International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
The Lichtburg Filmpalast Oberhausen
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| Location | Oberhausen, Germany |
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| Founded | -1954 as Westdeutsche Kulturfilmtage -1959 renamed as Westdeutsche Kurzfilmtage -1991 renamed as Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen |
| Film titles | Short films |
| Hosted by | IKF gGmbH City of Oberhausen |
| Festival date | Held annually |
| Website | www.kurzfilmtage.de |
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, founded in 1954, is one of the oldest short film festivals in the world. Held in Oberhausen, it is one of the major international platforms for short form. The festival holds an International Competition, German Competition and International Children’s and Youth Film Competition as well as the MuVi Award for best German music video and, since 2009, the NRW Competition for productions from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Oberhausen is furthermore known today for its extensive thematic programmes such as “Shooting Animals. A Brief History of Animal Film” (2011), "Memories Can't Wait. Film without Film" (2014) or "The Third Image. 3D Cinema as Experiment" (2015). The festival in addition offers visitors a well-equipped Video Library, operates a non-commercial short-film distribution service and owns an archive of short films from over 60 years of cinema history.
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen was founded in 1954 by the director of the Oberhausen Volkshochschule (adult education centre), Hilmar Hoffmann, in association with the Filmclub Oberhausen under the name “1st West German Educational Film Festival”. The event was initially geared to fulfilling an educational policy mandate and the motto chosen for the first festival was hence “Cultural Film – Route to Education”. Featured were 45 films from the Federal Republic of Germany, France and the USA.
At the 4th West German Educational Film Festival, in 1958, the motto “Way to the Neighbour” was introduced, under which the festival took place until 1997. In 1959 the festival was rechristened “West German Short Film Festival”. Oberhausen soon made a political name for itself, chiefly because many films produced in the Eastern Bloc could only be viewed in Oberhausen, a situation that led to the festival’s rapid ascent and its reputation as “short film mecca”. As early as the 1950s, however, visitors were also treated to works by young filmmakers from the West such as François Truffaut, Norman McLaren, Alain Resnais, Bert Haanstra and Lindsay Anderson. At the fourth festival in 1958, 190 films from 29 countries were already included in the programme.
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