60 Years of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival

The Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, the most world’s important and oldest short film festival, will be taking place for the 60th time from May 1-6, 2014. The Prime-Minister of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia Hannelore Kraft and State Minister for Culture Monika Grütters are expected to attend the opening at Oberhausen’s Lichtburg cinema.

„The Oberhausen International Short Film Festival has been the most important festival in the film region of NRW for the past 60 years. Our thanks goes to festival director Lars Henrik Gass and his team on behalf of the whole festival. We extend our warmest congratulations and wish them a successful jubilee!¨, said Petra Müller, CEO of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.

134 films from 41 nations will compete in the festival’s five competitions in the jubilee year for prize-money totalling around 40,000 Euros. Apart from the German and International Competitions as well as those for Films for  Children and Young People and the MuVi-Prize, new productions from the region will also be presenting to the international audience in the NRW Competition. Two of the films from this section were backed by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. „Wettbewerber“ by Markus Mischkowski and Kai Maria Steinkühler is the seventh episode from their Cologne West End cycle and was supported with 20,000 Euros. Kerstin Neuwirth’s „Die Bergfrau“ is also competing in the NRW Competition. Her graduation film from the Academy for Media Arts (KHM) received 17,500 Euros in funding from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.

The Short Film Festival will be showing around 450 films and is expecting more than 1,000 accredited professionals to attend from all over the world. The special „Theme“ plays with the traditional viewing expectations in the cinema under the heading of  „Memories Can’t Wait – Film without Film“ with over 30 productions, including some which were specially commissioned by the festival. Moreover, film-makers will introduce themselves in four „Profile“ programmes, and experts will discuss issues related to film policy and aesthetics within five roundtables.