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Award Winners 2020
Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen
endowed with 8,000 €
Statement of the jury
In the age of necessary social distancing, we would like to highlight a remarkable film which fulfils the noblest vocation of art, fostering an emotional connection between people from different times and geographical locations. For the ability to find poetry and complexity in simple things, for its profound love for life and people, and for attention to detail in working with delicate matters, we decided to award the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen to A Month of Single Frames by Lynne Sachs.
Principal Prize
endowed with 4.000 €
Statement of the jury
Both unflinching and loving, Sohrab Hura's BITTERSWEET is a rumination of familial relationships and domestic spaces, exploring the bonds between himself and his mother, and his mother and her beloved dog. Hura uses his grainy flash photography to empathetically depict intimate and banal moments in the life of his mother, who suffers from acute paranoid schizophrenia, while showing the audience the power of a mother and son bond, and the healing powers of an animal's love. For his complex depictions of love, we award Sohrab Hura's BITTERSWEET the Main Prize.
e-flux-Prize
endowed with 3,000 €
For an exceptional film and video work which reshapes the poetic and electric potential of moving images in the age of planetary circulation of information.
Statement of the jury
For taking us on an emotional journey through space and time and for finding the way to document sincere narrative using distinct imagery, the e-flux Prize goes to BELLA by Thelyia Petraki.
Special Mention of the International Jury
Statement of the jury
For its warm and gentle take on a crucial matter: the rights of women to be in control of their bodies and sexuality, and the obvious necessity to reaffirm it more than ever in our times, the jury decided to award an Special Mention to Mat et les gravitantes, directed by Pauline Penichout.
Statement of the jury
A layered portrayal of the relationship between society and industry which alludes to some complex political sentiments. The filmmaker made a cerebral yet sensitive and poetic portrait of what it is to be sentient in our times. A film worthy of our time.
First Prize of the Jury of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
endowed with 5,000 €
Statement of the Jury
"The cow is culture" - A prison for shepherds in the steppes of Lesotho becomes a stage for some universal dramas of humanity. Living and surviving: what does a prison look like in a society that's not based on the principle of added value? Absurdly permeable, the fences dissolve the boundaries between the prison and the wide open landscape. In this cosmos, the delicate staging and the surreal composition of the film open an in-between space, the shepherds become the red-clad speakers of humanity, carrying the outside world into the interior of the prison.
Second Prize of the Jury of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
endowed with 3,000 €
Statement of the jury
In neutral tones, a man talks about his mother - her schizophrenia, her relationship with her dog and her manic life. In his essayistic photo film, the Indian photographer and filmmaker Sohrab Hura gives us a view of his mother that points beyond the specific narrative, by exposing the closeness, security, but also the terror and helplessness of familial relationships. A captivating cinematic montage is created from film footage and photographs documenting ten years in his mother's life; the impressive precision of his recordings and deliberate gaps determine the rhythm of a very personal family story.
Special Mention of the Jury of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
Statement of the jury
The camera leads us into the house and thus into the interior world of an idiosyncratic personality - expressionistic black-and-white images and creaking sounds animate obsessions become wood to ghostly life. In a rhythmic finale, wood, light, shadow and sound become recognisable as materials of fantastic spaces. An imagination that finally takes us back to nature.
Statement of the jury
An adolescent roams his neighbourhood in Palermo. In the tradition of Neorealism, the camera lets us participate in the life of this community and at the same time shows how the rumours about his mother gradually turn him into an outsider over the course of the film. The protagonist's world contracts in ever-tighter circles.
The International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize)
Statement of the jury
The FIPRESCI Prize goes to Xiaofei Li's I Am the People_Ⅰ, for an intelligent, slow-burning portrait of a society and its courageous, yet necessarily indirect, diagnosis of that society. Challenging traditional modes of perception, it explores the relationship between industrial production and social development
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
endowed with 1,500 €
Statement of the jury
The film shows the psychological drama of shepherds from Lesotho, some of whom were sentenced to 9 years in prison for having stolen cows. This film caught the attention of the Ecumenical Jury for the originality of the theme, the love of a community of Lesotho for cows, for professionalism in photography direction and image aesthetics, the silences which invite the spectator to meditation. The film shows the value of cows in the lives of members of this community. But it also draws public attention to the gap between the wrongdoing and the punishment.
Special Mention of the Ecumenical Jury
Statement
For the innovative, original and intimate approach to the subject of war, life and death, the Ecumenical Jury gives a Commendation to The Many Deaths of Arístides. The animation of a silhouetted figure, journeying on a boat through the dark fuses with the frozen moments of time as we hear the letter of a young man that never returned home. His prayer for Olga centralises the film as hope, as a cry to God for the life of the other, as love outshining the depths of darkness. The film makes memory alive and breaks the time boundaries, transcending visually what cannot be described in words, and as such it is a work of pure cinema.
Statement of the jury
The creators of Milena's Song reveal the theme of core spirituality in their movie. They depict a story of a cleaning lady who finds her own way of manifestation of faith while being in the shadow of institutional hierarchy. Her original prayer dance opens for the viewers her initial nature of believer referring to times of the early church fathers and reminding of cultural decentralization and non-hierarchical nature. The courage and extraordinary of the message could not be left without attention of the Ecumenical Jury. As well as the aesthetic form of the short film that vividly recalls the true beauty of human reunion with the divine origin.
ZONTA Prize to a female filmmaker in the International or German Competition
endowed with 1,000 €
Statement
Our prize goes to a film, a filmmaker's debut film, a manifesto of empathy and solidarity: a film about the relationship between a mother and daughter in a hospice. Endless possibilities of mutual love open up at the moment of farewell.
Prize for the best contribution to the German Competition
endowed with 5,000 Euro
Statement of the jury
We award the Prize for the best contribution to the German Competition to a film that sets out to restore humanity to humankind. In a post-apocalyptic world, SUGAR meets HON, and the way this is narrated not only impressed us deeply, but was also great fun. This film is brilliantly produced, positions its subject directly but elegantly, is somehow new and exceptionally topical.
3sat-Promotional Award
endowed with 2,500 € for a contribution with a particularly innovative approach.
In addition the award includes a buying option on the awarded work to be broadcast on 3sat.
Statement of the jury
The scenes are lined up very evenly, though they could hardly be more different. Aesthetically, we see different formats, sometimes the frame shrinks to a segment, then it's replaced by the wobbly images of a video link. In terms of content, there are also jumps: between Turkey and Berlin, the past and the present, marble columns. Has one arrived in a country when one has one's own flat with a guest room? In Onun Haricinde, İyiyim, Eren Aksu brings all this together effortlessly, even though we feel that nothing here is effortless. His film is touching. And we want to see many more from this director.
Special Mention of the Jury of the German Competition
Statement
Grainy black and white images evoke a supposedly bygone time when paradox demands addressed to a possible presence (and future) make an appeal to create the space needed for remembering. In her intense work Cana Bilir-Meier links the desires, doubts and wishes of young women with the hope for, at last, a society without fear. The German Competition Jury awards a Special Mention to This Makes Me Want to Predict the Past.
Statement of the jury
Grainy black and white images evoke a supposedly bygone time when paradox demands addressed to a possible presence (and future) make an appeal to create the space needed for remembering. In her intense work Cana Bilir-Meier links the desires, doubts and wishes of young women with the hope for, at last, a society without fear. The German Competition Jury awards a Special Mention to This Makes Me Want to Predict the Past.
Prize for the best contribution to the NRW Competition
endowed with 1,000 €
Statement of the jury
This film and its great cinematography lock us into sophisticated, almost non-verbally staged spaces: from the isolation of a hotel room via the constricted space of a car to the steep alleys of a town on the Turkish Aegean. In Berzah, Deren Ercenk manages to tightly align three self-contained episodes into a kind of "in-between world", according to the title, and thus unfold a gripping triptych of quasi-powerless situations of fight: burning sun against burning skin. A father-daughter team against a transgressive chance encounter. Man versus wardrobe. The director plunges us into a deep pool of socio-political interpretations that have a lasting effect on us and make us curious about her next work!
Promotional Award of the NRW Competition
endowed with 500 €
Statement of the jury
In these days when we would like to peer into the cinema and see .... there is nobody in it! ..., this films hits the pulse of the time with its premiere. In the deserted, mathematical-meditative visual poetry of clinical crisis prevention centres, humming server rooms and bunkers accompanied by the sounds of sirens, this seems more sinister than the unforeseeable disasters they are supposed to protect us from. Only accidental motifs from art and fiction, meadows covered in smoky fog and a grassy, Tatooine-like bunker landscape, suggest that the uncontrollable is the only thing left breathing.
Special Mention of the NRW Jury
Statement of the jury
A poet explores his world, a small town on the Lower Rhine in the 1970s/80s, with words. His son, a filmmaker, now confronts the written words with contemporary images of that area that look like they come from the past. In this superimposition of ambiguous linguistic images with architectures, monuments, streets and parks a view of the inscribed mentality and history of the former Federal Republic of Germany unfolds. The images are as permeable as Dieter Liewerscheidt's poetry in which philosophical, pop-cultural and personal elements are intermingled.
