Oldenburg Film Festival

Oldenburg teams up with Pantaflix for a virtual festival segment, while the Film Festival comes home to film fans with a series of Living Room Gala premieres.

Virtual, real, and emotional – the 27^th edition of the Festival expands its discovery platform for young indie filmmakers with an ambitious digital segment, to be experienced by audiences digitally worldwide in addition to physical screenings in cinemas in Oldenburg.

In alliance with current challenges, restrictions, and safety precautions, from September 16-20, the Oldenburg International Film Festival will present its program as both a physical and virtual experience for filmmakers and audiences nationwide and globally. The festival will be present locally with screenings held at Oldenburg's Casablanca and cine k cinemas.

As with the onsite cinema venue premieres and festival events held in Oldenburg, which will be experienced in accordance with imperative social distancing guidelines, the digital screenings will be presented in real time with the highest standard streaming quality, DRM protection, and geo-blocking offered tailor-made for each film.

The gala premieres will also take place in Oldenburg in times of social distancing, but at different locations than usual. True to the spirit of #stayathome, the film festival will come to the homes of its audience and host a series of Living Room Gala premieres. Oldenburg festival fans can apply for selected premieres, which are then introduced and presented with attending guests from their living room. The galas will be held in style as Red Carpet Events in compliance with all safety rules.

The Oldenburg International Film Festival is thrilled to partner with Pantaflix, one of the largest German video-on-demand platforms, with its high international reputation and strong infrastructure, which will provide an excellent streaming quality.

Oldenburg's Festival Director Torsten Neumann, delighted with this new partnership, said: “We know Pantaflix as an innovative platform that has been breaking new ground in distribution for years, thus offering independent cinema opportunities that are becoming increasingly rare elsewhere. The aspiration to develop a virtual festival in such a way that we can meet all technical requirements, to fully maintain our focus on the promotion of independent cinema with this platform, will be our common motivation.”

With this digital expansion, the Oldenburg International Film Festival will be able to offer a global presentation of the complete program for the first time and also send a clear message that cultural exchange must remain accessible to everyone, especially in these times.

“We are firmly convinced that cinema and streaming complement each other perfectly. By cooperating with one of the most important German film festivals, we have demonstrated this impressively. And the nice thing is: everyone benefits. Film fans can follow the festival from the comfort of their home couch without having to give up the magic of cinema. At the same time, we ensure a higher occupancy rate in this way without disregarding hygiene rules. Cinema and streaming have always gone hand in hand for us at PANTAFLIX. We are therefore pleased to be part of the Oldenburg Film Festival,” says Rainer Knebel, CTO of Pantaflix AG.