HARD:LINE 2024: German Genre Fest Hosting Ted Geoghegan, Premiering BROOKLYN 45 And More

For the past eleven years, the HARD:LINE Film Festival has taken place at the northernmost point of the Danube, where dark films from all over the world are celebrated in a stunning medieval setting. In 2024, the event will once again attract thousands of visitors to the cathedral city of Regensburg and, from April 11th to 14th, dozens of horror, thriller, and sci-fi films will be screened there, mostly as German Premieres.

 

For eleven years, the HARD:LINE Festival has welcomed extreme cinema – often against all odds – and has passionately emphasized quality over quantity since its inception. A finely-selected assortment of short and feature-length films make up the festival’s program, and will once more fill the seats of the city’s legendary Ostentor Cinema. The central focus of the festival is to dispel prejudice, make art understandable, and to make contributions to artistic freedom. The festival’s 2024 program includes thirteen features and sixteen shorts from thirteen countries, 21 of which are proudly celebrating premieres at HARD:LINE 2024.

 

Nearly half of the festival’s screenings will be accompanied by guests, including Fabio D'Orta from Italy, who will be presenting his critically-acclaimed mindfuck masterpiece THE COMPLEX FORMS for the first time in Germany. Alix Austin and Keir Stewart will travel from England to present their joint directorial debut, KILL YOUR LOVER. And THE LAST ASHES, Luxembourg’s Oscar entry, is a superbly-staged female empowerment western from acclaimed director Loïc Tanson. 

 

One of HARD:LINE’s unique selling points is its annual showcase of a modern genre directors' oeuvre. The fest’s "Directors Spotlight" annually features three films which summarize the career of a specific filmmaker and, traditionally, the films are programmed anti-chronologically to offer the audience the unique opportunity to travel backwards through a filmmaker’s works. This year, the festival is dedicating its retrospective to U.S. filmmaker Ted Geoghegan, who will be traveling to Regensburg from New York City to screen and discuss his directorial efforts BROOKLYN 45, MOHAWK, and WE ARE STILL HERE. Geoghegan will also hold a masterclass for select guests and be available for conversations with attendees in the festival’s cinema pub, The Kinokneipe.

 

Being a hands-on film festival remains HARD:LINE’s top priority, which means there are no red carpets in Regensburg. Instead, the fest offers a space expressly dedicated to passion and art, a place that welcomes discourse and fosters opportunities. 

 

In addition to film screenings, HARD:LINE also features DJ nights in The Kinokneipe on Friday and Saturday nights of the festival, featuring incredible local talent. Ending the festival with monumentally good vibes is also a tradition at HARD:LINE, and this year is no different. Its closing night party on Sunday evening will feature Regensburg post-punk supergroup Zustand taking center stage at the Ostentor Cinema, with matching visuals on-screen behind them. Following their show will be the festival’s award ceremony, The Razor Blades, which will include the festival's Audience Awards and the presentation of the Méliès D'Argent Award. And because HARD:LINE is a film festival that passionately adores cinema, it needs a phenomenal closing film... which, this year, is the German Premiere of Cooper Roberts’s highly ironic and genre-reflective ALL YOU NEED IS BLOOD.

 

The full line-up of feature films screening at HARD:LINE 2024 are ALL YOU NEED IS BLOOD (German Premiere), BROOKLYN 45 (German Premiere), THE COMPLEX FORMS (German Premiere), DEMIGOD: THE LEGEND BEGINS, THE EMU WAR, IN A VIOLENT NATURE (German Premiere), KILL YOUR LOVER (German Premiere),THE LAST ASHES, MOHAWK, PROPRIEDADE, STOPMOTION (German Premiere), WE ARE STILL HERE, and YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (German Premiere).