Ablooms film festival

Through film, debate, seminars and other events, the Abloom film festival continues to put disabled people on the agenda – regardless of their background.

The Abloom Film festival is held every year during week 47 in Oslo and has a special focus on minority language children and young people with disabilities. The festival was first held in 2012 under the name Handy, and has since grown to become a year-round organization with several activities such as counselling services, pop-up festival for children Mini Abloom, courses and seminars, projects such as “Disability – not a divine punishment” – and much more. But the main event is and will be the Abloom film festival in week 47. Abloom film festival has now been digitally accessible starting from 2020, and some of the events will be streamed online. This years festival (2025) is from 17.-22. november.

We also inform you that week 47 from this year will be Awareness Week – a great information campaign to make people more educated about the situation of children and young people living with disabilities.

Through film, debate, seminars and other events, the Abloom film festival puts the lives and rights of disabled people on the agenda – regardless of their background. We want good documentaries, as well as enlightenment and feature films about living with disabilities, to contribute to a more positive and fair society for all! The Abloom film festival will be a spearhead in the fight for the inclusion of disabled people in Norway.

In 2012, Faridah S. Nabaggala hosted the first Abloom film festival – then under the name Handy.

“I was very clear about what I wanted to do, and that was to arrange a film festival called Handy where minority language children and young people with disabilities and their relatives were put into focus. To my great surprise, a hundred people showed up at the cinematheque in Oslo. I rented a screening room, bought food myself and brought out some films from here and there that were all about the topic. This had to happen, with or without the help of others,” says Abloom leader Faridah.

From being an ambitious one-woman operation at Oslo’s cinematheque to involving thousands of people at Saga cinema and elsewhere: The Abloom film festival has grown big and strong – and is important for children and young people with disabilities in Oslo.

Some of those who have visited the festival so far are Princess Märtha Louise, former Minister of Culture Åse Kleveland, Oslo Mayor Marianne Borgen, lawyer Geir Lippestad, former mayor Fabian Stang, and many more.

The Abloom film festival activates many volunteers every year, many of which are refugees and asylum seekers. Without them, there would have been no Abloom film festival.

Our desire is for all children and young people with disabilities to be seen, valued and heard.