International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

Rarely does the short film receive the attention given it at the 46th International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen. Presented in an unremarkable post-industrial German town of 200,000 inhabitants, the Festival is the largest and oldest of its kind in the world. The ambitious program of 460 short films took place at the Filmpalast Lichtburg, a four-screen multiplex cinema. Audiences turned out in droves to watch the esoteric films that ranged from glossy 35mm narratives to raw, experimental video.

The competitive sections of the festival included the International Competition, the German Competition, the 23rd Kinderkino (children’s program) and the German Music Video Competition. Added to that were several special series, lecture presentations, and discussion sessions with the directors. Among the more notable short works screened were Fremde, winner of the Oberhausen Grand Prize, by Austrian director Kathrin Resetarits; Summertime, by Swiss director Anna Luif; Entretanto, winner of one of the two main prizes, by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes; and New York is Disappearing, by German director Heiko Kalmbach. The Festival’s German music video section was at odds with the rest of the program, falling short of justifying the music video as a short film.

One of the more heartening moments of the Festival took place during the awards ceremony when the precocious Kinderkino jury presented the award for the Best Children’s Film to the French Gelée Précoce, by Pierre Pinaud, declaring in their jury statement, "We enjoyed the topic of homosexuality that was dealt with in this film … it is all too rarely spoken about."

The Oberhausen Festival is to be commended for the first-rate care given to its visiting filmmakers. The festival possessed a definite ease and openness. Between and after screenings the crowds of festivalgoers, industry folks and filmmakers mingled in the piazza outside the cinema with cafés and bars at arm’s length. And the unseasonably warm temperatures boosted the bon amie factor considerably. – Wellington Love

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