80 guests, among them up and coming actresses and actors, promising new directors and even Academy Award winners, will come to Wiesbaden to present their work in person to the audiences of exground filmfest 26. This Friday, November 15, exground filmfest will be opened. For ten days the festival will show 200 feature-length and short films at Caligari FilmBühne, Kulturpalast and  Murnau Filmtheater, until November 24.

Among the festival guests is French director Sophie Blondy, presenting her mystical drama MORNING STAR, starring Iggy Pop, Béatrice Dalle and Denis Lavant, in the section International. Also in this section exground filmfest premieres two Philippine  films, in the directors' presence: for the world premiere of her documentary  MAGDALENA about the lives of a traditionally working midwife director Anna Isabelle Matutina will come to Wiesbaden. Director Joseph Israel Laban will be present for the German premiere of his feature film TERMITARIA about the shattering fate of a pregnant nine-year-old.

For the exground youth days young and old can look forward to talks with several guests. 14 year-old lead actress of the US film IT FELT LIKE LOVE, Gina Piersanti, can talk about her role and the shooting. Director Axel Ranisch will talk about his coming out-comedy ICH FÜHL MICH DISCO, and Jason Buxton will present his  mobbing drama BLACKBIRD.

In the section News from Germany director Florian Eichinger together with his lead actor Martin Schleiß will talk about his family drama NORDSTRAND. The directors Lena Müller and Dragan von Petrovic will answer the Wiesbaden audience's questions about their documentary DRAGAN WENDE – WEST BERLIN about the life of the former king of West Berlin's underworld.

The New Zealand first-time director Alyx Duncan together with her DOP Francisco Rodriguez will present the drama THE RED HOUSE about the changes of a deeply connected couple beyond their sixties in the country in focus New Zealand. Both will also attend the PANEL: MADE IN NEW ZEALAND together with director Renae Maihi, producer Catherine Fitzgerald and the New Zealand experts Dr. Claudia Heydolph (editor online journal NZdeutschland) and Simone Bühler (head of guest of honour program, Frankfurt Book Fair).

Also among our guests is Thomas Stellmach, the Academy Award winner for best animated short film in 1997. Together with co-director Maja Oschmann he attends the German Short Film Award with his new animated film VIRTUOS VIRTUELL.

A list with all guests of exground filmfest 26 is attached. Photos and material on the films are available on our press server http://exground.com/ex26_presseserver. User name: ExgroundPresse, password: ex26pressedl.


exground filmfest is an international film festival, organized and presented since 1990 on a honorary basis by the association Wiesbadener Kinofestival e. V. With 14,500 viewers attending in 2012, among them 250 professionals (press, guests, directors, producers, actors etc.), exground filmfest belongs to the film festivals with the highest attendance in Hesse