The 70th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen took place from 1 to 6 May 2024.
Award Winners
Awards of the International Jury
Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen
worth 8,000 euros
Chūn Èr shí sān
(Spring 23)
Wang Zhiyi
China 2023, 13‘13‘‘, colour
Statement:
For being able to be both humanistic and subtly political, for its precise cinematography and editing, for its mixture of tragedy and humour.
Principal Prize
worth 4,000 euros
The Many Interrupted Dreams of Mr. Hemmady
Amit Dutta
India 2024, 14‘36‘‘, colour
Statement:
A director who moves effortlessly from the spontaneous encounter with a very unusual private collection to his own brand of ghostly animated magic. For him cinema becomes a way of travelling through culture, music and beauty thanks to the playful truth of a singular mix of animation techniques.
Promotional Prize of the International Competition
worth 1,500 euros
Waliduki Ala’Larjah
(The Father, Probably)
Tayib Tolba, Sidi Mohamed Tolba
Mauretania 2024, 28‘17‘‘, colour
Statement:
The filmmakers’ austere palette and cinematography depict the severe reality surrounding a girl living in a male dominated society. The engaging performance by the actress, Fatimetou Abeyd, contributed to the depth of this tragic narrative. By delicate suggestion, the film managed to make us feel the daily oppression of a woman in this closed community.
European Film Awards Short Film Candidate
Boucan
(Clamor)
Salomé Da Souza
France 2023, 25‘, colour
Statement:
For its realistic and rough description of a family and a community, for its daring interrogation of sexuality and taboo, for the amazing performance of the actors, most of them none-professional.
Special Mentions
Ovozlar
(Voices)
Irina Savon
Uzbekistan 2023, 22‘46‘‘, colour
Statement:
An insight into multiple working-class communities where the men labour under extreme conditions to support their respective families. With its observational mode of representation, the film provides us with an intimate glimpse into the sacrifices these men and their families experience.
Bol
(Pain)
Ivan Faktor
Croatia 2024, 22‘14‘‘, colour
Statement:
We would like to pay our respect and tribute to Ivan Faktor for his extraordinary concluding project and also thank the filmmakers who resurrected and edited this footage and now made it available to the Oberhausen community.
The International Critics’ Prize
The International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize)
Chūn Èr shí sān
(Spring 23)
Wang Zhiyi
China 2023, 13‘13‘‘, colour
Statement:
For its sensitivity and irony in the process of mourning, with tight editing and an extraordinary visual talent.
Prize of the Jury of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
1st Prize of the Jury of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
worth 5,000 euros
On Hospitality – Layla al Attar and Hotel al Rasheed
Magnus Bärtås, Behzad Khosravi-Noori
Sweden 2023, 18‘, colour
Statement:
This film, which we chose first after much deliberation, builds a multi-layered architecture out of the possibilities and impossibilities of history. A voice from beyond and footsteps on the inlays of ideology take us into a narrative prism that allows us to understand the complexities of our present and the depths of power. The Hotel al Rashid with its 1001 rooms offers the filmmakers just enough space to show us how to think, explore and feel cinematically.
2nd Prize of the Jury of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia
worth 3,000 euros
O Ma
(Before then)
Xue Mengzhu
Germany/China, 2023, 30‘07‘‘, colour/black and white
Statement:
Not everyone who has a language also has a voice. Our second vote therefore goes to a film that finds translations beyond writing and language and makes a poetic dialogue between the values of different generations possible that is immediately affectionate and unmediatedly close.
Special Mentions
Ba Gheyde Mahramanegi
(With Confidentiality)
Shervin Vahdat, Payam Azizi
Iran 2023, 17‘12‘‘, colour
Statement:
Ingeniously simple and touching, this film weaves a story of solidarity, ambition and ambivalence. Risking their lives, the women of an Iranian village turn to the authorities to accuse their husbands. The film is not just about, it is feminist empowerment.
Ba’ad Thalek La Yahdoth Shea’
(Nothing Happens After That)
Ibrahim Omar
Sudan 2023, 12‘, colour
Statement:
The film speaks of the end of possibilities, of loss and grief and the outside of society that is a reality for refugees in life and in death. Ba'ad Thalek La Yahdoth Shea' (Nothing Happens After That) has no choice but to preserve the catastrophe because it cannot be processed, and cools the pain down to an existential visual language.
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
worth 1,500 euros
O Ma
(Before then)
Xue Mengzhu
Germany/China, 2023, 30‘07‘‘, colour/black and white
Statement:
Language can be a barrier: We don't know the other person's language or can’t understand what they want to tell us. Language can also be liberating: finally expressing what is on my mind, revealing myself and to share my inner feelings. But can language be both a barrier and a liberation? Yes, this paradox is possible. Our winning film this year proves it.
By dissolving the traditional categories of speaker and listener, it is also possible to express what cannot be said. A letter in a foreign language becomes a possibility of communication that remains misunderstood, and at the same time the unspeakable is said and no longer hidden.
The film is about our relationship with the people we love, the people we don't want to let go, and the people we want open up to. But it also shows how the gap between different generations, social systems and places can prevent us from fully understanding each other. It shows us a creative way of dealing with the unspeakable and is a plea for an intense relationship between us and our neighbours.
Special Mention
Hitbasrut
(Decryption)
Maya Zack
Israel 2023, 12‘26‘‘, colour
Statement:
Memories fade – this experience is part of being human. We would give a lot to be able to go back in time for a moment and refresh our memories of people we care about. One film in this year's competition brings this to the screen in a unique, tactile way. Based on a personal story, the film uses intense scenes to explore a universal human theme. We read it as an opportunity to dive deeper into the existential questions about the other within the self, about the materiality and conditions of memory. Despite the healing power of multi-layered attempts to get closer: Memory resists its complete decryption.
ZONTA Prize
ZONTA Prize
worth 1,000 euros
for a female filmmaker in the International or German Competition
DESIGN BIO TOILET
Mariola Brillowska
Germany 2024, 3‘58‘‘, colour
Statement:
This year's ZONTA Prize goes to a filmmaker who has long accompanied the festival with her works. Her films have an unmistakable signature, are garish, often loud, full of colour and always to the point. What looks spontaneous is always finely crafted. With this film she has amazed us once again; we are thrilled.
Awards of the German Jury
Prize of the German Competition
worth 5,000 euros
Vermessung der Tristesse
(Measuring Sadness)
Agnieszka Jurek
Germany 2024, 18', colour
Statement:
The moment is a way out, can be a salvation and let you sense infinity. A moment and then another moment, sensations that lie like islands in the course of time. Next to it, a child growing older, in a forest that always seems to remain the same. Breathe in, breathe out.
Promotional Prize of the German Competition
worth 1,500 euros
That’s All From Me
Eva Könnemann
Germany 2024, 23‘52‘‘, colour
Statement:
The sincerity and vulnerability with which the filmmaker's character embarks on a search for a way out of a social and personal dilemma does not lead to a solution, but to an opening process in which she lets us participate, full of self-irony and insight: That's All From Me – we wish that this is not all we will have heard and seen from this filmmaker.
3sat Emerging Talent Prize
worth 2,500 euros
In addition the award includes a buying option on the awarded work to be broadcast on 3sat.
Outside
Marian Mayland
Germany 2024, 29‘52‘‘, colour
Statement:
A story that was readily believed was exposed as a lie that disturbed relatives and those around her. The case of the artist who pretended to be a victim of the Nazi regime is now returning in a new version. We believe that the discourse triggered by this story should be given the opportunity to be continued in public television programmes.
Special Mention
LIKE HORSES STANDING IN THE RAIN
Nicolaas Schmidt
Germany 2024, 16‘, colour
Statement:
A tragicomic journey that leads nowhere, but yields an insight: In a montage of images from the very recent past, the film gradually creates a fragmentary cartography of a suicidal era whose problem is not that consumer capitalism offers the wrong fulfilment for our desires, but that these desires have never been our own.
