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Meet this year’s juries

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The competitions are the heart of OFF’s program – and this year, 163 short films from all corners of the globe are in the running.
The films compete in the International Competition, Danish Competition, Animation Competition, Documentary Competition, and Youth Competition, where five juries will decide who walks away from the OFF Awards on Saturday, August 30th with recognition, a statuette, and the prestigious title of winner at OFF25.

Meet the juries HERE

The Danish Jury: Ines Tanovic, Johan Albrechtsen, and Lasse Aagaard
The International Jury: Mads Eriksen, Hilke Rönnfeldt, and Riina Mikkonen
Animation Competition: Carolina Sandvik, Ari Lin Sixten, and Kristian Håskjold
Documentary Competition: Christian Sønderby, Nicoline Skotte, and Douwe Dijkstra
Youth Jury: Class 8.A from Pårup School

OFF25 is just around the corner – and this year’s catalogue has already arrived!

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You can now explore the full festival program with over 250 events and 163 short films from 47 different countries.
Inside the catalogue, you’ll find everything you need to plan your festival week:
Read about the 163 competition films, see when they’re screening, and dive into this year’s diverse focus programs.

The festival offers free Open Air screenings, talks with renowned film personalities, theatre, music, art, and much more – all with short films at the heart.

As always, the catalogue is completely free.
Pick up your copy at Café Biografen, Kulturmaskinen, the main library, and other locations around the city.

We can’t wait to see you in week 35, as we celebrate the magic of short films and OFF’s 50th anniversary 🎬

OFF’s Artistic Director Birgitte Weinberger Steps Down After 17 Years

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After 17 years of passion, vision, and tireless dedication, OFF’s Artistic Director Birgitte Weinberger has today announced that OFF25 – the festival’s 50th anniversary edition – will be her last as part of the festival office.

At “The OFFice,” Birgitte is seen as a central driving force behind OFF’s journey from a local film event to an international beacon for short films.

We’re looking forward to creating a spectacular festival together in week 35 – and we hope you’ll join us 🎉

Tomorrow, our beautiful catalogue hits the streets!
Stop by Kulturmaskinen, Café Biografen, or the main library and grab a copy 🎬

Celebrate with us at the festival’s big jubilee show

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In August 2025, OFF – Odense International Film Festival turns 50.

50 years of dreams, passion, and endless stories that have brought us together across time and space.

To mark the occasion, we invite you to a grand anniversary show – a tribute to everyone who has helped shape the soul and history of OFF.

At Odeon, we gather for a heartfelt celebration filled with speeches, music, films, and surprises that take us back through 50 years of magic – and forward into new adventures.

Warm greetings from old friends, grateful winners, passionate volunteers, and artists who have been part of OFF’s journey will fill the room with warmth and gratitude.

When the curtain falls, we’ll walk together through the city and continue the celebration at Brandts Klædefabrik.

Dress code for the evening: colorful clothing!

 

Program:

  • 6:00 PM: Welcome drinks and red carpet
  • 7:30 PM: The show begins in Odeon’s Grand Hall
  • 10:00 PM: Group walk to the afterparty at Farvergården, Brandts Klædefabrik

 

OFF22 selection is here!

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OFF – Denmark’s eldest and only Oscar- & EFA-qualifying film festival is now ready to announce the official selection for this years’ festival! A record-breaking total of 4077 short films found their way to OFF, and the festival’s pre- and selection juries has been working hard to find the 123 films that make up this year’s selection.

Selected for this year’s competition are 123 wild, provocative, ravishing, wistful and sharp short films, submitted from almost every corner of the world – from Senegal to Estonia, from Pakistan to Chile. A total number of 40 countries are represented in the competition programme this year, and we’re looking forward to welcoming each and every one of them at our festival in August 2022.

OFF is thrilled that 26% more films were submitted this year than in 2021, and we are glad that filmmakers from all over the world have their eyes on OFF – Odense International Film Festival. There is no denying that OFF recived a lot of positive attention when Aneil Karia’s short film “The Long Goodbye”, which won the Oscarqualifying Grand Prix at OFF21, won an Academy Award for ”Best Live Action Short”.

Personal relations. New beginnings. Worldwide changes. Whimsical animated lines and imaginative documentaries. The competition program’s 123 selected short films come from far and wide, both visually and in terms of content.

Read more about the 123 selected films here

See the full list of the official selection here

OFF short films receive Oscar nominations

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This year’s Academy Award nominations have been announced and we are thrilled about the fact that four nominated short films were screened at OFF – Odense International Film Festival.

