The 16th German International Ethnographic Film Festival will take place from 25 to 29 May 2022

The festival promotes documentary cinema with a special emphasis on new films, videos or interactive media (published after 1.1.2019) dealing with socio-cultural processes in a wide sense of the term.
The festival is open to all filmmakers, but especially those having a background in anthropology, sociology, folklore, history etc. It provides a great opportunity for international exchange of ideas and co-operation in documentary filmmaking.


Call for films is open

Early Bird Deadline: November 25, 2021

Submission Deadline: December 15, 2021

Further information

The festival takes place at the Paulinerkirche in Göttingen.


Call for ERASMUS Internships

Call for ERASMUS Internships for assisting the Festival organisation
Duration: 3 months (mid-March to mid-June, 2022)
Commitment: 3-4 days per week
Location: Online and in Göttingen, Germany

More information here


German International Ethnographic Film Festival 2020

Due to the COVID 19 pandemia the directorate of GIEFF e.V. decided to conduct GIEFF 2020 in an online version.

The whole team worked several weeks intensively to put up the corresonding facilities.

GIEFFonline offered two possibilities to see films:

  • In the GIEFF-Mediathek one could finde the films during two weeks. The order followed the online programme.
  • GIEFF-Streaming offered the opportunity to see the films according to the programme.
    After each morning, afternoon and evening screening a Q&A session followed. 

GIEFFonline was an experiment. Fortunately, we experienced few breakdowns. 


Student Award 2020 Ceremony

Follow the student award ceremony online.


GIEFF Student Award 2020

The Jury (Itsushi Kawase, Simone Pfeifer and Trond Waage) decided to award the GIEFF student prize to a film from and about Egypt.

The GIEFF Student Award went to the film
Flox by Hady Mahmoud, Egyptian.

Egypt, 2019, 45,5 min
Location: Egypt, Cairo

Inspired by the everyday struggle of micro-bus drivers in Cairo, “Flox”, the title of this film and the name of the micro-bus as pronounced by its drivers, is an observational documentary that looks at the intricate interplay between class and gender. Specifically, it explores how micro-bus drivers perceive and negotiate their masculinity in a mega-city like Cairo. For them, driving a difficult vehicle, handling inter-group conflict, struggling with poverty and substance abuse only makes them wish not to see their children inherit the same job. The film is about the beauty and the dark side of the chaotic life of the urban poor who are forced to create a state within a state in order to survive.

Two Honourable Mentions

Additionally the jury awarded two special mentions.

One Honourable Mention went to the film
Sky, Earth and Man by Caroline Reucker, German.

Germany, 2018, 70 min
Location: Morocco 
Production: Caroline Reucker and Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

The wind is ever-present in this portrait of the Moroccan desert. “Sky, Earth and Man” tries to get a hold of the windswept cities and landscapes of the Atlas Mountains and the people who live there. It follows Ahmed, Yusself, Lahcen and Idir whose stories enable the viewer to witness their daily lives, desires and feeling of belonging. They are members of the Berber tribe Ait Seghrouchen. While some of them still lead a traditional lifestyle based on animal breeding, more and more members leave the normadic tradition behind to follow their own more modern way of life. This is not without conflict but once a year, everyone comes together again to celebrate the Lemma Festival .

One Honourable Mention went to the film
Coleum by Coralie Seignard, French.

Myanmar, 2020, 30 min
Location: France, Corsica
Production: Grec (Groupe de Recherches et d'Essais Cinématographiques)

Three pigs are taken to the slaughterhouse by the man. Once they are dead, their meat is carved by the man and his son. The grandson observes the scene.


Manfred Krüger Student Award

The Jury (Catarina Alves Costa, Peter I. Crawford and Judith Schein) decided to award the Manfred Kürger student price to a film from Slovenia about Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Manfred Krüger Student Award went to the film
Lukomir, My Home by Manca Filak and Žiga Gorišek, Slovenians.

Slovenia, 2018, 61 min
Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lukomir

Lukomir is the village with the highest altitude above sea level (1472 m) in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite the decrease in population and the increase in tourism during the last decades, transhumant pastoralism remains one of the main types of economy in the villages of Bjelašnica. Transhumance and seasonal migration of families and their flocks of sheep characterize the life of their residents. Shot between April 2014 and May 2017, “Lukomir, My Home” is an ethnographic film that portrays an older couple’s everyday life. The filmmakers accompany the couple while they carry out most of their everyday chores, release the sheep into the valley and eventually return to Lukomir.