Dragons, bears and floating sales containers

With the short film dramaDuty Free (50,000 euros, Heimathafen Film, Hamburg), the Schleswig-Holstein-based Director and Script Writer Hilke Rönnfeldt enters a floating duty-free shop on the island of Fehmarn. Here, store manager Kasia and her employees live together in a paradisiacal dream world - until reality catches up with them and puts an end to their little universe forever. The German-Danish co-production will have six days of filming in Schleswig-Holstein in October 2022.

Directors and Script Writer Mila Useche's animated short filmEpifanía (40,000 euros, Telescope Animation Studios, Hamburg) tells the story of the old lady Dona Marta, who one day finds the little dragon Epifanía outside her house. She raises the dragon as her own child - but one day has to learn to let go. There will be 135 animation days in Hamburg.

HFBK Hamburg graduate Francesca Bertin follows the tracks of a brown bear in South Tyrol in a mix of documentary and fiction:Papillon (35,000 euros, Fünferfilm, Hamburg) is an Italian-German co-production in which biologist Alice sets out on the trail of the "problem bear" Papillon. The animal seems to be getting too close to people in the Mocheni Valley in northern Italy - but hardly anyone has ever seen the bear.

The "Kurz + Innovativ" Committee promotes both short films and innovative audiovisual formats, from XR experiences and 360-degree films to immersive story worlds.

A detailed overview of all funded projects can be found here.

The funding decisions were made on 23 May 2022 by Cesy Leonard, Ingo Mertins, Britta Schewe, Insa Wiese, Ralph Heinsohn and Arne Sommer.