The festival also offers visitors a well-equipped Video Library, operates a non-commercial short-film distribution service and owns an archive of short films from over 70 years of cinema history.

This situation led to the festival's rapid ascent and reputation as a "short film mecca".

As early as the 1950s, however, visitors were also treated to works by young filmmakers from the West, such as François Truffaut, Norman McLaren, Alain Resnais, Bert Haanstra, and Lindsay Anderson.

Responding to an objection issued by the public prosecutor's office, the festival removed the film from the official programme, after which many German filmmakers withdrew their works.

Oberhausen emerged from the crisis with an amended set of regulations, including a public selection procedure for German films.

In the 1970s, the women's movement was a touchstone at the festival, with young filmmakers such as Chantal Akerman and Helma Sanders-Brahms showing their first films in Oberhausen.

With the subsidence of the East/West conflict that had shaped the festival's early years, its role as a "window to the East" slowly faded.

With the rise of video art, more and more films made by artists have found their way into festival programmes.

Today, Oberhausen presents short films and videos from various formal, cultural and social backgrounds.

The festival also maintains a Video Library featuring a large selection of recent international short films, regularly mounts, among others, profile programmes dedicated to individual artists and Market Screenings for international distributors of avant-garde film, and each year, hosts a discussion series called "Podium".