WDR Westart Prize chosen by the Westart Jury
endowed with 750 €
Statement of the jury
With a remarkable sense of visual composition and aesthetics, Anna Ansone's short film Klusā daba tells the story of Elīna, who returns to her late grandmother's remote home to sell it. Everything in this film seems fallen out of time; consequently, Ansone shot it on analogue film. Gradually, the protagonist seems to be merging with the house; it's all about memories and family ties that are not always straightforward. In this day and age, the films offers an empathic monument to cohesion between the generations.
Prize of the Children's Jury of the International Children's and Youth Film Competition
endowed with 1,000 €
sponsored by Wirtschaftsbetriebe Oberhausen
Statement of the children's jury
We liked that the film has real people. And that the actors resemble each other, just like a real family. We also liked seeing a different country and a different culture. The ending of the film was sad, though, but it fit well.
evo Promotional Award of the Children's Jury
endowed with 1,000 €
sponsored by Energieversorgung Oberhausen AG (evo)
Statement of the children's jury
Our winning film is very well drawn. The animation and the sound match perfectly. We felt happy while watching, but also were annoyed with the girl. The film works, although you do not know whether it is a dream or reality.
Special Mention of the Children's Jury
Statement of the jury
We liked that the film was very realistic and that we saw much of a different country. And we liked the music. At the end, the girl had a great idea. The story made so much sense.
Prize of the Youth Jury of the International Children's and Youth Film Competition
endowed with 1,000 €
sponsored by the Rotary Club Oberhausen
Statement of the youth jury
After watching the film, we wondered: "Are you even allowed to make such a film?" We concluded that you are, and that the film is remarkably good. It is interesting on various levels. On the one hand, the film deals with anorexia, an issue that in Germany is still not freed from taboo and that people simply do not talk about. On the other hand, the film uses a currently extremely popular form of media entertainment-YouTube tutorials. In the tutorials, the protagonist gives tips for anorexics for how to lose even more weight. At the same time, she draws attention to prejudice and problems regarding anorexia in a humorous way, although you are not sure whether you are supposed to laugh. The combination of these aspects makes the film unique.
Special Mention of the Youth Jury
Statement of the youth jury
We really liked this film's animation and found the attention to detail, but also the complexity and creativity, particularly convincing. The film manages to depict and criticise our society in such a beautiful and gentle way, an issue which is generally important, and also close to our hearts. We were especially impressed with the accurate portrayal of our zeitgeist - chasing after money and losing touch with yourself and with nature - while avoiding the mistake of transforming it into an appeal to morality. A wonderful way of dealing with our current situation, including a touching ending that also gives us some food for thought.
Statement of the youth jury
Another Special Mention goes to Christy, a film from Ireland directed by Brendan Canty, about a young school dropout looking for a job. Despite its rough language, the film lovingly tells the story of the protagonist's chaotic life situation and his inability to prove himself during an interview for a temporary job. Everything seems hopeless; however, solidarity, friendship, and having a connection play an important role. The actors are mainly children and teenagers. They create a moving atmosphere while giving the audience some food for thought and leaving them deeply moved.
ECFA Short Film Award
The award consists of a nomination for the ECFA Short Film Award 2021.
Statement of the jury
This year the ECFA Short Film Award goes to a short film that offers children access to a universal story in a highly artistic setting with a profound meaning. The style of animation is fresh, minimal and at the same time playful. The director paid a lot of attention to details, colour and design. Two worlds meet in a magical moment and part again peacefully. We are taken on a journey where nature finds itself in the urban world and encounters unusual curiosity. A film that conveys empathy and excitement while taking a critical position on how to deal with Social Media.
1st MuVi Prize
endowed with 2.000 €
donated by SAE Institute Bochum
Statement of the jury
In Greek mythology the poet Orpheus accidently kills his wife Eurydike after having freed her from Hades. Or perhaps it was no accident, as Klaus Theweleit assumes in his book "Male Fantasies"? Does the (male) artist need to bury his (female) muse to be creative? Eurydike abstractly addresses the ancient topic by rhythmically editing associative images to Kreidler's music. To appreciate the effort of transferring a very complex topic into the aesthetics of a 4-minute music video, the MuVi jury decided to award this year's first prize to Eurydike by Zaza Rusadze and Andreas Reihse.
2nd MuVi Prize
endowed with 1.000 Euro
donated by SAE Institute Bochum
Statement of the jury
Hamid Kargar's video for Oliver Huntemann's "Tranquilizer" is a perfect demonstration of how, with care and vision, a simplicity of means can result in an engrossing multitude of effects. The repetition of a single face, spooling ever onwards like the driving beat of Huntemann's techno, appears in a seemingly inexhaustible array of visionary disguises ranging from witty Victoriana to Lovecraftian horror. The video also, right from the opening zoetropic moiré, makes subtle yet powerful adjustments to its mechanisms to accommodate key structural changes in Huntemann's music. For both the form of the video and the drawings themselves, the MuVi jury award this year's second prize to Introspektion.
Special Mention of the MuVi Jury
Statement of the jury
This year's special mention goes to Jan Lankisch's video for Stephen Malkmus' Shadowbanned, which takes us on an unpredictable ride to the wild side of the Internet. Playful and exciting, Shadowbanned is also self-referential and a multi-layered piece of art that still surprises you after many views. This is also a music video definitely before its time - a jolly exercise in keeping in touch with your community without seeing them in person. In times of physical distancing and meeting only on the virtual realm, a music video like Shadowbanned is an inspirational example of how to stay creative together.
MuVi Online Audience Award
endowed with 500 €
donated by SAE Institute Bochum
Chosen by online vote.
Award Winners 2019
Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen
endowed with 8,000 €
I Got My Things and Left
Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo
Rwanda/Switzerland 2018, 22 min. 23 sec., colour
Statement:
In the spirit of Oberhausen Film Festival's concept - to acknowledge and support innovative, unconventional works, which challenge the boundaries of cinema as a medium - we decided to award the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen to a film of impressive freedom and power, both conceptually and emotionally.
Inspired by the free spirit of Dambudzo Marechera - an iconoclast, boundary-crossing key figure of African literature - a mourning process becomes a trigger for self-reflection and transformation. Shifting elegantly between language registers - from poetry to performance, from music to personal diary, from reality to its cinematic interpretation - this profound meditation on loss and transience becomes a celebration of inner freedom, both on a human level and of cinema as a language.
Principal Prize
endowed with 4,000 €
ZOMBIES
Baloji
Belgium/DR Congo 2019, 14 min. 50 sec., colour
Statement:
A 14-minute music thriller about digital zombification set in Kinshasa, Congo, addressing the emotional and social cost of social media, yet celebrating the city's vibrant subculture of dance music and flamboyant, surreal dressing-up in glorious images. Moving from nightclub to hair salon to plastic-clogged river becomes a stunning journey of metamorphosis, to the soundtrack of director Baloji's futuristic afro beats. A triumph wrought from difficulty.
e-flux Prize
endowed with 3,000 €
For an exceptional film and video work which reshapes the poetic and electric potential of moving images in the age of planetary circulation of information.
L'Étoile de mer
Maya Schweizer
Germany 2019, 11 min., colour and b/w
Statement:
Adeptly collaging clips and sounds from other films with text and aquatic footage, this film about film questions the slipperiness of images, which can be both familiar and enigmatic.
Special Mention of the International Jury
IO
Art Union Marmelade
Russia 2018, 20 min. 10 sec., colour
Statement:
For its outstanding energy, an honest and sharp portrait of the complexities of young love, and its excellent and imaginative use of the cinematic language.
First Prize of the Jury of the Ministry for Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
endowed with 5,000 €
Elvis: Strung Out
Mark Oliver
Canada 2018, 4 min. 33 sec., colour
Statement:
We see the singer exerting himself on stage, we hear the sound recording of the spoken, tired self-justification of a person constantly under observation and drugs - Mark Oliver's hypnotizing bass musically drives us from crash to ecstasy. The film makes Elvis compete against Elvis, and manages with minimal means to make the audience's lust for humiliation and deification collide, thus deconstructing the pop cultural clichés around the King. But the myth remains.
Second Prize of the Jury of the Ministry for Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
endowed with 3,000 €
IO
Art Union Marmelade
Russia 2018, 20 min. 10 sec., colour
Statement:
Three directors portray three characters in Saint Petersburg, their lives full of intensity and aggression. The camera fragments figures and spaces, pushes the bodies off screen, limits their possibilities for action. Only violence seems to lead from one room to another, seems to be able to connect the rooms, and in the end even to question the film fiction itself. The film succeeds in describing a precise state; it is a syndrome of a present.
