Starting next week, festival director Michael Harbauer will travel abroad again to promote German children’s and youth films on international screens. His first stop will be KINEKO, Tokyo’s international children’s film festival, where he will present “Heidi” and “The Pasta Detectives” together with director Alain Gsponer and producer Philipp Budweg. The young audiences will see both films with Japanese voice-overs.

At the same time, SCHLINGEL project coordinator Gritt Langer will travel to Russia to present seven films of recent SCHLINGEL editions in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Novosibirsk. She will be joined by director Florian Gaag, whose film “LenaLove” won this year’s Fair Play Prize in Chemnitz and was then selected to be part of the programme in Novosibirsk and Krasnojarsk. In a workshop with Russian teachers, Gritt Langer will discuss the differences in film recommendations by adult and child/youth juries.

Only one week later, Michael Harbauer will visit Romania to attend KINOdiseea, the international children’s film festival in Bucharest. A German Focus will present a total of eight films both in and out of competition. German filmmakers Alexandra Prochazka, producer of “At eye level” and Florian Gaag, director of “LenaLove” will attend the festival to present their films to the Romanian audience.

The main objective of these international activities is the promotion of German children’s and youth film productions abroad. SCHLINGEL thus aims to increase the young audiences’ interest in the German language and, moreover, the country’s history, culture, traditions and life of young people. Q&As complement the screenings and allow for intensive exchange. At the same time, SCHLINGEL is constantly expanding its worldwide network and tries to enthuse international filmmakers to come to Chemnitz.

SCHLINGEL’s presentations abroad are kindly supported by Sächsische Staatskanzlei, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and German Films.