The 44th FOFS : New ideas, new venues, new screens
The 44th FOFS – Festival of Future Storytellers gets underway in Munich on November 14. Until November 22, a total of 92 short films and other works will be screened at the festival center at HFF Munich and at Theatiner Filmkunst. Talks and labs are expected to feature high-profile guests.
FOFS – The Festival of Future Storytellers is adding new ideas to its more than 40 years of festival experience. For four decades, the festival has been one of the leading international platforms for short student films. Initially known as the International Festival of Film Schools, and most recently as Filmschoolfest Munich, it has always been a meeting place for filmmakers from all over the world. These include some like Nadav Lapid, Anna Cazenave-Cambet, and Magnus von Horn, who are currently making a name for themselves in international cinema, and more established names such as Harry Potter director David Yates and Oscar-winners Susanne Bier and Thomas Vinterberg. Alongside numerous directors from German-speaking countries, they’ve all presented their first short films here in Munich.
Over the past ten years, domestic and international film schools, as well as other art colleges, have experienced significant changes. Serial storytelling, video art, games, extended and virtual reality, and artificial intelligence are now routine subjects at film schools. The term “creative industries” encompasses a wide variety of audiovisual storytelling. FOFS focuses on young creative professionals — a new generation of storytellers that is waiting to be discovered here and that will be thrilling audiences on screens big and small in the years to come. Audiences in Munich have the opportunity to meet these incredible artists very early on in their careers — at screenings of their films, in fascinating master classes, workshops, and panel discussions.
“Renaming the festival to FOFS is something we’ve been planning for a while, in response to changes that have been occurring within creative industries, including the film industry. Through our inspiring program, we aim to welcome creative people from all over the world, connect them with local artists, and engage with the future of storytelling. This is very exciting for both the film industry and the audience — because this is where ideas emerge for the cinema of tomorrow as well as for other forms of audiovisual storytelling,” say Christoph Gröner and Julia Weigl, the duo at the helm of FOFS.
FILMS
Affordable festival passes for everyone make it possible to spend all week immersed in the festival experience. Screenings of 4–5 short films each will be held at the festival center at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF) and at the Theatiner Filmkunst movie theater, with many of the filmmakers answering questions from the audience in person in moderated Q&As. A total of 92 short films from 40 countries will be presented in 36 screenings, with a mixture of feature films, documentaries, and animated films guaranteeing variety. In the renowned International Short Film Competition (45 films) and the DACH Competition (25 films from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) the films will compete for 10 awards worth a total of 42,000 euros. In the Remixes, all of the films are waiting to be discovered in thematically curated programs, including, for example, one exclusively in Spanish and another in French. Among the selected films are several award-winning works, such as “Dad’s Not Home,” which earned a Student Academy Award, “Skin on Skin” and “Night of Passage”, which both received the First Steps Award, and “The Good Woman”, which recently took an award in Hof.
Numerous collaborations help to make the program what it is, all in furtherance of a common goal: to give young artists and creative individuals a platform and to follow and support them on their professional journey. The European Film Academy is making possible a screening of the five short films recently nominated for the European Film Award. First Steps is collaborating with us to screen its award-winning films of 2025. In cooperation with the Locarno Film Festival, five short films from Africa, curated by the Open Doors program, will be screened. Last but not least, there’s a selection of films from the Sehsüchte festival specifically for families and children.
On the first Saturday of the festival, Munich Music Videos will present a free showcase of seven music videos by young Munich bands, followed by a short concert by insschlosswollen — making this the perfect evening to discover the festival and its new lounge in the foyer of the festival center at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). There will be screenings at the Theatiner Filmkunst and all moviegoers are invited to attend the closing party at ZIRKA Space.
(More about the films here.)
TALKS & LABS
Film schools and training methods have evolved significantly in recent years, as have the technical and innovative potential of audiovisual storytelling. All of this will now take center stage at the festival in numerous TALKS and LABS.
The first few days of the festival are devoted to short films in the classical sense. After this, the festival invites you to think outside the box — at panel discussions, master classes, and workshops that offer new and exciting perspectives on audiovisual storytelling. For example, FOFS, together with the CreatiFCenter at the HFF, will explore the area of games, while FFF Bayern, Festival der Zukunft, and XR Hub Bavaria will explore the world of XR and VR. The AI Chair at the HFF, the Kunsthalle Munich, and Miguel Chevalier, who currently has a major solo exhibition there, will explore the topic of artificial intelligence and the future. (Further information on these program sections here.)
