The 42nd edition of the Max Ophüls Preis film festival takes place as a purely online event with a festival week that has been extended by one day . From 17th to 24th On January 1st, 2021 , the films of the four competitions and side series will be available on demand on a streaming platform specially developed for the festival . The audience can vote on their favorites in the public competitions. Both the opening and the award ceremony and the “MOP Industry” program will also take place online in an adapted form. The new offer is a free, linear web channelcomplete the program. It is also planned to make up for part of the festival later in 2021 as a face-to-face event with screenings in the Saarland cinemas in the presence of the award winners.
Festival director Svenja Böttger and artistic director Oliver Baumgarten: “It doesn't help to wish or to hope: The current circumstances, in the sense of common sense, require a flexible rethinking in the organization of our film festival. And as sad as we may be about the move to digital, which will hopefully remain unique in the history of the Max Ophüls Prize film festival, we have always considered this option and now want to exhaust all possibilities to adequately transform the festival character into digital with innovative formats and lively ideas transferred to. The scene of young German-speaking filmmakers is lively - it absolutely deserves our attention. And that is exactly what our digital edition is supposed to do: be a platform to honor and discuss the work of young filmmakers in times of pandemic and to offer them as broad a public as possible.
We deeply regret that we have not been able to enter into any cooperation with many of our long-term partners and supporters from the cinema, event and hotel industries this year. With our planned physical festival edition, a little later in the year we would like to give back at least a small part of the support that our partners repeatedly give us.
Special thanks go to the state capital of Saarbrücken, the state government of Saarland, our sponsors and supporters as well as our festival sponsors, who continue to support us unreservedly in difficult times and who have never left any doubts about the trust in our team and the implementation of the 42nd festival edition. "
The four competitions for the awards of over 110,000 euros at the Max Ophüls Prize film festival in the categories of feature film, documentary film, medium-length film and short film also form the center of the festival in a slightly reduced form in the online edition. The program is supplemented by selected side series as well as adapted formats of the MOP Industry program. A streaming platform based on blockchain technology, which is developed and programmed for the film festival, serves as the digital platform for the festival edition. A daily changing offer of discussion formats and exclusive (film) content is planned for the new linear web channel.