Among the nominated short films is ’The Long Goodbye’ with Riz Ahmed as the central lead. The film won OFF’s main competition, the HCA Award at OFF21. By winning this competition, a film is qualified for being shortlisted for an Oscar. This demonstrates that it isn’t just the Jury at OFF’s main competition who have seen potential in the 12-minute-long film, but also people from the film industry from all around the world. In the category Live Action Short Film 2022 ‘The Dress’ by Polish Tadeusz Łysiak was also nominated and this film participated at OFF20 in the main competition.

It goes without saying that we’re especially proud of the Danish film maker Martin Strange-Hansen. With his short film ‘On My Mind’ he’ll get the chance to win yet another Oscar, just like he did back in 2003 with “This Charming Man”. This short film tells the story about a dedicated and desperate husband, willing to do everything in his power in order to grant his wife’s wish.

Last but not least Elizabeth and Gulistan Mirzaei’s ”Three Songs for Benazir’ has been nominated in the category Best Documentary Short.

 

OFF is a prestigious competition

Despite screening short films for a whole week, OFF isn’t just a cultural festival that unites the local people of Odense and keen movie lovers. It’s a prestigious competition, that undoubtedly shows the afterlife a short film can have.

The fact that three out of five Oscar-nominated short films this year in the category Live Action Short Film and one in the category Documentary short have been screened at Odense International Film Festival goes to show that the festival is particularly good at pointing out short films that carry a larger potential. This is underlined by the fact that all the main prizes in all of OFF’s competitions qualify the short films for an Oscar. Since 2014 no less than 15 short films which have been nominated for an Oscar have been displayed at OFF.

This all started back in 2013, when OFF was recognized as Denmark’s first Oscar-qualifying film festival, where the winner of the main competition and the Danish competition are sent to America. Furthermore, from 2015 OFF was also able to send the winner of the Animation competition on and lastly in 2018 it was also decided that the winner of the documentary competition was sent to the Oscar selection. The winners of these competitions aren’t just qualified for an Oscar. Likewise they are also qualified for a European Film Award and also a ‘Robert’ – the equivalent of an Academy Award for Danish films and tv-series.

Submission for OFF22 is open

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Here we go!
For the 47th time the submission for OFF – Odense International Film Festival has opened! Now is the time for Danish and international filmmakers, aspiring as well as established, to submit the short films, they hope can make it to the official selection of OFF22.

Firstly, by submitting you film, you will secure a slot before the eyes of the OFF pre-jury. In the spring of 2022 the pre-jury will send a few hundred short films to the OFF selection jury, who will then watch and evaluate the films before deciding which short works of art will be a part of the official selection of OFF22.

Submission
Short films in all genres with a maximum duration of 30 minutes are eligible for submission. The production has to be completed in 2021 or 2022. Submission deadline is the 1st of April 2022, but there is an early bird-discount for films submitted before the 1st of January, 2022. Read about submission, deadlines and technical specifikations and upload your film HERE.

See you at OFF22! 

OFF21 Winners!

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MAIN COMPETITION

DANISH COMPETITION

ANIMATION COMPETITION

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

YOUTH COMPETITION

PITCH ME BABY

  • Pitch Me Baby Main Prize: Andreas Roland Jensen for Bon Voyage.
  • Pitch Me Baby Special Mention: Hooman Aznavy for Ulve i Fåreklæder 

WHY PLASTIC? SHORT FILMS COMPETITION

  • 1st prize: PlasticC, by Sachin Vs (IND)
  • 2nd prize: Plastic Ecosystem, by Stefie Gan (USA)
  • 3rd prize: PALASTIK, by Asghar Besharati (IR)

AUDIENCE AWARD

NOMINEES FOR THE  DANISH ROBERT AWARD 2022

How to order tickets for OFF21

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As always you will have to buy tickets for the screenings that you would like to experience at OFF21. The price is 20 Dkk pr. ticket. This ensures that there won’t be lines forming in front of our venues, it also means that you are no longer able to simply show up for a screenings hooping there is a spot.

Remember you have to show up to screenings at least 15 minutes before.

– Visit programmes and find the program you want to buy tickets for.
– Click on the program and choose the screening you wish to buy a ticket for.
– Afterwards click on ‘køb billet’, and choose the type of ticket.
–Then choose the amount of tickets you want.
– Click on ‘næste’ and fill out the required information in the form.
–Finalise you purchase by clicking ‘afslut ordre’.

OFF uses mobile tickets, we therefore ask you to make sure that you typed the correct mobile number. You will also recieve a ticket via mail, which is also valid if you did not recieve a tekst ticket.

We do recommend using the SMS-ticket, where its possible, to save the enviroment a print.

All purchases are final.