The Festival has been commited to various local projects in Oberhausen and the surrounding area for many years. Here is a selection of the projects.
WAZ Cinema Café
Every first Thursday of the month, our festival cinema, the Lichtburg Filmpalast Oberhausen, presents a special morning programme: In cooperation with the local daily newspaper WAZ long films worth seeing are shown accompanied by biscuits and coffee. As a special highlight, we are contributing a short film from our film archive that matches the main film to every screening and is presented by a team member.
You can find the exact dates and the film selection here.
Community garden in Königshütter Park
In March 2022, the International Short Film Festival took over a plot of land in the park next to the Festival villa and transformed it into a community garden. Twenty fruit trees and nearly 100 shrubs were planted, and several raised beds were built. The initiative was funded by a generous donation from Deutsche Postcode Lotterie.
The community garden aims to facilitate sustainable and communal action for a city more worth living. Since its inception, the Festival has worked with various schools and partners on the project. Today the project is supported – alongside the Festival – by dedicated citizens from the neighbourhood, the BUND regional group and the gardening and landscaping company IN & OUTSIDE.
We caught your interesst in the project or you would like to be a part of it?
Please do not hesitate to contact us at info[at]kurzfilmtage.de
The Oberhausen Selection
Here the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen brings its films to those who can no longer attend the festival on their own. The special feature: The films are selected by citizens of Oberhausen between the ages of 65 and 90. Every year from January to March, they screen films from the archive of the Short Film Festival and put together a programme. The criteria are set by the participants themselves: The films must be easy to understand, i.e. in German or without text, and shorter than fifteen minutes.
Traditionally, the Oberhausen selection celebrates its premiere during the festival, then goes on tour through senior citizens' facilities starting in autumn. The concept, which was launched in 2015, is enjoying growing popularity and is to be continued in the future.
Thanks to a grant from the Sparkassen-Bürgerstiftung Oberhausen, all screenings are free of charge for the organisers. A projector and screen are brought along if required, and on request the films are presented by a member of the selection group or by the Festival.
Contact
Martin Gensheimer
shipping@kurzfilmtage.de
Filmgeflacker
Oberhausen’s Filmgeflacker art collective has been presenting films from the current year’s competitions and inviting filmmakers to discuss their works with the audience for more than ten years.
Short film screenings at the Unterhaus
Every two months, the Unterhaus organises short film screenings with films from the distribution of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Whether the focus is on colours, seasons or animals, the programmes always follow a thematic thread and provide an insight into the diversity of the world of short films. Admission to the programme is always free. Before and after the films, the Unterhaus invites you to linger and chat at the bar.
Introduced in October 2024, the series has become an insider tip in Oberhausen.
Previous projects
Kurzfilmtage Special
For two years, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen took place online due to the coronavirus pandemic. But in autumn 2021, a two-day special event finally offered the opportunity to see short films on the Lichtburg screen in Oberhausen again. Highlights from the competitions and the MuVi Award were shown, and two filmmakers from North Rhine-Westphalia, Rainer Komers and Mareike Wegener, presented their work in person. In the mornings, there was a children's film programme from the festival's distribution service for Oberhausen schools. All programmes were presented by members of the Short Film Festival team – finally, the Festival feeling was back in the cinema!
In 2022, there was a one-day repeat, also with a school programme, competition highlights, Miriam Gossing and Lina Sieckman from North Rhine-Westphalia and a subsequent meeting in the Unterhaus. Admission was free for guests of the Oberhausen Tafel (food bank).
A Different Perspective
Here, participants in the International Integration Café Oberhausen put together a joint film programme as a group and then presented their favourites to the festival audience. Engaging with the programme gave them the opportunity to explore culture and film language – and, last but not least, to improve their German language skills, as the discussions were held in German. Working with the films, interacting with festival visitors and presenting the selected films at the end strengthened the participants' social integration on numerous levels.
The Different Perspective was created in 2018 in collaboration with the Sprachcafé (Language Café) at the Altenberg Centre. In 2019, the collaboration was extended to include the Integration Café run by the terre des hommes group in Oberhausen.
Kurzfilmtag in Oberhausen
Since 2012, the Kurzfilmtag (Short Film Day) has been held throughout Germany on 21 December, the shortest day of the year. It is an occasion to present short films – in shared kitchens, backyards, forest clearings or cinemas. The Short Film Days have been involved from the outset and provide curated programmes that are used throughout Germany.
In order to celebrate the diversity of short films with the Oberhausen audience on this day, the festival also organised its own events at various locations throughout the city.
Contact
We caught your interest in our projects or you have an idea for a joint project?
Please do not hesitate to contact us at info[at]kurzfilmtage.de