The history

Bolzano ShortFilmfestival was first organized in 1968 under the name Opere Nuove and it was basically a national festival dedicated to short films. This competition still exists as the national section of the Festival. In 2004 an international section called No Words was introduced dedicated to short films without dialogues. These two different competitions has become part of an unique Festival since 2007 under the name Bolzano ShortFilmFestival.

The experimental short film

Since 2005 the Shortfilmfestival of Bolzano, Italy, has a section dedicated to the experimental films. Initially they were shown on installations and during exhibitions highly appreciated by the audience. Since 2008 ShortFilmExperiment is also a competition with its own money-prize.

Die kurze Welle – The new competition German language shorts.

A new competition comes to complete the proposal of the BolzanoShortFilmFestival: die kurze Welle open for all shorts in German language.
This particular choise of the organizers has two reasons: first, it wants to offer for the pubblic of Bolzano city a various cultural perspective; second,it wants to open the possibility of a deep knowledge of the German language shorts, increasingly and qualitative, without the restrictions available for the other two competitions of the Festival – No Words and ShortFilmExperiment.

Born Bolzano Comics!

In 2006 the Festival had a happy and interesting experience when it organised for the first time the exhibition called No Words Comics. In 2009 No Words Comics comes back as a new competition of the Festival, open to all comics without words. The interrelationship between cinema and comics is very strong (we find in the cinema the comic heroes and viceversa). We also find a similar structure and artistic language. The filmmakers and also the authors of the comics need equally a good knowledge of screenplay, editing and photography and could be an interesting confrontation. The competition is open for all works no longer then 16 panels, which developes a storytelling without words and balloons except ambient noises and onomatopetics. It is a storytelling images where draftsman approach filmmakers of the competition No Words, dedicated to the shorts without words.