Competition German Animation
Robert Löbel, Max MörtlGermany, 2025 | 05:42 min | 2D, Stop MotionTIME is a dystopian and darkly whimsical animated short, unfolding in fragmented vignettes where characters collide—each caught in their own rhythm of time. From the seemingly endless drift of an hourglass to the frantic pulse of a multitasking worker, the film paints a surreal mosaic of how time is perceived, stretched, fractured, and consumed.
Aline Helmcke, Sandra Reyes, Juliane Franke, Franka Sachse, Catalina Giraldo, Ana VallejoGermany, 2025 | 00:14 min | 2D, Stop Motion, Pixilation, Cut-outA cartographer has lost his orientation: did his tools become useless or could it be that the terrain itself is changing? “Karten der Wildnis” is the story of the cartographer interpreted by seven animation artists who venture into the experiment of making a collaborative film. Analogue animation techniques and a poem by Daniela Danz are their starting points to approach the unknown, following the processes that occur when they enter into this adventure.
Jelena MilunovićCroatia, Germany, Serbia, 2025 | 07:01 min | 2DA daughter gradually realizes that her father is struggling with mental illness. Isolated and rejected by society, he lives alone in a dark apartment, drifting like a balloon. She tries to find a way to reconnect and bring him back to solid ground
Kiana NaghshinehGermany, 2025 | 14:18 min | 2DIn the face of her body fading into stardust, Shari realises what truly matters to her.
Aljosha Klimov, Misha Sprits, Mitya KokorinGermany, 2026 | 12:00 min | 2D, 3D, Clay, Unreal Engine, CompositingOn New Year’s Eve, 1986 Oleg Proshkin, a low-level Soviet investigator, gets called out to a disturbance — in his own apartment building. Something’s off the moment he steps into the courtyard, and when he unlocks his door, he finds strangers inside. They’ve made themselves at home. Waiting for him: a Santa Claus he’s never seen before — and a disturbingly intelligent dog named Shapka. Santa says he’s been looking for Proshkin for years. When Proshkin was a boy, he mailed a postcard asking to be sent into space — the same space where, according to his mother, his father flew and never came back. Proshkin tries to fight. Tries to shout. It doesn’t matter. Santa drops the jolly act. He overpowers him, yanks a gift sack over his head, and hauls him off — past the rooflines, out into the black. A surreal ride into the unstable architecture of human memory, and the hairline crack between reality and madness we all balance on — right up until it gives way.
Paulina ZiolkowskaGermany, Mexico, Poland, 2026 | 07:36 min | 2D, Stop MotionA few exercises to procrastinate better, faster, and more efficiently.
Petra StipetićGermany, 2026 | 02:35 min | 2DA film about striving for belonging against all odds.
Andy KaiserGermany, 2025 | 11:15 min | Stop MotionKeeper Clive is running out of supplies on his lighthouse somewhere in the Northern Seas. In his despair, he plays a sad tune on his horn, when a large whale notices him. As his supply ship sinks in a violent thunderstorm and his lighthouse buoy springs a leak, he has to expect the worst - if it weren't for the great whale….
