In 2018 zeitimpuls shortfilm celebrated its 10th anniversary: back then, in 2008, when it all began it was solely a small local initiative – today it’s a short film festival with international reputation with focus on social and political issues. Every year zeitimpuls organizes a competition dedicated to all kinds of short films, ranging from shortest spots, mobile film to „bigger“ short films, with all kinds of aesthetics being welcome.
As important as the competition is zeitimpuls’ media education initiative by giving film workshops at schools in Vienna. During these workshops mobile films are being created with smartphones together with students and sometimes it’s for the first time that some students gain deeper insights into (short) films as a form of media and means of expression and storytelling. The results of these workshops and the international competition are being brought together during the festival end of June each year and they represent the variety that zeitimpuls aims to make visible in one single festival: from the first steps in filmmaking to internationally recognized short films.
Each year a new thematical focus is chosen which serves as a guideline for the films being submitted, but also as the basis for the school workshops. In the last years topics such as „open minded“ or „limitless“ were chosen, this year we are dealing with „responsibility“, the ability to respond. Responding as both a necessity and ability will show up quite diversified in the film programs of this year’s festival. There will be:

• …a focus on (individual and collective) memories and the responsibility of not forgetting
• …a whole range of films made by female directors or writers that offer „another point of view“ in their aesthetics, perspectives or topics
• …a questioning approach to the present and future of digitalization in society and of our everyday lives
• …filmic “responses!“ which act out questions and remarks about our lifestyles and the current state of our world
• …a film program dedicated to and “inspired by quarantine“, lockdown and the consequences and aftermath of Covid-19

We are looking forward to diverse, exciting, thought-provoking, yet fun experiences with around 135 short films from all over the world in this year’s online special edition of the zeitimpuls shortfilm festival.