Harzmovienale — Harz Short Film Competition

A Short Film Festival in the Heart of a World Heritage Site

Quedlinburg is one of Europe's most beautiful half-timbered towns and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994. It is precisely here — at the foot of the Schlossberg hill, in a courtyard that is used year-round by the Studiokino Eisenstein — that the Harzmovienale takes place every August. It is the only short film competition in the entire Harz region and the only film festival in the Harz district dedicated exclusively to the short format. The festival has already had eight editions, and its resonance grows year by year.

The event is organized by DV Reichenstraße e.V., which has been operating the Studiokino Eisenstein in Quedlinburg for years — one of the few remaining art-house cinemas in Saxony-Anhalt with a decidedly curated selection. The Harzmovienale draws its strength from this cinematic cultural foundation: it is not a mere tourist attraction, but a serious platform for filmmakers, providing visibility for the short film format.

Open-Air Screening on a Summer Evening

The festival takes place as an open-air event: as dusk falls, the projection begins on a large screen in the courtyard of Reichenstraße. Around 25 short films from a variety of submissions will be shown — feature films, animations, documentaries, experimental films. A jury makes the selection, and the audience votes. The motto "Your Film in the Cinema" describes the core of the festival: young and established filmmakers get a real cinema screen here, not a streaming window.

Saxony-Anhalt from a Cinematic Perspective

For Quedlinburg and the surrounding Harz district, the Harzmovienale is a cultural constant. In August, when tourist crowds throng the old town, the festival offers a counterpoint: no medieval markets, no classical music festivals, but contemporary filmmaking under the starry sky. It thus joins the ranks of small, distinctive film festivals in Saxony-Anhalt, alongside DOK Leipzig (nearby in Saxony) or the FilmFest Anhalt in Dessau.