Special emphasis is placed on the atmosphere. Visitors should feel completely at ease and go home “with stars in their eyes,” as festival director Gudrun Winter puts it. Evenings begin with relaxed live music from 8:00 p.m. at some of the region’s most beautiful venues. The film program begins at dusk, with eight short films shown each evening. The program changes daily but always follows the same dramatic structure. “We begin with pleasant, funny films to set the mood, then it becomes exciting, dramatic, romantic and sometimes documentary-like, and finally the comedies arrive so that everyone goes home in a good mood,” says Winter.
This year’s program includes a particularly large number of films with prominent casts, including:
I Am Bob, with Bob Geldof, on 18 July in Höchst and 24 July in Bad Soden
Phantom Pain, with Hannelore Elsner, on 19 July in Höchst and 25 July in Bad Soden
Truck Stop Grill, with Axel Prahl, on 23 July in Bad Soden
Poor Black Cat, with Heinrich Schafmeister, on 31 July in Hofheim
Champagne Can’t Hurt, with Gustav Peter Wöhler, on 25 July in Bad Soden
The quality of the films has surprised many visitors. German short films rank among the best in the world, and this year the international short-film Oscar from Los Angeles once again went to Germany.
Reto Caffi’s On the Line must therefore not be absent from the Shorts at Moonlight program; it will screen on 18 July in Höchst and 24 July in Bad Soden.
Physical comfort is also taken care of. Alongside food and drinks, blankets are provided in case anyone feels cold—this year even genuine Swiss army blankets. If the weather becomes too wet, free rain capes will be handed out or the program will move into the attractively decorated cinema tent.
The festival has also thought of children. This year, Shorts at Moonlight will for the first time offer young visitors the opportunity to make films themselves as part of the children’s program in Höchst on 18 and 19 July at 3:00 p.m. and in Hofheim on 2 and 3 August at 3:00 p.m. It promises to be a lively experiment, and television coverage has already been announced.
The festival opens from 17 to 19 July at 8:00 p.m. each evening on the castle terrace in Höchst. It then moves on with a changing program to the Old Spa Park in Bad Soden and the Old Moated Castle in Hofheim, before concluding with presentation of the Škoda Short Film Award at the Electoral Palace in Mainz.
Tickets costing EUR 6 and program information are available at http://www.shortsatmoonlight.de. Unless otherwise stated, tickets will also be available at the evening box office.