LUCAS – International Festival for Young Film Lovers #47 from October 5 to 11, 2024

Jury 2024

»The juries for the com­pe­ti­ti­ons »Kids« and »Teens« are made up of an equal num­ber of young film fans and indus­try pro­fes­sio­nals. They deci­de on the awar­ding of five LUCAS pri­zes in their sec­tions. A jury of young European film enthu­si­asts honors a film from the »Youngsters« sec­tion with the LUCAS »Youngsters« Award.

An ECFA jury pres­ents the ECFA Award to its European children’s film favo­ri­te, sin­ce 2018 Cinema Without Borders has pre­sen­ted an award to a com­pe­ti­ti­on film and the audi­ence award is deci­ded by the fes­ti­val visitors.

Jury Competition »Kids«

Jury Competition »Teens«

Jury Competition »Youngsters«

ECFA Jury 2024

The jury of the European Children’s Film Association (ECFA) con­sists of European experts from the children’s and youth film sce­ne. This year, Margret Albers (Jury Competition »Kids«) tog­e­ther with Stefan Huber and Noy Levin (both Jury Competition »Teen«) will pre­sent the ECFA Award to their European children’s film favo­ri­te. The award qua­li­fies the films for the annu­al com­pe­ti­ti­on for the “Best European Children’s Film of the Year” pri­ze, which is award­ed during the Berlin International Film Festival.

Cinema Without Borders

“Cinema Without Borders” is an inter­na­tio­nal net­work of actors from the film indus­try that cam­paigns for diver­si­ty, inclu­si­on and social jus­ti­ce in film. “Cinema Without Borders” pres­ents the “Bridging the Borders Award” at sel­ec­ted film fes­ti­vals every year. The award reco­gni­zes films that bring peo­p­le tog­e­ther across geo­gra­phi­cal, reli­gious, eth­nic, cul­tu­ral and eco­no­mic bor­ders and address issues of social jus­ti­ce. The mem­bers of the “Cinema Without Borders” jury 2024 are Keely Badger, Susan Morgan Cooper, Arameh Etemadi, Chale Nafus and Bijan Tehrani.

Greetings 2024

Head of Festival
Julia Fleißig

OFF TO THE CINEMA!

Flashback: “Polycrisis” was a term that alre­a­dy cha­rac­te­ri­zed the pre­vious fes­ti­val edi­ti­on, but the­re was hope that this year some of the cri­ses and con­flicts would be over­co­me. But things tur­ned out dif­fer­ent­ly. We for­med LUCAS #47 out of hope, and it was important to us to coun­ter the fee­ling of power­less­ness that is spre­a­ding here and the­re, not to con­ce­al the cri­ses, but to look for resi­li­ence in them. To crea­te a coun­ter­weight with sto­ries with future pro­s­pects, with glim­p­ses of light, with solu­ti­ons. Cinema can offer space to dream, to reflect, to enjoy and to grow, it helps to see things dif­fer­ent­ly and to under­stand things that were pre­vious­ly misun­ders­tood, it pro­vi­des impe­tus – some­ti­mes not­hing more is needed.

The com­mon thread run­ning through this year’s pro­gram is “Togetherness”. “Togetherness” may sound banal, but it’s not at all. For the »Young European Cinephiles«, it was the over­ar­ching the­me for their film sel­ec­tion con­sis­ting of LA HAINE, ISLE OF DOGS and KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS, which they are pre­sen­ting during the fes­ti­val week. In the films in the com­pe­ti­ti­on »Kids«, the hero­i­nes and prot­ago­nists achie­ve their goals tog­e­ther after a few twists and turns, be it united against some­thing like a vio­lent storm, a bit­chy class­ma­te, a mega­lo­ma­niac bea­ver or explo­ita­ti­ve lar­ge cor­po­ra­ti­ons. But it’s always about the moment when the tide turns and the ‘against’ beco­mes a ‘fight for some­thing’: for a fai­rer world, for more tole­rance, for more inclu­si­on, for more envi­ron­men­tal protection.