Special Mention of the Jury of the Ministry for Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
THE SOUND DRIFTS
Stefano Canapa
France 2019, 8 min. 20 sec., b/w
Statement:
In a congenial collaboration, Stefano Canapa transfers the sonic magnetic tape adaptations of the avant-garde composer Jerôme Noetinger to analogue film material, thus making the invisible visible and presenting us with a cinematographic experience.
The International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize)
Student Bodies
Ho Rui An
Singapore 2019, 26 min. 30 sec., colour
Statement:
An intellectually elaborate short film on East Asia's historical relations with the Western world where the filmmaker reframes architecture, monuments and fragments of film so as to both visualize the topic at hand and makes us see them with new eyes.
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
endowed with 1,500 €
NoirBLUE - Deslocamentos de uma dança
Ana Pi
France/Brazil 2018, 27 min., colour
Statement:
The radiance of the sky that transcends all borders, the longing and melancholy of the space of night and day, and everything in between, are narrated by the bright blue; the physical challenge, beauty, elegance and suppression of the transformations by the blue dance; identity, home, home and tears by the voice from the blue depth of the heart. The film NoirBLUE - Deslocamentos de uma dança varies the poetic engagement with differences and variabilities by the phrase "I'm from all these places", never moralising, always crossing bridges and connecting: leave the pain and injury of your ancestors behind, hope for the blessing of those who come after you; the blueness of love will transcend all boundaries when we are what we will be.
Special Mention of the Ecumenical Jury
amelina
Rubén Guzmán
Argentina 2018, 25 min. 32 sec., colour
Statement:
The deeper Amelina "Coca" San Martín gets on her way through and look at life, the more light and darkness and mountains and heritage and gentleness she discovers. But interpreting would be limiting, explaining would be blurring, instead of preserving what has been given: "What it means? We will never know." Full of dignity and tranquility, the film amelina engages with a history thousands of years old and rich in years, with the past in the present, with the dignity of man in the portrait of a woman, with the dignity of a life in view of the art of the ancestors. A film about how we came into being, how small our life is - and therefore so big.
ZONTA Prize to a female filmmaker in the International or German Competition
endowed with 1,000 €
ALGO-RHYTHM
Manu Luksch
UK/Senegal 2018, 13 min. 56 sec., colour
Statement:
Our most vulnerable affects are queried and researched using convenient smartphone apps. And used for automated propaganda campaigns and algorhythmic electioneering such as in the elections in the USA, Kenya and Nigeria and the "Brexit" referendum to enforce authoritarian, anti-democratic policies.
Prize for the Best Contribution to the German Competition
endowed with 5,000 Euro
ma nouvelle vie européenne
Abou Bakar Sidibé/Moritz Siebert
Germany 2019, 22 min. 19 sec., colour
Statement:
Abou flees from Mali and comes to Germany. ma nouvelle vie européenne reports on the worlds that lie between coming and arriving and on the fact that a home is far from being a new home. A film that doesn't promise itself and us too much: neither in terms of closeness and empathy nor in the certainty that everything will turn out well. But how he turns the camera into a medium of reflection and self-assertion in an existential emergency situation is not only a political act, but also and above all an admirable cinematic one.
3sat-Promotional Prize
endowed with 2,500 Euro
For a contribution with a particularly innovative approach.
In addition the award includes a buying option on the awarded work to be broadcast on 3sat.
Which Way to the West
Kristina Kilian
Germany 2019, 36 min. 17 sec., colour
Statement:
A film about a filmmaker who makes a film about her engagement with Godard's "Allemagne Neuf Zero": It sounds quite "meta, meta, meta" (to quote Which Way to the West itself). It is, too, quite meta, but in interlacing homage, self-doubt, and a study of film and Germany, the film proves to be quite funny and a search that really leads into the open. One of Which Way to the West's great strengths is that the film, despite the meta, doesn't want to be smart above all else. That's what makes it smart.
Special Mention of the Jury of the German Competition
A Return
James Edmonds
Germany 2018, 6 min., colour
Statement:
There is surf on the soundtrack, but the 16 mm images are also surging: fast, sometimes ghostly, sometimes in overlays, then simple and clear. Windows, plants, a surging stream of forms whose rhythms have rocked us.
Ada Kaleh
Helena Wittmann
Germany 2018, 14 min. 23 sec., colour
Statement:
It may not be quite clear who dreams of what here, and why in Chinese: but the precision of the daydreams in closed rooms and the camera pans that open the senses, with images from inside and sounds from outside, create the most beautiful floating states.
Prize for the Best Contribution to the NRW Competition
endowed with 1,000 €, sponsored by NRW.Bank
RIAFN
Hannes Lang
Germany 2019, 30 min., colour
Statement:
What a prologue offered by the initial constricted camera movement into a dark underpass. As if swallowed by an oral cavity, we are spat out again by the magnificent cinemascope images into the green expanse of the Alps. This spatial experience is juxtaposed with a vocal and acoustic resonance space in which the isolated calls of the shepherds and the ringing of the cowbells condense into a fantastic conversation between man, nature and cattle. With impressive precision and rhythm, Hannes Lang makes the incomprehensible tangible to the eyes in RIAFN - in images that literally "cry out" for the big screen.
Promotional Award of the NRW Competition
endowed with 500 €, sponsored by the NRW.Bank
O Catador sem Cabeça
Igor Shin Moromisato
Germany 2018, 14 min. 30 Sec., colour
Statement:
This cinematic narrator cultivates a dream that feeds on desires, remorse and longing. Somnambulistic, pale at first, then more and more contoured, the animation about the "headless gatherer" is projected onto nocturnal cityscapes, their passers-by and their shady sides. The autobiographical metropolitan experiences skip across levels of time and images with a lightness that testifies to the refinement and complexity of their fusion. Igor Shin Moromisato sends his O Catador sem Cabeça, composed of Brazilian and Japanese cultural myths, into a splendidly colourful nocturnal atmosphere of which we would like to see more in the future.
Distinction of the NRW Jury
El Peso del Oro
Yves-Maurice Itzek, Milosz Zmiejewski, Oscar Diaz
Germany 2019, 30 min. 50 sec., colour
Statement:
Our Special Mention goes to an international team production that conveys a physical experience shot under life-threatening conditions. For a handful of gold dust, the Colombian workers toil under extremely hard conditions underground. Droning drills, sweat and the claustrophobic narrowness of the shafts: El Peso del Oro follows the trail of gold and digs deep into the exploitation of body and nature. Yves-Maurice Itzek, Milosz Zmiejewski and Oscar Diaz literally move down to the lowest end of the capitalist profit chain, and thus to the root of a global problem. The weight of gold - it cannot be measured in ounces.
Prize of the Westart Audience Jury
endowed with 750 €, sponsored by West ART
MIDAS oder die schwarze Leinwand
(MIDAS or the Black Screen)
Hannah Dörr
Germany 2019, 15 min., colour
Statement:
In addition to its topicality and relevance, this short film impresses above all with its extraordinary scenery. Actors act between two-dimensional paper backdrops as if on a surreal stage. Tableau-like scenes that break with our digital viewing habits. A clever, humorous, artistic and whimsical realisation of a play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt: great set, outstanding actors and a story that couldn't be more topical.
Prize of the Children's Jury of the International Children's Competition
endowed with 1,000 €, sponsored by Wirtschaftsbetriebe Oberhausen
Aarambh (The Beginning)
Sandeep Kumar Verma
India 2018, 20 min., colour
Statement:
Our winning film is about a question that we have all already asked ourselves. Namely what happens after death. The film tells a lot about this and is always exciting. Although the story isn't always cheerful, the film also has a lot of funny parts. And it's well acted. Because we find the theme of the movie very sad, but also totally important, we award our prize to Sandeep Kumar Verma for Aarambh.
evo Promotional Award of the Children's Jury
endowed with 1,000 €, sponsored by the Energieversorgung Oberhausen AG (evo)
De Jonge Jagers (Young Hunters)
Iris Grob
Netherlands 2018, 17 min. 6 sec., colour
Statement:
We especially liked our winning film because it explained so much. In the film we learned where our food comes from. We all like to eat meat, but the animals are kept in cages and that's not really right. Some scenes in the film were a bit disgusting, but also super exciting. Furthermore, it was interesting to see the family in the movie.
Special Mention of the Children's Jury
Kosh bol (The Farewell)
Karash Janyshov
Kyrgyzstan 2018, 15 min., b/w
Statement:
Our Special Mention goes to a film that we found rather sad at first. It's about two boys who aren't doing well at all. That's why we found it so great that in the end they become friends and even run away together. We also liked the fact that the movie is black and white. Because that fits well with the story.
Prize of the Youth Jury
endowed with 1,000 Euros, sponsored by the Rotary Club Oberhausen
Dunk
Sophie Martin
France 2018, 22 min. 48 sec., colour
Statement:
It wasn't easy for us to decide which film to award our prize to, because we were impressed by all the films we saw. In the end, we decided on a film in which everything was just right and which we could have watched for much, much longer. But the fact that the film manages to tell a story which would also fill an hour and a half in 20 minutes impressed us a lot. The film combines many themes: fake friends, discrimination and prejudice, having to prove oneself in a group and above all sadness. The film tells us that after a loss you have to be strong and deal with your grief in scenes many of which have stuck with us. We absolutely believed the emotions of the great main actress and were able to put ourselves even better into the story. Moreover, we find it just the right signal to award a movie in which girls are the heroines! Because we found it impressive, moving and almost magical, we award the prize of the International Youth Film Competition to Dunk by Sophie Martin.
