About Minimalen Short Film Festival

The Minimalen Short Film Festival is an annual, independent film event that covers new productions from around the world as well as focus programs and retrospectives.

Minimalen has a house in Trondheim and was established in 1988. Trondheim is the central city of Trøndelag and was the country's first capital in the good old Viking Age. More info about Trondheim here.

Over six days in January, Minimalen shows about 250 short films, roughly divided into two sections: New Norwegian, Nordic and international films in seven competitions, and retrospectives and special programmes. The Nordic section offers a unique way to be updated on the state of short films throughout this northern corner of Europe. Of the Norwegian competitions, the One-Minuttsfilm competition is the most famous and the one that has been with us the longest. This extreme viewing time constraint places high demands on financial discipline by the filmmaker, thus becoming a perfect training format for young filmmakers.

Over the years, Minimalen has refined its objective to search for new ways to use film as a medium. This usually means independent productions with complete freedom of spirit in filmmaking and emphasis on images and film instruments rather than words. The ideal filmmaker should be constantly looking to find the right form for each narrative. Not that they necessarily have to tell a story, but essentially every film should have its own fingerprint, a uniqueness that goes far beyond the constant retelling of the same story as in our contemporary film industry. The little gems of up to a quarter of an hour, fiction or animation film conveyed with experimental grips; not necessarily always artistically innovative or technically perfect, but with a connection between form and content. These are the films the Minimal looks for, and this is what sets us apart from many festivals.

The 38. The Minimalen Short Film Festival is January 13 - 18, 2026.