The 16th Neiße Film Festival kicks off on May 7 with a gala opening in Zittau. To kick things off, the Gerhard Hauptmann Theater will host not only a preview of the festival program but also the opening film, the tragicomedy "Frau Stern" by Anatol Schuster from the festival’s feature film competition, as well as a concert by the German-Czech quartet "UMFYR."

Over the next five days of the festival, audiences can look forward to around 120 feature films, documentaries, and short films in three competitions and various film series, as well as an extensive supporting program featuring exhibitions, readings, and discussions, concerts, and parties at twenty venues along the Neisse River, from Bautzen to Liberec, from Varnsdorf to Görlitz/Zgorzelec.

Highlights include, among others, the “70mm Film” series at the Centrum Panorama in Varnsdorf, the silent film concert accompanying the classic “Nosferatu — A Symphony of Horror” with the Polish band “Czerwie” on May 10 at the Schauburg Zittau, and the traditional festival party with Sarah Olivier (France) on May 11 at the Kunstbauerkino Großhennersdorf. The awards ceremony will also take place on May 11 at the Miejski Dom Kultury in Zgorzelec, Poland. Among other awards, the prize for the good short film in the competition—endowed with 1,000 euros and sponsored by the Student Council of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences—will be presented there.

Documentary Explores the Meaning of Life

For the first time, the large lecture hall on the Zittau campus is also among the venues for the Neisse Film Festival. The documentary “The Symphony of Uncertainty” by Claudia Lehmann will be screened there on May 8 at 7 p.m. The film is a documentary essay on the meaning of life. It is set at the German Electron Synchrotron, or DESY for short—an international research center and a world unto itself. There, scientists strive to understand what holds the world together at its very core. That is where subatomic particles collide. But it is also there that Gerhard Mack, a professor of physics emeritus, meets a wide variety of conversation partners. With his theory of complex systems, he attempts to understand the world from an interdisciplinary perspective and to find a language that extends far beyond the boundaries of mathematics and physics. Composer Konrad Hempel and his ensemble are also searching for such a language. He uses the sounds of the accelerators to create, with the help of mathematical laws, a harmony that becomes the soundtrack to this small world, where everyone wants to find meaning in life...

Student tickets for 20 euros

The Neisse Film Festival has a special offer for students: With the personalized student ticket, you can attend any film screening for 20 euros upon presentation of valid student ID. Tickets are available at all festival box offices.