In the com­pe­ti­ti­on »Teens«, things are bubbling more, but a lot remains on the thres­hold, alt­hough the doors are some­ti­mes wide open. It’s hel­pful for tog­e­ther­ness to chan­ge your per­spec­ti­ve from time to time, to expo­se yours­elf – to some­thing or someone –, to cross boun­da­ries that you pre­vious­ly thought were untoucha­ble, to go out, to take offen­se, to argue and hop­eful­ly come to an agree­ment. The strong »Teens« cha­rac­ters face chal­lenges, over­co­me hurd­les and obs­ta­cles and usual­ly learn some­thing com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent than they expec­ted at the begin­ning of their jour­ney. It’s also important to know whe­re you stand when it comes to working tog­e­ther. The main cha­rac­ters in the »Youngsters« com­pe­ti­ti­on have to search for, find and assert their own place in life – be it in desi­re, love or grief.

Working tog­e­ther is also the focus on Festival Sunday. The film par­cours »On Set« gives kids a look at team­work in film pro­duc­tions and allows them to actively enga­ge with the various depart­ments within a film team – from stunt­men to pro­duc­tion desi­gners, film­ma­kers pre­sent their work in various work­shop for­mats and invi­te them to join in. I’m also loo­king for­ward to the panel CHILDHOOD IN IMAGES – CHILDREN’S FILMS, which marks the start of a series of events orga­ni­zed by the Akademie für Kindermedien and looks at the lack of ori­gi­nal film sto­ries for the six to eight age segment.

I would like to express my heart­felt thanks to all the sup­port­ing insti­tu­ti­ons, all the peo­p­le who are fri­ends and part­ners and who work along­side us to keep film cul­tu­re ali­ve for young audi­en­ces – abo­ve all the fan­ta­stic LUCAS team.

May the Force be with the cine­ma­tic art, may count­less dreams be awa­ken­ed and may we dis­co­ver new hori­zons tog­e­ther and expe­ri­ence bril­li­ant movie moments!

3 ques­ti­ons for … Timon Gremmels, Hessian Minister for Science and Research, Art and Culture 

What signi­fi­can­ce does film cul­tu­re have for a socie­ty and what role do film fes­ti­vals play for young audiences?
Culture is an important ele­ment of our demo­cra­cy and film is one of its most powerful forms of expres­si­on. Films mir­ror socie­ty, con­nect peo­p­le, enable the exch­an­ge of ide­as and pro­mo­te under­stan­ding and tole­rance for other ways of life. In order for them to have their full impact, they must of cour­se be seen. This is whe­re fes­ti­vals like LUCAS play a key role in making films acces­si­ble to a young audience.

What can a film fes­ti­val for young audi­en­ces do for up-and-coming film­ma­kers in Hessen?
At LUCAS, young film fans not only come into cont­act with inter­na­tio­nal film­ma­king, the fes­ti­val also enables them to come into cont­act with the medi­um of film them­sel­ves. For exam­p­le, on the Sunday of the fes­ti­val, October 6, child­ren and young peo­p­le will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to gain an insight into the various trades invol­ved in film pro­duc­tion at the »On Set« film trail. Perhaps offers like the­se will give some of them an exci­ting impul­se for their later care­er choice.

Do you remem­ber a film expe­ri­ence that had a par­ti­cu­lar impact on you?
My god­child and I have a spe­cial rela­ti­onship with the cine­ma: regu­lar­ly wat­ching movies tog­e­ther is important to us. I find it exci­ting to see how movie tas­tes deve­lop, which actors and actres­ses are popu­lar with my god­child and which gen­res are popu­lar. Unfortunately, the visits are slow­ly beco­ming less fre­quent – you don’t want to go to the movies with your god­fa­ther all the time! –, but we’­ve had lots of gre­at movie expe­ri­en­ces tog­e­ther, from BIBI TINA to RHINEGOLD.

