Other programmes
Theme
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.
The curators
Sport in film
Dietrich Leder, born 1954 in Essen, studied German philology and theatre arts in Cologne, author of publications on media criticism and media studies (most recently Die Erfindung des Mediensports (The Genesis of Media Sport) with Daniela Schaaf and Jörg-Uwe Nieland) and from 1994 to 2021 professor for television culture at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM).
Sport in the Ruhr area
Paul Hofmann, born in 1950, has been active in the Ruhr region since 1976 and worked together with Roland and Janne Günter from 1976 to 1978 to create the retrospective "Das Ruhrgebiet im Film" for the 1978 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Since then, he has continued this documentation work and founded the "Kinemathek im Ruhrgebiet" in 1988, at that time as „Filmarchiv für die Region". Hofmann was co-curator of the exhibitions "Rock & Pop im Pott" (2016) and "Glück auf, Film ab!" (2024) and worked as a (co-)author on various WDR productions. Hofmann lives in Duisburg.
About the Theme programme
Just as important as the competitions and, since the 1990s, a central and successful part of Oberhausen’s profile is the Theme, a comprehensive programme on annually changing issues. Here, the Festival reflects the enormous variety of the short form, whether avant-garde, advertising or scientific film, whether expanded cinema or linear installation excerpt, within thematic contexts, creating a forum for cinematic and social discussions that, starting with the short film, extend far beyond film-related issues and engage in an overarching dialogue on image production in the arts, new technologies and sciences.
Recent Theme programmes
Topics covered in recent years include: "Solidarity as Disruption" (2021), "Leaving the Cinema – Knokke, Hamburg, Oberhausen (1967–1971)" (2018), "Social media before the Internet" (2017), "El Pueblo - Searching for Contemporary Latin America" (2016), "The Third Image – 3D Cinema as )Experiment" (2015); "Memories Can't Wait - Film without Film"(2014), "Flatness: Cinema After The Internet" (2013), "Provoking reality: Mavericks, MouveMents, Manifestos" (2012), "Shooting Animals. A Brief History of Animal Film" (2011), "From the Deep: The Great Experiment 1898-1918" (2010), "Unreal Asia" (2009), "Bordercrossers and Troublemakers", "Whose History" (2008), "Kinomuseum" and "Don't turn around! Children, Childhood, Cinema" (2007), "Solidarity As Disruption – Epilogue" (2022), "Synchronize. Pan-African Film Networks" (2022), "Against Gravity. The Art of Machinima" (2023)
Contact
Louisa Schön
thema(at)kurzfilmtage.de
©Profiles
The Oberhausen Profiles are traditionally dedicated to the works of outstanding filmmakers, some of whom have dealt with short films for decades. The programmes are always presented personally by the artists or filmmakers*.
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.
Previous Profiles
Sandor Aguilar (2017), Eija-Lisa Ahtila (2000), Victor Alimpiev/Olga Stolpovskaya (2006), Wojciech Bakowski (2014), Craig Baldwin (2000), Baloji (2021), Melika Bass (2021), Guy Ben-Ner (2007), Majoleine Boonstra (2007), Louise Botkay (2018), Marcel Broodthaers (2023), Linda Christanell (2012), Raquel Chalfi (2016), Yamashiro Chikako (2023), Jem Cohen (2001), Josef Dabernig (2016), Kiri Dalena (2019), Amit Dutta (2010), Nicolás Echevarría (2009), Teboho Edkins (2023), Heinz Emigholz (2001), Factory of Found Clothes (2009), Helga Fanderl (2013), Jeanne Faust (2016), Morgan Fisher (2022), Herbert Fritsch (2009), Susannah Gent (2020), Karpo Godina/Želimir Žilnik (2002), Marina Grižnić/Aina Šmid (2003), Alexandra Gulea (2023), Bert Haanstra (1998), Anne Haugsgjerd (2016), Stefan Hayn (2005), James Herbert (1999), Sohrab Hura (2022), Yamada Isao (2004), Ito Takashi (2015), Ken Jacobs (1996), Jim Jennings (1998), William E. Jones (2011), Larry Jordan (2001), Aryan Kaganof (2014), Kanai Katsu (2007), Patrice