Special Mention of the Jury of the Youth Film Competition
Récit de soi
Géraldine Charpentier
Belgium 2018, 4 min. 53 sec., colour
Statement:
We award our special mention to a film that tells a very personal story, but finds a form that also lets us feel the emotions of the main character. The fact that the film is about a very complex topic is perfectly reflected in the animation style. The film tells about how much courage it takes to be different, which is an international issue, which we liked. Identifying neither as a woman nor as a man should be recognised as normality, but unfortunately it isn't. Because it touched us very much and we hope that with this special mention we can contribute to transgender acceptance, we award it to Récit de soi by Géraldine Charpentier.
ECFA Short Film Award 2019
Bloeistraat 11
Nienke Deutz
Belgium/Netherlands 2018, 9 min. 41 sec., colour
Statement:
For a sensitive portrayal of the fragility of even the strongest bonds of childhood, reflected through a brilliant combination of animation styles, inventive set design and captivating storytelling; for clearly outlined, almost transparent characters and the illustration of intimate emotions and complex relationships, without shying away from the sharp and painful details and disturbing elements of coming of age experiences.
1st MuVi Prize
endowed with 2.000 Euro
Aérea Negrot/Simon*e Paetau for Trying to Forget You
(Aérea Negrot)
Germany 2019, 7'56", colour
Statement:
We were struck by the video's juxtaposition of a proclamation that "we will not be erased" with the expression of "just trying to forget", which conveys an autonomy around memory that speaks to its greater sense of empowerment, all on display here with confrontational energy and beauty alike.
2nd MuVi Prize
endowed with 1.000 Euro
Nützliche Katastrophen (Die Goldenen Zitronen)
Schorsch Kamerun, Mense Reents, Timo Schierhorn
Germany 2018, 3'45", colour
Statement:
We also appreciated how Trying to Forget You is both visceral and humorous, qualities equally necessary in today's political climate. They are also qualities channelled by our second place selection - a video that resonated for its urgency around interrogation of institutional and political power, told through a visual narrative as strong as it is playful.
MuVi Online Audience Award
chosen by online vote
500 €, sponsored by kultur.west Verlag
Blitze (Donna Regina)
Céline Keller
Germany 2019, 2'57", colour and b/w
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen thanks its MuVi partners 2019:
3sat
coolibri
Goethe Institut
Intro
kultur.west
netpoint media
Competition Selection 2019
Argentina
amelina, Rubén Guzmán, 2018, 25'32'', International Competition
Caída (Fall), Melisa Aller, 2019, 03'11'', International Competition
Australia
All These Creatures, Charles Williams, 2018, 13'03'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
China Not China, Richard Tuohy/Dianna Barrie, 2018, 14'10'', International Competition
Austria/Canada
The Shepherd, Kim Kielhofner, 2018, 6'15'', International Competition
Austria/France
60 Elephants. Episodes of a Theory., Sasha Pirker/Michael Klein, 2018, 22'00'', International Competition
Austria/Italy
Sabaudia, Lotte Schreiber, 2018, 24'00'', International Competition
Belgium
Aléas, Maud Girault, 2019, 29'08'', International Competition
Perfect Cut, Sirah Brutmann/Eitan Efrat, 2018, 08'20'', International Competition
Provence, Kato De Boeck, 2018, 21'53'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Récit de soi, Géraldine Charpentier, 2018, 04'53'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Belgium/Democratic Republic of Congo
ZOMBIES, Baloji, 2019, 14'50'', International Competition
Belgium/France/Schwitzerland
Le Dernier jour d'automne, Marjolaine Perreten, 2019, 07'20'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Belgium/Netherlands
Bloeistraat 11, Nienke Deutz, 2018, 09'41'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Bolivia
Bocamina, Miguel Hilari, 2018, 22'03'', International Competition
Brazil
Elzo, Suzana Botosi, 2018, 03'17'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Canada
47 Storeys, Monique Moumblow/Paul Litherland, 2019, 11'15'', International Competition
Elvis: Strung Out, Mark Oliver, 2018, 04'33'', International Competition
Ice Spider, Cheryl Rondeau, 2018, 03'10'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
TV, Richard Reeves, 2018, 02'00'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Chile
Sobre cosas que me han pasado, José Luis Torres Leiva, 2018, 15'00'', International Competition
China
Dream Delivery, Zheng Yuan, 2018, 09'08'', International Competition
Sky City, Zhong Su, 2019, 09'44'', International Competition
Colombia
3pies, Giselle Geney, 2018, 13'59'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
El Corral, Alfredo Marimon/Angie Daniela López Moreno, 2019, 22'01'', International Competition
El tamaño de las cosas, Carlos Felipe Montoya, 2018, 12'00'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Croatia
3. rujna 2015, Sara Jurinčić, 2018, 08'45'', International Competition
Još jedan odlazak, Renata Poljak, 2018, 11'11'', International Competition
Krila za krokodila, Ivana Guljasevic Kuman, 2018, 05'00'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Pužić slikar, Manuela Vladić-Maštruko, 2018, 07'38'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Udahnut život, Ivana Bošnjak/Thomas Johnson, 2019, 12'15'', International Competition
U ime Republike Hrvatske, Goran Dević, 2019, 33'33'', International Competition
Czech Republic
Alula, Kaveh Daneshmand, 2018, 09'08'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Egypt
Fe el Sura (In Frame), Dana Enani, 2018, 18'57'', International Competition
Finland
Ei ainoastaan intohimosta, Johanna Lecklin, 2018, 12'03'', International Competition
Etäisyyden monumentti, Azar Saiyar, 2018, 07'00, International Competition
Sakke, Anssi Kasitonni, 2018, 08'15'', International Competition
Finland/Great Britain
The Stroker, Pilvi Takala, 2019, 15'00'', International Competition
France
Dunk, Sophie Martin, 2018, 22'48'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Dormir, Mathilde Roy, 2018, 04'04'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Gronde Marmaille, Clémentine Carrié, 2019, 14'47'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Je sors acheter des cigarettes, Osman Cerfon, 2018, 13'35'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
L'Oiseleuse, Hayoun Kwon, 2019, 06'49'', International Competition
Mon papi s'est caché, Anne Huynh, 2018, 07'11'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
THE SOUND DRIFTS, Stefano Canapa, 2019, 08'20'', International Competition
France/Belgium
Grand loup & petit loup, Rémi Durin, 2018, 14'00'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Le Chat qui pleure, Alain Gagnol/Jean-loup Felicioli, 2018, 08'37'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
France/Brazil
NoirBLUE - Deslocamentos de uma Dança, Ana Pi, 2018, 27'00'', International Competition
France/Poland
Twe Królestwo, Agata Lopko, 2018, 28'07'', International Competition
Germany
A Return, James Edmonds, 2018, 06'00'', German Competition
Ada kaleh, Helena Wittmann, 2018, 14'23'', German Competition
Ascona, Julius Dommer, 2019, 18'00'', NRW Competition
Bienville Parish, Arthur Brux, 2018, 12'50'', NRW Competition
Blitze, Céline Keller, 2019, 02'57'', MuVi Award
Bloody Mary - Song of the South Seas, Ming Wong, 2018, 05'26'', German Competition
Brand, Jan Köster/Alexander Lahl, 2019, 05'18'', German Competition
Dear Deer, Endre Aalrust, 2019, 19'21'', German Competition
DREI, Engin Kundag, 2018, 07'48'', NRW Competition
Dürrenwaid 8, Ines Christine Geißer/Kirsten Carina Geißer, 2018, 06'50'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
El Peso del Oro, Yves Itzek/Oscar Diaz/Milosz Zmiejewski, 2019, 30'50'', NRW Competition
Faxen, Lisa Domin, 2018, 08'06'', NRW Competition
FragMANts, Art Collective Neozoon, 2019, 05'26'', German Competition
Ghosting (The Phantom), Christine Gensheimer, 2018, 03'40'', NRW Competition
Grand Hotel Establishment, Ela Mergels, 2018, 01'31'', MuVi Award
Kato, Julius Wiege, 2019, 13'35'', NRW Competition
L´Étoile de Mer, Maya Schweizer, 2019, 11'00'', German Competition/International Competition
l'inverno, Gurli Bachmann, 2018, 05'57'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Lost in Translation, Svenja Voß, 2019, 08'08'', MuVi Award
