Odense International Film Festival

Odense International Film Festival is a short film festival in Denmark that takes place every year in August. Odense International Film Festival made its debut in 1975, and is Denmark's oldest film festival. The municipality of Odense is responsible for the execution of the film festival.

Odense International Film Festival is a part of Kulturmaskinen (the Culture Machine) in Odense. The festival activities mainly take place in the area around Brandts; In the Café Biografen (Cinema), In Kulturmaskinen, in Magasinet and in the open-air area of the Amfi Theatre – and everyone is invited to take part in the festivities. Most of all of these events and film screenings are free, so everyone is invited to just walk in and have a seat. Odense International Film Festival is an event that opens the doors to a world filled with inspiration, surprises and emotions. In the days leading up to the festival and all through the week itself, all of Odense is imbued with events, workshops, music, party, seminars, guests and impressions from all over the world.

OFF is Denmarks international short film festival and with its beginning already back in 1975 OFF is also the oldest film festival in the country. The festival was started in connection with the 100th anniversary of the death of Hans Christian Andersen. The initiator of the festival was the then film editor for the local newspaper, “Fyens Stifttidende”, Bent Aagaard and the Festival was named “The International Fairytale Festival”. Back then, The Fairytale Festival was a festival that celebrated fairytale-inspired animation films in the spirit of Hans Christian Andersen and it was going to be held every second year. In 1983, the first shift was made in terms of festival administrator. The choice of new administrator fell upon the internationally renowned film director and writer, Henning Carlsen. With this change of management, other changes were also introduced, the most important one being that the film festival now opened up to other categories of short film. Creative short films of all kinds were now welcome to enter and the festival changed its name to “Odense International Film Festival”.Odense International Film Festival was in the beginning known as "The International Fairy Tale Festival", as a tribute to famous author of numerous fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen who was born in Odense. Initially, the festival focused solely on animation films but in 1983 the festival permitted all sorts of fiction films into the programme, and the name was subsequently changed to "Odense International Film Festival". When Christian Braad Thomsen stepped in as artistic director in 1997, he started an important era for OFF. The Danish Film Festival and Odense International Film Festival melted together and became one festival under the name Odense International Film Festival that was to show both Danish and foreign films. Going forward, the festival was to take place every year.Christian Braad Thomsen stayed on till 2005 and made quite a few changes and innovative initiatives. This development with new initiatives was carried on by the following artistic director of the festival, Cecilia Lidin, who also initiated a cooperation with ANIS – The Danish Animation Society – on how to create a competition and prize for Danish and foreign animated films in the festival. In this same period of time, the still existing Talent Camp for young film makers also emerged.

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