History
INTERFILM is an international network which brings together interested individuals and institutions concerned with film and theology, and church and cinema. INTERFILM was founded on the initiative of representatives of German, French, Dutch and Swiss Protestant film work in 1955. It is affiliated to the World Council of Churches (WCC), Geneva. Today, it includes Anglican, Orthodox and Jewish experts as well as other Protestant Church denominations.
The first Interfilm Jury assembled at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) in 1963, where it awarded the Otto Dibelius Film Award of the Protestant Church Berlin-Brandenburg, to a film from the International Competition. A further prize was given to a film from the Programme of the International Forum for New Cinema. In 1963, an Interfilm Jury was also present at the IFF Mannheim; in 1964 at the International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, and in 1969 at the Cannes Film Festival. A cooperation with the German Catholic Film Department and the International Catholic Film Organisation (then OCIC, since 2002 SIGNIS) developed and Interfilm’s festival presence now consist mainly of juries drawn from both organisations. Interfilm Juries are still present at the Film Festival Max Ophüls Award, Saarbrücken (since 1985) and at the Nordic Film Festival, Lübeck (since 1996). Within the framework of the Interfilm Academy it is also present at the Film Festival in Munich with the One Future Award.
Ecumenical juries are now in attendance in Locarno (since 1973), Cannes (1974), Montreal (1979), Moscow (1989, with interruptions), Leipzig (1990), Berlin (1992), St. Petersburg (1994, with interruptions), Karlovy Vary (1994), Mannheim-Heidelberg (1995), Cottbus (1999), Kiev (1999, with interruptions), Oberhausen (2000), Zlin (2000), Fribourg (2001) and Bratislava (2001).
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