Obscura Filmfestival (10)

Festival start: 16 October 2026      Festival end: 17 October 2026

International film festival of entertaining, fantastic and arthouse free genre films.

The Obscura Filmfest was founded by David Ghane in 2016 and has been run by him alone ever since. He is a passionate genre film fan since 1996, attends several film festivals per year since 2004, sometimes helps out there, acts as an extra in horror films and is an extreme film collector.

The Obscura Film Festival specializes in entertaining and fantastic films, big and small, films that almost never get a regular screening. The films shown there are mostly mainstream blockbusters or arthouse films that can be found at most other regular film festivals. Even comparable festivals are expanding their programmes to include more and more arthouse. Those who instead like entertaining, smaller and special independent films, but can also imagine bigger productions from far away countries, will find what they are looking for at the Obscura Filmfest: Films that are fun with rough edges, raw and uncompromising; from nasty little horror films to Asian battle epics, there is something for every fan, just no boredom.

It started with small, offbeat, trashy and depraved underground grindhouse films, meanwhile the Obscura also screens commercial, mid-sized films that are traded on the big film markets.

Highlights of the previous festival editions included the German premieres of the Argentinian fantasy sci fi cyberpunk action film "Daemonium", the Ukrainian thriller "Egregor", the Filipino zombie shocker "Day Zero", the Danish horror film "Finale", the ghost comedy "Deadtectives" and the two Backwoods films "What the Waters Left Behind" and its sequel "Scars" 5 years later.
The European premieres of the Indonesian comic superhero film "Valentine" and the Backwoods film "Drifter" were also screened.
Another highlight was the crazy Japanese splatterfest "Kodoku - Meatball Machine" which can look back on a long festival history including the biggest festivals of its kind, as well as the Universal/Blumhouse production "The Hunt".
With "Redbad" and "The Great Battle", two big battle epics were also screened at the Obscura.
The German premiere of the hard-hitting exploitation film "Trauma" in Hanover was even attended by visitors from the Ruhr area.
After its international premiere at the Obscura, the cowboy backwoods film "Lasso" was shown a few months later at the famous british Frightfest.
In 2022, the Obscura had its first two feature-length film world premieres with "All through the Hall" and "Hidden in the Woods II".

At every Obscura filmfest there were film guests who introduced their film in person and were available for a Q&A. They came from Ireland, UK, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, USA, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and of course Germany.

In 2024, there was a record number of guests from 7 different countries, as well as "The Witch. Revenge," a Ukrainian war horror film that was shot during and about the current war.

Audience Award Short and Feature film

The 10th Obscura Filmfest Berlin will take place from 16. to 17. October 2026 in the Zoo Palast.

Requirements

ONLY the following genres will be accepted for the Obscura Film Festival:

ACTION, HORROR, SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, THRILLER

The following genres and film types are NOT permitted and may be disqualified:

Arthouse, documentaries/mockumentaries, dramas, films for children, music videos, advertising clips, works created entirely with AI.

ONLY fictional feature films and short films in the genres listed above in CAPITAL LETTERS will be accepted.

Preference will be given to short films with a running time of 15 minutes or less. Short films with a running time of more than 15 minutes have a very low chance of being selected.

Films that are not in English must have English subtitles. All films should be from 2025 and 2026 and should not have been previously screened or released in Germany.

Interest in a film before it has been viewed does not mean that it will be selected. Films must be viewed in a finished or work-in-progress version before a decision can be made. If the festival is interested in showing your film based on a trailer or previous merits, you should not rush to complete it by the submission deadline, which ends approximately 8 weeks before the festival, as a decision can also be made on an unfinished version. After selection, there are approximately 6 weeks to complete the film.

Submission

Films can be submitted offline as DVD/Blu-Ray (region code-free), online as a video file playable on a PC, or as a Vimeo/YouTube link by 21. August 2026. The submission fee is $5, $12, or $19 per film, depending on time of submission. The festival does not pay any screening or KDM fees. The submission fee is non-refundable.

The address for offline film submissions is:

David Ghane
Obscura Filmfest
Manteuffelstr. 11
12103 Berlin
Germany

Please send online submissions by email to obscura (at) gmx.net.

If the film is not listed on the IMDB website, please include the following details with your submission: film title, genre, running time, language, country of production, year of production, production company, previous festival participations.

Film selection

Submitters will be notified of their films' participation by 29. August 2026. Once accepted and mutually agreed upon for inclusion in the official festival programme, the film's participation cannot be revoked. This also applies in the event of a rights sale to a German distributor or to a (different) world sales.

In addition, the author agrees that the festival may publicly use up to 10 seconds from the film or film trailer, as well as up to 5 images/screenshots for promotional purposes, namely for print materials, website, social media channels, festival trailers, TV reports and press. Use shall extend from the announcement of the film in the festival programme until one week after the festival date.

All selected films will be mentioned on the website and in the flyer with the following information: language, genre, running time, year of production, country of production, production company, one or more film stills, a specially written short description and excerpts from reviews and critiques. The data will then be transferred to the archive.

If the film is selected, a screening copy must be provided by 10. September 2026 at the latest if the screening copy is not suitable for screening. Only films that have been positively tested in cinemas by then will be included in the programme and in the programme booklet, which will go to print immediately afterwards.

If shipping costs are incurred, the submitter will cover the cost of shipping the film to the festival and the festival will cover the cost of returning it. Customs duties or any other costs incurred due to incorrect declarations will not be covered and will be charged to the sender.

Due to the large number of good short films, not all of them can be shown at the film festival, so a short film night is planned for 21. December 2026 https://kurzfilmtag.com. Short films that do not make it into the festival programme can be shown there instead and will be given the status ‘Finalist’; films that make it into the festival programme will be given the status ‘Selected’. All filmmakers with ‘Finalist’ status will be contacted and asked if they want to participate in the short film night.

Screening formats

The following formats are accepted:

DCP
mp4/mov (H.264, Pro Res; Full HD) files, which will be converted to DCP.

Films that are not in German or English must have English subtitles, preferably burned into the image and not in the black bars of Cinemascope films.

Screenings

The films selected for the festival programme will be screened publicly exactly once as part of the Obscura Film Festival.

Participants assure that they have all the necessary rights of use for the screening of their films and that these rights are transferred to the organiser. They assure that the screening of their films does not infringe any copyrights or performance rights of third parties.

The audience votes for the best feature film and short film, and the winner receives a trophy.

The festival director reserves the right to allow exceptions in special and justified cases.