Kirchhofer (2008), Ken Kobland (2007), Rainer Komers (2022), Eva Könnemann (2018), Andrew Kötting (2008), Petar Krelja, Krsto Papić and Zoran Tadic (2013), Grzegorz Królikiewicz (2011), Mark Lewis (2005), Salomé Lamas (2018), Marie Lukáčová (2021), Dušan Makavejev (2003), Mara Mattuschka (2014), John Maybury (2002), Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo (2020), Bjørn Melhus (2017), Deimantas Narkevicius (2014), Erkka Nissinen (2015), Matsumotu Toshio (2009), Münchner Gruppe: Klaus Lemke/Rudolf Thome/Max Zihlmann (2003), Gunvor Nelson (2010), Robert Nelson (2006), Vera Neubauer (2012), Ho Tzu Nyen (2013), No Wave (2010), Jayne Parker (2004), Kayako Oki (2019), Miranda Pennell (2006), Ilppo Pohjola (2012), Shalimar Preuss (2022), Luther Price (2013), Laure Prouvost (2013), William Raban (2015), Jennifer Reeder (2015), Lis Rhodes (2008), Jósef Robakowski (2005), Roee Rosen (2012), Roter Hahn 1907 (2011), Lynne Sachs (2023), Larissa Sansour (2017), Sarajevo Documentary School (2009), Boris Schafgans (2006), Sylvia Schedelbauer (2022), Maya Schweizer (2020), John Smith (2002), Alexander Sokurov (2019), Eva Stefani (2019), Barbara Sternberg (2017), Sun Xun (2016), Eszter Szabó (2022), Jaan Toomik (2017), Salla Tykkä (2021), Robert Van Ackeren (2001), Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor (2018), Vipin Vijay (2015), Laura Waddington (2005), Orson Welles (2000), Joyce Wieland (2002), Charles Wilp (2001), John Wood & Paul Harrison (1999), Fred Worden (2010), Nina Yuen (2017) and Akram Zaatari (2008).
Profiles in retrospect
Here you can find the profiles from the last year.
Contact
Alisa Berezovskaya
berezovskaya(at)kurzfilmtage.de
©
©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
Curator
Jan Ehlen fills in here and there when someone has to cancel. He has been able to nurture his passion for audiovisual media through his work for the Nekes Collection for many years. As a member of the RaumZeitPiraten for over ten years, he describes himself as a professional dilettante who is constantly overwhelmed.
Contact
Einar Fehrholz
fehrholz(at)kurzfilmtage.de
©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
ESFAA Shorts
Nine audience award winners from other European short film festivals demonstrate the creative diversity of European cinema in two programmes.
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. The selection will be shown at three further network festivals in the course of 2025.
Filmgeflacker
Oberhausen’s Filmgeflacker art collective is presenting films from this year’s competitions and inviting the filmmakers to discuss their works with the audience.
The Team Favourites 2025
To mark the conclusion of the festival, the Oberhausen team will personally introduce their favourites from this year’s competitions.
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.
Contact
Jessica Manstetten
muvi(at)kurzfilmtage.de
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.
Contact
Jessica Manstetten
muvi(at)kurzfilmtage.de
NRW in person
Filmmakers from North Rhine-Westphalia get carte blanche for a programme of their own films and formative works by other filmmakers.
Award Winners 2025
On the day after the award ceremony, we will show the most important award winners of the five competitions of the Short Film Festival 2025 in one programme.
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 One Minutes
In cooperation with the One Minutes Foundation, Oberhausen presents one-minute films in two series curated for the festival.
Contact
Xenia Fehrholz
orga(at)kurzfilmtage.de
The One Minutes Jr.
42 one-minute films from Europe, made by and for young people.
Distributors
In 2006 the Festival expanded its market by screenings from the catalogues of selected international distributors of experimental and artistic short films. The success was overwhelming: from the very first day, the halls were fully occupied and the audience showed great interest.
Contact
Jessica Manstetten
muvi(at)kurzfilmtage.de