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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.

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.

‘Another Round’ is the fourth Danish feature to win the Oscar for best international feature.

“We wanted to make a movie that celebrates life.” Vinterberg dedicated the movie and his Oscar speech to his daughter who passed away in 2019.

Thomas Vinterberg visited OFF in 2019 and won at OFF in 1994 with the shortfilm “Drengen der gik baglæns”.

Congratulations to Thomas Vinterberg and the team behind “Another Round”. We wish you all the best ❤

Meet Josephine! OFF20 was her first time attending a film festival:

The best thing was definitely to meet so many other young people at my age, who also makes movies – it was nice to meet people in their right element: the movies. At OFF I was able to get feedback from my peers all of a sudden and it was great and easy to meet new people over the short films – because it was the reason we we’re all there. OFF20 was my very first film festival and it was a great first time film festival experience: it was straight forward and inviting to go to Odense and be a part of OFF.

Foto: Line Svindt

Ulrich and Judith has been visiting OFF – Odense International Film Festival for decades. This year, at OFF20, they couldn’t participate in the festival in Odense due to COVID-19, but luckily OFF had a digital festival as well. Here is their experience with OFF20 – the digital festival:

Odense International Film Festival has been a part of our DNA since 1979. For two people, who spend their long work life either at a school or in a cinema, this festival, this celebration of films, is just very special. It is where you have been able to meet the odd and the different, the ground breaking and some times incomprehensible. We have been along for the whole ride, from OFF being a pure animation festival to also featuring international adventurous short films to the current edition with Academy Award-qualifications in both the international main competition, animation competition, the documentary competition and the Danish competition. Now with a well defined duration limit on 30 minutes. And with the amazing brand OFF, of course. To us, OFF rhymes with GOD.

The Covid-19 stopped our serial participation at the festival, and 2020 became the first year where we couldn’t embrace Odense and OFF physically. But we weren’t the ones to cheat our selves from experience rare gems from all over the world. In our isolation on Møn, far far away from Odense, we listened to Carl Nielsen every morning and come the afternoon we dressed up in our red OFF t-shirts and watched three to four OFF20 programs on OFFstream. We’d spend every evening fighting over which movie was the winner of the day – we made a special rating system, where five stars where awarded to the brilliant and zero to the not so great, but there were zero zeros giving.

It was an intense, matter-of-fact and exciting week with new experiences, analysis and discussions. OFF is a life style and a meditative state. She is beautiful and able to be enjoyed at a distance. But of course she needs to be embraces and shook, she needs to be squeezed tightly and kissed the correct surroundings in Odense with parties, glitter, fellowships, gatherings. That damn Corona. But the devine OFF is not something that Satan will ever be able to shut down.

Here we go! For the 46^th 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 OFF21.

Firstly, by submitting you film, you will secure a slot before the eyes of the OFF pre-jury. In the spring of 2021 the pre-jury well 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 OFF21.

Submission

Short films in all genres with a maximum duration of 30 minutes are eligible for submission. The production has to be completed in 2020 or 2021. Submission deadline is the 1st of April 2021 – but there is an early bird-discount for films submitted before the 1st of January, 2021. Read more about submission, deadlines and technical specifications HERE.

Foto: Kristian Gade

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners of OFF20:

Grand Prix – HCA Award:

Nominees: “Nina” by Hristo Simeonov, “Wade” by Upamanyu Bhattacharyya & Kalp Sanghvi, “Miss America” by Pepi Ginsberg

Winner: “Nina” by Hristo Simeonov

OFF Storyteller Award:

Nominees: “On the Boat” by Baizak Mamataliev, “Registration” by Michael Borodin, “Los Bengalas” by David Valero Simón

Winner: “On the Boat” by Baizak Mamataliev

OFF Artist Award:

Nominees: “Wade” by Upamanyu Bhattacharyya & Kalp Sanghvi, “22.47 linie 34” by Michael Karrer, “Kachalka” by Gar O’Rourke

Winner: “Wade” by Upamanyu Bhattacharyya & Kalp Sanghvi

OFF: Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards 2020: “Nina” by Hristo Simeonov

Best Danish Short Film:

Nominees: “Uden at blinke” (“In the Blink of an Eye”) by Katrine Brocks, “OsWorld” by Phillip Hedegaard Povlsen, “Barnepigerne” (“The Nannies”) by Signe Barvild Stæhr

Winner: “Uden at blinke” (“In the Blink of an Eye”) by Katrine Brocks

FilmFyn Talent Award:

Nominees: ”Barnepigerne” (“The Nannies”) by Signe Barvild Stæhr, ”Pinkies Begravelse” (”Pinkie’s Funeral) by Simon Mortensen, “Manifest” by Assa Rytter

Winner: “Barnepigerne” (”The Nannies”) by Signe Barvild Stæhr

Børge Ring Award:

Nominees: “Orgiastic Hyper-Plastic” by Paul Bush, “Naked” by Kirill Khachaturov, “Mizuko” by Kira Dane & Katelyn Rebelo

Winner: “Orgiastic Hyper-Plastic” by Paul Bush

Animation Talent Award:

Nominees: “Totem” by Katrine Glenhammer, “New People” by Sia Søndergaard & Steen Rasmussen, “100.000 Acres of Pine” by Jennifer Alice Wright

Winner: “Totem” by Katrine Glenhammer

Best Short Documentary:

