The ways in which catastrophes become media events will be the focus of the Special Programme at next year's edition of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (2-7 May 2002).

The events of September 11 have given the programme a new topicality and resonance which had not been anticipated when preparations began on the programme in May 2000. However, the festival organisers "have come to the conclusion, though, that the necessity to discuss and analyse the attacks and their consequences within the context and from the perspective of a film festival is not put into question by the changed geopolitical situation".

The festival also announced that it is to go ahead as planned with the key visual of a aeroplane for its 48th edition, using an image created by American artist Doug Aitken whose films have been shown at Oberhausen in the past.

Meanwhile, this year's Viennale, which begins in the Austrian capital on Friday Oct 19, made last-minute changes to its poster after the September atrocity to remove the image of a plane.