Celebrating 100 years of German Animation Film in Stuttgart

Celebrating 100 years of German Animation Film, the 16th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (5 – 10 May 2009) will present a comprehensive anniversary retrospective. The changeful history of this innovative genre will be visualised in six programme sections.

The screenings comprise artistically ambitious works, outstanding commercials and state of the art 3D animations.
Hardly any other genre within the realm of film reflects the variety and fractures of German film productions as distinctly as animation film. It was, after all, the German animation film that has brought about such internationally renowned names like Lotte Reiniger and Oskar Fischinger, as well as two Oscar-winning films in the category "Best Animated Short Film". This is why an entertaining and informative show on the historical and aesthetical development has long been overdue.
As part of this year's Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film, the retrospective with the title "Cheers! 100 Years of German Animation Film" documents the versatility of Animated Film in Germany. The topical range stretches from the first German animation film "Prosit Neujahr" of 1909 to the works of early avant-gardists of the 1920s and 1930s such as Walter Ruttmann and Hans Richter, featuring current productions like Oscar-winning short films "Balance" (1989) by Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein and "Quest" (1996) by Tyron Montgomery and Thomas Stellmach

However, the genre?s development during the era of National Socialism cannot be disregarded. Hitler himself was a great fan of Micky Mouse and tried to establish a controlled iconic ideal of phased movie entertainment. Alongside there are abstract works of art like Hans Fischinger´s colourful "Tanz der Farben" ("Dance of Colours") of 1938/39 or the playful "Strich-Punkt-Ballett" ("Ballet of Lines and Dots") of 1943 by Herbert Seggelke, which somehow manage to get past the NS censorship.
The DEFA animation studios of the former GDR also produced films – with ideological guidelines on the one hand, and on the other aesthetically innovative and - with regards to content – controversial films such as Lutz Dammbeck´s "Einmart" (1981) specifically undermining these guidelines.
Since the end of the 70s a boom in the area of animation film has emerged as animation departments at art schools, universities and technical colleges were founded, a trend that also lead to the founding of the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film in 1982 and later on to the foundation of the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy.

Other filmmakers featured in this retrospective in Stuttgart are Israeli artist Gil Alkabetz ("Rubicon") who lives in Germany, Andreas Hykade ("Wir lebten im Gras"), Mariolla Brillowska ("Morgenröte"), Kirsten Winter ("Clocks") and the artist duo Hanna and Fritz Steingrobe ("Yo lo Vi").
A six-part DVD series entitled "Die Geschichte des deutschen Animationsfilms" ("The History of German Animation Film") accompanying this retrospective will be published by Absolut Medien in cooperation with Goethe Institut.