The BILDRAUSCH FILMFES BASEL shows expressive, varied and seductive cinema and focuses on issues of our time!
BILDRAUSCH FILMFEST BASEL presents an international programme of artistically outstanding films that demonstrate courage in terms of content and form and experiment with narrative forms and artistic realisation. In the FOKUS programme, which changes annually, we focus on pressing social issues. We show films of all genres, lengths and formats, created by authors who express their love of cinema in a lively language.
The FOKUS is dedicated to the burning social and political issues of our time. In films and discussions, urgent questions are examined from different angles - it is not primarily about answers, but about the diversity of perspectives. The SHORTS short film program belongs to filmmakers from Switzerland. The Swiss short film shows experimental artistic work, surprises formally and remains unadapted.
The supporting program enriches BILDRAUSCH with film talks, panel discussions, readings, concerts, exhibitions or performances, builds personal bridges between filmmakers and audience, multiplies perspectives and creates an inspiring atmosphere for encounters of all kinds. The program varies every year. The main venue and close cooperation partner is Stadtkino Basel.
IMAGE NOISE
The Bildrausch Filmfest Basel was founded in 2011 by Nicole Reinhard and Beat Schneider, the management team of Stadtkino Basel at the time. For 10 years, the founders shaped and developed the festival into a cinephile meeting place with a strong identity of its own. In 2021, Susanne Guggenberger took over as artistic director and Samuel Steinemann as director of the BILDRAUSCH FILMFEST BASEL.
The intoxication of images is always a risk. It seduces, enchants and surprises. Perhaps it also pulls the rug from under our feet, perhaps we question old certainties. Suddenly anything is possible: a flight of fancy and a change of perspective at the same time. BILDRAUSCH shows films that prepare us for this adventure and take us along for the ride. They challenge the familiar world and open windows into the unknown, often outside our comfort zone, in a new perspective. They play with our perception and enrich our senses: we see more clearly and more than before.
TOPICS OF OUR TIME
Film is an excellent medium to show and reflect on different realities. Our programme is dedicated to films that have caught our attention at festivals abroad and that rarely make it into the regular cinema programme in Switzerland.
- 2025 – hello neighbour
- 2024 – Technology, my Love
- 2023 – Truth and other Lies
ARTISTIC FREEDOM
The BILDRAUSCH FILMFEST BASEL sees itself as a festival of very special auteur films. The filmmakers at the festival show a wide range of styles, forms of expression, perspectives, opinions and themes in their work - and in doing so, they also deal artistically with world events, among other things.
Artistic freedom is important and a sign of an open and pluralistic society. As the organising festival, Bildrausch does not interfere with the work of the filmmakers. Some films trigger lively discussions in the audience - that is part of our understanding of contemporary artistic creation.
The BILDRAUSCH FILMFEST BASEL stands for the freedom of art, open discussions and humanistic values - against racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, misogyny, queerophobia and any other form of discrimination and is committed to an inclusive and diverse film culture.
