In the organizer's words:

In cooperation with the MDR
UNICATO SHORT FILM NIGHT

What remains of a year full of stories, images and voices? For this year's Short Film Night on December 21, 2025, unicato, MDR's short film magazine, presents the favorites of the past year: films that impress with special perspectives, narrative depth and social relevance. Works that touch, irritate and make you think.

Presenter Markus Kavka talks to unicato authors Alina Cyranek and Olaf Held about the editorial work - from the topic idea to the film selection and production. Both have put together their personal highlights of the past few months for the short film night.


Political landscape
Hidden in the depths of an East German forest is a dark relic of the past that inspires a confrontation with collective memory.
Germany 1995 by Kerstin Stutterheim and Nils Bolbrinker, 14:13 min., documentary film

Talking incessantly
The tire is flat, the date is approaching: Martin and his daughter have a date with mom at the playground. But she prefers to party with friends on the Spree as if there were no pandemic. Soon it will be summer in Berlin.
Germany 2021 by Frédéric Jaeger, 12 min, feature film

Our child
A Swiss couple is expecting a child through surrogacy in Georgia when doubts arise about the health of their baby.
Switzerland 2024 by Samuel Flückiger, 22 min, feature film

The voice of the engineer
A love story in the East Westphalian province. Sounds, words and sentences are spoken and recorded, perhaps for the very last time. Every image and every sound is a cosmos in itself and somewhere in between: silence.
Germany 2024 by André Siegers, 21 min, feature film

The Waiting
Karen Lips lives in a tiny hut in the rainforest for several years to study frogs. When she leaves the place for a short time and returns, there is not a single frog to be found. Karen sets off on a search - and makes a gruesome discovery. The mysterious deaths all have a similar pattern, but are thousands of kilometers apart. What is behind this? And what does it all have to do with us?
Germany 2023 by Volker Schlecht, 15:35 min, animated film, documentary

This is not a character, this is betrayal
Melanie, a hairdresser, drives her son Stefan, a young author, to the first reading of his autobiographical debut novel. For Stefan, the trip turns into a discussion about social advancement, his relationship with his mother and class shame. Meanwhile, Melanie's unease grows: who is her son and how is she supposed to assert herself in an environment that is completely alien to her?
Germany 2024 by Romina Küper, 13:30 min, feature film