IAC logo
The Film & Video Institute

Festival Notebook
Eulenspiegeleien
The logo of the festival. (36th) Eulenspiegeleien, Berlin-Köpenick, Germany

Closing : ?14 January 2011
Festival: 21-23 January 2011

This celebration of comedy in film takes place at the Penta Hotel in the centre of Berlin-Köpenick, a commuter town just outside Berlin.

The name is a set of puns around "Till Eulenspiegel" (the rascal character celebrated in Richard Strauss's tone-poem) and "owl's eggs" - hence the owl logo. You might guess that the festival is devoted to humour and satire.

It is organised by FiVia Videomakers Club. Even the rules and forms are funny. They prefer films not more than 3 years old and up to 20 minutes long, but explain: "Of course, when the quality is extremely high, the organisers can change the rules ! "

There is a pre-selection process and then the films selected for presentation will be judged in public by an independent jury. There is no entry fee but if you want your tape back you must enclose international post vouchers.

The festival starts at 7pm Friday and finishes at midday Sunday.

They permit VHS, S-VHS or Mini-DV  and HD but add - "DVD and BluRay only allowed where you can bring your own player guaranteed to play your disc!"
Dr. Ralf Köthnig is telling us that these sweet statuettes of the owl symbol will be presents for those who attend the festival in 2010.

This is a festival with as much good humour among the audience as on the screen.

Though this popular event attracts a sophisticated crowd who usually have good English, the language of the festival is German. Your entry should not depend on English puns. If you wish to attend you'll be made very welcome indeed, but should have some knowledge of German to follow all the jokes in the films and the announcements.

In recent years several UK films have done well there including Extinction Event , Dropping Off, The Remote Control, Stripped and Listen !.

Their website has entry forms but you can download English versions here.

Website: www.fivia.de (click Eulenspiegeleien in the menu on the left.)
E-mail: eulenspiegeleien@arcor.de | Rules and Entry form (English pdf)


Page updated on 18 February 2010

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source