58 films from 16 countries were put on show in 13 programme-sections in the "Kieler Kunsthalle" - many of them a premiere - presentation for a German audience.

The programme was not restricted on an archaeological subject but rather designed to give an overall insight into the world of the archaeological work and the archaeological films: the programme offered a wide spectrum of films, including those dedicated to a specific era and culture as well as documentary films of excavation-, conservation-, restauration- and reconstruction-methods and Experimental Archaeology. Not only to show the complexity of archaeological methods and subjects but also the multitude of different filmic genres covering archaeological subjects was the explicit intention of the programme: there were the traditional documentary films, there were combinations of documentary and feature film, one feature film was put on show - and experimenting forms of approaching the topic. Neither was there a lack of contributions critically reflecting upon the work processes of archaeology.

The focus of the festival was once again the international competition, giving a survey of the particularly notable productions of the past four years (since 1992) and at the same time giving an insight into the current knowledge gained by archaeological research.

The films taking part in the competition of CINARCHEA `96 were finally selected by the international jury: five prizes could be awarded - the "Große Preis" honouring the best film of the festival, the "Spezialpreis der Jury" awarded the jury`s favourite production - as well as prizes for the best films focussing on the subjects of excavation- and methods, Experimental Archaeology and Didactics. Members of the International Jury who were responsible for awarding the prizes were: archaeologists (Frédéric André, Belgium; Prof. Dr. Peter Allen, USA; Dr. Erwin Keefer, Stuttgart), filmmakers (Enzio Edschmid, Frankfurt/Main), television editors (Susanne Alck, WDR Köln) and Carole Lazio of the "Program for Art on Film", New York.

Under the chairmanship of Erwin Keefer the jury defined the criteria for evaluation: fundamental aspects were the filmic quality, the scientific respectability and relevance, the general comprehensibility and the innovative character of the films.

In addition to the five prizes awarded by the jury the competing films could win the Publikumspreis (Prize of the Audience): the winner was elected by the visitors who could give their votes via ballot paper.

The film-programme included - on top of the competition - a Retrospective of prizewinners of former International Archaeology-Film-Festivals, a programme consisting of short films and a Retrospective of films from the early beginnings of archaeological films. A special treat in this section were the films by Francesco Alliata produced during the Forties.

Each programme began with a cartoon of 35 seconds which had been created exclusively for CINARCHEA '96.