Nominees: “Mama Rosa” by Dejan Barac, “Just a Guy” by Shoko Hara, “City of Children” by Arantxa Hernández Barthe

Winner: “Mama Rosa” by Dejan Barac

The Soapbox Award:

Nominees: “Everything for Riana” by Mihai Dragolea, “Dafa Metti” by Tal Amiran, “Huntsville Station” by Jamie Meltzer & Chris Filippone

Winner: “Everything for Riana” by Mihai Dragolea

Youth Award:

Nominees: “Manifest” by Assa Rytter, ”Kaldet” (”A Calling”) by Christian Bengston, ”First Comes Love” by Mathias Wintersø, Christian Lykking, Marie-Luise Struve, Nicklas Bøhm

Winner: “Manifest” by Assa Rytter

Fyens Stiftstidende Audience Award: “Bonaparte” by Jesper Quistgaard

Pitch Me Baby Main Prize: “Splittet” by Jahfar Muataz

Pitch Me Baby Special Mention: “Kvalt” by Amalie Maria

Robert Prisen Shortlist: ”Bleed” by Hannah Elbke, ”Hvor træerne blokerer for lyset” (”100,000 Acres of Pine”)  by Jennifer Alice Wright, “Kaldet” (”A Calling”) by Christian Bengston, ”Pinkies begravelse” (”Pinkie’s Funeral”) by Simon Mortensen & ”Uden at blinke” (”In the Blink of an Eye”) by Katrine Brocks

Photo: Kristian Gade

We are proud to present our new streaming service, OFFstream.dk! At OFFstream you can dive right into amazing shortfilms in all genres, from all over the world and everything is for free!

Revisit previous festival films

We have gathered an impressive array of short films screened at previous festivals – starting at OFF15 up until today! You will find more than 170 films that will excite you, startle you and amaze you exactly as they did, when you watched them the last time. Now you can watch them when you want and where you want and all it will cost you is your time!

How to go OFFstream:

• To see a collection of all the films, click on the waves in the right corner and click on ‘alle film’. Here you will also find some movies with an ‘OFF20’ label – you cannot access those movies unless you live in Denmark. Read more below.
• If you want to find a specific movie, you can use the search bar. You can also find movies according to country of origin, length, genre and the year, they were shown at the festival. Most of the titles are in English.
• You will get suggestions on new amazing films based on what you previously watched on OFFstream.dk
• You can also choose to watch our curated playlists – click on the wave and then on ‘filmpakker’. For example you can watch previous winner films, get your ANI FIX or watch movies about sex.

OBS: Most of the streaming service is in Danish, but all of the movies have subtitles and mostly English titles. We are aware of the problem and are working on translating OFFstream.

What else is on OFFstream?

OFFstream also contains special packages made in collaboration with Med Skolen i Biografen and this year’s online festival OFF20, who unfortunately in geo blocked and only available if you live in Denmark. If you do live in Denmark, you have access to this year’s amazing online festival: all the 129 films selected for competition at OFF20 as well as video greetings from the directors. You get access to all of this for two weeks (24^th of August to the 6^th of September) for 89 kr.

Dear festival guest

OFF – Odense International Film Festival takes all employees and guests’ health and safety very seriously, and we wish for you to feel safe in case you pay us a visit in week 35. We of course adhere to the health authorities’ guidelines with regard to Covid-19, and we take all necessary precautions regarding good hygiene and safety.

This means that your visit at the festival will be a little different compared to previous years. As for the big silver screen, however, you can expect a great experience like always.

Furthermore, as a new initiative this year, we have created a digital platform so that no matter your health situation or geographical whereabouts, you will be able to get access to OFF’s amazing films. Check it out here

In order for festival guests to be able to keep appropriate social distance at the screening venues, only every second seat will be sold, which means that there will be fewer tickets than usual available for the screenings, and hence the programmes might sell out faster.

In case the government raises the current limit for the ban on large events and gatherings, more tickets will become available. In case the limit is lowered, guests will be accommodated within the guidelines according to date of ticket booking.

Extra actions this year:

• Valid tickets are mandatory for all programmes at the festival.

• All of our big outdoor events, receptions and parties have been cancelled.

• All venues will be cleaned continuously throughout the week, and hand sanitizer will be available at all relevant spots.

• Only every other seat is sold – and all of our screenings comply with the social distancing guidelines. Read more about the booking procedures above.

We encourage everyone to familiarize themselves with the health authorities’ guidelines, and naturally we ask you to stay home in case you experience any symptoms whatsoever.

The festival will of course adapt to comply with the authorities’ guidelines, should there be any changes. In that case, you can find updates here on our website filmfestival.dk/en

Take care of yourself and each other – and have a great festival!

Keep your distance
Keep your hands clean
Keep a cool head
And a warm heart <3

Danish and international filmmakers, aspiring as well as established, who hope to be part of the competition programme of OFF – Odense International Film Festival 2020, can now take a big step towards reaching this particular goal. As of Friday the 15th of November, 2019 it’s possible to submit your short film and secure a slot before the eyes of the OFF pre-jury.

In the spring of 2020, 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 part of the official selection of OFF20.

Submission

Short films in all genres with a maximum duration of 30 minutes are eligible for submission. The production has to be completed in 2019 or 2020. Submission deadline is the 1st of April, 2020 – but there is an early bird-discount for films submitted before the 1st of January, 2020. Read more about submission, deadlines and technical specifications HERE.