The 12th Bitfilm Festival has started with an opening ceremony in Bitfilm's hometown Hamburg, Germany. Ms M Subashini, Consule General of India in Hamburg, lit the "lamp of the festival" in the tradtional Indian way.

Guests from the Hamburg film and media scene were invited to a reception in the lobby of the beautifully restaured Passage Cinema, where they enjoyed mango lassi, pakoras and colourful sweets from India. The reason for the Indian touch of the event: This year the Bitfilm Festival is part of /"India Week Hamburg and its closing event will take place in Bangalore India.

The opening programme started with live music from India by Anjan Saha (sitar) and Swapan Bhattacharya (tablas), accompanied by digital visuals and a short speech my M Subashini. Then three blocks of films from the three competitions were screened.

After another live music session with digital animation, festival director Aaron Koenig about the new possibility to donate Bitcoins which will be given as prize money to the award winners.

The 59 nominated films may be watched here. The audience decided by voting on the award winners. The closing event including the award ceremony will take place at the Goethe Institute Bangalore from December 2 to 4, 2011.

Here you may watch TV report of the event by ZDF German Television. Pictures of the event can be found at Picasa.