And in the year 2000, there was talk of an upward trend, thanks to films like LIEBESLUDER (A BUNDLE OF JOY), ALASKA.DE and DIE INNERE SICHERHEIT (THE STATE I AM IN). The trend continued in 2001. According to the FAZ, ‘You leave Hof with the feeling that you’ve been well entertained, five days in a row.’ Christian Petzold’s TOTER MANN (SOMETHING TO REMIND ME) – with Hofer Sven Pippig in one of the leading roles – contributed to this, as did Marc Rothemund with a title quite programmatic for the crisis-ridden German film: DIE HOFFNUNG STIRBT ZULETZT (HOPE DIES LAST).

And he was right. Suddenly German cinema hit the international headlines. Not only did the abstinence at major festivals come to an end, German films even started winning prizes – including an Oscar. So it was no coincidence that in 2003 the festival dedicated the retrospective to a German filmmaker which so far had been reserved for US Americans, Canadians, the British, Australians, New Zealanders and Japanese. However, Ulli Lomel, who began his career as an actor with Fassbinder, went to America quite early on and there met and worked with Andy Warhol. His low-budget horror film THE BOGEYMAN was a sensational success. In Hof, he presented himself as a man with just one passion: filmmaking. This held true for the whole programme, which evidenced top-class charme.

The 2004 edition once again invited audiences on an exciting discovery trip. KAMMERFLIMMERN (OFF BEAT) and NAPOLA, ALLEIN (ALONE) and EGOSHOOTER were met with a lively response. Once again the festival proved to be a forum for current German productions which for five days, ‘as long as Hof is on’, knows no crisis, as the FAZ wrote. FAZ film editor Michael Althen continued, ‘If Heinz Badewitz hadn’t created the Hof Film Festival, only those who were around in the good old days of FC Bayern Hof would know anything about this “strangely faceless little town