LUCAS – International Festival for Young Film Lovers

#46 from October 5 to 12, 2023

Lights out and film on at LUCAS #46: From October 5 to 12, Germany’s oldest film fes­ti­val for young audi­en­ces pres­ents award-win­ning cine­ma­tic art for ever­yo­ne from four years old to 18plus. Families and film lovers of all ages can expect out­stan­ding cine­ma expe­ri­en­ces in Frankfurt, Offenbach, and Wiesbaden. School clas­ses, child­ren and youth groups in Germany can also access the short films of the com­pe­ti­ti­on pro­gram­me via video-on-demand.

21 care­ful­ly cura­ted fea­ture films and a selec­tion of short films (all of them German pre­mie­res) will com­pe­te for the cove­ted LUCAS awards. In addi­ti­on to the com­pe­ti­ti­on pro­gram, LUCAS pres­ents clas­sics of film histo­ry, short film pro­gram­mes for the very youn­gest and other seri­es, some of which are crea­ted by child­ren and young adults. During the fes­ti­val week, a spe­cial focus is on film talks, in which filmma­kers from all over the world enter into dia­lo­gue with the audience.

Participation at LUCAS means “Get invol­ved!”. As mode­ra­tors, fes­ti­val repor­ters, film cri­tics, jury mem­bers, or cura­tors – young film fans are invi­ted to par­ti­ci­pa­te in a varie­ty of ways throughout the festival.

For repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of the film indus­try, con­fe­ren­ces and panel dis­cus­sions take place that deal with topics of film edu­ca­ti­on and cur­rent trends in children’s and youth film production.

LUCAS – International Festival for Young Film Lovers is orga­ni­zed by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum e.V.

LUCAS Trennung

Competitions & Awards

Competitions

In the com­pe­ti­ti­on sec­tions »Kids«, »Teens« and »Youngsters«, LUCAS pres­ents a selec­tion of out­stan­ding inter­na­tio­nal fea­ture films, docu­men­ta­ries, ani­ma­ti­ons, and expe­ri­men­tal films. A total of 21 fea­ture-length films and a selec­tion of short films com­pe­te for the cove­ted LUCAS awards.

The fea­ture films have a run­ning time of more than 59 minu­tes and have not yet been shown in German cine­mas. A selec­tion com­mit­tee tra­vels to fes­ti­vals and indus­try mee­tings to select com­pe­ti­ti­on ent­ries for the sec­tions »Kids«, »Teens« and »Youngsters« from the stron­gest cur­rent pro­duc­tions world­wi­de. It’s not pre­mie­re sta­tus, but qua­li­ty that counts!

With its short film com­pe­ti­ti­on, LUCAS has ear­ned its­elf a spe­cial repu­ta­ti­on in recent years. From the best inter­na­tio­nal sub­mis­si­ons of up to 30 minu­tes run­ning time, a selec­tion com­mit­tee puts tog­e­ther several com­pe­ti­ti­on pro­grams for the »Kids«, »Teens« and »Youngsters« sec­tions, all of which are German premieres.

Awards

»Kids«

  • Best Feature Film (5,000 €) dona­ted by the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen
  • Best Short Film (2.000 €)

»Teens«

  • Best Feature Film (5.000 €)
  • Best Short Film (2.000 €)
  • Award for an Outstanding Cinematic Achievement (2.000 €)

»Youngsters«

  • LUCAS Youngsters Award (5.000 €)

Short film competition

  • »Stadtteiljury« Award

All Sections

  • ECFA-Award 
  • Audience Award 
  • MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award
LUCAS Trennung

Selection Committee

To net­work LUCAS even bet­ter and to streng­t­hen the lively exchan­ge of the pro­gram the fes­ti­val has appoin­ted a selec­tion com­mit­tee for fea­ture films and one for short films to screen the films and select them for the sec­tions »Kids«, »Teens« and »Youngsters«. In addi­ti­on to Julia Fleißig, Head of LUCAS Film Festival, the com­mis­si­ons are made up of five other pro­ven film experts.

Selection Committee | Feature Film 

Kirsten Taylor
Editor, Film Educator & Author

Kirsten Taylor is a free­lan­ce edi­tor at the film edu­ca­ti­on por­tal kinofenster.de and a film edu­ca­tor, pri­ma­ri­ly for the pro­ject “Filmklassiker sehen – Filme ver­ste­hen”, which has been run by the Deutsche Filmakademie sin­ce 2013. In addi­ti­on, she wri­tes film reviews and crea­tes film reports as well as film edu­ca­ti­on mate­ri­als. One focus of her work is on children’s and youth film.