3 ques­ti­ons for …
Mike Josef, Lord Mayor of the City of Frankfurt am Main and patron of LUCAS 

What makes fes­ti­vals like LUCAS so valuable for young people?
Creating sophisti­ca­ted cul­tu­ral offe­rings for child­ren and young peo­p­le means more than just ful­fil­ling an edu­ca­tio­nal mis­si­on: Events such as the LUCAS film fes­ti­val con­tri­bu­te signi­fi­cant­ly to the social par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on of our young fel­low citi­zens. A gre­at deal is hap­pe­ning in Frankfurt on this topic, and I am par­ti­cu­lar­ly proud that Germany’s oldest film fes­ti­val for young audi­en­ces, with all its varie­ty of par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry offe­rings, is taking place here. LUCAS has been a plat­form for sophisti­ca­ted cine­ma for many years and is a per­fect fit for Frankfurt.

What are the main the­mes of the fes­ti­val that also affect the city of Frankfurt?
Quite a lot! For exam­p­le, I think it’s gre­at that LUCAS sen­si­ti­zes young audi­en­ces to other cul­tures through its inter­na­tio­nal pro­gram. People from 175 count­ries live tog­e­ther in Frankfurt, so it’s also important that they are all given an appro­pria­te level of visi­bi­li­ty. I am the­r­e­fo­re par­ti­cu­lar­ly loo­king for­ward to the pre­sen­ta­ti­on of the pro­ject class, which will deal with post-migrant cine­ma in Germany on the basis of the DFF exhi­bi­ti­on NEW VOICES.

What was the last movie you wat­ched with your children?
Our who­le fami­ly loves going to the movies. We recent­ly wat­ched INSIDE OUT 2. It was gre­at fun, we had alre­a­dy seen the first part.

3 ques­ti­ons for … Christine Kopf, Director (acting) of the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut Filmmuseum 

What the­ma­tic focu­ses can young peo­p­le look for­ward to at LUCAS #47?
LUCAS is not only a plat­form for out­stan­ding films, but abo­ve all a place for encoun­ters and exch­an­ge. The fes­ti­val has always cele­bra­ted “tog­e­ther­ness” and in 2024 this is also the the­ma­tic focus for the »Young European Cinephiles«, who we invi­te to Frankfurt every year in a chan­ging line-up. This time, four film-loving young peo­p­le from Croatia and Germany are cura­ting their own series on the topic, which they will pre­sent in per­son. I’m loo­king for­ward to see­ing which facets of this mul­ti-laye­red con­cept have made it into the film sel­ec­tion of the »YECs«.

How do you look back on LUCAS as the pre­vious head of the Film Mediation department?
I am very proud of what the DFF achie­ves in the field of film edu­ca­ti­on, we value qua­li­ty and being ancho­red in film cul­tu­re, we work a lot in net­works, also inter­na­tio­nal­ly. In addi­ti­on to the approa­ches and pro­jects of the depart­ment I come from, a lot is also hap­pe­ning at LUCAS. LUCAS enables audi­en­ces of all ages to encoun­ter unu­su­al films from all over the world, but the prin­ci­ple of »Get Involved!« is also firm­ly ancho­red in the con­cept. There has been a wide ran­ge of par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry offe­rings for many years.

What syn­er­gies are the­re bet­ween the DFF and LUCAS?
For a num­ber of pro­grams, the fes­ti­val is in exch­an­ge with very dif­fe­rent are­as of the DFF. For exam­p­le, every year LUCAS deve­lo­ps new crea­ti­ve ide­as for deal­ing with the cur­rent spe­cial exhi­bi­ti­on and the »Focus.Film.Class« takes a clo­se look at NEW VOICES. GERMAN CINEMA SINCE 2000. In addi­ti­on, LUCAS offers a stage for other DFF film edu­ca­ti­on pro­jects with the film club »Blickwechsel Jetzt!« and the »Minis«.