On 5th October the German premiere of the French production MICROBE & GASOLINE by director Michel Gondry opened the 20th International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience SCHLINGEL in Chemnitz/Germany. About 350 youngsters from the Chemnitz region as well as national and international guests attended the official ceremony. During the festival week 156 films from 46 countries are being screened in the CineStar multiplex at “Galerie Roter Turm” shopping centre. The visitors can enjoy recent productions from countries such as Egypt, Japan, Canada, Mexico and Serbia. The festival also shows a wide range of exceptional national films. With 30 German premieres and three world premieres the audience in Chemnitz will be presented with exclusive film moments. This year’s festival mascot Sven Leouth welcomes both little and grown-up visitors to the cinema.

The movies are screened in the following competition categories: Children’s Film, Junior Film, Youth Film, Short Film, Animation Film and Focus Germany. 111 movies compete for the popular SCHLINGEL trophies, which are awarded on 10th October at Stadthalle Chemnitz. The competition is complemented by the noncompetitive sections of Panorama, CineStar meets SCHLINGEL, SCHLINGEL goes on holiday as well as Neighborhood, a short film programme, which was created with the partner festivals in Zlín and Poznan.

The SCHLINGEL classics section recalls and celebrates the festival’s 20th anniversary. Furthermore, a focus on Central and Eastern Europe presents productions from neighbouring countries and beyond. The festival welcomes film crews from around the world, who present their contributions to the audience and are available for Q&A’s after the screenings.

During the festival a total of 10 children, youth and professional juries as well as the audience select the winners of their respective competition categories. 14 prizes totaling 57,000 Euros will be awarded on 10th October. Traditionally, one of the awards is given by the European Children’s Jury, a group of 18 children from 9 different countries.

Since 2006 the festival has honoured outstanding achievements in the field of children’s and youth films with the Ehrenschlingel Award. The 2015 Ehrenschlingel goes to Gert K. Müntefering, the inventor of the German SENDUNG MIT DER MAUS. For more than 40 years the programme has explained the secrets of the world to its child audience.

A wide range of workshops and creative activities complements the film screenings, offering film education to kindergartens, schools and after-school care clubs.  All films are presented in their original language with a live dubbing during the screenings. This year’s dubbing artists are: Steffi Edelmann, Kay Haberkorn, Kerstin Heine, Jens Hahn, Dr. Volker Petzold, Antje Poser, Michael Schmidt, Laura Streiber und Philip Warschkow.

Tickets are 5 Euros and can be purchased from the cinema box office at the CineStar multiplex in the Galerie Roter Turm shopping centre, Neumarkt 2, Chemnitz. The festival tickets also serve as tickets on all busses, trams and trains of Verkehrsverbund Mittelsachsen, the regional public transport services. The festival is organized by Sächsischer Kinder- und Jugendfilmdienst e.V. Chemnitz, a local non-profit organization, together with SLM, Sächsische Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk und neue Medien (Saxon state agency of private broadcasting and new media). Stanislaw Tillich, Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony has taken on the patronage of the festival.

The Long Night of Short Films will take place at the Chemnitz Uferstrand on 7th October at 7.30 pm. SCHLINGEL also screens parts of its programme at Kinopolis Freiberg (from 7 th – 9 th of October) and at Passage Kinos Leipzig (from 6th to 8th of October). During the autumn holidays Kinderfilmhaus in Chemnitz presents the festival’s “SCHLINGEL goes on holiday” programme, featuring films that have entered German cinemas since the last festival edition in 2014.