The year of improvisation: the 69th IFFMH goes expanded

Cinemas across Germany will close on 2 November. This news hits the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg (IFFMH) hard. Especially in this special year, whose many changes and improvisations have challenged cinemas in the extreme, it was important for the IFFMH to keep working towards a physical edition of the Festival to the last.

The highest priority is of course the health of everyone. To guarantee this, the Festival conceived a comprehensive hygiene concept early on, which would have allowed for a safe cinema experience. Now the emergency scenario comes into effect, which entails implementing the nationwide measures to combat the pandemic while still providing the audience with an outstanding, diverse and stimulating film programme: the streaming offer on the online platform expanded.iffmh.de will therefore be extended across the Festival’s entire 11 days, from 12 to 22 November, and the number of available tickets will be increased.

Following consultations with the filmmakers, production companies and distributors, the streaming platform will comprise the majority of the festival programme: including 12 of 14 competition titles, 10 films from the section PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES, 7 films for children and young people, and 7 contributions from the retrospective. The films can be booked individually, as whole sections, as expanded sets, as double features, and by schools. This platform is also intended to bring talent into the spotlight: viewers can expect exclusive contributions such as introductions by and interviews with the directors.
We are also in close contact with rights holders to see whether further titles can be added during this particular pandemic situation.

Solidarity with filmmakers and cinemas is crucial for the IFFMH. We will therefore donate 1 euro of every film ticket sold to our partner cinemas. As soon as the cinemas reopen, we are also planning a series of collaboration events under the name IFFMH Presents, which had already been introduced in 2020.

We thank all partners, supporters and spectators for their understanding and loyalty in adapting to this new situation. For us, this means that the year of free jazz continues!

Tickets for IFFMH Expanded are now available online: https://expanded.iffmh.de/

Tickets that have already been booked for the cancelled physical events will be automatically refunded. Ricarda Voigt will answer any questions regarding this issue at ticketing@iffmh.de.