The exground filmfest is one of the largest and most important film festivals in Hesse. Between 1990 and 2013, audience numbers rose by almost 600% to around 14,000. With around 250 short and feature-length film productions each year, exground has become a magnet for film enthusiasts from near and far and has established itself as an important discussion forum for journalists, trade visitors and guests from the film industry. exground filmfest stands for quality and exciting entertainment and offers a "sophisticated program of international feature-length and short films beyond first-run cinema" (Frankfurter Rundschau, 13.11.2001).

Its founders never even dared to dream of such an international film festival. In 1990, six film enthusiasts got together and launched the Wiesbadener Kinofestival e. V. with the aim of showing experimental films and underground productions. The obvious choice for the festival name was a compound word: "exground" with the addition of "on screen". In 1999, the festival name was changed from "exground on screen" to exground filmfest.

In the first two years, the festival took place twice a year over four days each time; since 1992, it has been held over ten days in November. At the premiere in April 1990, films by New York independent greats Richard Kern and Lydia Lunch as well as Andy Warhol were shown. Even then, the "American Independents" took up a lot of space, and this has remained the case to this day. In 1995, exground founded "News from Asia" with films by Takeshi Kitano and Wong Kar-wai, which have since been integrated into the "International" festival series. 2009 saw the premiere of the "News from Germany" section, a forum for "quirky" local productions. Changing country focuses, retrospectives/special series, competitions and short film programs round off the programme.

In 1993, the German Short Film Competition celebrated its premiere, heralding the triumphant advance of short film in the Hessian state capital. In 2002, the International ON-VIDEO Competition was added, which was renamed the International Short Film Competition in 2013, and in 2005 the Wiesbaden Special - Short Film Competition.

With the "youth days", exground has also offered a forum for youth films with unusual insights into other cultures and subcultures as part of the two competitions for international feature-length films and Wiesbaden short films since 2004.

The number of submissions, which has now risen to over 3,000, shows that the name exground filmfest has a good reputation worldwide. Many films by renowned artists such as Quentin Tarantino, Peter Jackson and Abel Ferrara have premiered in Wiesbaden. The team has proven time and again that it "(...) acts as a reliable seismograph, indicating where things are happening in international film" (Strandgut, 11/2002).

The reward for the volunteer organization team: the award of the Cultural Prize of the State Capital of Wiesbaden in 2000 as well as the high level of acceptance and resonance in the industry and among the audience.