Prizes of the NRW Jury
Prize of the NRW Competition
worth 1,000 euros
Bei Gino
(At Gino’s)
Christoph Otto
Germany 2024, 9‘31‘‘, colour
Statement:
An aimless night in a Cologne bar. New and old acquaintances, anecdotes and lots of wine accompany the protagonist on her quest for something undefined. The camera, too, is searching for its images, unfolding, with subtle humour, a social reference space in which partying, drinking and getting to know other people are a natural part of life.
Promotional Prize of the NRW Competition
worth 500 euros
swinging
Miri Klischat
Germany 2024, 6‘45‘‘, black and white
Statement:
Fleeting moments of upheaval. In brief snapshots of a summer day spent together which talk both of intimacy and attempts at getting closer, we observe a boy on the threshold between childhood and adolescence. Like the swing which moves in and out of the frame, he, too, floats between the times.
Special Mention
Alltagstalente
Lindi
German 2023, 3‘18‘‘, colour/black and white
Statement:
Even though the protagonists of this film come to the conclusion that their talent lies in doing nothing, the film displays a special and regrettably increasingly rare quality: an anarchic joy of filmmaking.
Prize of the WDR Westart Audience Jury
Prize of the WDR Westart Audience Jury
worth 750 euros, sponsored by WDR Westart
Members:
Alia Aswab, Larissa Braunöhler, Elke Hinrichs, Ilka Liesner, Zolniam Nomguunsuren, Werner Travis Ratajzak, Peter Ruhwedel-Kebbe, Cornelia Saalfeld, Joachim Saalfeld, Uwe Schmitt, Nina Stuttkwitz, Ingeborg Sungen, Karin Teichmann, Sabine Wegge
Heile Welt
(Lost Places)
Kerstin Gramberg
Germany 2023, 11'50’’, colour
Statement:
A film that shows the world between idyll and threat, between untouched nature and civilisation, between paradise and hell. Are we humans disturbing unspoilt nature or is nature disturbing human activity? An enchantingly animated setting, created from the simplest materials such as sugar, felt and paper. Accompanied by an impressively precise sound layer that draws the viewer emotionally into a poetic world of images. We from the Westart Audience Jury consider this combination of relevant content and unique style to be very special and therefore award the WDR Westart Prize 2024 to the short film Heile Welt by Kerstin Gramberg.
26. German MuVi Award for the Best German Music Video
1st Prize
worth 2,000 euros
Schleim des Nichtwissens (Back To Comm)
Marc Richter
Germany 2024, 5‘36‘‘, colour
Statement:
Initially we didn’t have this winner on our shortlist. But the clip grows with every viewing. Opulent costumes, Hieronymus Bosch-like Tableaus and AI aesthetics come together in the richly detailed images. It’s not just the hands of the figures who appear apathetically in these tableaus that are deformed, but almost all of their body parts. Humanity is largely at an end here. What’s left are chemicals, mutations, fungi and exposed brains. A hybrid freak show in which destruction, anxiety and beauty intermingle. The impression of beauty is reinforced by the meditative calm of the music. The abnormal is celebrated and loses its horror. What’s more, this clip is the only one in which music and images were created by one artist – who has developed a truly new aesthetic in these images.
2nd Prize
worth 1,000 euros
Das Parlament der Dinge (F.S.K.)
Juno Melián Meinecke
Germany 2023, 3‘40‘‘, colour/black and white
Statement:
In the second prize-winner's video, the visual aesthetics, the tonality of the music and the lyrics are close together. There is no sound/image divide: We hear a word such as the word broom and see a drawing of a broom. The singer sings the word sofa and we see a sofa. The aesthetics of the images seem old – Super 8, VHS, samples from old films – but not antiquated. Both sound and image appear virtuoso and amateurish. We particularly liked how the children's drawings do not simply duplicate text and music, but add further layers to both. The things and children's drawings are fun, the clip is open in terms of meaning and characterised by a great joy in the society of commodities. In the end, however, everything has exploded and Hammer and Sickle applaud.
Special Mention
Google Your New Name (Golden Diskó Ship)
Paula Reissig
Germany 2023, 3‘25‘‘, colour
Statement:
Our emphatically and wholeheartedly given Special Mention goes to a clip that depicts private spaces that have become precarious. It sounds a little abstract at first, but immediately jumps out at you when you see it: A living room is flooded by a mercury-like liquid, doppelgangers appear, and the supposedly protected space of privacy becomes more and more poisoned. Director Paula Reissig is a computer game designer, among other things, and has created a scenario of the uncanny that harmonises wonderfully with the music of Golden Diskó Ship. And this despite the fact that it, the music, moves forward while the images set the scene for a state of mental emergency.
MuVi Online Audience Award
chosen by online vote on www.muvipreis.de and worth 500 euros
Das Parlament der Dinge (F.S.K.)
Juno Melián Meinecke
Germany 2023, 3‘40‘‘, colour/black and white
The MuVi Partners 2024:
3sat
Byte.FM
kaput – Magazin für Insolvenz & Pop
kultur.west
netpoint media
The Awards of the International Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Prize of the Children’s Jury
worth 1,000 euros, sponsored by Wirtschaftsbetriebe Oberhausen (WBO)
Frite sans maillot
(Noodles au Naturel)
Matteo Salanave Piazza
France 2023, 4'15‘‘, Farbe
Statement:
Our winning film totally hit our sense of humour. The film is about Anthony having forgotten his swimming trunks, right when swimming lessons are about to start. He quickly has to come up with a solution. The scene where we saw the boy's bottom against the window pane, for example, was funny. Everyone laughed. The funniest and most encouraging part was when the boy shouts out loud: “I've forgotten my swimming trunks. I've only got my briefs on!”
Promotional Prize of the Children’s Jury
worth 1,000 euros, sponsored by Energieversorgung Oberhausen AG (evo)
MY SCHOOL
Keitaro Oshima
Japan 2023, 9'37‘‘, colour
Statement:
What we really like about our winning film is that other children have worked on it, because the film is the result of an art project. The beautifully drawn animations are mixed with real images. They are scenes from everyday school life. The music and images harmonised particularly well. And what impressed us particularly were the bright colours of the images.
Special Mention
Brouillarta
Ingvild Søderlind
Norway 2023, 14'10‘‘, colour
Statement:
Our Special Mention goes to a film that is scary, exciting and also mysterious. It was easy for us to put ourselves in the shoes of the boy who is a little scared. We also like the different camera angles in this feature film. At first we thought Brouillarta was a ghost. If you want to know who or what Brouillarta is, you have to see the film.
Prize of the Youth Jury
worth 1,000 euros, sponsored by the Rotary Club Oberhausen
Beyond Farewell
Jackie Shijie Xing
USA 2024, 4'34‘‘, colour
Statement:
The music video was very touching and shows the immense importance that one person can have for another. The film makes it clear that every separation is hard and never the same. Two worlds collide – AI and ours – and there is no “typical” goodbye here. The production countries USA and China were represented and we were impressed by how the film illustrates this. The title of the film shows that everyone deserves the best. We felt very well entertained by the film and it appealed to us because it is about love.
Special Mention
Boat People
Thao Lam, Kjell Boersma
Canada 2023, 9'59‘‘, colour
Statement:
Our Special Mention goes to a film that we think has a very relevant and important message. The film shows the danger and tense situation experienced from the perspective of a child fleeing from its country. We are shown a hope that never really ends, along with a chaos of emotions. The film was very informative, which is very good for people who may not know much about war and flight.
Prize of the ECFA Jury
ECFA Short Film Award
(The award consists of a nomination for the ECFA Short Film Award 2025)
Iris
Jon Vatne
Norway 2024, 14‘01‘‘, colour
Statement:
In its highly imaginative and unpredictable plot, the film delves into a child's view on everyday life experiences and ultimately legitimizes this particular perspective on the world. It sensitively portrays an eye-to-eye relationship between a girl and a toddler who support each other as they embark on an adventure: A surreal, yet familiar and relatable journey of discovery through a world beyond the adult mindset that empowers children in a non-conformist way.