Stefan Stiletto
Film Educator and Film Journalist

Stefan Stiletto is a film edu­ca­tor, film jour­na­list and edi­tor. He designs and crea­tes film edu­ca­ti­on mate­ri­al, wri­tes for Filmdienst, Kinderfilmwelt, the Kinder- und Jugend-Filmportal and Kinofenster.de. He runs trai­ning cour­ses for mul­ti­pliers and work­shops for child­ren and young peop­le on all kinds of edu­ca­tio­nal film topics.

Rochus Wolff
Film cri­tic, aut­hor and lecturer

Rochus Wolff is a free­lan­ce film cri­tic and aut­hor; his publi­ca­ti­ons inclu­de Kino-Zeit, Filmdienst, Kinderfilmwelt, the Kinder- und Jugendfilmportal and his blog kinderfilmblog.de. With “33 Best Children’s Films” and “100 Children’s Films for All Days” he has alrea­dy publis­hed two books on children’s films. He also gives work­shops on children’s films and film criticism.

Selection Committee | Short Film 

Holger Twele
Journalist and Film Educator

Holger Twele is a free­lan­ce film jour­na­list and film edu­ca­tor and has worked for many years for the Bundesverband Jugend und Film, the Deutsche Kinder- und Jugendfilmzentrum and the Bundeszentrale für poli­ti­sche Bildung, among others.

Dr. Ursula Vossen
Producer & Author / HessenInvestFilm

Dr. Ursula Vossen has long-stan­ding expe­ri­ence as a pro­du­cer for tele­vi­si­on and film as well as in film pro­mo­ti­on. She is the aut­hor of nume­rous books and arti­cles on film studies.

LUCAS Trennung

Jury

The juries of the com­pe­ti­ti­ons »Kids« and »Teens« are equal­ly com­po­sed of young film fans and indus­try pro­fes­sio­nals. They deci­de on the awar­ding of five LUCAS pri­zes in the com­pe­ti­ti­ons »Kids« and »Teens«. A jury of young European film enthu­si­asts reward the LUCAS Youngsters Award to a film in the »Youngsters« section.

An ECFA jury also awards an ECFA Award in the »Kids« sec­tion, sin­ce 2018 Cinema without Borders has awar­ded a pri­ze to a com­pe­ti­ti­on film and the audi­ence award is deci­ded by the fes­ti­val visitors.

Jury Competition »Kids«

Oskar, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Kids«

Oskar Fink (12)
Carl-Schulz-Schule, Frankfurt

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Oskar ima­gi­nes jury work at LUCAS to be cool and fun, becau­se he loves to speak his mind and dis­cuss with his peers. Most of the time he wat­ches films that are about fan­ta­sy and action — that’s why the works of Hayao Miyazaki are among his favou­rite films. For him to real­ly like a film, it must not only be exci­ting and visual­ly appe­aling, but also show diver­se cha­rac­ters, for examp­le with a disability.

Zoë, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Kids«

Zoë Kami Holmes (12)
Heinrich-von-Kleist-Schule, Eschborn

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Zoë app­lied for the jury becau­se she likes try­ing new things, watching films with others and exch­an­ging ide­as about them. She is also a fan­ta­sy fan, but for Zoë, humour should not be neglec­ted in a good film. Her favou­rite thing is to go to the cine­ma with her friends, the only thing that annoys her is the adver­ti­sing. She would like to see more sto­ries from South Korea on the big screen. It’s just as well that Zoë has alrea­dy lear­ned a litt­le Korean.

Emma, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Kids«

Emma Kovacevic (11)
Elisabethenschule, Frankfurt

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When Emma was asked by her mother if she wan­ted to be on the LUCAS jury, her first reac­tion was an exci­ted “Yaaa!”. She is a film fan becau­se she likes to put herself in the shoes of dif­fe­rent cha­rac­ters and alrea­dy dreams of beco­m­ing an actress one day. She pre­fers watching films in the cine­ma to sit­ting on the sofa at home, becau­se the halls and pro­jec­tors are big­ger the­re — and of cour­se becau­se the­re is pop­corn. But it must only be salty.

