Once a year in Spring, the International cellu l’art Short Film Festival presents international short films in Jena, Central Germany. This young and vibrant university city, internationally renowned for its optical industry (e. g. Zeiss lenses) comes alive with screenings and events revolving around shorts from all genres: fiction, animation, documentary, essay and experimental. Films from all over the world compete in the international competition while an annual country focus programme allows the viewers to get to know the (short film) culture of a specific country. In 2023, cellu l’art presented historical and contemporary animation shorts from Estonia, the 2024 country in focus will be announced soon. Besides the international competition and the country in focus programme, the cellu l’art also shows a great variety of special programmes on different topics (e. g. queer, ecology), genres (e. g. experimental) and formats (e. g. 35mm analog projections).
cellu l’art started out as a project by media science students in 1999 and has since grown rapidly and dynamically, becoming more diverse and more international while still retaining a loveable, friendly ambience. Traditionally, the festival begins with an open air event with live music and short films. It ends with our winning film roll, showing every award winner to a large audience.
The International cellu l'art Short Film Festival is held in the Schillerhof cinema in the beautiful Jena city district of Wenigenjena. The festival's second venue is the Kino am Markt, right in the heart of the city next to the market square.
The cellu l’art team invites all filmmakers to submit their films and looks forward to welcoming them to Jena!
The Awards for the 2023 edition were:
- Best Film: 1.000 €
- Best Visual Design: 1.000 €
- Lichtstadt Award („Light City Award“): 750 €
- Youth Jury Award: 250 €
- Audience Award: 500 €
Awards 2024: tba