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury of the Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury of the Children’s and Youth Film Competition
worth 1,500 euros
The Old Young Crow
Liam LoPinto
Japan/USA 2023, 12‘, colour
Statement:
An elderly man reminisces about a childhood experience of solitude in a new location while reading his old sketchbook. His drawings transport him back to a significant moment in a quiet graveyard, where he found solace and encountered an older woman grieving her son's loss. This film employs innovative animation techniques alongside live action, weaving a heartfelt narrative about a spiritually sensitive boy adapting to new religious customs. Through connecting with the deceased and reconciling his own losses, he discovers a sense of belonging in his unfamiliar surroundings.
Catalogue
Festival Catalogue 2024
The Festival Catalogue 2024 is available as PDF for Download here.
Press review
Here you can find a collection of excerpts and comments from press reviews of our festival. Please note that most of the links lead to German-language publications.
The legendary Oberhausen short film festival is a platform for the greatest directors in the world. This year it is celebrating its 70th anniversary. A tribute.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 May 2024
Under pressure and under threat, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen continues to prove in 2024 what power this kind of festival format still has.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7. Mai 2024
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/die-kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-beweisen-ihre-kraft-19701523.html
Behind the many words in the supporting programmes that strove to protect the art, it’s the films themselves that bring Oberhausen’s universalist claim home to us, even 70 years after the festival was founded.
die tageszeitung, 6 May 2024
https://taz.de/Zwischenbilanz-Kurzfilmtage-Oberhausen/!6008434&s=kurzfilmtage/
„The Oberhausen short film festival is the best place to present short films in Europe. This is where films are given the platform they deserve.” (Bea de Visser)
Quoted in WAZ, 4 May 2024
The current edition of Oberhausen resembled a festival in a state of emergency. During the days in Oberhausen, the effects of the rift that runs through the cultural scene since the Hamas massacre of 7 October became as visible as the helplessness in trying to make a festival work smoothly despite the rift.
die tageszeitung, 8/9 May 2024
https://taz.de/Bilanz-der-Oberhausener-Kurzfilmtage/!6006192&s=kurzfilmtage/
But this year, the Oberhausen Festival proved that it is possible to organise a stimulating film festival that is committed to peaceful discourse and, yes, also diverse, without being driven by humour-free screamers.
Perlentaucher, 10 May 2024
https://www.perlentaucher.de/im-kino/bericht-von-den-70-internationalen-kurzfilmtagen-oberhausen.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR00C%E2%80%A6
[...] This is precisely the point and the real raison d'être of the Festival: to get to talk with one another, to exchange very different views of the world.
WAZ, 8 May 2024
This series of panels, podiums and discussion rounds was a noteworthy part of the 70th Oberhausen Short Film Festival. A film festival without films – so that‘s possible, too.
Junge Welt, 4/5 May 2024
https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/474683.kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-dialog-ist-nicht-alles.html?sstr=kurzfilmtage
The finest proof of the importance of festivals was the festival itself
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7 May 2024
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/die-kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-beweisen-ihre-kraft-19701523.html
If the 70th edition of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen from 1 to 6 May 2024 was marked by a noticeable division, it was between rather one-sided discussions on the one hand and complex cinematic positions on the other.
Filmdienst, 17 May 2024
https://www.filmdienst.de/artikel/66699/kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-2024-fazit
The 70th festival year (after some of the previous years’ awards, which could at best be described as ‘challenging’) offered some real pleasures - and not just in the children's programme. These are touching stories whose seemingly marginal themes often reflect the current world situation with poetic urgency.
WAZ, 8 May 2024
Oberhausen will do well to leave its cultural-political martyrdom behind soon and concentrate on what it has represented for 70 years: democratic culture and cinema as a space of experience and possibility that escapes the logic of propaganda and political instrumentalisation. It would be the only productive solution to an ongoing controversy – possibly even a role model for the entire cultural sector.
der Freitag, 8 May 2024
The programme, which is dedicated to the short film form in all its varieties, from the experiments of the cinematic avant-garde to children's films, proved to be as multifaceted as usual. Current productions and historical special programmes complemented each other in productive ways, while various challenges faced by film culture were discussed on several panels.
Die Presse (Austria), 6 May 2024
The 70th Oberhausen Festival celebrates its birthday in times of crisis. But there are good films to be discovered even in the shadow of unproductive debates.
fr-online.de, 2 May 2024
https://www.fr.de/kultur/tv-kino/cancel-culture-debatte-bei-kurzfilmtagen-oberhausen-das-gespenst-der-widerspruchsfreiheit-93047208.html
In fact, unlike many primarily commercially orientated film festivals, Oberhausen stands for a joy of discourse, which is to be demonstrated once again with conferences, panel discussions and workshops.
Monopol, 30 April 2024
https://www.monopol-magazin.de/kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-keine-ersatzveranstaltung-fuer-politik
Typical of Oberhausen: it's the ‘small’ prizes or the unendowed ‘special mentions’ that young and even established filmmakers are particularly happy about.
WAZ, 7 May 2024
Imperfection, vibrancy and spontaneity are what one would wish for the future of the world's oldest short film festival, and for the films that will be screened there.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 May 2024
The festival also scored points with its historical series, the traditional ‘re-selected’ programme, which compiles new films from past festival editions, and the ‘Sport in Film’ series, expertly curated by Dietrich Leder.
epd film, June 2024
https://www.epd-film.de/meldungen/2024/70-kurzfilmtage-oberhausen
Werner Herzog's film “Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner” (The Great Ecstasy of the Woodcarver Steiner, 1974) about the Swiss ski jumper Walter Steiner, ‘the bird man’, was the highlight and probably also the cinematic salvation of the entire festival.
Junge Welt, 6 May 2024
https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/474770.sportfilm-f%C3%BCrchtet-euch-nicht.html?sstr=kurzfilmtage
It is claimed that sport is one of the last instances in which heroes are produced. Thus in film and cinema, as the Oberhausen film selection showed, but also on a large scale.
Filmfilter (Austria), 15 May 2024
https://filmfilter.at/themen/features/sport-im-film/
[...] nonetheless, not only the most attractive [films] came from the archive, for example in the series curated by Dietrich Leder entitled ‘Sport in Film. Historical Sports Films in Focus’. The sparseness and seriousness of Abraham Ravett's work (not omitting that there was a lot of archive work among them) ensured the necessary concentration.
Junge Welt, 7 May 2024
https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/474897.kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-im-gefahrengebiet.html?sstr=kurzfilmtage
[Ravett's films] are associative “experiments” that leap through time and space and never come across as arty. For all their thoughtfulness, they seem intuitive.
critic.de, 7 May 2024
https://www.critic.de/special/fuer-nebenschauplaetze-offen-kurzfilmtage-oberhausen-2024-4689/
It's a good year that has made it to the final screening out of 230 clips submitted. It's like a small Oscars ceremony without the suits, kitsch and protocol.
WAZ, 6 May 2024
At the same time, music videos continue to be an extremely important marketing element – and sometimes also great art. The latter has been recognised for over 25 years by the MuVi Award, which will be presented again in 2024 as part of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.
Byte.fm, 5 April 2024
https://www.byte.fm/blog/news/muvi-online-publikumspreis-2024-stimmt-ab-fuer-das-beste-musikvideo-142195
Forlornness, despair, violence and oppressive memory fragments. This is the view painted by the German competition year of the 70th Oberhausen Short Film Festival – and that's where it's at its best.
