hungry eyes festival goes into the next round! The team of 13 art-hungry cultural practitioners, theater-makers and cineastes has made it their goal to interrogate the intersection between film, performance and installation art and is looking forward to the next and third edition of hungry eyes festivals from February 5th-7th 2021 in Giessen, Germany.

hungry eyes festival emerged from the short film festival Filmsommer (2016) and developed over the following two years a great desire for interdisciplinary formats that deal with the medium of film.

Today, almost five years later, over 770 submissions for short films, installation art works and performances from 62 countries reached the digital mailbox of the festival in the Hessian university city. In a collective process over the period of three months the entire team reviewed, sighted and discussed all the works and finally put together a program for hungry eyes festival 2021. We are now very pleased to publish this program with over 40 participating artists* and collectives.

The festival is interested in artistic positions that place themselves at the intersection of film, performance and installation art. In addition to three short film programs, consisting of a total of 16 short films in the main category and seven short films in the so called ‘Trash Night, nine installation art works and performances have been selected that deal with the medium film in an interdisciplinary way. The question of the gaze as well as perspectives of ‘looking’ and ‘being looked at’ are fine threads that connect the selected artistic works and weave a web of the diverse artistic approaches and disciplines. 

Due to the ongoing seriousness of the situation regarding the Covid19 pandemic and the related decisions and measures taken by the federal government to contain the virus, cultural events, among other things, will continue to be restricted. The hungry eyes festival is also affected by these measures, which means that this year it cannot take place as planned in the exhibition space KiZ in Giessen. However the hungry eyes festival team is not discouraged by this and has developed a version of the festival with which the various artistic works can be accessed conveniently and securely from home via our website in a diverse and sometimes experimental way - with the difference that this year not only will the local audience be reached, but this international program will be open to audiences worldwide.

Originally planned as an analog festival in the Giessen exhibition space KiZ, hungry eyes 2021 leaves a void that cannot be filled completely. However, the festival team would like to provide a stage for artistic works in the digital space and enable encounters between the audience and the artists. In addition to a festive digital opening there will be various other online events: On the one hand there is the pompously shrill Trash Night with the awarding of the "Golden Toast Hawaii" for the trashiest short film of this edition, on the other hand, there are several conversation formats in which both the audience and the artists are invited to get into conversation with each other despite spatial distance. In addition to an exchange about the short films of the main category, there will be an online event to imaginatively fill the void that has arisen: The performance- and installation-artists will give insights into their work and together we will imagine what the festival would have looked like.

Further, the short films of the festival will be available online so that for the first time in the history of hungry eyes festivals there will be the possibility to make the international program accessible to an audience scattered all over the world. Also the installation art works and performances will be presented on the website through a variety of materials and the artists will be introduced in the form of short video portraits.

The already mentioned special short film category ‘Trash’ expands the spectrum of artistic positions shown at the festival by taking itself seriously in its unseriousness and not too seriously in its seriousness. These pearls of film, often labeled as "anti-art" or "tastelessness" are honored during the ‘Trash Night’, which finally culminates in the awarding of the honorary prize "The Golden Toast Hawaii".

Thanks to the support of numerous institutions such as HessenFilm und Medien GmbH, the Giessen Cultural Office, the Hessian Film and Media Academy, the Giessen Cultural Foundation and the Hessen Theater Academy, hungry eyes festival is once again able to offer free access to art and culture regardless of admission fees.

A complete insight into the program of hungry eyes festivals 2021 can be found here on our website as well as on our social media channels, where all works and artists are presented in detail.