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Short film · Berlin · since 1982

interfilm Berlin 2026

10 November – 15 November 2026

Berlin's oldest and largest short film festival, six days of shorts across the city. Together with its sister festival KUKI it shows more than 350 films a year. The 42nd edition runs 10 to 15 November 2026, and it is Academy Award-qualifying.

42nd edition · Oscar-qualifying · 47 films in the International Competition

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 International Competition shows 47 films from 41 countries in eight programmes, chosen from more than 3,500 submissions, and holds the two Oscar-qualifying prizes.

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 (3,000 euros) and Best Animation 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.

  1. Urban Voices Singing Across the Shore
  2. Tides of Resistance and Memory
  3. Witness: Arctic Indigenous Voices
  4. Revolutionary Women of West Asia
  5. Lingering States

Beyond the competitions

eject_XXIX

The Long Night of Weird Shorts, now in its 29th edition: 23 of the strangest films in the selection, in one evening at the Volksbühne. The audience votes its own award, worth 1,000 euros.

VR Meets Fulldome

One evening at the Zeiss-Großplanetarium, 12 November at 20:00. Fulldome films and the festival's best VR films are projected onto the 360-degree dome, so nobody needs a headset.

KUKI

The young short film festival for children and youth, from the same team, runs 8 to 15 November, starting two days before interfilm.

Where it plays

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

Cinemas: tap for showtimesOther film venues: tap for the venue's site
Filmtheater am Friedrichshain
See cinema
Acud Kino
See cinema
City Kino Wedding
See cinema
Sinema Transtopia
See cinema
Rollberg
See cinema
Kino & Bar in der Königstadt
See cinema

The other pins are places that also screen films during the festival but are not regular cinemas: the Volksbühne (opening, eject and Winning Films), AchtBerlin, the Unterfilm Clubkino, 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.

OV and OmU explained

Dates to note

  1. Tuesday 10 November

    Festival opening

    21:00 · Volksbühne

    A selection of festival films, all in the original language with English subtitles. The evening is hosted in English.

  2. Saturday 14 November

    eject_XXIX

    22:00 · Volksbühne

    The Long Night of Weird Shorts. The audience picks the winner.

  3. Sunday 15 November

    Winning Films

    20:00 · Volksbühne20:30 · Rollberg

    The last evening: the award-winning films, shown at two venues.

Tickets and how it works

Tickets are sold per programme block rather than per film. The 2026 programme and timetable are online, with the dates and venues of every block.

Prices 2026
A programme block€10 · €8 reduced
Opening or Winning Films, Volksbühne€10
eject_XXIX, Volksbühne€12
Sound & Vision, Volksbühne, 12 November€15
Events in the Roter Salon (InterForum free)€5
Accreditation for filmmakers and industry, valid for interfilm and KUKI€40 until 8 November, €45 during the festival week

A reduced ticket at Sinema Transtopia costs €7. The Unterfilm Clubkino adds a booking fee. Students of film schools or of film and media studies pay €25 for accreditation, with a student ID.

Festival website2026 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 curated programmes. Together with KUKI, its festival for children and young people, it shows more than 350 films a year.
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. A block costs 10 euros, or 8 euros reduced at most cinemas.
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 16 October 2026.

Sources