Kultur.West, May 2024
https://www.kulturwest.de/inhalt/die-verlorene-welt/
Competition Films
By countries
Argentina
El mal menor (The lesser evil), Marcos Montes de Oca, 2023, 18’58’’, International Competition
Austria
abstechen (sticking pigs), Angelika Reitzer, 2023, 15’22’’, International Competition
Avec la 4e Division Marocaine de Montagne (With the 4th Moroccan Mountain Division), Stefania Smolkina, 2024, 25’56’’, International Competition
Lacrimosa, Josef Dabernig, 2024, 11’, International Competition
Surface Séance, Michael Heindl, 2024, 4’45’’, International Competition
Belgium
Arbor, Cremium, Frutex, Herba, Quentin Nicolaï, 2023, 7’, International Competition
Entre les autres (Between the Others), Marie Falys, 2023, 23’22’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Girl'z in the Hood, Karim Akalay, 2023, 19’, International Competition
Brazil
Lulina e a lua (Lulina and the Moon), Marcus Vinicius Vasconcelos, Alois Di Leo, 2023, 14’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Canada
Abaznoda (Abaznoda (Basket)), Charlotte Gauthier-Nolett, 2023, 10’26’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Boat People, Thao Lam, Kjell Boersma, 2023, 9’59’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
China
转文字不小心删掉了，能再发一次吗? (Another Day), Wang Danyang, Chen Yiquan, 2023, 5’22’’, International Competition
唯幻 (Being is negative), Sun Xun, 2023, 4’30’’, International Competition
He Tong (And I Talk like a River), Qian Ning, 2023, 12’37’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
捉迷藏 (Hide and Seek), Qian Li, 2023, 7’03’’, China, Children’s and Youth Film Competiton
春二十三 (Spring 23), Wang Zhiyi, 2023, 13’13’’, International Competition
绝地天通 (The Separation of Heaven and Earth), Zhong Su, 2024, 9’36’’, International Competition
Croatia
Bol (Pain), Ivan Faktor, 2024, 22’14’’, International Competition
Cuba/Spain
Futuro (Future), Amanda Cots Martínez, Ángel Suárez Ávila, 2024, 15’04’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Finland
Replacement Track, Eero Tammi, 2024, 18’18’’, International Competition
France
Au 8ème jour (On the 8th Day), Agathe Sénéchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavie Carin, Théo Duhautois, 2023, 8’12’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Boucan (Clamor), Salomé Da Souza, 2023, 25’, International Competition
Frite sans maillot (Noodles au Naturel), Matteo Salanave Piazza, 2023, 4’15’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Météores (Meteors), Agnès Patron, Morgane Le Péchon, 2023, 4’30’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Silhouette, Alexis Lafuente, Marc Forest, Antoni Nicolai, Elliot Dreuille, Baptiste Gueusquin, Chloé Stritcher, 2023, 5’02’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Germany
[dramatic music continues], Bjørn Melhus, 2023, 5’10’’, German Competition
A Quickie In The Bouncy House, Frederic Pierce Warnecke, Matthew Biederman, 2023, 4’10’’, German MuVi Award
A War I've Never Seen, Fariba Buchheim, 2023, 29’27’’, German Competition
Alltagstalente (Everydaytalents), Lukas Lindberg, 2023, 3’18’’, NRW Competition
Arschschießen, Laurenz Otto, 2024, 15’, NRW Competition
Bei Gino (At Gino's), Christoph Otto, 2024, 9’45’’, NRW Competition
Cuando llegue la neblina (When the fog comes), Laurentia Genske, 2023,23’23’’, German Competition
Das Parlament der Dinge, Juno Melián Meinecke, 2023, 3’40’’, German MuVi Award
DEMO, Dora Cohnen, 2023, 13’15’’, NRW Competition
DESIGN BIO TOILET, Mariola Brillowska, 2024, 3’59’’, German Competition
Everythingness, Julia Jesionek, 2024, 7’14’’, NRW Competition
Gezielt Mittelalterliche Überlegungen (The Bear Within), Paula Milena Weise, Finn Ole Weigt, 2024, 25’, German Competition
Google Your New Name, Paula Reissig, 2023, 3’25’’, German MuVi Award
Grunewald Is Burning, Markus S Fiedler, 2023, 3’06’’, German MuVi Award
HBD, Stephan Dybus, 2023, 3’29’’, German MuVi Award
Heile Welt (Lost Places), Kerstin Gramberg, 2023, 11’50’’, NRW Competition
HOT LAVA NIGHT, Keren Cytter, 2023, 10’08’’, German Competition
Ich gehe in den Tag (I go into the day), Mariola Brillowska, 2024, 3’55’’, German MuVi Award
Katalinen Kanthoria (Katalin’s Ballad), Nahia Garcia de Andoin, 2024, 14’09’’, German Competition
les microbes (microbes), Matze Görig, 2023, 17’42’’, German Competition
Leylet Europa, Léo Beaudoin, Ronida Alsino, 2023, 14’50’’, NRW Competition
LIKE HORSES STANDING IN THE RAIN, Nicolaas Schmidt, 2024, 16’, German Competition
Manitulation, Astrid Busch, 2023, 5’23’’, German MuVi Award
Melodies Of Barking Dogs, Daniel Huss, 2023, 8’36’’, German Competition
Merkur, Johannes Lehnen, 2024, 32’25’’, German Competition
Mû, Malin Neumann, 2023, 6’25’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Muharrem, der Freund (Muharrem, the Friend), Orkan Bayram, 2024, 22’30’’, NRW Competition
Outside, Marian Mayland, 2024, 29’52’’, German Competition
Pirouette, Ann Oren, 2024, 14’, German Competition
Pura Vida Ibiza, Jens Schillmöller, 2024, 14’45’’, NRW Competition
Quoi Que Tu Dis (Whatever You Say), Klaus Erika Dietl, Stephanie Müller, 2024, 4’41’’ German MuVi Award
Sans histoire, Maya Schweizer, 2023, 28’28’’, German Competition
Schleim des Nichtwissens, Marc Richter, 2024, 5’36’’, German MuVi Award
swinging, Miri Klischat, 2024, 6’45’’, NRW Competition
That’s All From Me, Eva Könnemann, 2024, 23’52’’, German Competition
The Garden of Alalá, David Jansen, Sophie Biesenbach - Jansen, 2023, 12’15’’, NRW Competition
Vermessung der Tristesse (Measuring Sadness), Agnieszka Jurek, 2024, 18’, German Competition
Wheels, Lucie Friederike Mueller, Benjamin Butter, 2023, 3’39’’, German MuVi Award
Germany/China
哦玛 (Before then), Xue Mengzhu, 2023, 30’, International Competition
Greece
Ονειρευτήκαμε σε μέρη που δεν υπάρχουν πια (We dreamed in places that no longer exist), Giorgos Efthimiou, 2023, 5’29’’ International Competition
Hungary
Meditáció alkonyatkor (Meditation at Dusk), Judit Erdélyi, 2023, 7’27’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
India
The Many Interrupted Dreams of Mr. Hemmady, Amit Dutta, 2024, 14’36’’, International Competition
Iran
Ba Gheyde Mahramanegi (With Confidentiality), Shervin Vahdat, Payam Azizi, 2023, 17’12’’, International Competition
Iran / France
Kodam Khane, Kodam Doust (There is No Friend's House), Abbas Taheri, 2023, 19’10’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Iran / USA
Rizoo, Azadeh Navai, 2023, 15’54’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Israel
התבשרות (Decryption), Maya Zack, 2023, 12’26’’, International Competition
Italy
Steklishko (Glass Piece), Anya Ru, 2023, 2’10’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Japan
