Heidewitzka, how time flies! In exactly one week's time, HARD:LINE will open its doors. We're still full to bursting with preparations at the moment, the to-do list is overflowing and yet there's a ray of hope in sight: you, who we're looking forward to beyond all measure!
You can tell how time flies when you think about how long it's been since one of the cornerstones of our supporting program took place: our panel discussion. If you can get so many insiders of the German genre landscape together in one place, then let's put them all on one stage and let them chat about German genre film. Well, and it was precisely this relatively relaxed get-together in our setting that was once the basic idea behind our panel discussion, which last took place in 2022. 2022?? Aha, why have three years now passed without a panel discussion? What was the reason? Of course, you always ask yourself why. Was it because genre film in Germany has too little to offer? Or was there simply nothing to talk about over the last three years? Questions like these need to be answered. Where? Well, at our panel discussion on Saturday, 12.04.2025, from 13:30 in the Ostentor Kino. Admission is free, but definitely not free, because there will certainly be a lot of interesting things to hear. We recommend being there on time.
Below you can see who we will be having this exciting and important discussion with.
THE PARTICIPANTS OF OUR PANEL DISCUSSION 2025
Verena Gräfe-Höft
Initially Verena initially worked as an author and dramaturge. She studied at the Hamburg Media School, where she now also works as a cessor today. In 2009, Verena founded her own production company "Junafilm", with which she produced Katrin Gebbe's first film TORE TANZT produced. From 2018, there was a clear shift towards the horror genre: PELIKANBLUT, SCHLAF and SPIRIT IN THE BLOOD are all productions that must be familiar to genre fans. In When it comes to "Elevated Horror", it is the top address in this country.
Kai Bogatzki
Kai Bogatzki achieved a respectable independent success in 2017 with SCARS OF XAVIER. After that, his ideas mostly failed due to the budget. Bogatzki stayed busy and was always part of the German independent scene, but it took him eight years to release his next feature film THE BEHEMOTH. We are looking forward to him and his feature film THE BEHEMOTH, which HARD:LINE is presenting as a world premiere.
Stefan Schimek
The relaxed get-together is rounded off by a voice from the festival world. Stefan Schimek is a festival organizer from Constance, where he founded the SHIVERS Film Festival. Today he works as program director at the Weird Weekender in Stuttgart and is also active at the independent film distributor Drop Out Cinema.
