Obscura Filmfestival (5)

Festival start: 02 November 2023      Festival end: 04 November 2023

International Filmfest of entertaining, fantastic and arthouse free genre cinema.

We are a young team of enthusiastic film fans, long familiar with the scene. The festival director, David Ghane, an avid movie collector, has been visiting 7 to 13 film festivals a year since 2004, sometimes volunteering there, and has himself appeared in horror movies.

​We offer films a platform that have it difficult in Germany due to their particular nature or scope. Many festivals are drifting more and more into the Arthouse or Drama track. People who are looking for entertaining, smaller, more special Independent films or even big budget productions from far away, will find this at the Obscura Filmfest.

It started as a festival for offbeat, trashy, raunchy Underground Grindhouse cinema and developed into a Genre filmfest that now also includes films with a high production value. At every Obscura Filmfest we present dozens of films that represent the different facets of fantastic and entertaining cinema. From the small and mean horror films to asian battle epics, there is something for everyone, just no boredom.

Highlights of past festival editions include the german premieres of the argentinian Fantasy Sci Fi Cyberpunk Actionfilm "Daemonium", the Backwoods films "What the Waters Left Behind", "Drifter" and "Escape from Cannibal Farm" as well as the international premiere of another Genre Hybrid "Chicago Rot", which is also a great mashup of Fantasy, Sci Fi, Cyberpunk, Gore and Crime.
Another Highlight was the crazy japanese Splatterfest "Kodoku - Meatball Machine" which had an extensive festival history including the biggest festivals of its kind. Hanover had the honour to present the german premiere of "Trauma", an ultra violent Exploitationfilm from Chile. Also in Hanover, the korean 16 Million Euro Battle epic "The Great Battle".

Audience Award Short and Feature film

The 5. Obscura Filmfestival Hannover takes place from 02. - 04. November 2023 in the Medienhaus and Kino im Künstlerhaus.

Requirements
The following genres are accepted at the Obscura Filmfestival:

Action, horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, adventure.

No Arthouse films/documentaries/music videos are accepted, only fictional feature and short films with the above genres. Short films with a running time of 15 minutes or less are preferred.

Movies that are neither in German nor English language must have English subtitles. All films should be from the years 2022 & 2023 and should not yet have been shown in Germany.

Submission
Movies can be submitted offline as a DVD / Blu-Ray (region free), online as a video file on PC or as a Vimeo / Youtube link until the 07.09.2023. The submission fee is 5, 8, 11, 14 € per film, the festival does not pay any screening or KDM fees. The submission fee is not refundable.

The address for offline movie submissions is:

David Ghane
Obscura Filmfest
Manteuffelstr. 11
12103 Berlin
Germany

Online submissions via email to obscura (at) gmx.net.

If the film is not listed on the IMDB page, please provide the following details when submitting: Film title, genre, running length, language, production country, production year, production company, previous festival participations.

Movie selection
The filmmakers will be informed about the participation of their films by the 12.09.2023. Once a film has been accepted into the official festival program from both sides it can no longer be withdrawn. This also holds if the rights have been sold to a German label or a (different) World Sales in the meantime.

In addition, the author agrees that the festival can use up to 10 seconds from the film or filmtrailer, as well as up to 5 pictures / screenshots for promotional purposes for print material, website, social media channels, festival trailers, TV reports and press. The use extends to the period between the announcement of the film in the festival program until one week after the festival date.

All selected films are mentioned on the website and in the flyer with the following information: language, genre, running length, production year, production country, production company, one or more film stills, a self-written short description as well as excerpts from reviews. Afterwards the data migrates to the archive.

If a film is accepted then an exhibition copy must be provided until the 22.09.2023 in case the submitted screening copy is not suitable for cinema exhibition. Only films that have been positively tested in the cinema until that date will find their way into the program and the program brochure, which will be printed directly afterwards.

Should shipping costs arise, the submitter accepts the shipping charges to the festival and the filmfest the return shipping. Customs charges or any other costs incurred due to false declarations will not be accepted and will be billed to the sender.

Due to the amount of good short films, not all of them can be screened at the film festival, so a pure short film night is planned on the 21.12.2023 https://kurzfilmtag.com. Short films that do not make it into the festival program can be shown there instead and receive the status "Finalist"; films that make it into the festival program become "Selected". All filmmakers with the status "Finalist" will be contacted and asked if they want to participate in the short film night.

Exhibition formats
The following formats are accepted:

Medienhaus: Only Blu-Ray
Kino im Künstlerhaus: Only DCP
mp4/mov (H.264, Pro Res; Full HD) files, these will be converted to DCP and Blu-Ray.

Movies that are neither in German nor in English language must have English subtitles, burned directly into the picture is preferred, and not in the black bars of Cinemascope titles.

Screenings
The films selected for the festival program will be shown exactly one time at the Obscura Filmfestival.

The participants assure that they have all necessary rights for the exhibition of their films and that they are transferred to the filmfest for the time being. They assure that the screenings of their films do not infringe on any copyright or performance rights of third parties.

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

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