Flensburger Kurzfilmtage

Short Film Festival in the Border Region

The Flensburger Kurzfilmtage is organized by filmkorte e.V. and is the short film counterpart to the larger film festivals further south. What distinguishes the festival is the consistent connection between German and Danish short films — Flensburg is located directly on the Danish border, and the festival uses this location programmatically. Both language areas are represented in the program, the juries work bilingually, and the audience comes from Schleswig-Holstein and Southern Jutland.

Four Competition Categories with Prize Money

The competition structure is clearly divided into four categories:

• Feature Film — fictional short films
• Documentary Film — documentary works
• Animation — animated short films of all techniques
• "Risk" — section for experimental and genre-crossing works that are difficult to classify elsewhere

Each category is endowed with €1,000 prize money. The prizes are awarded by rotating juries consisting of filmmakers, theorists, and audience representatives.

Venues: Cinema "51 Stufen" and Pilkentafel

The films are shown at two main venues: the cinema "51 Stufen" (the traditional Flensburg arthouse cinema, named after the 51 steps leading to the auditorium) and the Theaterwerkstatt Pilkentafel (one of Schleswig-Holstein's best-known independent theaters, which becomes a second cinema during the festival). Accompanying events — film talks, workshops, lectures — also take place on the premises of the Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF) and the Hochschule Flensburg.

Submissions and Festival Ecosystem

Filmmakers can submit their works via the FilmFreeway platform — the deadline for the 2026 edition is July 1, 2026. The festival thrives on a mix of established short film figures and emerging talents, especially from German and Danish film schools. Workshops, networking sessions, and film talks with the directors also make the festival a platform for industry contacts.

Flensburg on the Fjord

With around 92,000 inhabitants, Flensburg is the third-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein and is located at the end of the Flensburg Fjord directly on the Danish border. The city has an unusually active independent cultural scene — the Pilkentafel, the Schauspielhaus, the Phänomenta, the Robbe & Berking classic yacht shipyard. The Short Film Days have been a fixed cultural event in the city in the autumn since their inception.