72nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is considered one of the oldest short film festivals in the world and one of the largest international platforms for the short form, unique in the breadth of what it shows in terms of form and genre, and above all, for its spotlight on the experimental. A large number of filmmakers and artists, from Roman Polanski to Cate Shortland, from George Lucas to Eija-Liisa Ahtila, presented their first works here. The festival launched political and aesthetic developments, such as the Oberhausen Manifesto, perhaps the most important group document of German film. For years the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen has also enjoyed an excellent reputation in the arts scene. Its equal treatment of video in competitions since the late 1980s, the ongoing engagement with advertising and industrial films and the introduction of MuVi, the world's first film festival award for music videos from Germany in the late 1990s, as well as a dedicated film submission platform, are considered groundbreaking and innovative. In 2025, Madeleine Bernstorff and Susannah Pollheim took over the management of this renowned festival as artistic and business director respectively.

The 72nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen takes place from 28th April to 3rd May and is divided up into five competitions (international and German productions, productions from North Rhine-Westphalia, international films for children and young people, German music videos) and in curated programmes.

The festival visit is augmented by discussions with filmmakers, event organisers and institutions from the fields of (short) film and media arts in North Rhine-Westphalia.