In memoriam
We are deeply saddened to announce that our colleague Hilke Doering has passed away on 27 November 2025 after a long illness.
She was head of our International Competition since 1995 and, as a member of our festival committee, contributed significantly to our programming. Representing our festival in various international film organisations, she was always passionately committed to defending the interests of the filmmakers. Though she has been fighting her illness for two years, she contributed her ideas and expertise to our festival to the last.
We had all hoped that she would soon be able to resume her work. Now we have lost a wonderful colleague who played a crucial role in shaping our festival over the past three decades. The shock is profound and the whole team will miss her dearly.
If you want to share your memories of Hilke, we have set up a digital condolences book.
©Open Call!
Oberhausen Seminar
Apply now!
©Festival
Linda Chiu-han Lai leads the five-day Oberhausen Seminar
The experimental course examines moving images and contemporary artistic practices in the context of an international film festival. It operates on the boundary between film and art, between festival programming and knowledge production. Artists, filmmakers, curators and academics frim all over the world have until 27 February to apply for the Oberhausen Seminar, which will be led by Hong Kong-based Linda Chiu-han Lai.
Hong Kong-based transdisciplinary artist, curator and scholar Linda Chiu-han Lai is known for her work in intermedia art and media archaeology and brings her videography, experimental art and pedagogy to the Oberhausen Seminar.
Distribution
Oberhausen on Tour! For the fourteenth time we will be sending films around the globe.
Cinemas, museums and galleries, festivals or Goethe-Institutes around the world show the films. Current dates can be found on our distribution page.
©Distribution
Our distribution programme 2024
32 new acquisitions and seven new programmesare are now available.
Festival
Call for Entries
We invite submissions for the five competitions
The 72nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen will take place from 28 April to 3 May 2026. You can find our conditions, regulations and the submission forms here.
©Network
THIS IS SHORT – the streaming plattform for the European short film
The non-profit portal shows great cinema, with due brevity. Curated by six festivals, including Oberhausen, the offer is aimed at those who love films, at those who make films and at those who want to discover talent.
Távolban egy Bíbor Vitorla
Toute Révolution Est un Coup de Dés