DOCOOK, Solami Habu, 2023, 4’04’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Door, Fuka Katayama, 2023, 3’05’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Jizai, Maiko Endo, 2024, 14’54’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
MY SCHOOL, Keitaro Oshima, 2023, 9’37’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
それはとにかくまぶしい (Radiance), Hatano Shuhei, 2023, 17’55’’, International Competition
Rice Ball Rice (Rice Ball Rice (Onigiri)), Ikuo Kato, 2023, 2’13’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
The One for Me, Akane Nakamoto, 2023, 2’41’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Japan/USA
The Old Young Crow, Liam LoPinto, 2023, 12’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Lebanon
I Come from the Sea, Feyrouz Serhal, 2023, 21’49’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Lithuania / France
The One Who Knows, Eglė Davidavičė, 2023, 12’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Luxembourg
Meadows Wait, Mist Diffuses, Dzhovani Gospodinov, 2023, 7’10’’, International Competition
Mauritania
والدك.. على الأرجح (The Father, Probably), Tayib Tolba, Sidi Mohamed Tolba, 2024, 28’17’’, International Competition
Mexico
Los cautiverios (The Captivities), Silvia Jiménez, 2023, 6’36’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
O, Diana Vázquez, 2024, 20’03’’, International Competition
Tzintzuntzan, Nicolas Echevarria, 2023, 25’25’’, International Competition
Netherlands
No horses on Mars, Bea de Visser, 2024, 14’27’’, International Competition
Norway
Brouillarta, Ingvild Søderlind, 2023, 14’10’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Flow, Anne Haugsgjerd, 2024, 17'59'', International Competition
Iris, Jon Vatne, 2024, 14’01’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Smerteterskel (Warrior Heart), Marianne Ulrichsen, 2024, 17’12’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Paraguay
Historias de Sudamérica (Stories from South America), Federico Adorno, 2024, 15’, International Competition
Poland
Garstka ziemi (Handful of dirt), Izabela Zubrycka, 2023, 13’05’’, International Competition
Pazur (The Claw), Marta Nowak, 2023, 16’49’’, International Competition
Poland/USA
Wolna (Coral), Sonia Oleniak, 2023, 18’11’’, International Competition
Portugal
Exotic Words Drifted, Sandro Aguilar, 2023, 15’17’’, International Competition
Singapore
Spirited City, Ang Siew Ching, 2023, 10’22’, International Competition
Spain
Exergo, Jorge Moneo Quintana, 2023, 18’07’’, International Competition
Sudan
Ba'ad Thalek La Yahdoth Shea' (Nothing Happens After That), Ibrahim Omar, 2023, 12’, International Competition
Sweden
Ögonblick (Moments), Jakob Arevärn, 2024, 3’30’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
On Hospitality – Layla al Attar and Hotel al Rasheed, Magnus Bärtås, Behzad Khosravi-Noori, 2023, 18’, International Competition
Split Seconds, Nicole Khadivi, 2023, 13’16’’, International Competition
Turkey
Morî, Yakup Tekintangaç, 2024, 19’08’’, International Competition
Projection, Gevorg Galstian, 2023, 4’55’’, International Competition
United Kingdom
All is Not Lost, Daniel Greaves, Ruth Beni, 2023, 10’44’’, Children’s and Youth Film
Competition
Crab Day, Ross Stringer, 2023, 11’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Cuppa Chai, Amit Kaur, 2023, 10’19’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Dog Days, Carlotta Beck Peccoz, 2023, 8’50’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
fishing, Josie Charles, 2023, 8’32’’, International Competition
The Gathering, Laura Cooper, 2023, 23’22’’, International Competition
USA
Beyond Farewell, Shijie Xing, 2024, 4’34’’, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
I WAS THERE, part II, Chi Jang Yin, 2023, 9’51’’, International Competition
Lacuna, Shirley He, Carlo Nasisse, 2023, 12’37’’, International Competition
Lizzy, Susanna Wallin, 2023, 15’, International Competition
USA/South Korea
No Re, Cho Seoungho, 2024, 7’14’’, International Competition
Uzbekistan
Ovozlar (Voices), Irina Savon, 2023, 22’46’’, International Competition
By sections
Internationaler Wettbewerb / International Competition
abstechen (sticking pigs), Angelika Reitzer, 2023, 15’22’’, Austria
转文字不小心删掉了，能再发一次吗？ (Another Day), Wang Danyang, Chen Yiquan, 2023, 5’22’’, China
Arbor, Cremium, Frutex, Herba, Quentin Nicolaï, 2023, 7’, Belgium
Avec la 4e Division Marocaine de Montagne (With the 4th Moroccan Mountain Division), Stefania Smolkina, 2024, 25’56’’, Austria
Ba Gheyde Mahramanegi (With Confidentiality), Shervin Vahdat, Payam Azizi, 2023, 17’12’’, Iran
Ba'ad Thalek La Yahdoth Shea' (Nothing Happens After That), Ibrahim Omar, 2023, 12’, Sudan,
哦玛 (Before then), Xue Mengzhu, 2023, 30’, Germany/China
唯幻 (Being is negative), Sun Xun, 2023, 4’30’’, China
Bol (Pain), Ivan Faktor, 2024, 22’14’’, Croatia
Boucan (Clamor), Salomé Da Souza, 2023, 25’, France
תבשרותה (Decryption), Maya Zack, 2023, 12’26’’, Israel
El mal menor (The lesser evil), Marcos Montes de Oca, 2023, 18’58’’, Argentina
Exergo, Jorge Moneo Quintana, 2023, 18’07’’, Spain
Exotic Words Drifted, Sandro Aguilar, 2023, 15’17’’, Portugal
fishing, Josie Charles, 2023, 8’23’’, United Kingdom
Flow, Anne Haugsgjerd, 2024, 17'59'', Norway
Garstka ziemi (Handful of dirt), Izabela Zubrycka, 2023, 13’05’’, Poland
Girl'z in the Hood, Karim Akalay, 2023, 19’, Belgium
Historias de Sudamérica (Stories from South America), Federico Adorno, 2024, 15’, Paraguay
I WAS THERE, part II, Chi Jang Yin, 2023, 9’51’’, USA
Lacrimosa, Josef Dabernig, 2024, 11’, Austria
Lacuna, Shirley He, Carlo Nasisse, 2023, 12’37’’, USA
Lizzy, Susanna Wallin, 2023, 15’, USA
Meadows Wait, Mist Diffuses, Dzhovani Gospodinov, 2023, 17’10’’, Luxembourg
Morî, Yakup Tekintangaç, 2024, 19’08’’, Turkey
No horses on Mars, Bea de Visser, 2024, 14’27’’, Netherlands
No Re, Cho Seoungho, 2024, 7’17’’, USA/South Korea
O, Diana Vázquez, 2024, 20’03’’, Mexico
On Hospitality – Layla al Attar and Hotel al Rasheed, Magnus Bärtås, Behzad Khosravi-Noori, 2023,18’, Sweden
Ovozlar (Voices), Irina Savon, 2023, 22’46’’, Uzbekistan
Pazur (The Claw), Marta Nowak, 2023, 16’49’’, Poland
Projection, Gevorg Galstian, 2023, 4’55’’, Turkey
それはとにかくまぶしい (Radiance), Hatano Shuhei, 2023, 17’55’’, Japan
Replacement Track, Eero Tammi, 2024, 18’18’’, Finland
Spirited City, Ang Siew Ching, 2023, 10’22’’, Singapore
Split Seconds, Nicole Khadivi, 2023, 13’16’’, Sweden
春二十三 (Spring 23), Wang Zhiyi, 2023, 13’13’’, China
Surface Séance, Michael Heindl, 2024, 4’45’’, Austria
والدك.. على الأرجح (The Father, Probably) Tayib Tolba, Sidi Mohamed Tolba, 2024, 28’17’’, Mauritania
The Gathering, Laura Cooper, 2023, 23’22’’, United Kingdom
The Many Interrupted Dreams of Mr. Hemmady, Amit Dutta, 2024, 14’36’’, India
绝地天通 (The Separation of Heaven and Earth), Zhong Su, 2024, 9’36’’, China
Tzintzuntzan, Nicolas Echevarria, 2023, 25’25’’, Mexico
