The International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience has a new main sponsor. For the first time the Volksbank Chemnitz eG will be present at the 15th edition of the festival from 27th September to 3rd October 2010. For a start, the commitment of the bank is laid out for one year.
Gunnar Bertram, board of directors of the Volksbank Chemnitz eG, said about the bank’s involvement: “Being a bank for the middle class and for families, it is an important concern for us to support and to advance regional offers and activities for children, teenagers and families. The SCHLINGEL Film Festival is a case sui generis: high-quality movies without a multi-million ad budget will be made accessible to children and teenagers, and films get a chance to be shown on the big screen. This approach inspired us right away. And we do not have to mention how happy we are about international film-makers and directors visiting Chemnitz.”

The team of the festival is also pleased about the repeated support by the EU through the MEDIA-programme, especially as this year’s edition is an anniversary. After last year‘s first support, the programme increased the sum of money for this year‘s edition by 10,000 euros to 35,000 euros. The money can be used for the production of printed material like the festival catalogue, posters and programmes as well as for film translations and copies. The SCHLINGEL International Film Festival is the only festival for children in Germany that is supported by the European Union.

“The Volksbank Chemnitz is a strong partner to us. Their policy concentrating at children and families goes with the focus of our festival. I’m looking forward to our future collaboration. Our concept as well as the commitment of all involved persons are the reasons for again being selected by the MEDIA-programme. I believe that we convinced the committee due to the diversity of our programme and guests. Also the European Children’s Jury was an advantage because nowhere else can children rate children’s films”, said the director of the festival Michael Harbauer.

Main supporters of the festival are the Free State of Saxony and the City of Chemnitz even though the International Film Festival is affected by the budget freeze of the Free State. The State Ministry for Science and the Arts reduced funds by 8,500 euros. The impact on the festival is not forseeable yet.

SCHLINGEL is an independent festival with international competitions and various additional events. We conceive ourselves as a platform for international children’s and youth films in Germany. Every year in autumn the festival gives an overview of current productions from all over the world. Last October, about 10,000 visitors watched 118 films from 39 countries. The festival is organised by Sächsischer Kinder- und Jugendfilmdienst e.V. and co-organised by Sächsische Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk und neue Medien (SLM).