International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

Announcing the new directors of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

Madeleine Bernstorff and Susannah Pollheim will take over as co-directors of the festival following the departure of Lars Henrik Gass

The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen will be led by a duo from 1 January 2025: Curator and author Madeleine Bernstorff and event manager Susannah Pollheim will take over the artistic and business management of the renowned festival as co-directors. Both have been associated with the Festival for many years in various capacities.

“Having served on the selection committee for decades, I am delighted to take on the new role of artistic director and look forward to working with the Festival's experienced team and its associated commissions to further develop Oberhausen in terms of content and programming. I will use my new role to further strengthen the appeal of this distinctive and unique short film festival. The extraordinary openness to artistic film which Oberhausen has always pursued with courage, is particularly close to my heart,” says Madeleine Bernstorff, the designated artistic director.

“As a native of Oberhausen, it is particularly important to me to now be able as its executive director to support and further develop the renowned festival that the Kurzfilmtage have always been. I am very much looking forward to continuing to organise the Festival with a great team and the many different players in the city; a Festival that has been enormously significant in Oberhausen, the Ruhr region and far beyond for decades,” adds designated business director Susannah Pollheim.

“Our priority was to ensure the continuity of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, one of the largest and oldest cultural flagships of the city, after Dr Gass's departure. We are convinced that in Ms Bernstorff and Ms Pollheim we have found a management duo that will shape and further develop the Festival as platform for cinematic experiments looking towards the future and as an open international forum for discussion,” says Daniel Schranz, Lord Mayor of the City of Oberhausen.

“In consultation with all parties involved, we are taking the opportunity to put a duo at the helm of the Festival. We are confident that in this constellation the new festival management will continue the good work that has established the international reputation of the Festival,” adds Apostolos Tsalastras, Head of the Cultural Department of the City of Oberhausen. ”At the same time, we want to face current challenges and develop future prospects together with the new directors and the skilled team.”

Madeleine Bernstorff
The film curator, author, publicist and lecturer has been a member of the selection committee of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen since 2000 and has curated Profile programmes for the festival on Joyce Wieland, Jayne Parker, Nicolás Echevarría, Patrice Kirchhofer, Roee Rosen and Alexandra Gulea. In 2008, she was a curator for the big Theme programme on political short films, “Bordercrossers and Troublemakers”. From 1984 to 1988, she co-ran the Sputnik Cinema in Berlin. She teaches and curates in Germany and abroad, including at the Zeughauskino/German Historical Museum Berlin, fsk Cinema Berlin, Munich Film Museum, il cinema ritrovato Bologna, Sinema transtopia and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), Berlin.

Susannah Pollheim
Born in Oberhausen, she trained at an event agency in Essen and studied event management in Düsseldorf. She then worked in the cultural sector in the Ruhr area for many years, including for the Ruhr Games of the Ruhr Regional Association and the 50th anniversary of the Ruhr University Bochum.

Oberhausen, 18 December 2024

Press contact: Sabine Niewalda, T +49 (0)208 825-3073, niewalda(at)kurzfilmtage.de