In May 2000 the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen will for the 46^th time present hundreds of short films and videos in competitions and special programmes, as well as the world’s biggest short film market. For six days Oberhausen is going to be the centre of the international short film scene – filmmakers, guests, journalists and the audience are going to meet, discuss, and gain an overview over current trends and developments.

The Special Programmes have become the festival’s trademark. They examine short film in contemporary contexts – in music videos, in commercials, in industrial films… Taking up as much programme space and time as the competitions, the Special Programmes are devoted to a certain subject or a genre presented in film programmes, talks and discussions with guests from the world of film, art and science.

Drama, grotesque, experimental film or animation, the USA or Kazakhstan, Japan or Senegal, 30 seconds or 35 minutes: anything goes, as long as they make it short. Every year the Festival receives about 3,000 entries, out of which about 70 films and videos are selected for the International Competition, the traditional core of the Festival.

The German Competition will present five programmes with about 30 films and videos. For those who are curious about the variety of German short film Germany’s biggest and oldest short film competition offers a rich selection to choose from. Film schools and academies are particularly well represented.

Finally there is the 23^rd International Children’s Cinema with about 40 films. As usual, children will judge the films. A novelty, however, is that this year two children’s juries will present two awards, each one in a different age group.

Catherine David (France), curator

Kodwo Eshun (UK), author

Olia Lialina (Russia), net artist

Jennifer Reeder (USA), filmmaker

All film and video entries – about 3,000 and more – are, as usually, going to be available for individual viewing in one of the 12 viewing booths of the world’s biggest short film market. A novelty of the 46^th Short Film Festival: market-screenings with productions from Australia and Southeast Asia. For example films by CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) Productions, an award-winning production company in the heart of Australia. Or films from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong… The Festival is thus going to open a window to a productive and lively filmscape that has so far not been visible in Europe.

The wall has come down, both political and aesthetic frontiers have shifted. In the West avant-garde and experimental films are swallowed by the phenomenon of pop, in the East underground films follow in the footsteps of the old state-funded film productions. How do the mechanisms of aesthetic innovation work today, how are difference and dissidence expressed? The Festival is going to look at those questions in two complementary Special Programmes.

How does the image machine Pop work? "Pop Unlimited?" is going to look at image transfers and image production in contemporary western pop culture. The programme will examine the image repertory of pop culture, the generative and expansive power of a phenomenon - all-pervasive, glamorous, tasteless, greedy - that is penetrating totally different cultural and social contexts while insisting on difference.

Short films, music videos, trailers, image films and digital formats by Sadie Benning, Roman Coppola, Derek Jarman, Spike Jonze, D.A. Pennebaker and many others will serve as illustrative material. Invited guests: Doug Aitken (USA), Mike Mills (UK), Jennifer Reeder (USA), Simon Reynolds (USA) and Mark Webber (UK).

Marks' programme of films, at the Lichtburg Cinema on May 6 at 10pm, is as follows:

Oh Dem Watermelons (Robert Nelson, USA 1965, 12 Min.)

Adebar (Peter Kubelka, A 1956-57, 1:30 Min.)

The Cut Ups (Anthony Balch & William Burroughs, GB 1967, 10 Min.)

The Maltese Cross Movement (Keewatin Dewdney, KAN 1967, 8 Min.)

1933 (Joyce Wieland, KAN 1967, 4 Min.)

Thank You Jesus For The Eternal Present: 1 (Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), USA 1973, 6 Min.)

Exit Right (Chris Garratt, GB 1976, 5 Min.)

Runaway (Standish Lawder, USA 1969, 6 Min.)

Reign Of The Vampire (Malcolm Le Grice, GB 1970, 15 Min.)

Looking For Mushrooms (Bruce Conner, USA 1961-67 / 95, 14 Min.)

Curator: Christian Höller (Austria)

Academism is dead, long live the underground! What used to be subsidised (and regulated) by the state before the wall came down has now gone underground. The programme will bring a compilation of (video) films from Eastern Europe 1950-2000 - some of which have been difficult to get hold of - to the surface.