ma nouvelle vie européenne, Abou Bakar Sidibé/Moritz Sieber, 2019, 22'19'', German Competition
MIDAS oder die schwarze Leinwand, Hannah Dörr, 2019, 15'00'', NRW Competition
Musterhaus, Christine Gensheimer, 2018, 03'03'', MuVi Award
my own kind, Mirjam Khera, 2019, 15'00'', German Competition
Nation of Defect, Klaus Erika Dietl/Stephanie Müller, 2019, 02'52'', MuVi Award
Nützliche Katastrophen, Schorsch Kamerun/Mense Reents/Timo Schierhorn, 2018, 03'45'', MuVi Award
O Catador sem Cabeça, Igor Shin Moromisato, 2018, 14'30'', NRW Competition
Oro Blanco, Gisela Carbajal Rodriguez, 2018, 23'53'', German Competition
Ösen-Tösen, Anna Christine Wagner, 2018, 02'30'', NRW Competition
Panda Moonwalk or Why Meng Meng walks backwards, Kerstin Honeit, 2018, 08'02'', German Competition
performing monuments, Katrin Winkler, 2018, 15'07'', German Competition
RGB, Jens Pecho, 2019, 03'33'', German Competition
RIAFN, Hannes Lang, 2019, 30'00'', NRW Competition
sad boyz get high, Jovana Reisinger, 2018, 19'32'', German Competition
Schuld, Dietrich Brüggemann, 2019, 04'00'', MuVi Award
shadow on railing, Jeayoung Koh, 2018, 05'36'', NRW Competition
Sollten Behinderte Bioeier kaufen?, Nikolas Müller, 2018,08'42'', MuVi Award
Stadt-Gegenstadt, Arne Schmitt, 2018, 15'45", German Competition
Stilluntitled - way of listening, Yuyen-Lin-Woywod, 2018, 10'47", German Competition
Stories / Cairo Wonk / Ballache Mansions, Konrad Hirsch, 2018, 03'33'', MuVi Award
Subdivision, Markus S. Fiedler, 2018,03'16'', MuVi Award
the lord loves changes, it's one of his greatest delusions, Annika Kahrs, 2018, 15'48", German Competition
The Magical Dimension, Gudrun Krebitz, 2018, 07'06", German Competition
Trying to Forget You, Simon*e Paetau/Aérea Negrot, 2019, 07'56'', MuVi Award
Телёнок и носорог/Telyonok i nosorog (The Calves), Bela Bulgakova, 2019, 10'39'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Which Way to the West, Kristina Kilian, 2019, 36'17", German Competition
ziyaret, Aykan Safoğlu, 2019, 12'30", German Competition
Germany/Argentina
Boom, Leyla Rodriguez, 2018, 06'34'', German Competition
Germany/Latvia
Transformation Scenario, Clemens von Wedemeyer, 2018, 20'00", German Competition
Germany/Netherlands
Souvenir, Miriam Gossing/Lina Siekmann, 2018, 20'50", German Competition
Germany/Poland
STAR Volume 2, Mikolaj Sobczak, 2018, 10'33", German Competition
Great Britain
A Different Category, Linnéa Haviland, 2018, 05'11'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Haruspex, Susannah Gent, 2019, 03'50'', International Competition
Janet, Who Fell from the Sea, Isabel Greenberg, 2018, 05'13'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Vertical Shapes in a Horizontal Landscape, Mark Jenkin, 2018, 05'00'', International Competition
Great Britain/Senegal
ALGO-RHYTHM, Manu Luksch, 2018, 13'56'', International Competition
Hungary
Broken Things, Gyulai Panni, 2018, 10'00'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
India
Aarambh, Sandeep Kumar Verma, 2018, 20'00'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
F(X), Naveen Padmanabha, 2019, 25'18'', International Competition
Iran
Gaav -e- Amricaei, Fatemeh Tousi, 2018, 14'34'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Italy
La gita, Salvatore Allocca, 2018, 15'12'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Japan
Umeboshi-Patrol (Pickle Plum Parade), Sasaki Eri, 2019, 03'44", Children's and Youth Film Competition
Kosovo
Ajo, More Raça, 2018, 12'27'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Kyrgyzstan
Kosh bol, Karash Janyshov, 2018, 15'00'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Lebanon
Lafahat Shams (Sun Rave), Roy Samaha, 2018, 11'00'', International Competition
Netherlands
Cycle, Sophie Olga de Jong/Sytske Kok, 2018, 02'15'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
De Jonge Jagers, Iris Grob, 2018, 17'06'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Norway
Myrhull, Torfinn Iversen, 2018, 13'26'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Philippines
Basura, Roberth Fuentes, 2018, 05'52'', International Competition/Children's and Youth Film Competition
Poland
Nadchodzą zimni ogrodnicy, Urszula Palusińska, 2018, 18'56'', International Competition
Portugal
O Mar Enrola na Areia, Catarina Mourão, 2018, 15'58'', International Competition
Russia
Pugovitca, Aleksandr Kim, 2018, 07'43'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
IO (Syndrome IO), Art Union Marmelade: Anastasia Braiko/Egor Sevastyanov/Anastasia Veber, 2018, 20'10'', International Competition
Russia/Belarus/USA
On Pridet (Arrival), Alina Nasibullina, 2019, 14'33'', International Competition
Rwanda/Switzerland
I Got My Things and Left, Mbabazi Sharangabo Philbert Aimé, 2018, 22'23'', International Competition
Singapore
Student Bodies, Ho Rui An, 2019, 26'30'', International Competition
Spain
Zapatos de tacón cubano, Julio Mas Alcaraz, 2019, 17'33'', International Competition
South Africa/Zimbabwe
Scenes from a Transient Home, Roger Horn, 2019, 13'09'', International Competition
South Korea
Squirtle, Hujung Kim, 2018, 08'28'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Sweden
Bror, Isabella Carbonell, 2018, 14'27'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
her master's voice, Cecilia Lundqvist, 2018, 01'47'', International Competition
Stamnätet, Clara Bodén, 2018, 04'45'', International Competition
Swêdî, Sosi Chamoun, 2018, 05'00", Children's and Youth Film Competition
Sweden/Egypt
Balbalah (betalpha), Mohamed A. Gawad, 2018, 05'19'', International Competition
Switzerland
Braises, Sarah Rothenberger/Estelle Gattlen, 2018, 06'33'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Membran, Max Philipp Schmid, 2019, 13'55'', International Competition
Taiwan
Yi Ru Wang Chang (As Usual), Liu Kuan-Wen, 2018, 06'48'', Children's and Youth Film Competition
Hu fe de niu-niu wei er li (The Horrible Thirty: Me, My Father and Richard the Tiger), Rina Tsou, 2018, 20'00'', International Competition
Ukraine
Kolir fasadu: syniy (Facade Colour: Blue), Oleksiy Radynski, 2019, 22'00'', International Competition
USA
Edge, Steven Subotnick, 2019, 03'15'', International Competition
Evelyn, Nina Yuen, 2019, 06'11'', International Competition
Catalogues
Festival Catalogue 2020
Festival Catalogue 2019
Trailer 2020
Press review
Every year there are reports about our festival. Here you can finde a collection of opinions about our festival.
2020
Festival
But even in the solitude of one’s living room, this 66th Oberhausen edition was rich and captivating.
Écran Noir, France, 4 June 2020
http://ecrannoir.fr/blog/blog/tag/oberhausen/
Although there’s nothing we need more in this austere time than the rapturous opulence of such magnificent short films.
Frankfurter Rundschau, Germany, 13 May 2020
https://www.fr.de/kultur/tv-kino/kurzfilmtage-schwelgerische-schoenheit-13760272.html
I was overwhelmed by the breadth of the international program, with its dizzying, often undifferentiated, mix of documentaries, animation, narrative, and formally experimental shorts.
Bright Lights Film Journal, USA, 22 May 2020
https://brightlightsfilm.com/rose-is-a-rose-the-2020-international-short-film-festival-oberhausen/
One of its strongest editions in recent memory.
Cineaste, USA, August 2020
https://www.cineaste.com/fall2020/oberhausen-international-short-film-festival-2020?fbclid=IwAR0SrNL7k0Mbxn0g2WA51UJTrgLfKjGSYhlOD6Em9y7MSd9ZKgI2e-slfS
https://www.cineaste.com/fall2020/oberhausen-international-short-film-festival-2020?fbclid=IwAR0SrNL7k0Mbxn0g2WA51UJTrgLfKjGSYhlOD6Em9y7MSd9ZKgI2e-slfSo
The two most important awards this year brilliantly represent the broad spectrum of cinematic forms that Oberhausen with its necessarily fragmented programme traditionally stands for.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany, 20 May 2020
The online edition not only caters to those who faithfully make the annual pilgrimage to Oberhausen, but also offers the chance to promote experimental film art to a broader audience.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany, 18 May 2020
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-laptop-statt-leinwand-1.4910473
Despite the increased sense of dislocation, Oberhausen’s indisputable global sprawl and breathless open-mindedness to diverse artistic styles and concerns – from children’s and artist’s films to music video and web series – remained a useful reminder of its durable status as one of the most important festivals of its kind.