Wolna (Coral), Sonia Oleniak, 2023, 18’11’’, Poland/ USA
Ονειρευτήκαμε σε μέρη που δεν υπάρχουν πια (We dreamed in places that no longer exist), Giorgos Efthimiou, 2023, 5’29’’, Greece
Deutscher Wettbewerb / German Competition
[dramatic music continues], Bjørn Melhus, 2023, 5’10’’, Germany
A War I've Never Seen, Fariba Buchheim, 2023, 29’27’’, Germany
Cuando llegue la neblina (When the fog comes), Laurentia Genske, 2023, 23’23’’, Germany
DESIGN BIO TOILET, Mariola Brillowska, 2024, 3’59’’, Germany
Gezielt Mittelalterliche Überlegungen (The Bear Within), Paula Milena Weise, Finn Ole Weigt, 2024, 25’, Germany
HOT LAVA NIGHT, Keren Cytter, 2023, 10’08’’, Germany
Katalinen Kanthoria (Katalin’s Ballad), Nahia Garcia de Andoin, 2024, 14’09’’, Germany
les microbes (microbes), Matze Görig, 2023, 17’42’’, Germany
LIKE HORSES STANDING IN THE RAIN, Nicolaas Schmidt, 2024, 16’, Germany
Melodies Of Barking Dogs, Daniel Huss, 2023, 8’36’’, Germany
Merkur, Johannes Lehnen, 2024, 32’25’’, Germany
Outside, Marian Mayland, 2024, 29’52’’, Germany
Pirouette, Ann Oren, 2024, 14’, Germany
Sans histoire, Maya Schweizer, 2023, 28’28’’, Germany
That’s All From Me, Eva Könnemann, 2024, 23’52’’, Germany
Vermessung der Tristesse (Measuring Sadness), Agnieszka Jurek, 2024, 18’, Germany
NRW-Wettbewerb / NRW Competition
Alltagstalente (Everydaytalents), Lukas Lindberg, 2023, 3’18’’, Germany
Arschschießen, Laurenz Otto, 2024, 15’, Germany
Bei Gino (At Gino's), Christoph Otto, 2024, 9’45’’, Germany
DEMO, Dora Cohnen, 2023, 13’15’’, Germany
Everythingness, Julia Jesionek, 2024, 7’14’’, Germany
Heile Welt (Lost Places), Kerstin Gramberg, 2023, 11’50’’, Germany
Leylet Europa, Léo Beaudoin, Ronida Alsino, 2023, 14’50’’, Germany
Muharrem, der Freund (Muharrem, the Friend), Orkan Bayram, 2024, 22’30’’, Germany
Pura Vida Ibiza, Jens Schillmöller, 2024, 14’45’’, Germany
swinging, Miri Klischat, 2024, 6’45’’, Germany
The Garden of Alalá, David Jansen, Sophie Biesenbach-Jansen, 2023, 12’15’’, Germany
Kinder- und Jugendwettbewerb / Children’s and Youth Film Competition
Abaznoda (Abaznoda (Basket)), Charlotte Gauthier-Nolett, 2023, 10’26’’, Canada
All is Not Lost, Daniel Greaves, Ruth Beni, 2023, 10’44’’, United Kingdom
Au 8ème jour (On the 8th Day), Agathe Sénéchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavie Carin, Théo Duhautois, 2023, 8’12’’, France
Beyond Farewell, Shijie Xing, 2024, 4’34’’, USA
Boat People, Thao Lam, Kjell Boersma, 2023, 9’59’’, Canada
Brouillarta, Ingvild Søderlind, 2023, 14’10’’, Norway
Crab Day, Ross Stringer, 2023, 11’, United Kingdom
Cuppa Chai, Amit Kaur, 2023, 10’19’’, United Kingdom
DOCOOK, Solami Habu, 2023, 4’04’’, Japan
Dog Days, Carlotta Beck Peccoz, 2023, 8’50’’, United Kingdom
Door, Fuka Katayama, 2023, 3’05’’, Japan
Entre les autres (Between the Others), Marie Falys, 2023, 23’22’’, Belgium
Frite sans maillot (Noodles au Naturel), Matteo Salanave Piazza, 2023, 4’15’’, France
Futuro (Future), Amanda Cots Martínez, Ángel Suárez Ávila, 2024, 15’04’’, Cuba/Spain
He Tong (And I Talk like a River), Qian Ning, 2023, 12’37’’, China
捉迷藏 (Hide and Seek), Qian Li, 2023, 7’03’’, China
I Come from the Sea, Feyrouz Serhal, 2023, 21’49’’, Lebanon
Iris, Jon Vatne, 2024, 14’01’’, Norway
Jizai, Maiko Endo, 2024, 14’54’’, Japan
Kodam Khane, Kodam Doust (There is No Friend's House), Abbas Taheri, 2023, 19’10’’, Iran/France
Los cautiverios (The Captivities), Silvia Jiménez, 2023, 6’36’’, Mexico
Lulina e a lua (Lulina and the Moon), Marcus Vinicius Vasconcelos, Alois Di Leo, 2023, 14’, Brazil
Meditáció alkonyatkor (Meditation at Dusk), Judit Erdélyi, 2023, 7’27’’, Hungary
Météores (Meteors), Agnès Patron, Morgane Le Péchon, 2023, 4’30’’ France
Mû, Malin Neumann, 2023, 6’25’’, Germany
MY SCHOOL, Keitaro Oshima, 2023, 9’37’’, Japan
Ögonblick (Moments), Jakob Arevärn, 2024, 3’30’’, Sweden
Rice Ball Rice (Rice Ball Rice (Onigiri)), Ikuo Kato, 2023, 2’13’’, Japan
Rizoo, Azadeh Navai, 2023, 15’54’’, Iran/USA
Silhouette, Alexis Lafuente, Marc Forest, Antoni Nicolai, Elliot Dreuille, Baptiste Gueusquin, Chloé Stritcher, 2023, 5’02’’, France
Smerteterskel (Warrior Heart), Marianne Ulrichsen, 2024, 17’12’’, Norway
Steklishko (Glass Piece), Anya Ru, 2023, 2’10’’, Italy
The Old Young Crow, Liam LoPinto, 2023, 12’, Japan/USA
The One for Me, Akane Nakamoto, 2023, 2’41’’, Japan
The One Who Knows, Eglė Davidavičė, 2023, 12’, Lithuania/France
MuVi-Preis / German MuVi Award
A Quickie In The Bouncy House, Frederic Pierce Warnecke, Matthew Biederman, 2023, 4’10’’´, Germany
Das Parlament der Dinge, Juno Melián Meinecke, 2023, 3’40’’, Germany
Google Your New Name, Paula Reissig, 2023, 3’25’’, Germany
Grunewald is burning, Markus S Fiedler, 2023, 3’06’’, Germany
HBD, Stephan Dybus, 2023, 3’29’’, Germany
Ich gehe in den Tag (I go into the day), Mariola Brillowska, 2024, 3’55’’, Germany
Manitulation, Astrid Busch, 2023, 5’23’’, Germany
Quoi Que Tu Dis (Whatever You Say), Klaus Erika Dietl, Stephanie Müller, 2024, 4’41’’, Germany
Schleim des Nichtwissens, Marc Richter, 2024, 5’36’’, Germany
Wheels, Lucie Friederike Mueller, Benjamin Butter, 2023, 3’39’’, Germany
Other programmes
Theme
Since the 1990s, a central and successful part of our profile has been the Theme, an extensive programme on annually changing issues.
2023
Against Gravity. The Art of Machinima
Machinima is defined as the “art of making animated films within a real-time virtual 3D environment”, such as computer games. While using a number of media — film, documentary, videogame, performance, theatre, puppetry – the works are always based on a computer game engine or a live 3D animation software. Oberhausen is the first major film festival to show a large-scale overview of a constantly evolving format, curated by Vladimir Nadein and Dmitry Frolov. In eight film programmes and a Podium discussion, “Against Gravity” will take a closer look at the aesthetic and artistic potential offered by machinima.
Having emerged in a grassroots gaming community, machinima has become a more and more attractive medium for contemporary artists and experimental filmmakers. Especially today, when so many people are constantly absorbed by ubiquitous screens, it is seen as a fruitful instrument to represent the virtual experience. The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, founded in 2002, has organised several festivals between 2002 and 2008, specialised festivals like the Milan Machinima Festival have followed.
Featuring works by Alice Bucknell (UK), IP Yuk-Yiu (Hong Kong), Jamie Janković (UK), Federica Di Pietrantonio (Italy), Total Refusal (Austria), Harun Farocki (Germany), Phil Solomon (USA), Jacky Connoly (USA) and many others working in the field today. A Podium discussion on the origins and future of machinimaking will complement the film programmes.
