Festival Profile
sehsüchte is the biggest International Student Film Festival in Europe.
Its history begins with the FDJ ("Free German Youth" organisation of the defunct East German state) Student film Days founded in 1972 at the University of Film and Television (HFF) "Konrad Wolf". After it disappeared with re-unification, the festival was brought back to the screen by the students of the programme in Audiovisual Media Studies at the HFF in 1995 and christened sehsüchte . Since then, the Festival has consistently gained in significance as a forum for artistic creativity and as an intercultural platform for the film world's new international generation.
Last year, students from the new Master's programme in "Media Studies: Analysis, Aesthetics and Audience" at the HFF organised sehsüchte for the first time. A programme of 140 films put together from over 800 submitted works and right across the board, the positive resonance from press, guests and participants confirmed a concept no less successful than it was ambitious.
At this point, we wish to extend to our sponsors, our partners and our supporters, some of whom have already been involved with the sehsüchte Festival for many years now and are crucial to making it all possible, a thank-you as great as it is sincere!
In 2009, the Festival's tradition lives on in a new team full of enthusiasm and imbued with the vision of enhancing the Festival's profile and propelling it to new successes.
History
1972
The first time the student film days are held as the “FDJ Student Days” in the former GDR, they are less a festival in the actual sense of the word and more an academic exhibition.
1977
Only five years later, film schools from “friendly countries” participate.
1985
In the mid 1980s, by which time the student film days had already evolved into the biggest student film festival in the Eastern Bloc and an inside tip for fans from all over the world, films from the former West Germany are also screened.
1990
After the Wende in 1990, the student film days are held two more times as an independent event before they are integrated in the new Potsdam Film Festival.
1995
Revived by students from the audiovisual media studies program at the Film and Television Academy Konrad Wolf, the festival with the new name sehsüchte enters a new phase pointing toward the future.
2002
The flame is born. The logo becomes the distinctive sehsüchte trademark.
2004
The Film and Television Academy turns fifty. sehsüchte celebrates this with a retrospective. What is more, sehsüchte marks ten years as the festival under this name.
2005
2005 is the first year for the Focus, which sets a regional emphasis and runs as a special program outside the competition. Every year, a different country or region is emphasized, the cinematic output of which would otherwise most likely remain obscure to most of the public.
Students from the audio-visual media Master’s program are entirely responsible for the organization of sehsüchte as an important part of their curriculum. sehsüchte provides students an ideal opportunity to not only apply theory but also realize their own ideas directly at the academy.
And so, the 2009 sehsüchte team is again looking forward to numerous international film talents and their exceptional works.