The Brooklyn Rail, USA, July/August 2020
https://brooklynrail.org/2020/07/film/Its-Alive-Its-Alive
A heterogeneity that [...], always surprisingly, underlines the immense creativity beyond the mainstream.
epd film, July 2020
The short film is more suitable for the net than almost every other film format. Its shortness is not only well suited to the viewing habits of a younger audience in particular, it is also, unlike feature-length films, subject to far fewer restrictions concerning release windows.
Spiegel Online, Germany, 13 May 2020
https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-neustart-im-netz-a-4328a618-c4f5-446a-a78b-af589dff4b94
What the Oberhausen Festival is presenting online is not a makeshift alternative to a festival but a complete online festival.
die tageszeitung, Germany, 13 May 2020
https://taz.de/Virtuelle-Kurzfilmtage-Oberhausen/!5681873&s=kurzfilmtage/
But Oberhausen is not a festival as museum. Rather, it is radically open to the present.
Cargo, Germany, June 2020
The Oberhausen Short Film Festival is without doubt one of the most likeable and international film festivals in the German-speaking world.
ray Filmmagazin, Austria, May 2020
https://ray-magazin.at/filmtherapie-aus-oberhausen/
The first online edition of the Oberhausen Short Film Festival turned out to be a success. Appropriately, the films were about borderline experiences and the joys of being alone.
Der Standard, Austria, 19 May 2020
https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000117586756/online-festival-von-oberhausen-einmal-um-die-ganze-welt
[A] celebration of cinematic vision, voice and spectacle that astounds with the novel and the cutting edge.
https://scratch-utopia.blogspot.com/, 19 June 2020
In fact, it’s this combination of poetry and social analysis that was always the core competence of the Oberhausen Festival.
Neues Deutschland, Germany, 20 May 2020
https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/1136905.meereswellen-und-harnwegsinfektionen.html?sstr=kurzfilmtage
The 66th Short Film Festival was certainly a wonderful, but above all an important experience, since it made us painfully aware of why it must take place in the Oberhausen cinemas again next year. And when it does, again with the aesthetic power of inspiring curation, but most definitely with the political power of the films.
critic.de, Germany, 19 May 2020
https://www.critic.de/special/architektur-der-unsicherheit-kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-2020-4400/
[T]he unusual format of this year’s festival was oddly suited to its selection of experimental films.
https://fipresci.org/report/long-distance-short-films/, May 2020
The "Oberhausen" community has long been a metaphor for a certain culture of the moving image rather than a place on the map. The opportunity to watch the programme online was taken in almost 100 countries.
Frankfurter Rundschau, Germany, 20 May 2020
https://www.fr.de/kultur/tv-kino/oberhausen-entspannte-endzeit-ausserirdischem-13769135.html
The festival films remind us time and again that every element that makes up a film: sound, image, text overlays, narrative voice, are all capable of carrying a film but are often condemned in everyday cinema to miss their potential.
die tageszeitung, Germany, 13 May 2020
https://taz.de/Virtuelle-Kurzfilmtage-Oberhausen/!5681873&s=kurzfilmtage/
[The festival] managed to organise its 66th edition from 13 to 18 May online with creativity and technical excellence.
De Culto Magazine, Spain, 7 June 2020
https://www.decultomagazine.com/2020/06/07/un-mundo-nuevo-e-irreversible/
International Competition
Refusing to be simply a best of selection of the "best" short films of the past months (which is to say those that were already screened everywhere), the competition in fact united a diverse and exciting mix of strange and out-of-the-ordinary films, including conceptual documentaries, video installations, experimental essays and radical formal studies.
Écran Noir, France, 4 June 2020
http://ecrannoir.fr/blog/blog/tag/oberhausen/
The International Competition offered the greatest concentration of masterpieces.
Neues Deutschland, Germany, 20 May 2020
Distributors
[A]a great bonus point of the festival was its showcase for specialized experimental cinema distributors (featuring names such as LUX, Light Cone and Sixpack). These are very useful not just for curators and programmers but, in this specific context, a chance for cinephiles to catch a glimpse of important catalogs.
https://www.filmsinframe.com/en/oberhausen-2020/, Romania, 27 May 2020
Children’s and Youth Cinema
The general willingness to accept a life that is stressful, complicated and rich in contradictions even at a young age was a distinguishing mark of the Oberhausen film programmes for young viewers.
kinder-jugend-filmportal.de, Germany, 31 May 2020
https://www.kinder-jugend-filmportal.de/festivals/leben-lohnt-sich-trotz-allem.html
Profiles - Susannah Gent
Gent, a taxidermist, understands that, like a photograph as described by Barthes – the stuffed cadaver and the representational moving image function both a transgression of death and memento mori – a reminder of its inescapability.
https://scratch-utopia.blogspot.com/, 19 June 2020
Blog
An opulent forum of debates and video letters from all over the world.
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 24 April 2020
With its commissioned series [Can and should one make films now?], Oberhausen has provided compelling proof that filmmaking is exactly the right form of thinking about life and has given the essay a convincing vitality boost. If anything is to remain after Corona, please let it be this thoughtful form of lightness.
https://www.artechock.de/film/text/artikel/2020/05_14_oberhausen_kurzessays.html, 14 May 2020
2019
The organisational form of the film festival is approaching the principle of a large-scale exhibition in the art world here.
Der Standard, Austria, 7 May 2019
The Oberhausen International Short Film Festival is world-famous for its excellent programming [...]
Film Comment, USA, 10 June 2019
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is considered the oldest short film festival in the world and it should, in fact, be the most relevant film festival in the world, too. It has the potential.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany, 8 May 2019
Days of bliss.
filmdienst, Germany, 10 May 2019
The Oberhausen Short Film Festival comes across as history-conscious – while celebrating a thrilling modernity.
Frankfurter Rundschau, Germany, 7 May 2019
The fact that the Oberhausen Festival offers a host of intelligently compiled programmes enables the visitor to take in all kinds of films from all over the world which would otherwise certainly escape their notice.
Junge Welt, Germany, 10 May 2019
The Festival’s second forte is that it is always one short film length ahead of the present day. In the compilation of films, the discussions about the programme and in carefully curated interdisciplinary discussion panels, one encounters the discourses of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
artechock, Germany, 9 May 2019
Individual styles are not supposed to flow into each other but to stand side by side, this has long been the case in Oberhausen.
epd film, Germany, June 2019
… A whirlwind week of images, experiences and ideas.
Gravity was everywhere back then (Blog), Juni 2019
At this point, if not before, a merry and productive know-how of errors emerges as the (personal) leitmotif of the Festival, which nonetheless runs through different keys.
taz, Germany, 9 May 2019
"In this age of the decline of cinema as a gathering of people in a dark space in front of a screen, Oberhausen is very special. There are very few events like this, perhaps none. It’s very innocent."
Mark Oliver, director, quoted in Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany, 8 May 2019
This short film festival offered trenchant social criticism.
Neues Deutschland, Germany, 10 May 2019
Thus the Oberhausen Festival with its wide spectrum of the experimental and the narrative, the serious and silly, the important and the puerile operates like a tolerance factory.
critic.de, Germany, 9 May 2019
The festival’s side programmes again proved to be comprehensive in its research scope and quite remarkable in terms of re-discovering the old titles.
desistfilm.com, Peru, 16 May 2019
What makes Oberhausen unique and regular visits there indispensable […] are the films themselves and their makers.
artechock, Germany, 9 May 2019
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is Germany’s most important festival of its kind.
epd film, Germany, June 2019
Artistically speaking it was a good year in Oberhausen: the oldest short film festival in the world scored, in 2019 too, with a variety that covered everything from experimental works to documentary films to animations.
Ray online, Austria, May 2019
In Oberhausen, narrative is only one element of film aesthetics, next to image, sound, editing and others. Four or five days of experimental films clear the brain wonderfully.
filmdienst, Germany, 10 May 2019
The almost universally excellent quality of the programmes of the German Competition left a positive impression.
filmdienst, Germany, 10 May 2019
The greatest and most memorable surprise was caused by […] two young African filmmakers whose home countries have never turned up on any map of film art so far. Digital networking and comparatively low commercial pressure are indeed turning short film into an almost universal means of expression.
WAZ, Germany, 8 May 2019
Others
Theme
Since the 1990s, a central and successful part of our profile has been the Theme, an extensive programme on annually changing issues.
2019
The Language of Attraction:
Trailers between Advertising and the Avant-garde
Trailers represent a unique cinematic language that is part advertising and part summary, employing techniques of coercion, condensation, and explication to entice audiences to invest time and money in the feature presentation promoted. This programme asks what can be learned from considering trailers as works in their own right. What constitutes their distinctive cinematic language? How has it changed as the film industry has developed? How have the form and material of trailers been appropriated by artists?
