Final Report B3 2021: Successful Hybrid

With a new cooperation, the B3 Biennial has already set the first impulse for the planning of the next festival edition in the Fall of 2022. Film London, the agency for the film and media industry of the British capital, and the B3 Biennial have signed a cooperation agreement to strengthen their creative cooperation in order to intensify the exchange of artistic film and media projects as well as mutual consultation.

The new B3 Talent Forum is a first-time platform for promoting emerging talent, developed by B3 and its partners. It combines two new formats: The "HessenLab" initiative, which is a cooperation with HessenFilm und Medien GmbH, in which 18 international creative talents are individually mentored and coached by international media professionals during an online mentoring program.

And "HAB-Hessen", which is a cross-university graduation support program for students in art, film and media programs at Offenbach University of Art and Design, Kassel University of Art and Design, Rhine-Main University of Applied Sciences and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, which cooperate in the The Hessen Film and Media Academy (hFMA) network.

"B3 takes on the challenge of communicating artistic content in new ways, such as now in the MyZeil shopping center – an exciting experiment. I am particularly pleased that we can offer competent and long-term assistance to emerging creative talent with the programs combined in the B3 Talent Forum in cooperation with HessenFilm und Medien GmbH. I see a lot of potential there for the future," says Angela Dorn, Hessen’s Minister for Science and the Arts.

Discovering art in public space

"B3 has once again proven its standing as a international platform for storytelling and the moving image. This year, B3 developed a customized hybrid concept with a mix of on- and offline programs. On the one hand, we were able to reach many more people from all over the world for participation and virtual exchange, thus creating a strengthened B3 community. On the other hand, in Frankfurt we met the public’s need for personal contact and encounter. In the end, the right mix of analog and digital led to success," says Prof. Bernd Kracke, President of the Offenbach University of Applied Sciences and Artistic Director of B3.

The central exhibition venue was the MyZeil shopping mall in the heart of Frankfurt. Here, 25 artists showing 40 moving image works at "B3 Moving Image Forum" as well as the "B3 Talent Forum" transformed 5 vacant stores with around 1,000 square meters of space into temporary galleries for current media art. The aim of the cooperation between B3 and the MyZeil was to give people the opportunity to rediscover public and inner-city space through art.

2021, the creative festival THE ARTS+ at the Frankfurt Book Fair was again the appropriate setting for the latest trends in moving image art. Here, B3 presented highlights from the art program and selected short films.

B3 facts and figures

From October 15, 80 contributors from 25 countries had presented the moving image as the driving cultural force of the 21st century in the fields of film, art, games and XR. After a one-year hiatus for face-to-face events due to the pandemic, B3 was able to reach again a total of around 9,500 people at Frankfurt MyZeil and at the Frankfurt Book Fair/THE ARTS+. The online streaming of the B3 conference program on YouTube and of the film and art program on the B3 partner platform Pantaflix reached about 18,000 viewers to date.
In the art program (B3 Forum Moving Image), 40 works by 25 artists from 20 countries were shown. The conference program featured 50 speakers from 10 countries. The B3 film program presented around 35 short and feature-length films from 20 countries, including 32 international and German premieres. The 2021 Honorary B3 BEN Awards went to director Oliver Stone and filmmaker and writer Hito Steyerl.
Since March 2021, B3’s new video podcast "B3 in Depth", featuring a new issue every three weeks, has reached some 70,000 viewers on YouTube. Highlights of the "B3 in Depth" program included Jello Biafra (former lead singer of The Dead Kennedys), Anouk Wipprecht (AI designer) and many more.

Additional recipients of the B3 BEN Award 2021 are:

B3 Best Emerging Talent: Faraday – Russian Dolls (RUS)
B3 Best Short Film: Khule Mayisa – Peace be Upon You (RSA)
B3 Best Game: Igor Simic – Golf Club Wasteland (SRB)
B3 Rotraut Pape Inspiration Award: Brenda Lien (GER)
B3 Best Immersive and Time-based Art: Sin Wai Kin – Irreconcilable Differences (CAN)
B3 Best Feature Film: Nana Mensah – Queen of Glory (USA)

About B3 – An Alliance for the Moving Image 
As a cross-media, cross-genre and international moving image festival offering film screenings, exhibitions, conference and workshop programs as well as various competition formats, B3 addresses the discourse on all trends and developments pertaining to the moving image in the areas of film, art, games and VR/XR. The aim of the Biennial, which was launched in 2012, is on the one hand to create a broad interdisciplinary alliance for the moving image, and on the other hand to offer the international cultural and creative industries a comprehensive platform for innovation and exchange. The B3 Biennial of the Moving Image is organized by the Offenbach School of Design (HfG) and funded by the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art (HMWK). Partners include Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, Wirtschaftsförderung Frankfurt as well as Sylvia and Friedrich von Metzler. Strategic partners are the Frankfurt Book Fair, THE ARTS+, Film London and many more. Main event partners are ASTOR Film Lounge, MyZeil Shopping-Center, and Satis&Fy.