In 1999 Oberhausen introduced the world’s first festival prize for music videos made in Germany. The impulse to create this award arose out of the observation that music videos had increas- ingly managed to emancipate themselves from their purely illustrative and advertising function, transforming themselves into a completely inde- pendent form of visualisation. Today, music videos have proven themselves to be an independent short film genre that even managed to survive the decline of its midwife, music television. This programme gathers together all eleven works nominated for the 2018 MuVi Award.
The first prize was won by Oliver Pietsch for his enchanting yet disconcerting found footage work “Limerence” (Yves Tumor). Shower scenes on film transport us here into the strange heart of cinema. “Damenbartblick” (Schlammpeit- ziger), which was awarded the 2nd prize, shows the opportunities that the internet offers for artistic encounters over great distances and across borders. Jakob Grunert won the MuVi Online Audience Award for “Copyshop” (Romano).