Sourced from a number of international collections, curators Cassie Blake and Mark Toscano of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive have compiled eight programmes featuring dozens of artists' films and nearly 100 trailers, from the 1920s to the present. Trailers will be examined in their original context, with titles ranging from Metropolis to Jaws 3-D and including many rare prints. A wide range of artists' works engaging with the form and material of trailers will include showcases for Los Angeles artists Damon Packard and Chris Langdon, as well as films from Peggy Ahwesh, Stan Brakhage, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Martha Colburn, and many others.
Ultimately providing a closer look at a distinctive and evolving genre, this year's Theme investigates the historic, aesthetic, and social contexts of trailers, representing a cinematic language, which, however malleable, has nonetheless remained instantly recognisable.
Profiles
The Oberhausen Profiles are traditionally dedicated to the works of outstanding filmmakers, some of whom have dealt with short films for decades.
2020
Susannah Gent
In her works, the British filmmaker and artist explores the uncanny, illustrates the unconscious, ghosts, delusions. Since 2017, Oberhausen has repeatedly shown Gent’s films; in 2020 the Festival presented a first comprehensive overview of her unusual work which eludes simple categorisation.
Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo
In 2016 his work Versus was one of the discoveries in the Oberhausen International Competition. In 2019 I Got My Things and Left was awarded the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen. Mbabazi Sharangabo comes from Rwanda and often finds his subjects there. The profile in 2020 offered an opportunity to see more of this new and extraordinary voice.
Maya Schweizer
Identity, history and memory are the artist and filmmaker’s central themes. Her special focus is on the architectures and spaces that represent history. In 2019 Schweizer was awarded the e-flux Prize for L‘Étoile de mer in Oberhausen; in 2020 the Festival offered an opportunity to discover her cinematic work in a wider context.
2019
Alexander Sokurov
He is one of the most important and influential filmmakers of our time. In 1990 he first attracted international attention with Sovetskaja elegija, for which he won the Grand Prize at Oberhausen; he went on to win a number of awards for feature films such as Moloch (1999) or Russian Ark (2002). The Festival now offers a rare opportunity in six programmes to get to know Sokurov's extensive early short film oeuvre: documentary works in which the boundaries between fiction and essay are blurred, which examine the relationship between individual and power, which deal with recent history in long shots and rich poetic imagery.
Kiri Dalena
The Filipino artist and filmmaker, whose works have repeatedly been shown in Oberhausen, is still something of an international discovery. Dalena’s approach is both documentary and experimental; she works with photography, sculpture and film. Her themes are social injustice and human rights violations, especially in the Philippines.
Kayako Oki
The work of the Japanese artist and filmmaker is marked by her study of textile design - she treats her Super 8 films like textile material, dyes, cuts and layers, as in Shades of Safflower-dyed Celluloid, which was screened in competition in Oberhausen in 2016. Her approach is always documentary. The Festival is showing a selection of her works for the first time in Europe.
Eva Stefani
Eva Stefani, who has been making films since the 1980s, gained international renown when she took part in documenta 14 in Athens in 2018 with Hirografo, for which she was also awarded the Principal Prize in Oberhausen. The Festival presents the cinematic works of the artist, who, along with two others, will be featured in the Greek Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2019.
Podium
The Podium series forms an ideal complement to the competition discussions, spontaneous conversations and Q&As at the Festival, offering a place where scholars, artists, curators and authors can come together to discuss current issues relevant to the short form, whether aesthetic, economic, political or technologica.
2019
Between marketing and art: the cinema of coming attractions
This discussion will examine the language, use, and reuse of trailers as independent cultural markers, both in their intended form as ephemeral advertisements and via their appropriation as raw material for artists. A panel of experts and filmmakers will explore the complexities of the cinematic realm of coming attractions and the ways in which it has influenced their work. Moderated by curators Cassie Blake and Mark Toscano.
Video-on-Demand: new opportunities for filmmakers and festivals?
Compared to other distribution channels such as cinema and TV, VoD's market share in film distribution is growing exponentially and extremely dynamically. Can festivals also make good use of VoD? Which platform models are suitable? What experience has already been gained? Which future cooperations are conceivable? Moderated by curator and journalist Reinhard Wolf.
Rebooting the celluloid agenda?
Against all expectations, the activity of photochemical labs is not in the process of being completely discontinued. Recently it has even regained momentum. It is a fact that some filmmakers still want to shoot on celluloid. But film archives might provide the other side of the explanation... An archivist, a conservator and a lab technician discuss the issue, moderated by film programmer Katia Rossini.
Are film festivals the place for 360° and Virtual Reality?
While the cinema is facing more and more competition, Virtual Reality is sure to attract attention today. Even film festivals are setting up their own sections for this purpose. But what does cinema have in common with this new form of moving images in terms of media history? Are film festivals the right place for this? Moderated by filmmaker Christiane Büchner.
Distributors
The distribution screenings at Oberhausen are a showcase for international distributors of experimental films, who present new works from their catalogues here. In the online edition in 2020, too, the following distributors each presented a selection of their works.
2020
ARGOS centre for audiovisual arts (Belgium)
Arsenal — Institut für Film und Videokunst e. V. (Germany)
AV-arkki - The Centre for Finnish Media Art (Finland)
Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (Canada)
CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand (New Zealand)
Electronic Arts Intermix (USA)
Filmform — The Art Film & Video Archive (Sweden)
Light Cone (France)
LIMA (Netherlands)
LUX (UK)
sixpackfilm (Austria)
Vtape (Canada)
2019
ARGOS Centre for audiovisual arts (Belgium)
Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst (Germany)
AV-arkki – The Centre for Finnish Media Art (Finland)
Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre/Vtape (Canada)
Circuit Artist Film & Video Aotearoa New Zealand (New Zealand)
eye film institute netherlands (Netherlands)
Filmform – The Art Film & Video Archive (Sweden)
Light Cone (France)
LUX (UK)
sixpackfilm (Austria)
Video Data Bank (USA)
Archives
The section Archives was launched in 2013 to bring some attention to an often neglected subject: archiving and restoring experimental films.
2020
In 2020, two archives presented their work online.
Cyland Video Archive, Russland
Die 2008 gegründete St. Petersburger Organisation Cyland Video Archive arbeitet an der Schnittstelle von Kunst und Technologie. Neben einem Archiv mit über 400 Videoarbeiten sowie einer Sammlung zeitgenössischer Klangkunst liegt der Schwerpunkt ihrer Aktivitäten vor allem in der Vernetzung von Künstlern und Technikerinnen sowie der Förderung innovativer Arbeiten.
Fundacja Arton, Polen
Fundacja Arton collects and preserves Polish art from the 1970s – films, photography, videos. In Oberhausen, Arton presents works by Polish woman pioneers of 1970s avant-garde film: in personal stories Ewa Partum, Natalia LL, Izabela Gustowska, Jolanta Marcolla, Jadwiga Singer and others searched for their own media language.
2019
In 2019, three archives were guests to present their work.
Israel Film Archive
The Israel Film Archive holds more than 32,000 film reels of Israeli and Jewish themed titles and 2,500 born digital works of all genres, many of which are unique copies. Its mandate is to preserve these treasures and make them accessible to the public in Israel and all around the globe. The programme will include works by David Avidan and Vivian Ostrovsky.
Národní filmový archiv
The Národní filmový archiv in Prague preserves, presents and contextualises the Czech cinematic avantgarde. The NFA collects the national cinematographic heritage, including current audiovisual works and
previously neglected parallel motion pictures. The programme includes films by filmmaker Alexandr Hackenschmied, stage designer Josef Svoboda and video artist Radek Pilař.
Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center takes a global, multidisciplinary, and diverse approach to the creation, presentation, and preservation of art. Drawing from the Walker's Ruben Bentson Moving Image Collection, this presentation features a diverse range of films from 1930s amateur footage to 1970s experimental shorts.
Labs
Collective endeavours in celluloid
This section, dedicated to the international community of artist-run labs, began last year and will continue with a strong focus on the interaction between the celluloid, photochemical procedures and collective, independent forms of production and distribution. While the commercial utilization of analogue film reaches an end the practice of such groups, scattered around the world, becomes more relevant than ever. What perspectives of artistic work on celluloid and what collective ways of working can be found in this post-cinematic reality?
