69th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 26 April – 1 May 2023

Oberhausen opens its 69th edition with over 500 films

Guests from almost 70 countries expected

The 69th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen will open at the Lichtburg Oberhausen on 26 April 2023 at 7.30 pm. More than 500 films from 63 countries are on the programme, to be screened until 1 May 2023 in around 126 screenings. 120 works from 43 countries have been selected for the competitions of the 69th Festival and are competing for prize money of over 43,000 euros. The festival expects almost 800 professional visitors from 67 countries.

Daniel Schranz, Lord Mayor of the City of Oberhausen, Ina Brandes, Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and festival director Lars Henrik Gass will speak at the opening.

One focus this year is on machinima, films made with the help of computer game engines: In the major thematic programme "Against Gravity. The Art of Machinima", Oberhausen will be the first major film festival to show around 30 works by artists and filmmakers who use games as a means of production. Five Profiles are dedicated to Marcel Broodthaers (Belgium), Teboho Edkins (Germany/South Africa), Alexandra Gulea (Romania), Lynne Sachs (USA) and the Japanese artist Yamashiro Chikako. This includes a one-off screening of selected films by Broodthaers on three different screens on 27 April, conceived especially for Oberhausen.

The MuVi Prize for the best German Music Video is celebrating an anniversary, being awarded for the 25th time on Saturday, 29 April. To mark the occasion, the festival is showing a big retrospective of all previous award winners since 1999. Children's and youth films, analogue projections, a country focus on the Basque country, European short films for children and adults, one-minute films or historical archive films will once again demonstrate the enormous diversity of the short form in Oberhausen.

Oberhausen, 26 April 2023

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