The 63rd International Short Film Days screend altogether 499 films from 58 countries, 148 of which were running in one of the five competition sections (International Competitition, German Competition, NRW Competition, MuVi Award for the best German music video, and Competition for Children and Youth Films). The Ecumenical Jury chose its award winner from the 56 films of the International Competition and recommended a film of the Children and Youth Film Competition.
The jury awarded its Prize to "Seeds" from Kenya, an experimental film by Philippa Ndisi-Hermann, and gave a Commendation to the British competition entry "the Separate System" by Katie Davies. The jury's recommendation for acquiring the non-commercial screening rights by the church film distribution companies Katholisches Filmwerk (kfw) and Matthias-Film was attributed to the Norwegian film "Gos leat don?" by Egil Pedersen. The International Jury awarded the Grand Prix of the City of Oberhausen to the Chinese film "Qiu" (Late Summer) by Cui Yi, and the Main Prize of the Jury to "500.00 Pee" (500.000 Years) by Chai Sirs from Thailand. The international film critics jury (Fipresci) awarded also a Chinese production, "Zheng pian zhi wai" (Off Takes), by Hao Jingban.
"Both thematically and aesthetically, the Festival reflects the enormous range of the short format, in which there is still greater freedom of expression than is the case with the often more strictly standardised genre of full-length films, and which continues to be an important source of renewal for the cinematic language", the festival stated in a press release on this year's programme. Hilke Doering, head of the International Competition, emphasised that "this year many works, especially non-European films, address the consequences of geopolitics and identity politics.”
In addition to the competition sections the festival featured numerous topical programmes and showcases dedicated to individual filmmakers, one of them featuring the German artist Bjørn Melhus who also gave two lectures. The programme "Socail media before the internet", curated by media theorist Tilman Baumgärtel who teaches in Mainz focused on " the various and in some cases little-known forms of alternative media work prior to the advent of the worldwide digital web" in the time from 1960 to 1990.
Link: Festival website