35mm, 2003
The graduation film Hochbetrieb/Nuts & Bolts received the Menzione Speciale short film award at the Venice International Film Festival 2003, “for having paid a tribute to Harold Lloyd, who shall not be forgotten, by means of modern technology.”
Screenings
Venice Film Festival 2003Festival Internacional De Cine, Mar Del Plata 2003
Anima Mundi, Rio de Janeiro 2003
Raindance Film Festival, London 2003
Australian Effects & Animation Festival, Sydney 2003
Camerimage, Lodz 2003
25 Years of German Cinema at the Museum of Modern Art, New York 2003
German Cinema "Next Generation", Cannes Film Market 2003
Festival International du Court-Métrage, Clermont-Ferrand 2004
Imagina, Monaco 2004
Los Angeles Short Film Festival 2004
Berlinale 27th Kinderfilmfest 2004
Tribeca Film Festival 2004
Awards
Special Mention, Mostra Internazionale d´Arte Cinematografica 2003FFA Short Film Award "Short Tiger" 2003
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Short Film Award 2004
"In the past decade, contemporary filmmakers in Germany have made several interesting attempts to investigate the early days of their medium. These projects’ diversity of ambition and style enables us to conclude that the era of silent film – a period of around 35 years, after all – is no longer seen as a monolithic block, but that a fine awareness of the wealth of facets in this epoch has developed. Preferences and dislikes are played out with cheerful presumption, for example in Andreas Krein’s prize-winning short film homage Nuts & Bolts from 2003. Krein’s film, produced during his studies at the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg, represents a remarkably easy game with action and image patterns from the glorious era of slapstick comedies: On the construction site of a steel-framed skyscraper in the New York of the late twenties, lunchtime is announced by a siren. The workers’ break takes place on a steel girder at a dizzying height. However, the uncertain peace among the men is disturbed when an apprentice steals his master’s sandwiches. His own lunchbox is empty because he has turned it into a home for his pet frog. But the robbery is discovered, and to crown it all, the frog also escapes from its prison; a breath-taking chase between master, apprentice and frog ensues in the lofty heights – including some daring manoeuvres, acrobatic cliff-hangers and a surprising meal. The background to the action, i.e. the city extending to the horizon, was developed entirely by computer. An urban environment of 30,000 houses was ‘constructed’ on the computer using the director’s own pre-vis designs and a library of window and wall textures. Apart from the actors, in reality there was no more than a six-meter long dummy steel-girder made of wood in front of the camera. Ten days of shooting in the Bluescreen Studio were followed by more than a year of digital post-production. In the meantime, Nuts & Bolts has enjoyed an impressive international career, receiving a Special Mention in the international short film competition at the Venice International Film Festival and the Short Tiger Award at the Munich Film Festival. In addition, it was honored with a gala screening in the New York Museum of Modern Art" [German Films Quarterly 1/2008]
Publications
Animation Now!
English2004. 352 pp.
20.40 x 25.50 cm
paperback
ISBN 978-3-8228-2588-4