From 21-26 October, the Hof International Film Festival will once again transform the Franconian town of Hof, located in the north-eastern corner of Bavaria and boasting a 47,000-strong population, into a luminous, vibrant place of encounters, screening films from more than 30 countries: from Ireland to Israel, and from Panama to Poland. Each year, approximately 30,000 visitors attend the “Home of Films”, as the festival was dubbed by Wim Wenders upon its 25th anniversary in 1991. Nine film awards are handed out each year, including the German Cinema New Talent Award and the Granit Hof Documentary Award.

The festival's theme this year will be “The Place to Grow”. And the gathering is setting a good example by growing itself, with the addition of a virtual and augmented reality sidebar centring on socially relevant topics, such as environmental protection, social exclusion and digital identity: Out of Nowhere by Kris Hofmann and Andreas Wuthe premiered in Venice Immersive in August this year and will now be shown for the first time in Germany. This ten-minute VR experience explores the impact of extreme weather events through the recollections of a woman affected by the 2021 Austrian flood disaster.

Social issues, global challenges and personal growth are also the focus of the documentary film category, featuring 22 works. Filmmaker Matthias Ditscherlein, a regular at the gathering since the world premiere of his doc Kinomann in 2020, will open the event with Über Unterbiberger: it follows the Himpsl family, a musical ensemble building bridges by combining Bavarian folk music with jazz and oriental sounds. The doc section also features other world premieres such as Life Is Yours by Douglas Wolfsperger, a film about the challenges of transgender people in conservative Southern Germany, and Goggo Gensch’s Cinema Lives – Arthouse Theatres in Germany, about the history of German arthouse cinemas and their daily struggle for survival.

Hof’s artistic director, Thorsten Schaumann, promises that the films in the national competition will be just as “powerful, bold and deeply rooted in the themes of our time – they tell of dystopian worlds, fractured family images, abuse, right-wing extremism, and female strength”. The category features several world premieres, such as Joscha Douma’s Cyberpunk Romance, Roman Toulany’s The Total Dream and Silke C Engler’s Sunny. All three of these movies explore the implications of using the human brain and body as a technological interface, by inserting microchips or connecting it to computers. Another eagerly awaited premiere is the star-studded In the Sign of the Dragon, by directorial duo Enrico Saller and Marina Hoeft, a crime-thriller shot in various locations in the Bavarian Forest (see the news).

Hof will also present 30 international features, many of which are German premieres: a highly anticipated highlight will be the German premiere of Queens of the Dead by Tina Romero, the daughter of cult film director George A Romero. The zombie flick celebrated its world premiere at Tribeca. The German premieres also include Happyland [+leggi anche:
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The festival rounds off its programme with a cinematic journey into its own past, via Hof Classics, and with a homage to Julia von Heinz. Eight of her films (such as Lucie & Vera, Rosakinder and I’m Off Then [+leggi anche:
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