History

 

The Internet Film Fest Webcuts was founded in 2001 in Berlin and celebrates in 2011 its 10years anniversary. Originally developed by young enthusiasts around the internet agency area42, Webcuts has an international reputation and presents entries from all over the world – from Brazil to Italy, Germany and the USA and many countries in between.

 

Furthermore, Webcuts reflects technical developments of the Internet. For example the live stream during the Webcuts awards shows in 2004/05 and 2006, the Google-voting for the nominees in 2006 or the screening of the awards show in a cinema in Second Life in 2007.

 

Since 2010 Webcuts convinces with a new concept and with new partners. Due to the introduction of different categories Webcuts succeeds in distinguishing the scope of the films which are available on the World Wide Web and in filtering new trends, always state of the art. A trend-setting choice of animation movies is shown in the category Webcuts Classics. Besides the high-quality animation flicks, for the first time, live-action movies are represented amongst others in very young but internationally acclaimed genres like Infotainment, Web Documentary, Machinima and Collaborative Projects. The local film making scene from Berlin and Brandenburg present their work within the in 2010 introduced Berlin Award.

 

 

2001 – The founding year of Webcuts. The event took place in the C-Base Berlin-Mitte. The Webcuts-format was already established in the first year: A screening of short films from the Internet on a huge screen with an enthusiastic audience. The organisers counted 150 guests and 11 submissions.

 

2003 – The same procedure again in the C-Base - this time with 200 guests and 19 submissions. In the first two years the movies were characterized by visual experiments and graphical shapes.

 

2003 – The same format like the years before. Only 200 guests followed the event due to the premises of the C-Base. Overall 2003 was a difficult year for the whole Internet and E-Commerce sector. The impact became also noticeable by Webcuts: On the one hand in the small decline of submissions and on the other hand in the content of the submissions. Most films left the aesthetical experiments behind and turned towards plot, content and the search for the sense of life.

 

In 2004 Webcuts didn’t take place due to personal changes in the organization team. Furthermore, interface!berlin became a new responsible organization for the film festival.

 

2005 – Webcuts04+05 established itself in the Berlin festival scene as an event for a broader audience. For the first time Webcuts took place in the CineStar Original at the Potsdamer Platz, the after show party next door in the K44. Furthermore, for the first time, the show was broadcasted to the Internet via live stream. The organizers counted more than 50 submissions. 400 people watched the show in the cinema and the same numbers at home on the live stream. With the media.net berlinbrandenburg Webcuts gained a new co-operation partner and since 2005 Webcuts is supported by the Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg.

 

The festival evening featured an interesting panel discussion, a sold out cinema as well as hundreds of viewers from all over the world on the live stream and a successful after show party. The competition was characterized by far more submissions – 177 from 28 countries – more international filmmakers as in the years before and high class movies. It was a great evening followed by an exciting workshop at the HFF Konrad Wolf with the previous Webcuts winner Andy Murdock from San Francisco. The Webcuts Community grew and the festival established itself as an internationally acclaimed label for the high quality internet film.

 

The exciting competition made of 23 nominated films from over 200 submissions was applauded by the audience at the CineStar Original. Furthermore, Webcuts was the first film festival ever which was broadcasted in a special cinema in Second Life. It became clearly evident that Webcuts developed itself from a little event for insiders to an internationally acclaimed label leading the way.

 

The best internet movies from around the world were the main focus of Webcuts.10.Besides the high-quality animation movie, which was presented and awarded in the category Webcuts Classic, we were awarding movies in three new categories: Web Documentary, Infotainment and Collaborative Projects. These are very young but internationally acclaimed genres. Furthermore, we introduced the Berlin Award which is especially dedicated to films about Berlin or by artists located in Berlin and Brandenburg. Through the cooperation with the webinale the internet film fest Webcuts obtained a wider coverage and the web conference gained a first class evening program.