The Curators
Vladimir Nadein (b. 1993, Moscow) is a curator, artist and film producer based in Taipei, Taiwan. His works were presented at the solo exhibition Deep Play, VT Artsalon and Greater Taipei Biennale. He produced an award-winning film Detours, supported by Hubert Bals Fund, received the Eurimages Lab Project Award at Les Arcs Film Festival and was shown at Venice Critics' Week, Viennale, Thessaloniki IFF, Berlin Critics' Week, FICUNAM, Jeonju IFF, IndieLisboa, Beldocs, FILMADRID, Camden IFF, TFAI, Barbican Centre among others. In 2016, Nadein co-founded the Moscow International Experimental Film Festival and directed it for five editions. He curated special programmes and screenings for the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, Hamburg Short Film Festival, Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Garage Museum, University of California, Los Angeles and other venues. Nadein tutored at the Moscow School of New Cinema and is a member of the filmmaking duo together with Dina Karaman.
Dmitry Frolov (b. 1988, Kaliningrad) is an art and film curator and researcher based in Izmir, Turkey. He holds a BA in Сultural Studies from the Russian State University for the Humanities and an MA in Film Programming and Curating from Birkbeck, University of London. He has curated a variety of screenings, panels, performances and exhibitions dedicated to such artists as Maya Deren, Chris Marker, Tony Conrad, Vladimir Kobrin, Yoko Ono, Michael Snow, Annabel Nicholson, James Benning, Alain Cavalier, Aura Satz, Cao Fei, Ana Vaz, Cyprien Gaillard, etc. His texts have been published in Iskusstvo Kino, Spectate, Colta.ru, Syg.ma and other media. Since 2017, he has been working as a curator at the Moscow International Experimental Film Festival (MIEFF). Currently, he is also working as a film curator at Pushkin House, London.
Sport in Film: Focus on Historic Sports Films
“Sport and film have one essential basic element in common: movement”, Hilmar Hoffmann stated in the catalogue of the first Sportfilmtage (Sports Film Days) in 1968. They are “both children of our time”, as the then North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of the Interior Willi Weyer wrote in his foreword as the president of the Sportfilmtage, the aim being “to capture, bundle and activate all the forces existing in the wide fields of sport and film.” The Sportfilmtage took place bi-annually in Oberhausen until 1977 – with festivals in 1968, 1973, 1975 and 1977. The “International Film and Television Festival” screened and awarded prizes to international sports films of all kinds – loosely defined as “films that deal with sports themes”. The event was independent, but closely linked to Kurzfilmtage, with Hilmar Hoffmann as its vice president. A number of award-winning films and other prints were collected in the Kurzfilmtage Archive. Now Oberhausen is presenting a rediscovery of this festival with a selection of films in five programmes, curated by Cologne-based media theorist, writer and director Dietrich Leder.
The Sportfilmtage programmes covered a broad spectrum, ranging from legendary films like Werner Herzog’s Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner (The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, 1974) or largely unknown works by filmmaker like Jacques Doillon, Elem Klimov, Marcel Łoziński or Michael Pfleghaar through to educational films like Neue Wege zum Wedeln (New Ways to Wedeling). The programme “Sport in Film” will be grouped around topics such as physical movement, heroes, spectators, women’s sports or sport as social action, with the majority of the films coming from the Sportfilmtage archive holdings, plus a few individual productions that were screened at Kurzfilmtage. All in all, around 25 films will be screened in the cinemas at the 70th festival, with selected works presented online on the Kurzfilmtage Channel in the run-up to the festival.
“Sport in Film” will be complemented by “Sport im Ruhrgebiet in Filmdokumenten” (Sport in the Ruhr Area in Film Documents): Paul Hofmann presents works from the holdings of the Kinemathek im Ruhrgebiet, with the oldest dating from 1924, a film about a municipal sports festival in the city of Essen.
Profiles
The Oberhausen Profiles are traditionally dedicated to the works of outstanding filmmakers, some of whom have dealt with short films for decades.
Abraham Ravett
Born in Poland in 1947, and raised in Israel and the United States, Abraham Ravett has been producing films about his family for a few decades now, exploring the aftereffects of the Holocaust, a historical trauma that both of his parents were affected by. To Ravett, the genocidal past and its aftereffects are not merely relics of yore; they are a never-ending task and a calling. He often takes a historical photograph as his starting point, exploring timelines and potentialities, using sound very sparingly – often in the form of conversations as in one of his best-known films, The March (1999). Oberhausen is presenting a survey of his oeuvre in three programmes.
Mox Mäkelä
The Finnish conceptual artist has been active since 1976 and has exhibited her work widely at museums as well as film festivals. Her focus is on the exploration of ecocritical and literary themes in her films and installations, the clash between nature and human beings, which she takes up in a very distinctive and unique way. Her 2023 Oberhausen Zonta Prize winner Noita Miettien (Thinking about That), for example, is an uninterrupted rant on the world of consumption, a waterfall of words with leaps of thought and invented words – experimental and mesmerizing. Oberhausen is screening two programmes of her works, selected by the artist herself.
John Torres
John Torres, born in 1975, is a filmmaker, writer and musician from Manila and one of the most interesting independent filmmakers coming from the Philippines today, acclaimed for his personal and poetical style. Among his oeuvre are short films, feature films, installation works. His debut feature Todo Todo Teros (2006) won multiple awards, as did the films that followed. He also co-runs Los Otros, a Manila-based space, film lab and platform committed to the intersection of film and art. Oberhausen will be presenting his short film works in two programmes.
Davorin Marc
Davorin Marc, born in Izola (present day Slovenia) in 1964, started making films in 1976. When he permanently stopped at the age of 23 he had produced 150 short films, all on super 8. His style was praised as unprecedented even then. After the break-up of Yugoslavia only a handful of these films were projected on one single occasion, so this programme offers a rare opportunity to view his early works, especially as new prints were discovered recently. His early films will be shown on super 8 in the main part of the programme. After a 27-year hiatus Marc started making films again, just as suddenly as he stopped. His new body of abstract video work is equally unique and fascinating but has no obvious connections to his past. The International Competition 2018 at Oberhausen has already shown Dobrodošlica. (Welcome.) in 2018. The historical super 8 screening of his early works will be accompanied by a second programme featuring a 30-minute installation of this contemporary strand.
Conference and Podium
Podium and Talks offers scholars, artists, curators and authors the opportunity to discuss current issues relevant to the short form, whether aesthetic, economic, political or technologica.
Conference
Longing for freedom from contradiction: Culture and the public 1
In recent years, confrontations with sexism, racism and other forms of misanthropy have led to a critical examination of the programmes and attitudes of cultural institutions. By today, however, these demands seem to have fallen into a trap. The term »cancel culture«, originally introduced by right-wing actors, is being used more and more frequently, calls for boycotts and protests arise against collaboration with people or institutions because of their positioning, the idea of criticism threatens to turn into conformism. Based on a campaign against the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, supporters, opponents and observers of this and similar campaigns discuss the question: Does the greatest danger for critical discussions about how to deal with political issues within the cultural sector come from the cultural sector itself?
1 May, 13 h, Eisenlager im Altenberg
Keynote Bazon Brock
13:00 h
Panel Cultural Theory
Bazon Brock, art theorist
Sara Rukaj, writer
Lea Wohl von Haselberg, film scholar and festival director
Moderated by Ute Cohen, writer and journalist
13:30 h
Panel The Cultural Scene
Sergio Edelsztein, curator
Ruth Herzberg, writer
Andreas Hoffmann, managing director documenta
Ronya Othmann, writer and journalist
Moderated by Ute Cohen, writer and journalist
16:30 h
Panel at the Festival Opening Ceremony
Lars Henrik Gass, festival director
Alexandra Schauer, sociologist
Rüdiger Suchsland, film critic
19:30 h, Lichtburg Filmpalast
Podium
Why festivals? Culture and the public 2
With the transformation of film culture and cinema in the last two decades due to the establishment of the internet as a mass medium and the digitalisation and economisation of all areas of life, film festivals are confronted with numerous new tasks and challenges. The cinema as a venue for film festivals and public discourse has been pushed to the sidelines of society; economic conditions are deteriorating rapidly in the wake of the great pandemic and armed conflicts. This raises the question as to what remains of the original universalist self-image of film festivals and whether and how film festivals can continue to fulfil their mission. Oberhausen investigates this question in four panel discussions.
