Youth Program 2026

The youth program of FILM OHNE GRENZEN is on the shortlist for this year’s Margot-Friedländer Project Prize 2026. The nomination honors the program’s commitment to engaging young people in socially relevant issues.

The youth program of FILM OHNE GRENZEN is based each year on the encounters, topics, and the festival motto. It includes film and encounter workshops, youth jury sessions, school screenings, and creative projects – lively, individual, and constantly changing.

 

CREATIVE WORKSHOPS

Every creative work begins with a discovery: During a concert visit at the Lehnin Monastery Church, the head of the youth program Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz (film maker and artist) came across an organ in Baroque style, disassembled into its parts, waiting to be installed. They found that this story was worth a documentary film. In creative workshops and discussions, young people from the town of Kloster Lehnin and the surrounding area explored what an organ looks like from the inside and how each part must be adjusted with precise handwork. They discovered that this complex machine works according to the principle of binary logic – the same logic that also controls computers. The organ – a modern replica of Baroque craftsmanship in a medieval church – became for them a symbol of the festival theme REALITY: History is not a rigid narrative, but alive – today as it was then. And the young people realized that they themselves are part of this process. Action – whether in the trades or in the arts – thrives on transmission and storytelling. The documentary film Binäre Windmaschine, created from this work, will be shown as part of the festival opening on September 3, 2026.

JURY
Shortly before the summer holidays, the students of 9c at the Juri-Gagarin Upper School in Fürstenwalde gathered in a place that was unusual for them – the Union Cinema in Fürstenwalde.
In this historical cinema hall, the young people watched various films and discussed them in depth about characters and their relevance to their own lives. They asked questions about dramaturgy, reflected on color concepts, and marvelled at how in documentary feature films reality and narration blend together. A democratically elected jury of the students finally decided on the films.
DJ Ahmet (North Macedonia, 2025) and Sunny Dancer (United Kingdom, 2026),
which will be shown as part of the festival program on September 4, 2026.

FIT FOR SCHOOL CINEMA
Here, workshops and teaching materials are provided for teachers and their classes, which are designed to prepare them for the specificities of the films shown without revealing too much of the content. In total, 11 groups attended the program.

JUNGE FILMCHRONIST:INNEN
Together with long-time festival participant Luca Neuschütz and the film club of the State Gymnasium Fridericianum Rudolstadt, young film historians are invited to Eibenhof and to Bad Saarow. They participate in a film discussion during the school cinema and become active, critical observers in the festival events.

STRENGTHENING
The films and ideas that emerge in youth work travel throughout Germany and around the world. They are shown at international film festivals, receive awards, and are shown at symposia and in cultural venues. In the region, the youth projects are intended to provide inspiration for further observations, discussions, and projects. Film screenings with discussions or creative sharing are planned in the Lausitz, Fürstenwalde, Bad Saarow, and Storkow regions. In the youth projects, we really invite you to critically and creatively explore reality.

The films produced in the youth projects are shown and awarded at film festivals and venues worldwide.