Lisa Hausmann, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Kids«

Lisa Haußmann (Germany)
Film agent and curator

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Lisa Haußmann stu­di­ed film and media stu­dies in Germany, France and the Netherlands. As a free­lan­ce film edu­ca­tor, she mode­ra­tes film talks and work­shops for young and old cine­­ma-goe­­rs, cura­tes for film fes­ti­vals and con­fe­ren­ces and lec­tures on film edu­ca­ti­on topics. She is a mem­ber of the advi­so­ry board of the EZEF, an hono­ra­ry exami­ner for the FSK and has been the direc­tor of the SchulKinoWochen in Berlin sin­ce 2015.

Nicole, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Kids«

Nicole Kellerhals (Germany)
Dramaturg, pro­du­cer and lecturer

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Nicole Kellerhals has been a free­lan­ce dra­ma­tur­ge at X‑Filme for more than 25 years, whe­re she has alrea­dy super­vi­sed pro­jects by Tom Tykwer, Michael Haneke and Oskar Roehler. As a mem­ber of nume­rous com­mit­tees such as the board of trus­tees of the Förderverein Deutscher Kinderfilm (German Children’s Film Association), she is com­mit­ted to media offe­rings spe­ci­fi­cal­ly tailo­red to child­ren and the pro­mo­ti­on of media com­pe­tence. Since 2017 she has been tea­ching Practical Dramaturgy at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF.

Christian Kosfeld, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Kids«

Christian Kosfeld (Germany)
Film agent, jour­na­list and producer

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Christian Kosfeld first stu­di­ed clas­si­cal per­cus­sion in Leipzig, then German stu­dies, musi­co­lo­gy and medi­eval stu­dies in Bochum. In addi­ti­on to his work as a radio jour­na­list, aut­hor and pro­du­cer for ARD Kultur, he has been rea­li­sing media edu­ca­ti­on school pro­jects at secon­da­ry and com­pre­hen­si­ve schools sin­ce 2007. He is co-deve­­lo­­per of the inclu­si­ve audio descrip­ti­on and film edu­ca­ti­on pro­ject “Junge Filmbeschreiber:innen”.

Jury Competition »Teens«

Lilli, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Teens«

Lilli Dressler (16)
Carl-Schurz-Schule, Frankfurt

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When Lilly sits in the cine­ma seat, she gets goo­se­bumps on her arms and loo­ks for­ward to an exci­ting sto­ry full of emo­tio­nal moments. Her favou­rite film is MAMMA MIA! (US/GB/DE 2008. Director: Phyllida Lloyd), becau­se the good humour in it is sim­ply infec­tious. Successful came­ra work and con­vin­cing acting per­for­man­ces are espe­cial­ly important to her. In the LUCAS pro­gram­me, she loo­ks for­ward to films with a cur­rent relevance.

Jan-Ole, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Teens«

Jan-Ole Schenk (15)
Gymnasium Johanneum, Lüneburg

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Jan-Ole takes the lon­gest way to meet other film enthu­si­asts for the LUCAS fes­ti­val week. He not only enjoys watching films, but also wri­tes scripts and makes short films hims­elf. His favou­rite film is Akira Kurosawa’s THE SEVEN SAMURAI (JP 1954), which he admi­res for its nar­ra­ti­ve struc­tu­re. In a good film, Jan-Ole belie­ves that the tra­des of came­ra, acting and script have to work well together.

Vitalij, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Teens«

Vitalij Schupp (14)
Rackow-Schule, Frankfurt

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When watching films, Vitalij pays atten­ti­on not only to acting and came­ra work, but also to the film music. He is fasci­na­ted by films that give a deep insight into the human psy­che and depict social pro­blems. This is why he also appre­cia­tes Bong Joon-ho’s PARASITE (SK 2019). He is loo­king for­ward to spen­ding a lot of time in the cine­ma during the fes­ti­val week, as film thea­tres exu­de a “cer­tain atmo­s­phe­re” for him.

Ralitsa Assenova, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Teens«

Ralitsa Assenova (Bulgaria)
Film agent and curator

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After stu­dy­ing theat­re and film stu­dies and European cul­tu­ral poli­cy in Paris and Bologna, Ralitsa Assenova com­ple­ted her doc­to­ra­te in the field of film edu­ca­ti­on. She is one of the foun­ders of the Arte Urbana Collectif in Sofia, Bulgaria, is the initia­tor of the film edu­ca­ti­on pro­ject “Cinema in School” and has cura­ted nume­rous pro­gram­mes of Bulgarian films for fes­ti­vals in France, Portugal and Poland.

