The Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest is a week-long, Worldwide Online Film Festival, celebrating incredible genre content and beginning November 27th.
In their virtual theatre, the fest will be streaming 117 science fiction films from 28 different countries — taking place over 21 sessions for one week only: November 27th – December 6th.
COVID has made in-person events extremely difficult to impossible this year. However, rather than just postpone or completely cancel for the year, many festivals have chosen to share much of their amazing content online. This has opened up the festival experience to so many genre fans who would have otherwise missed out — removing geographic boundaries and cost barriers.
I’ve had the opportunity to explore film festivals which would have previously been inaccessible to me. One example of a fest I would have never previously had the means to take part in, which I am not thrilled to check out, is the Berlin Sci Fi Film Fest.
The Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest, now in its fourth year, was the first genre-specific Sci-fi film festival in Germany. It launched on November 17th, 2017, at the world-famous Babylon Cinema, where Metropolis first screened in 1927. Over the last three years, the festival has screened over 300 films from 38 different countries. This year’s live event in Berlin has been postponed due to the COVID pandemic. But the festival organizers have taken the initiative and created an online cosmic expanse of the global Internet, and you won’t want to miss it.
The festival is making some of their content available to everyone FOR FREE.
What was originally designed as a content preview for members of the press has now been opened up to everyone, worldwide. The Press Preview provides a selection of shorts and trailers from films in the festival.
Featured content includes:
1. Overview (Full Short, Session 1) – Space Drama, DE 2020, 2:59 min, Director: Alexander Rottmann – An astronaut is sent into space for the first time, changing her perspective on our blue planet forever.
2. Ground (Full Short, Session 1) – Space Music Video, Switzerland 2019, 4:45 min, Director: Nic Gyalson – Finding one’s way back home can be difficult sometimes…
3. Peperit8 (Short Film Teaser, Session 1) – Cloning Action, DE 2020, 20:52 min, Director: Aaron J. J. Schmidt – In an experiment for human cloning, Carmina’s DNA is stolen to create a new generation of security clones that are supposed to rule the dystopian world.
4. Zealandia (Short Film Teaser, Session 2) – Pandemic Drama, NZ 2020, 15:01 min, Director: Bruno du Bois (German Premiere) – In 2032, Zealandia has become the only virus free country left on earth but at a high cost to its population due to intrusive medical regulations. But, could the bag carried by a fearless woman be the downfall of this oppressive state?
5. Raze the Cyborg (Short Film Teaser, Session 3) – Sex Slavery Action, Taiwan 2020, 25 min, Director: Young Lee (German Premiere) – In the violent underworld of a future Asian city, a group of cyborg criminals abduct women to sell into sex slavery.
6. Hawk & Rev: Vampire Slayers (Feature Film Teaser, Session 7) – Horror, USA 2019, 84 mins, Director: Ryan Barton-Grimley (German Premiere) – Philip “HAWK” Hawkins doesn’t just dream about killing vampires… He eats, sleeps, drinks and freakin’ breaths it! After getting kicked out the Army for staking a fellow soldier with a blunt two by four, Hawk almost dies of boredom working as a night security guard at a deserted office park in his hometown of Santa Muerte, California. Just when it looks like all Hawk’s options in life have expired, a filthy-ass blood-sucking vampires appear!
7. Employee 515 (Full Short, Session 9) – Drama, Canada 2020, 6 min, Director: Zikang Chen – Employee 515 lives and works at his office adhering to the same routine everyday.
8. Skywatch (Short, Session 9) – Action, USA 2019, 10 min, Director: Colin Levy – When two outcast teens hack into a ubiquitous drone delivery system to pull a prank on their neighbor, they accidentally crash-land a dangerous prototype – and find themselves entangled in a life-and-death conspiracy.
9. Three Pills (Full Short, Session 13) – Drama, Finland 2020, 2:33 min, Director: Christian Wenger – In the year 2050, the system provides three pills to every elderly person, to be taken on their 70th birthday.
10. Oxygen (Short Film Teaser, Session 13) – Survival Animation, Belgium 2020, 10:32 min, Director: Rocky Grispen and Violette Belzer – On a far away planet, home to Bobtors, an astronaut-doctor suffers from a lack of oxygen. To survive she has to pay the highest price as a human and as a doctor…
11. BeeMe (Feature Film Trailer, Session 19) – Social Documentary, USA 2019, 37 min, Director: Niccolo Pescetelli, Michael Perryman – BeeMe was a global social experiment that took place on Halloween night 2018. Thousands of online participants remotely controlled a human person freely moving on the MIT campus. This film documents the creation and aftermath of this unique event.
12. Spin Cycle (Full Short, Session 19) – Comedy, Mexico 2019, 5:30 min, Director: Diego Garibay Wendler (European Premiere) – An obsessive guy faces one of the most mysterious enigmas in life: where do missing socks go? The answer is more complex than he imagined.
To sign up for free access to the press preview, visit the link below:
https://xerb.tv/channel/berlinscififilmfest/virtual-events/1494/purchase/
You can download the full event program guide here:
https://www.berlinscifi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/1-Xerb-Festival-Program-1.pdf
A full festival pass (including tickets for all 22 blocks of programming) is only $50 US dollars. You can also pick up a 10 session pass for only $30 or a 5 session pass for $20. Additionally, films can be purchased individually.
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