Are festivals still a universalist project?
2 May, 10-12 h
Harald Kimpel, art scientist
Andreas Kilb, film critic (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Ariel Schweitzer, film critic (Cahiers du cinéma)
Lea Wohl von Haselberg, film scholar and festival director
Moderated by Dunja Bialas, film critic and film curator
What legitimizes festivals?
3 May, 10-12 h
Martina Genetti, film curator
Daniel Hadenius-Ebner, Vienna Shorts
Keiko Okamura, film curator
Heinz Peter Schwerfel, art critic and festival director
Moderated by Dunja Bialas, film critic and film curator
International Style
4 May, 9.30-11.30 h
Moritz Baßler, literary scholar
Susanne Heinrich, writer and filmmaker
Marco Müller, film curator and festival director
Moderated by Ulrike Sprenger, literary scholar
The politicization of culture
5 May, 10-12 h
Lars Henrik Gass, author and festival director
Alexander Karschnia, theatre producer, writer and theorist
Benjamin Moldenhauer, film critic
Shahrzad Eden Osterer, journalist (Bayerischer Rundfunk)
Moderated by Dunja Bialas, film critic and film curator
re-selected: Bringing archives to life
Since 2018, the archive of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen has served as a material basis for the research and curated programmes of the re-selected section. This year, two programmes recall cinematic awakenings in Hungary in the late 1960s and in the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, which found a platform in Oberhausen because the Festival had long defined itself as a „bridge between East and West“ – a juxtaposition that has long since lost its meaning and which even then may have generated more misunderstandings than insights. In any case, both the Hungarian films that guest curator Borjana Gaković has selected here for an idiosyncratic homage to János Herskó and the Soviet films that came to Oberhausen during the Glasnost period from 1985 onwards were sensational in their time because they turned against the ideologization of what takes place between people – some angrily, some playfully.
This year, for the first time, all films in the re-selected programs will be shown as original prints from the Oberhausen Archive. The guests are Borjana Gaković, and Karola Gramann, Oberhausen festival director from 1985 to 1989.
re-selected has been curated by Tobias Hering, freelance curator and writer, since 2018. He lives in Berlin and Mecklenburg.
Launched in 2018, the re-selected project devotes itself to selected films from the analogue stock of the Oberhausen archive at the designated "end of the analogue age" and examines film history as the history of individual film copies.
Rather than propagating the digital "rescue" of a cinematic work as an ideal, the project is interested precisely in the peculiarities of a copy, which are usually erased during digitisation. They can provide information about a concrete development, local public spheres and contemporary historical constellations. Where and when was a film shown at all, who saw it, in which version, in which composition?
Every copy is an original – and not only when it turns out to be the only remaining copy of a film.
Expanded
In cinema, no one is surprised anymore!
Philosophical toys are objects and instruments that make processes and interdependencies sensorially perceptible and relatable, clear and comprehensible. Unlike models, which primarily serve as demonstrations, philosophical toys belong to the tradition of experimental culture. They are not so much end products of insight as tools of insight. As their name implies, they are designed to be used playfully in a manner that stimulates thought and the imagination. Philosophical toys have been very popular since the 18th century. Many of these toys were initially made for scientific observations, only later becoming sought-after objects for young and old. Among the most fascinating ones are surely the optical-kinetic toys and the jouets séditieux: figures — often steles, seals or walking-stick knobs — turned from wood in whose silhouettes, when cast on a wall using some source of light, one can recognise profiles of political personages, for example. With the programme Expanded, we investigate the question of how philosophical toys look and function today. As part of this interrogation, we show experimental set-ups in which autonomous machines create a shadow play on an overhead projector that makes visible the process of sound production by means of interactions of hand and movement. In an electrochemical machine performance, a mesh of molten metal is filmed by several cameras and projected live on to a screen. An accompanying soundscape generated by a direct conversion of the electrochemical processes of the liquid invites us to speculate on a heterogeneous technological culture, while the humorous duet between a robot goat and a performance and installation artist stupefies and unsettles us, ultimately calling familiar habits of viewing and listening into question.
Expanded 1: Uncontrolled Manifold
songs from my analogue utopia
2.5., 22:30 h
Verein für aktuelle Kunst
Expanded 2: Tintin Patrone
Caprizaen
3.5., 22:30 h
Verein für aktuelle Kunst
Expanded 3: Ralf Baecker
A Natural Histroy of Networks/Softmachine
4.5., 22:30 h
Verein für aktuelle Kunst
Individual consultation with Filmbüro NW for filmmakers from NRW
A free offer to all filmmakers from NRW who can consult members of the Filmbüro NW on all questions of production, funding and festival placement of short films. Prior registration required!
Register: dw(at)kurzfilmtage.de
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.
MuVi International
Since 1998, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen shows a selection of trend-setting international music videos and formally exceptional works - a showcase of current developments in the music video genre.
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.
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.
The Team Favourites 2023
To mark the conclusion of the festival, the Oberhausen team will personally introduce their favourites from this year’s competitions.
Filmgeflacker
Oberhausen’s Filmgeflacker art collective presented films from this year’s competitions, and the filmmakers will be invited to discuss their works with the audience.
The One Minutes
In cooperation with the One Minutes Foundation, Oberhausen presents one-minute films in two series curated for the festival.
The One Minutes Jr.
42 one-minute films from Europe, made by and for young people.
ESFAA Shorts
Nine audience award winners from other European short film festivals demonstrate the creative diversity of European cinema in two programmes.
Kinemathek im Ruhrgebiet
The Kinemathek im Ruhrgebiet/FilmArchiv has been collecting and restoring historical film material from the former coal-mining area for more than 40 years. In Oberhausen, the initiative will once again show highlights from its holdings, this year including works on the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 and the diversion of the lower reaches of the Emscher in the late 1940s. Presented and introduced by its director, Paul Hofmann.
NRW in person
Filmmakers from North Rhine-Westphalia get carte blanche for a programme of their own films and formative works by other filmmakers. This year by and with Carolin Schmitz from Cologne.
For Wolfgang J. Ruf
A personal selection by former festival director Wolfgang J. Ruf on the occasion of his 80th birthday with films by Wojciech Wiszniewski, Vuk Babić and Zbigniew Rybczynski.
European Short Film Network (ESFN)
As the European Short Film Network (ESFN), Oberhausen runs the THIS IS SHORT streaming platform together with five other European short film festivals. For a change, the network is showing a programme in the cinema with favourite films from the member festivals on the theme of "The World We Live in". The selection will be shown at three further network festivals in the course of 2024.
Filmr außer Gebrauch?
Networking event for collectors, curators and researchers in the field of useful film
All those interested in educational and commercial film are invited to gain an overview of the various archives and collections, to gain insights into their projects and activities and to discuss challenges in working with this special film heritage as part of the Festival.
Organised by Julia Eckel and Stephan Ahrens (Paderborn University).
Correction: Starting at 1:30 p.m.
Übersehene Filme
At the 12th Oberhausen Festival in 1966, the then festival director introduced a "Prize for the Misjudged Film" as a corrective to the decisions of the official juries. Oberhausen owes some of its most valuable archive treasures to this award, which, among others, was called the "Staff Award" and today is known as the "ZONTA Award". Some of the most important works from these holdings, including films by Rubén Gámez, Robert Nelson and Virpi Suutari, will be screened again in two programmes.
MuVi-Online
Nominated Films 2024
MuVi Audience Award
chosen by online vote on muvipreis.de and worth 500 euros, sponsored by kultur.west
Maschinenbauergemetzel (Paul Sies)
Julian Paul
Deutschland 2022, 2‘58‘‘, Farbe
Programme
Trailer
Festival Magazine
Festival Reader 2024
In this reader you will find a series of texts on fundamental issues concerning culture. We also provide a brief overview of the most important festival programmes.
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