2019
Labs 1
surface memory oblivion, Jangwook Lee, South Korea, 2019, 8’00”
satellite, Sabina Maselli, Australia, 2019, 9’10”
All Things Run, Mieriën Coppens, Belgium, 2019, 2’00”
1536 Units, Jan Rehwinkel, Germany, 2018, 1’30”
From Which Even the Memory of the Darkness Has Vanished, Erin Celeste Weisgerber, Canada, 2019, 5’00”
tā...atā, Elizabete Mežule-Gricmane, Latvia, 2017, 3’00”
Résistance, Laurence Favre, Switzerland, 2017, 10’50”
A Voyage To The Dark, Yuri Lee, South Korea, 2018, 6’50”
Granular Film-Beirut, Charles-André Coderre, Canada/Lebanon, 2017, 6’51”
Pancoran, Richard Tuohy, Indonesia/Australia, 2017, 9'14"
Imago Mundi, Luisa Greenfield, Germany, 2018, 6’40”
Labs 2
Fultu Faltu Filim, Bernd Lützeler, Germany/India, 2018, 1'50”
Flows, Natalia Fentisova, Germany, 2018, 5’10”
Row, Row, Forward We Go, Aditya Martodiharjo, Indonesia/Australia, 2017, 12’56”
Seohwa, Inhan Cho, South Korea, 2018, 7’45”
Sans Lune, Sophie Watzlawick, Germany/Switzerland, 2017, 8’00”
The Skin is Good, Anja Dornieden/Juan David González Monroy, Germany, 2018, 12’00”
absences, ∅, Belgium/France, 2018, 5'15"
Ieva & Dainis uzlauž kodu, Lāsma Bērtule, Latvia, 2018, 4’00”
primordial light, Shannon Lynn Harris, Canada, 2018, 3’00”
Labs 3
Fugue, A Light's Travelogue, Els van Riel, Belgium, 2017, 27'00"
Morfología de un sueño, Malena Szlam, Canada/USA, 2018, 5'30"
Darkness, Inese Tikmane/Laima Vainiņa, Latvia, 2017, 4'00"
How Surely Gravity's Law I, Rhee Hun, South Korea, 8'20"
Projekt-Union, Dr. Globus/Die Projektionen, Germany, 2017, 3'58"
FUTURE, a Greek-Argentinian Film, Melina Pafundi, Germany, 2019, 8'40"
Slavas dziesma, Ieva Balode, Latvia, 2017, 10'30"
Conditional Cinema
Mika Taanila’s project for Oberhausen is an investigation of "live cinema" as a tool to explore the utopias of art after Capitalism. Taking up some of the strands Taanila addressed in his hugely successful 2014 "Memories Can’t Wait – Film Without Film" programme for Oberhausen, "Conditional Cinema" puts the emphasis on the idea of live "films" and how they respond to the decline of manual labour and the problem of obsolete humans. "Conditional Cinema" is designed as a three-year project.
Find more information on the project here.
re-selected
Instead of propagating the digital "rescue" of a cinematic work as an ideal, the project is interested precisely in the unique characteristics of a print, which are as a rule obliterated during digitisation. This leads to questions and insights connected with a print’s concrete history, specific target publics and historical configurations. Where and when was a film shown at all? Who saw it, in what version and within which structure?
Prints differ from one another; their specific impact histories take different courses and cannot simply be boiled down to the history of a particular film. Every print is an original – and not just when it turns out to be the only remaining print of a film, which is ever more frequently the case as negatives become lost and analogue media are withdrawn from service.
re-selected is a joint project headed by Tobias Hering and run by Oberhausen and Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art as part of "Archive außer sich" in cooperation with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, supported by the BKM within the framework of "Das Neue Alphabet", based on a resolution of the German Bundestag.
2019
Film history as print history
In the biography of a film print there are often coincidences and peculiaritiesthat have little to do with the film itself but have decisivelyshaped its reception history. With this in mind, the re-selected project,begun in 2018 and headed by Tobias Hering, is dedicated to the Oberhausen archive. One of three programmes in 2019 is devoted to earlyfilms by Želimir Žilnik, which caused a sensation in Oberhausen andwhose archived prints bear witness to how being shown or not shownbecame a political issue and films became secret messages. ŽelimirŽilnik will be present.
Re-selected 1
Oh dem Watermelons, Robert Nelson, USA, 1965, 11'00"
La fórmula secreta, Rúben Gámez, Mexico, 1965, 43'00"
with Armando López
Re-selected 2
Ustanak u Jasku, Želimir Žilnik, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1972, 17'24"
Crni Film, Želimir Žilnik, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1971, 15'30"
Socijalni Eksperiment (Performance), Dejan Đurković/Romy Ruegger/Tobias Hering, 15'00"
Re-selected 3
Waseyat Ragol Hakiem, Daoud Abdel Sayed, Egypt, 1976, 19'00"
An Thawra, Omar Amiralay, Yemen, 1978, 27'00"
with Alia Ayman + Kais al-Zubaidi
More
Here you can find a colourful mix of fixed programme elements that have become indispensable to our festival, but also always new and diverse interesting offers.
A Different Perspective
A group of participants of the International Integration Café Oberhausen present their personal favourites from the competition films. You can find more information about the project here.
Award Winners of Other Festivals
On its first day, Oberhausen traditionally shows short films that have received awards at other festivals. A cross-section of the past festival season.
Festival Highlights
The best of the best: To mark the conclusion of the festival, the Oberhausen team will show their personal favourite films from the competitions.
Filmgeflacker
The Oberhausen art collective Filmgeflacker also presented films from the competitions in 2020 and invited filmmakers to an online discussion.
The Oberhausen Selection
In 2020, the festival once again showed a programme from this series, in which Oberhausen citizens put together an annual programme of films from our archive. More information about the project can be found here.
The One Minutes
In cooperation with the One Minutes Foundation, Oberhausen presents 41 one-minute films in two series curated for the 66th festival: "everything happened so much: archive as poem in an age of perpetual witnessing", curated by Jesse Darling and "so real, so very now", curated by Misha de Ridder.
Open Screening
In 2009 the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen showed its first programme created entirely by the filmmakers themselves: the Open Screening. Here all filmmakers who submitted a work for the competitions that did not make the shortlist and which is no longer than 15 minutes still have the opportunity to present their film at the festival.
In 2020, 26 films were presented in two programmes in open screening.
EFA Shorts (Short Matters!)
Three programmes featuring exciting European short films, all of them nominees for the European Short Film Award 2018.
NRW in Person (2019)
Rainer Knepperges curated this selection in the context of a carte blanche by the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.
Kinemathek im Ruhrgebiet (2019)
The Kinemathek im Ruhrgebiet/ FilmArchiv has been collecting and restoring historical film material from the former coal-mining area for 40 years. In Oberhausen, the initiative will show an unusual selection with rare views of working and everyday life in the Ruhr region in the 20th century. Presented and introduced by its director, Paul Hofmann.
Documentary Spotlight (new since 2020)
In the Documentary Spotlight series launched in 2020, the Festival invites two European film festivals to present their most interesting documentary films. DocLisboa will show, among others, Inès Oliveiras documentary thriller Vira Chudnenko and the Dokufest in Kosovo Samir Karahoda's Në Mes (In Between), the portrait of a family scattered over many countries, who build identical houses as a sign of their cohesion.
An Eight-Part Dream Novella - by Katrina Daschner (2020)
Playing with masks is the focus of Katrina Daschner's series "An eight-part dream novel", which was presented online in 2020. Each episode stages places and bodies, costumes and masks in a detailed and material-obsessed way. An alchemistic process in which living beings, fabrics and materialities merge, hybrids are born, in which space and time, fiction and reality, and last but not least heteronormative role assignments implode.
The Goethe-Institut presents: The Nest Collective (2020)
In 2020 Oberhausen began a special cooperation with the Goethe-Institute; every year one of the German institutes abroad presents the cultural and short film scene of its host country. The Goethe-Institut in Nairobi started off with The Nest Collective: Kenyan writer Akati Khasiani introduced the queer and feminist scene in her home country, and the web series Tuko Macho and We Need Prayers, produced by the Nest film collective, were also presented. In addition, The Nest let us dive into Nairobi's "unheard-of" music world in one of the online DJ sets during the festival.
EYE presents films by Henri Plaat (2020)
As an international premiere, the Eye Film Museum from Amsterdam is showing a selection of digitally restored works by filmmaker Henri Plaat (*1936). Visual experiments, absurd fictions, poetic travel films - Plaat's works show a world full of wonder and beauty, but also full of traces of the past and memories of war and destruction. Plaat observes things that others overlook, draws connections between the cruelties of World War II and movie stars of the 1930s, and finds poetic beauty in fragments and decay.
European Short Film Agencies (2019)
Four selected agencies and interest groups present mixed national programmes of recent and older titles
Agencia - Portuguese Short Film Agency
Lithuanian Short Film Agency
Pro Short
AG Kurzfilm
10 Years of Filmgeflacker Retrospective (2019)
The group Filmgeflacker celebrate their first decade with a retrospective at the Lichtburg Filmpalast. Selected films from the past ten years of the format will be shown.
Memory Traces - imai (2019)
The imai Foundation (Düsseldorf) shows five works by international artists that engage with processes of identity formation. Film programme and discussion.
EU and Me (2019)
Five films about living together within the European Union.
European (Short) Film and Media Art Association (2019)
In 2018, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and three other European festivals founded the European (Short) Film and Media Art Association. In 2019 the other festivals were invited to present a selection from their programmes.
Go Short (International Short Film Festival Nijmegen)
VIS (Vienna Shorts Festival)
BFMAF (Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival)
MuVi 14+
A programme of international music videos for kids aged 14 and older. MuVi 14+ is a rich and varied cross section of recent video clips ranging from handmade to computer-generated. See the programme below.
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