welcome to our cosmos

sommer.film.akademie
2021–2024

Since its inception in 2021, the Sommer.Film.Akademie Lausitz has grown from a regional pilot project into a vibrant, transnational platform for cinematic practice, interdisciplinary learning, and artistic collaboration. Over four editions – held in Görlitz, Nebelschütz, and across the border region – the Academy has brought together over 150 artistic contributors from more than 20 countries, and involved around 78 core participants. Across this period, more than 40 films were produced, with a total running time of approximately five hours, spanning a wide range of forms: from essays and documentaries to fiction shorts, performances, and experimental hybrids.

Sommerfilmakademie consistently worked multilingually (German, English, Polish, Sorbian, Ukrainian, French, etc.) and interculturally – with a strong focus on decolonial, queer, migrant, feminist and minority perspectives.This diversity of voices is not only reflected in the films but also in the methodology of collaborative, peer-to-peer education.

 

format & highlights

Each edition offered a multi-week modular programme combining workshops, lectures, masterclasses, collaborative filmmaking, and public screenings. In 2022, the Rashomon Music Festival was launched. The 2023 edition introduced a stronger focus on queer and intersectional perspectives, which have since been continuously fostered in our programming. The 2024 edition, INTERGALACTIC LUSATIA (IGAL), marked a milestone by aligning with scientific partners like the DZA and CASUS, bridging cosmology and cinema.
 

support & partnerships

The Academy has received continuous support from a wide range of funders and institutions, including the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen (KdFS), Lausitz Festival, Stiftung für das Sorbische Volk, INTERREG Kleinprojekte, Töpfer Stiftung, VG Bild-Kunst, Kreatives Sachsen, Stadt Görlitz, or Stiftung für Deutsch-Polnische Zusammenarbeit, among others. Key cultural partners include DZA, CASUS, Rabryka, Meta Solis, Rabryka, Zukunftsvisionen Festival, New Horizons Film Festival (Wrocław), Görlitzer Brotschmiede, Gemeinschaft Lindenhof and several other institutions and associations.
 

artistic contributors

Our program featured 152 artists, filmmakers, theorists and performers, including renowned figures such as Monika Treut, Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, Jagoda Szelc, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad, Prof. Günther Hasinger, Prof. Samaya Michiko Nissanke, Lucas Rietzschel & Constanze Klaue, Aidan Baker, OSTBAM, Katerina Gornostai, Grit Lemke, Sara Polak, and Franziska Schubert.
Contributors hailed from countries including Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Turkey, USA, UK, Austria, China, Iran, Argentina, Sri Lanka and many more. The Sorbian community was notably represented by 16 contributors, making it a strong thematic and cultural pillar throughout.
 

filmography & themes

Over the course of four editions, more than 40 films have been produced – ranging from speculative shorts to poetic documentaries. Highlights include Pond by Steffen Cieplik, Ghost Waltz by Freya Arde, Austreibungen by Hannah Klitzke
and Ida-Lia Salomon, Wartezimmer by Yasmin Saleh and Abdelhamid Bessi, Mirror by Mar Parra, or Křižerki by Sophia Ziesch. Thematically, these works navigate identity, transformation, marginalised histories, ecological narratives, and post-human imaginaries.
 

Spanning genres such as essay film, documentary, fiction short, animation, music video, performance, sound collage, infomercial, and hybrid docu-fiction, the SFA’s filmography reflects the Academy’s commitment to experimentation, diverse storytelling, and cinematic exploration beyond borders.

​

​