OASIS

Press & Industry Screening: Saturday, 5 Sept | 19:30 | Sala Volpi
Press & Industry Screening: Saturday, 5 Sept | 21:30 | Sala Casinò
World Premiere: Sunday, 6 Sept | 16:45 | Sala Darsena
Screenings: www.labiennale.org

118 Min. / Germany, Austria 2026 / feature

Trailer:

Director Jannis Lenz and main actors are available for interviews.

OASIS (Oase) by writer-director Jannis Lenz is world premiering in the Orizzonti Competition at the Venice International Film Festival 2026. Rather than reaching for easy answers, the debut feature grapples with pain, vulnerability, and violence among teenagers, rendering them physically and emotionally tangible while quietly but decisively unsettling conventional ideas of masculinity.

In OASIS body, space, and identity dissolve into one another, revealing the fragile beauty and quiet brutality of human relationships, while echoing the violence that shapes our contemporary world.

Jannis Lenz’s previous work includes the short WANNABE (2017) which won the Prix Clermont-Ferrand and was nominated for the European Film Award, while his graduation film SOLDAT AHMET (2021) premiered at Visions du Réel and won several international awards.

OASIS features newcomer Florian Geißelmann (Sound of Falling) and acclaimed actor Godehard Giese (Rose), as well as upcoming German actors Anton Petzold and Mathilda Smidt.

SYNOPSIS
When a viral video of a student threatening his classmates surfaces online, the school spirals into escalating violence. Crushed by the pressure of teachers and parents, three outcasts take refuge in a nearby forest. There, play hardens into ritual and pain becomes an escape, until old wounds surface and the boundaries between them are redrawn.

Jannis Lenz is a filmmaker whose work is rooted in physical experience, shaped by his background in parkour and freerunning. Early films such as ZERO-G explore bodies in urban environments, testing physical limits, confronting architecture, and redefining space. Questions of control and vulnerability run throughout his work, evolving into a broader exploration of masculinity as fragile, fluid, and often contradictory. Working across fiction and documentary, Lenz moves between observation and staging. Lenz is a Vienna Film Academy graduate, where he was mentored by Jessica Hausner and worked as an assistant to Michael Haneke. Additionally, he is a Berlinale Talents alumnus and a member of the European Film Academy. His short film WANNABE (2017) received the Prix Clermont-Ferrand and was nominated for the European Film Award. His graduation film SOLDAT AHMET (2021) premiered at Visions du Réel and won several international awards. With his debut feature, OASIS, Lenz expands these formal and thematic concerns into a longer narrative, continuing his exploration of the body, space, and identity.

OASIS is produced by Germany’s Zeitgeist Filmproduktion FFM and co-produced by Austrian Wega Film and Third Picture (Germany) in collaboration with We Fade To Grey, Ocean Pictures Filmproduktion and Totem Films. Supported by Der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien BKM, Deutscher Filmförderfonds DFFF, Österreichisches Filminstitut ÖFI+, Mit freundlichen Grüßen Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, Filmförderungsanstalt FFA.

The domestic release in Germany through mindjazz pictures is scheduled for February 4th 2027.

Director Jannis Lenz
Screenplay Jannis Lenz & Alexander Dirninger
Direction of Photography Alexander Dirninger
Editor Jannis Lenz & Melisa Krasniqi
Original music Benedikt Palier
Set designer Christian Strang
Sound design Benedikt Palier & Nora Czamler
Costume Designer Nina-Sophie Brettschneider
Make up & Hair Design Janika Kreutzer
Producer Markus Kaatsch, Nina Poschinski, Michael Grudsky
Co-Producer (Germany) Alexandra Rilli
Co-Producer (Austria) Christian Bachmann, Veit Heiduschka, Julia Heiduschka

Production Company:
Zeitgeist Filmproduktion
info@zeitgeist-film.de
www.zeitgeist-film.de

World Sales:
Totem
hello@totem-films.com
www.totem-films.com

©/CREDITS:

Stills: © Zeitgeist Filmproduktion