LFF 2009 - Foreign Festival Retro

International Oberhausen Short Film Festival

with Director Dr. Lars Henrik Gass

Celebrating Short Films

For each edition of the Lebanese Film Festival, ..né.à Beyrouth invites the participation of foreign film festivals. Our goal is to encourage networks and dialogue between Lebanese and foreign filmmakers.

This year we are pleased to welcome to Beirut the International Oberhausen Short Film Festival (IOSFF) and its director, Dr. Lars Hernrik Gass. The IOSFF is especially relevant to the Lebanese Film Festival, which has always screened a large number of short films by up and coming Lebanese directors.

Going strong for over five decades, the IOSFF is world-renowned and critically acclaimed by filmmakers, and connoisseurs alike as a unique and innovative platform for creative filmmaking in short format:

“Oberhausen has long become a brand, one that stands for high artistic quality, a cultural mission and constant discourse about the short form on film.”
Oliver Baumgarten, Blickpunkt:Film, No. 21+22/2009

“It is political and aesthetic, exhausting and ecstatic, ancient and yet hip and completely cutting edge: Oberhausen is the mother of all short film festivals...”
- Hans Schifferle, epd film, June 2009

The 2009 LFF will be projecting selections provided by the Oberhausen festival, including music video clips from Germany (on Friday 21st August - at 8pm) and international competition short movies originating from Burkina Faso, China and beyond (on Sunday 23rd August - at 7.30pm).

Director Lars Henrik Gass holds forth on the role and future of film festivals

Dr. Lars Gass has been the director of the International Oberhausen Short Film Festival since October 1997. For the 8^th edition of the Lebanese Film Festival, he will be holding a Q&A session to share his thoughts on the role and future of film festivals. Some of the pressing questions he explores:

“When film festivals are no longer marketplace, but forums, not a place of trade anymore, but places of commutation, when they no longer broker but commercialize, what then will be the income base for the filmmakers and producers? Should film festivals in the future pay them for screening the films? As in their current situations the festivals are not prepared for such a scenario, who will make the effort?”

The Q&A will be hosted on Sunday 23rd August by Akram Zaatari, artist & co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation.

Quotes, photos and details about the Oberhausen Film Festival and Lars Gass are from the International Oberhausen Short Film Festival website.