When is interfilm Berlin 2026?

10 to 15 November 2026, across cinemas in Berlin.

What does interfilm show?

International short films of every kind, capped at 20 minutes, shown in more than 50 curated programmes.

Short films screen in blocks of around 90 minutes. You buy a ticket to a programme block, not to a single film.

Is it Oscar-qualifying?

Yes. The winners of Best Live Action and Best Animation in the International Competition become eligible for Academy Award consideration.

Can I follow the films without German?

Mostly yes. The international programmes are generally shown with English subtitles (OmeU).

All events

Short film · Berlin · since 1982

interfilm Berlin 2026

10 November – 15 November 2026

Berlin's oldest and largest short film festival, six days of more than 350 shorts in over 50 programmes across the city. The 42nd edition runs 10 to 15 November 2026, and it is Academy Award-qualifying.

42nd edition · 350+ films · 50+ programmes

What it is

interfilm started in 1982 in the squats of Kreuzberg as a Super-8 festival, and is now Berlin's oldest and largest short film festival, the city's second-oldest film event after the Berlinale. Every November it shows international shorts of every kind, live-action, animation, documentary, experimental, music video and VR, capped at 20 minutes each. Two of its awards send their winners forward for the Oscars.

You watch programmes, not single films

Short films are not screened one at a time. They run in curated blocks of around 90 minutes, grouped by competition or theme, and a ticket buys you the whole block. That is the thing first-time visitors miss: you pick a programme, and see a dozen films in a sitting.

The competitions

Four competitions and an audience award. The two Oscar-qualifying prizes are in the International Competition.

International CompetitionGerman CompetitionDocumentary CompetitionGreen Film CompetitionEuropean Audience Award

The main prizes

Best Film in the International Competition takes the Berlin-Brandenburg Short Award, 6,000 euros. Best Live Action and Best Animation, 3,000 euros each, are the two Oscar-qualifying prizes: their winners become eligible for Academy Award consideration.

Focus 2026: Shared Shores

Each year interfilm builds a thematic focus. For 2026 it is Shared Shores, in five strands.

Urban Voices Singing Across the Shore
Tides of Resistance and Memory
Witness: Arctic Indigenous Voices
Revolutionary Women of West Asia
Lingering States

Beyond the competitions

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The Long Night of Weird Shorts, an all-night marathon of the strangest and most wonderful films in the selection, now in its 29th edition. The audience votes its own award.

VR Meets Fulldome

The immersive strand runs at the Zeiss-Großplanetarium, showing virtual-reality and fulldome work under the dome.

KUKI

The young short film festival for children and youth runs in parallel, from the same team, on the same dates.

Where it plays

interfilm spreads across around ten Berlin cinemas and venues. The cinemas we carry link to their programme; the other places it screens films are marked on the map too.

Cinemas on KinoNow — tap for showtimesOther film venues — tap for the venue's site

Filmtheater am Friedrichshain

The other pins are places that also screen films during the festival but are not KinoNow cinemas: the Kino & Bar in der Königstadt, and the Zeiss-Großplanetarium, which runs the VR Meets Fulldome programme.

Can you follow it without German?

Yes. Films run in their original language with subtitles, and the international programmes are generally OmeU, original with English subtitles, so non-German speakers can follow them. Some German-focused programmes carry German subtitles. The per-programme subtitle language is published with the detailed schedule.

OV and OmU explained

Tickets and how it works

Tickets are sold per programme block rather than per film, with passes for the festival. The full 2026 programme, with opening and closing films and the schedule, is released in October 2026.

Festival website 2026 programme

Common questions

When is interfilm Berlin 2026?: 10 to 15 November 2026, across cinemas in Berlin.
What does interfilm show?: International short films of every kind, capped at 20 minutes, shown in more than 50 curated programmes.
How do tickets work?: Short films screen in blocks of around 90 minutes. You buy a ticket to a programme block, not to a single film.
Is it Oscar-qualifying?: Yes. The winners of Best Live Action and Best Animation in the International Competition become eligible for Academy Award consideration.
Can I follow the films without German?: Mostly yes. The international programmes are generally shown with English subtitles (OmeU).

Facts on this page checked on 3 September 2026.

Sources