 Sophia s Year is a very special film diary. It is a declaration of love for the filmmaker s partner, their children and their friends. An amusing and sensual document about living together. The film also shows life with a camera. The 35mm image is divided into 12 segments (split screen 3 x 4) which stands for the months of the year 1995. From the middle of the year little Sophia is present in the picture ­ she was born on the 21st of June. The main figure in the monthly "windows" is the filmmaker s older daughter who acts for the camera, plays with it or is obviously annoyed by it. The synchronous soundtrack runs through the twelve picture one after another so that one of the segments is brought into the foreground. (Birgit Flos) Sophia s Year is an attempt to cross the serious, formally organised structural film with a spontaneous, emotionally-directed private home movie. An ironic break with the structuralist position and a positive re-assessment of amateur film was most certainly intended. Filming with a Super 8 camera also allows re-consideration of the amateur film as a genre. In any case I really loved filming all those kinds of pictures which are regarded with disdain by the classical avant-garde or are even taboo. I loved filming the flowers or the ripe freshly-picked cherries ­ in-focus and traditionally composed pictures. Or simply to film my children with a loose hand-held camera without thinking much about it beforehand. It was simply about the fun, the improvisation and allowing accidents to happen. (Thomas Renoldner)