Julia, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Teens«

Julia Jarl (Sweden)
Festival Director BUFF Malmö

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Julia Jarl has worked at BUFF, the International Children’s and Youth Film Festival in Malmö, Sweden, sin­ce 2007 and took over the posi­ti­on of fes­ti­val direc­tor the­re at the end of 2012. Before that, she was head of edu­ca­ti­on at the regio­nal film fund Film i Skåne and pro­ject mana­ger at Fonds Film Stockholm. She belie­ves that film expe­ri­en­ces can help young peop­le broa­den their view and bet­ter under­stand the world around them.

Michael von Ostade

Michael Van Ostade (Belgium)
Filmmaker, aut­hor and video game developer

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Michael Van Ostade star­ted his crea­ti­ve care­er in the music indus­try befo­re they stu­di­ed film and won the Wildcard Award of the Nederlands Film Festival. With the pri­ze money he made the short film DANCE MACABRE. In 2022, they pre­sen­ted their direc­to­ri­al debut THE GHASTLY BROTHERS at LUCAS. He is cur­r­ent­ly working on a video game for mil­le­ni­als and an antho­lo­gy of Flemish hor­ror stories.

Jury Competition »Youngsters«

Maria, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Youngster«

Maria Ferreira (20, Portugal)

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Maria firm­ly belie­ves that films can chan­ge many people’s per­spec­ti­ves. She would love to meet Albus Dumbledore in real life, becau­se he is a sen­si­ti­ve, intel­li­gent and modest per­son and finds the right words for every moment. Maria will not meet the for­mer head­mas­ter of Hogwarts at LUCAS, but she will meet other young film fans. She is alrea­dy loo­king for­ward to the exchan­ge with them.

Aaron, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Youngsters«

Aaron Thor Härm (21, Estonia)

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The fact that Aaron is an avid cine­­ma-goer is not only evi­dent from his room, who­se walls he has wall­pa­pe­red with film pos­ters: Often, the cha­rac­ters he recent­ly found gre­at even influ­ence his style of dress and man­ner of spea­king. He loves films for hel­ping him switch off and con­nect with the world at the same time. He recent­ly star­ted stu­dy­ing film in Tallinn.

Linus, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Youngster«

Linus Hoder (17, Germany)

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Linus also wants to work in the film indus­try one day. For a film to stay in his memo­ry, it has to take him away from rea­li­ty for its dura­ti­on and show him some­thing com­ple­te­ly new and unusu­al. Linus is also a gre­at lover of tra­gi­co­me­di­es, becau­se they com­bi­ne two important ele­ments for him: Wit and a gre­at emo­tio­nal drop. He is alrea­dy very exci­ted about the films he will see at LUCAS.

Maibritt, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Youngster«

Maibritt Kilu (17, Estonia)

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Addicted to film? Franes par­ents at least have the impres­si­on that their son can’t get enough of good film mate­ri­al. Almost every day he wat­ches one or two movies. Whether it’s new or old, it does­n’t mat­ter. Much more important are the emo­ti­ons that the film con­veys. However, Frane thinks not only about what he has seen, but also makes short docu­men­ta­ries about peop­le from his home­town Pula.

Caroline, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Youngster«

Caroline Kleffmann (17, Germany)

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When Ivan dis­co­ve­r­ed Ingmar Bergman’s PERSONA (SE 1966), it spar­ked his love for cine­ma­to­gra­phy. And yet he is not only inte­res­ted in a cer­tain kind of film. Every now and then he wat­ches films that he nor­mal­ly would not like, to get out of his com­fort zone out and broa­den his tas­te in movies. Ultimately, it’s about losing yourself in the film and almost for­get­ting that you’­re watching a movie.

Ana, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Youngster«

Ana Rodrigues (21, Portugal)

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The moving image also plays a major role in Ana’s life: in her film stu­dies she learns not only about histo­ry, but also about the tech­ni­cal side of the medi­um. One film that has remai­ned par­ti­cu­lar­ly memo­r­able for her is THE CLUB OF DEAD LIGHTS (US 1989. Director: Peter Weir) with Robin Williams, who as tea­cher John Keating has an important mes­sa­ge for his stu­dents: “Carpe Diem, sei­ze the day, guys, make your life extraordinary!”

