be a film which both of us don’t like at all (and hey: there need to be bad films at a festival as well!)

German film I am most looking forward to seeing: In the Berlinale Shorts competition Rainer Kohlberger will present his new work "keep that dream burning“. In the last years Kohlberger has produced amazing works of (video) art that is visually unbelievably captivating and I’m sure he won’t fail to impress with this one.

A Wall Is A Screen will return to Canada twice in 2017: For a special program at the Quebec City Film Festival in September and an indigenous short film program at the imagineNative Film Festival Toronto in October, both in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut.