For Filmmakers
Bring Your Story to Motor City
The Underdog Film Festival was founded in 2023 with a simple vision: to create a welcoming platform for independent filmmakers and celebrate outstanding short films in an atmosphere that encourages creativity, conversation and collaboration.
Since its first edition, the festival has brought together filmmakers and audiences from around the world, offering carefully curated screenings, practical workshops and opportunities to connect with fellow creatives. We believe that every film deserves an engaged audience, regardless of budget or production scale. What matters most is the story you tell and the passion behind your work.
Whether you are an experienced filmmaker or submitting your very first short film, we look forward to discovering your work.
The 2027 Festival
The 2027 edition marks an exciting new chapter for the Underdog Film Festival.
Our regular festival screenings, workshops and networking events will continue to take place at Culture Shocks in Wolfsburg, preserving the relaxed and personal atmosphere that has become one of the festival's defining characteristics.
At the same time, we are delighted to announce our collaboration with Filmclub Wolfsburg e.V.
As part of this partnership, the official Awards Ceremony will take place at the Kino im Hallenbad. During the ceremony, the winning films will be screened on the cinema screen, giving our award recipients the opportunity to celebrate their achievements together with audiences, fellow filmmakers and invited guests.
By combining these two venues, we can preserve the unique character of the festival while expanding the experience for both filmmakers and visitors.
More Than Just Screenings
The Underdog Film Festival is more than a competition.
Throughout the festival, filmmakers and audiences have the opportunity to meet, exchange ideas and build new connections in a relaxed and creative environment.
In addition to our film programme, visitors can enjoy workshops, discussions and informal networking opportunities that encourage collaboration and the sharing of ideas across all areas of filmmaking.
We believe that some of the most valuable festival experiences happen between screenings, when conversations begin, friendships are formed and future projects take shape.
As the Underdog Film Festival continues to grow, so does our competition programme.
From the very beginning, we wanted to include experimental filmmaking as part of the festival. However, we also believed that this diverse and often unconventional form of cinema deserved its own dedicated category rather than being grouped together with narrative and documentary films. We therefore made a promise: once the festival had grown sufficiently, we would create a platform specifically for experimental cinema.
With the 2027 edition, we are proud to keep that promise. Alongside our established fiction and documentary competitions, we are introducing a dedicated category for Experimental Shorts. To ensure a carefully curated programme, this category will feature a limited selection of films with a maximum running time of 10 minutes.
