susan pui san lok, Trailers, 2015, 4 mins (still). Selected for the 62nd Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, International Competition, 5-10 May 2016. Originally commissioned by Derby QUAD and Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), in partnership with Animate Projects and University of Salford.

62nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

5-10 May 2016

PRESS RELEASE

The 62nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen has selected a total of 151 films for its five competitions, from around 5,500 submissions coming from more than 100 countries. 39 countries are represented in the competitions, all of which show a striking number of independent productions: affordable means of production and online distribution have contributed to an emancipation of the short film from film schools as well as traditional distribution structures. Almost 50% of all competition entries were made by women. The Festival will award prizes worth a total of 41,750 Euros. All in all, Oberhausen will present nearly 500 films in its competitions and other programmes.

64 films from 26 countries were selected for the International Competition, the Festival’s biggest competition; almost half of them will be world premieres. “What struck us in the selection process was that the traditional dominance of countries like the USA or Great Britain seems to be diminishing. Film scenes are multiplying and offering us a chance to explore very different perspectives on the world, represented by films from the Philippines, South Africa, Algeria, Paraguay, New Zealand and many other countries in our International Competition. We also found that many films this year address concrete political developments, whether it’s the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea or the exploitation of natural resources in South Africa,” comments Hilke Doering, head of the International Competition.

9 films were selected from Britain:

• Akula Dream, George Barber, 2015, 26′, International Competition
• Bounce, D.C. Barclay/Rory Lowe, 2015, 10’19”, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
• CAROUSEL, Kal Weber, 2015, 5’20”, Children’s and Youth Film Competition
• Exomoon, Gudrun Krebitz, 2015, 6’19”, International Competition
• If It Was, Laure Prouvost, 2015, 8’52”, International Competition
• The Interpreter, Noriko Okaku, 2015, 6’29”, International Competition
• JUS SOLI, Somebody Nobody, 2015, 16′, International Competition
• Malevolent Mountains, Helen Michael, 2015, 3’30”, International Competition
• Trailers, susan pui san lok, 2015, 4′, International Competition

24 films will be screened in the German Competition. Only one of them comes from one of the big film schools in Germany, three others from an art school in Hamburg. “The more interesting films we have seen were almost all produced outside the film school framework”, says Carsten Spicher, head of the German Competition.

This trend is especially marked in the regional NRW Competition, for which Oberhausen selected 12 films out of 211 productions. “We introduced this competition to provide a showcase for the vibrant NRW film industry and this year was an example of how creative and productive the independent film scene here is: eight of the 12 selected entries are independent productions”, comments Carsten Spicher, who also heads the NRW Competition.

With seven female directors the number of women competing in the 18^th MuVi Award for the Best German Music Video is higher than ever: 12 clips were selected from 196 submissions. The Children and Youth Film Competition will feature 41 films from 26 countries, selected from almost 500 German and international productions.

The complete list of selected films is online here.

Accreditation deadline of the 62^nd festival: 22 April 2016

Accreditation: www.kurzfilmtage.de/en/festival/professionals/accreditation/

Press contact: Sabine Niewalda, T +49 (0)208 825-3073,niewalda@kurzfilmtage.de