"It’s not blood, it’s red", does not apply here, it has to be: "It’s not red, it’s blood." Western interpretation patterns are ineffective, difference and dissidence are expressed through sexuality and brutality, "body" and "violence" become symbols of political confrontation in the works of Marina Abramovic, Vladimir Kobrin, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Aleksandr Sokurov, Jan Svankmajer and many others. Invited guests: Gleb Aleinikov (Russia), Stephen Kovatcs (Germany/Canada), Mara Mattuschka (Austria), Joanne Richardson (USA/Rumania), Slavoj Zizek (Slovenia).

Curator: Marina Grzinic (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

In co-operation with the film museum in Munich the Festival is going to present fragments and restored treasures from the unpublished works of the magnificent Narcissus. They range from scenes from portraits of London and Vienna to a screen adaptation of his piece "Moby Dick Rehearsed", from conjuring tricks and recitals to gigantomanic trailers of more than ten minutes.

A visionary of the unthought connection. Like Bruce Connor, whose follower he is, Baldwin works with the leftovers of filmed lives. He doesn’t record images, he collects and mounts: completely new, satirical narratives about gender relations, colonialism and science. The Festival will present Baldwin’s early works, which today appear almost prophetic. Craig Baldwin is going to present a look into his archive.

In 1998 her film "Tänään" ("Today") was awarded at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, in 1999 she represented Finland at the Biennale in Venice, today Eija-Liisa Ahtila is a big name in the world of art. Her works form an unusual intersection between fine arts and film; they replace traditional fiction by inventing highly complex narratives. Eija-Liisa Ahtila is going to present her complete works on video and film at this year’s festival.

For Dagie Brundert and Ramona Welsh Super 8 represents a truly great medium – as great as their passion and the myths surrounding the films and lives of both filmmakers. Their Super 8 programme reaches from music clips and ghost rides to Berlin plasticine and double projection. Dagie Brundert and Ramona Welsh are going to present their works in Oberhausen.

Introduced in 1999, the MuVi Award for the Best German Music Video is going into the second round. In its first round the world’s only Festival Music Video Award has proved: even in a festival context good music videos don’t have to be ashamed of their visual qualities. A jury of music video and film experts will choose the winners; the best videos will be presented in Oberhausen on 8 May.

Jury:

Dagie Brundert (Germany), filmmaker

Georg Seeßlen (Germany), film journalist

ARTE – The TV channel ARTE is one of the most important supporters of the European short film. In the year 2000 ARTE is going to continue its co-operation with the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. In a special broadcast of the magazine "Court-circuit/Kurz-Schluss" on 8 May it will present a selection of European films from the Oberhausen programmes.

3sat – The only German-language channel to offer short film a weekly slot before 10 p.m. For the second time the 3sat-Film Award will be given to a film/video from the German Competition Programme. The co-operation is going to be extended to include a selection from the Special Programmes of the 46^th Short Film Festival; they will be screened on 3sat on 5 May.

Kinderkanal – The co-operation with the children’s channel of the German broadcast networks ARD and ZDF called Kinderkanal is new. The state-run children’s channel has set out to present high-quality children’s programmes. In this spirit Kinderkanal has taken over the sponsorship for the two awards of the 23^rd International Children’s Cinema, which are for the first time going to be presented in different age groups. During the festival there will be the opportunity to produce animation films, which as from March will be broadcast monthly in the series TRICKBOXX.

Please order accreditation forms from the Festival:

tel. +49 (208) 825-2652, fax 825-5413 or info@kurzfilmtage.de

- "Court-circuit/Kurz-Schluss", ARTE, 8 May, special on the 46^th International Short Film Festival

- 3sat, 5 May, "Der andere Film" (the other film) with a selection from the Special Programmes of the 46^th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

+++ Cinema Jury at the 46^th Festival: an international jury of cinema operators are going to recommend competition films particularly suited for theatrical release +++ discussion on the topic short films on the Internet with international participants, at the Festival +++ focus of this year’s special programmes of the Children’s Cinema: animation +++ new festival website online as from 15 February: www.kurzfilmtage.de +++ new press service on the website: festival photos per download +++