The 32nd edition of the Hamburg International Short Film Festival, together with its children’ssection, the Mo&Friese Children’s Short Film Festival Hamburg, taking place for the 18th time, allorganised by the KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg (KFA, Hamburg Short Film Agency), will build uponthe excellent experiences of the past years and the festival’s great success with the audience.Selected from approximately 6,000 submissions, 320 films will be shown in 5 competitions andnumerous special programmes and screenings. Once more, we will be gathering the most interesting and promising new European and non-European filmmakers to introduce them to producers, festivals, distributors, and of course to thenon-professional audience.We also aim to pursue and extend our existing European partnerships with festivals and audiovisual projects and form new connections. However, the festival is not only crucially important for professionals, but also very attractive for a non-professional audience: During interviews with filmmakers after the screenings and in the sociable atmosphere at the festival centre, it is easy for visitors to meet with filmmakers personally to learn more about their work. Moreover, Mo&Friese introduces a young audience to the short film form while providing film education and offering talks with filmmakers.The festival’s excellent reputation and distinguished selection of films, its steady year-round worktowards audience building by presenting itself in Hamburg at filmic and non-filmic events as wellas in the worldwide festival sphere together are the perfect foundation for a very successful edition 2016, which will furthermore strengthen Hamburg’s standing in the festival world. In 2015, we had a large number of guests from festivals from all over Europe, of filmmakers presenting their films, and of non-professional visitors – 16.000 in total.