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’s and youth groups in Germany can also access the short films of the com­pe­ti­ti­on pro­gram 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 pro­grams 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.

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Competitions & Awards

Competitions

In the com­pe­ti­ti­on sec­tions 8+, 13+ and 16+ | 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 8+, 13+, and 16+ | 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 8+ and 13+ sec­tions, all of which are German premieres.

Awards

Section 8+

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

Section 13+

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

Section 16+ | Youngsters

  • LUCAS Youngsters Award (5.000 €)

Short film competition

  • »Stadtteiljury« Award

All Sections

  • ECFA-Award 
  • Audience Award 
  • MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award
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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 8+, 13+ and 16+ | 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.

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Jury

The juries 8+ and 13+ are equal­ly com­po­sed of young film fans and indus­try pro­fes­sio­nals. They deci­de on the awar­ding of five LUCAS pri­zes in the com­pe­ti­ti­ons 8+ and 13+. A jury of young European film enthu­si­asts reward the LUCAS Youngsters Award to a film in the 16+ | Youngsters section.

An ECFA jury also awards an ECFA Award in the 8+ sec­tion, sin­ce 2018 Cinema without Borders has awar­ded a pri­ze to a com­pe­ti­ti­on film and the audi­ence award is deci­ded by the fes­ti­val visitors.

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Film Guests

LUCAS wel­co­mes nume­rous film guests on site at the cine­ma. All film scree­nings are accom­pa­nied by film media­tors. In addi­ti­on, film talks in advan­ce have been recor­ded of 7 com­pe­ti­ti­ve films as part of a “Get Involved!” pro­ject. Young LUCAS alum­ni inter­view­ed inter­na­tio­nal filmma­kers in the TV stu­dio of the Medienprojektzentrum Offener Kanal Rhein-Main.

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Sponsors & Partners 2022

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LUCAS welcomes its guests to

and online in coope­ra­ti­on with

Media partners

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