ECFA-Jury

The jury of the European Children’s Film Association (ECFA) con­sists of European experts from the children’s and youth film sce­ne. This year Ralitsa Assenova and Julia Jarl (both Jury Competition »Teens«) tog­e­ther with Noy Levin (Artistic Director of the Tel Aviv International Children’s Film Festival, Israel) pre­sent the ECFA Award to their favou­rite European children’s film. The award qua­li­fies the films for the annu­al com­pe­ti­ti­on for the “Best European Children’s Film of the Year” award, which is pre­sen­ted during the Berlin International Film Festival.

Noy Levin

Noy Levin (Israel)
Art Director of the Tel Aviv International Children’s Film Festival

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Noy Levin stu­di­ed film at the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University and has direc­ted short films and children’s plays. Noy also cura­tes cul­tu­ral events and is a lec­tu­rer in film and animation.

Ralitsa Assenova, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Teens«

Ralitsa Assenova (Bulgaria)
Film agent and curator

More

After stu­dy­ing theat­re and film stu­dies and European cul­tu­ral poli­cy in Paris and Bologna, Ralitsa Assenova com­ple­ted her doc­to­ra­te in the field of film edu­ca­ti­on. She is one of the foun­ders of the Arte Urbana Collectif in Sofia, Bulgaria, is the initia­tor of the film edu­ca­ti­on pro­ject “Cinema in School” and has cura­ted nume­rous pro­gram­mes of Bulgarian films for fes­ti­vals in France, Portugal and Poland.

Julia, Mitglied der Jury Wettbewerb »Teens«

Julia Jarl (Sweden)
Festival Director BUFF Malmö

More

Julia Jarl has worked at BUFF, the International Children’s and Youth Film Festival in Malmö, Sweden, sin­ce 2007 and took over the posi­ti­on of fes­ti­val direc­tor the­re at the end of 2012. Before that, she was head of edu­ca­ti­on at the regio­nal film fund Film i Skåne and pro­ject mana­ger at Fonds Film Stockholm. She belie­ves that film expe­ri­en­ces can help young peop­le broa­den their view and bet­ter under­stand the world around them.

Cinema Without Borders

»Cinema Without Borders« is an inter­na­tio­nal net­work of peop­le from the film indus­try that pro­mo­tes diver­si­ty, inclu­si­on and social jus­ti­ce in film indus­try. “Cinema Without Borders annu­al­ly pres­ents the »MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award« at selec­ted film fes­ti­vals. The award reco­gni­zes films that con­nect peop­le across geo­gra­phic, reli­gious, eth­nic, cul­tu­ral and eco­no­mic bounda­ries and address issu­es of social justice.

The mem­bers of the »Cinema Without Borders« Jury 2023 are: Keeley Badger, Susan Morgan Cooper, Chale Nafus, Yeganeh Taheri, Bijan Tehrani, James Ulmer.

»Stadtteiljury« Höchst

The »Stadtteiljury« is made up of young peop­le aged ten and over from one of Frankfurt’s neigh­bour­hoods. This year the jury was for­med in Höchst. During a one-week work­shop, the child­ren and young peop­le pre­pa­re for their jury work during the fes­ti­val week. At the end of the fes­ti­val, they select a win­ning film from the short film com­pe­ti­ti­on. The pro­ject offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­bi­ne a view of film with various cul­tu­ral, artis­tic and crea­ti­ve forms of expres­si­on. This inclu­des film reviews, pod­casts, inter­views and much more. Frankfurt’s young, diver­se voices thus get the hea­ring they deser­ve. The »Stadtteiljury« pro­ject is made pos­si­ble by the Hessian Ministry of Culture with funds from the Löwenstark — der BildungsKICK programme.

LUCAS Trennung

Film Guests

LUCAS wel­co­mes nume­rous film guests on site in the four fes­ti­val cine­mas. All film scree­nings are accom­pa­nied by film media­tors. In addi­ti­on, »Filmtalks in Advance« will be held on the com­pe­ti­ti­on films as part of a »Get Involved!« pro­ject. Young LUCAS alum­ni inter­view inter­na­tio­nal filmma­kers in the TV stu­dio of the Medienprojektzentrum Offener Kanal Rhein-Main.

The film guests for LUCAS #46 will be added here on an ongo­ing basis.

LUCAS Trennung

Sponsors & Partners 2023

Fördernde und Sponsor:innen 2023

LUCAS welcomes its guests to

and online in coope­ra­ti­on with

Media partners

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