Blog: Film festivals

From April 22 to 26, 2026, the 55th edition of the Sehsüchte International Student Film Festival, one of Europe's largest festivals for up-and-coming filmmakers, will take place in Potsdam. It offers up-and-coming filmmakers from all over the world a platform to present their work to a wide audience and build contacts in the industry. Started in the 1970s as a GDR film festival for young filmmakers, Sehsüchte has established itself over the decades as an internationally important film festival and has become an integral part of Berlin and Brandenburg's cultural landscape.

Sehsüchte sees itself as a place of encounter and creation, as an event of cultural diversity and a celebration of cinema, today and tomorrow. The organization and implementation of the festival is entirely in the hands of students from the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. This enables a dynamic exchange between young talents, media makers and researchers.

Motto 2026: What's left?

The motto of the Sehsüchte film festival in 2026 is What's left?. In the 55th edition of Sehsüchte, we want to direct our view into the past, present, and future. What’s left? wants to know what remains — of our ideals, our home, our hopes and fears, and of a world we want to believe in. With What’s left?, we want to challenge the pessimism implied by the question: We want to recognize the potential for change, and develop future perspectives not in spite of, but because of the challenges of the present. What’s left? means taking responsibility, allowing ourselves to say goodbye, and finding the courage for new opportunities and collective visions —to achieve constructiveness beyond resignation.

What’s left? What’s left to hope for? What’s left to do?

Artistic and cinematic explorations, workshops, and discussion formats want to invite filmmakers and audiences alike to face the complexity of this world. Between upheaval and awakening, tradition and rebellion, grief and hope: in its 55th edition, Sehsüchte wants to create spaces in which filmmakers and audiences can encounter political and personal crises in order to find out what does remain.


Sections:
● Fiction Film
● Documentary Film
● Animated Film
● Experimental Film
● Focus: Social Impact - Storytelling and Producing
● Future: Kids
● Future: Teens
● Virtual Reality
● Music Video
● Schreibsüchte (Script)
● Schreibsüchte (Pitch)
● Retrospective
● Exhibition - Beyond the Screen
● Showcase