Archive for the ‘festival’ Category

Short Films at Cannes Film Festival

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Each year a certain selection of short films has the honor to be presented at one of the most prestigious festival of the world – Cannes Film Festival. As we are mostly dealing with short films, the selection of this year’s short film programme tells us a lot about current trends and tastes.

The main competition has :

411-Z (Dániel Erdélyi) Hungary
A barge on the Danube. A carefree summer day. Stew in the pot, and a little wine and soda to wash it off. Other than that, everything is strictly according to the shipping regulations, of course. But something might have gone wrong…

Good Trip (Javier Palleiro, Guillermo Rocamora) Uruguay
Sandra works as a collector of tolls. Her life and job are very monotonous. A phone call will break the routine, and she will be faced with a life changing decision. Sandra works as a collector of tolls. Her life and job are very monotonous. A phone call will break the routine, and she will be faced with a life changing decision.

De Moins En Moins (Mélanie Laurent) France
Lisa, a young woman, tries to remember moments in her life with the help of her doctor. Voices resonate, images intermingle… moments of happiness suddenly appear.
A few seconds later, she has already forgotten.
The disease progresses. Life fades away.

The Desire (Maria Benito) Mexico
Ana, a fifty years old woman falls into a depression when her husband leaves her. One day she decides to go out of this depression and starts changes from the outside to the inside. With the wakeness of desire she starts a process in wich she rediscovers her new sexuality.

Jerrycan (Julius Avery) Australia
Nathan, a kid who risks everything after he is bullied into making a life and death decision.

Love You More (Sam Taylor-Wood) United Kingdom
Summer, 1978. London.
Georgia sits in a Geography class covering her exercise book with graffiti. Her classmate Peter watches her with longing.
Georgia turns and catches him – but ignores his gaze.

Megatron (Marian Crisan) Romania
Maxim lives together only with his mother in a village near Bucharest. It’s Maxim birthday. He’s turning 8. For the birthday party, his mother will take him to Bucharest, to Mc Donalds. Maxim will do anything to meet his father who lives in the city

My Rabit Hoppy (Anthony Lucas) Australia
Henry’s ‘Show and Tell’ school project about a pet rabbit goes horribly horribly wrong.

2 Birds (Rúnar Rúnarsson) Iceland
2 Birds takes place during one bright summer night and follows a group of young teenagers on a journey from innocence to the stark reality of adulthood.

TCM Classic Shorts competition: Finding the film-makers of the future

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

TCM Classic Shorts 2008 is open for entries!

Why Enter?

  • First prize – £5,000; Second prize – £3,000; Third prize – £2,000
  • Promotion of your work on movie channel TCM across Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of a special on-air TCM Classic Shorts season in November
  • Be part of one of the most prestigious and long standing short film competitions in Europe
  • Judging panel made up by some of the most prominent names in the film and media industry
  • International media coverage of the competition, now in its ninth year, held in conjunction with The Times BFI London Film Festival
  • The 6 finalists will be screened as part of The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival at the awards ceremony and on film channel TCM
  • Past winners have gone on to win BAFTAs, make feature films and TV programmes, and screen their work at other festivals such as Cannes with the encouragement and assistance of TCM

More info and details: http://www.tcmclassicshorts.com/

Oscar: Awarded Shorts

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

Pickpockets It’s kind of duty for us watching the Oscar Ceremony, since we’ve had an Oscar-winner short on Daazo. It’s good to know, that among the flashy scenes at Kodak Theatre are not only high-budget features getting awarded; the next generation is already there with their short films.

This year in the category of Live Action Shorts the Oscar has gone to Philippe Pollet-Villard (France) for The Mozart of Pickpockets.

Everyone – who’s seen the film – is just loving it; Anne Thompson deputy editor of Variety wrote: “Charlie Chaplin would be proud of this charming little comedy, which observes two inept Parisian pickpockets who meet their match in a deaf-mute young street urchin. Though a fair amount of the laughter is dialogue-based, the funniest bits employ good, old-fashioned silent-movie tactics (as in the scene where one thief distracts the suspicious hotel clerk, while his partner attempts to smuggle the child through the lobby in an oversize shopping bag).”

“The Mozart of Pickpockets boasts its share of surprises, but it doesn’t depend on them, putting characters first. Unassuming in its pleasures, yet universal in its appeal, Mozart gets my vote” – she added.

wolfPeter and the Wolf won the Oscar of Animated Shorts. British director Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman film’s is an animated version of Sergei Prokofiev’s musical tale for children, which was written and composed in 1936. Peter lives in a world where he has to confront evil and his struggle against the wolf leads to his transformation. A fragile little boy, Peter discovers his own strength and, with the help of a few friends, becomes a true hero.. Anne Thompson wrote: “If I had to predict a winner, this would be it… Templeton’s interpretation seems to favor the animals and even features a mushy new twist: after capturing the wolf, Peter lets the misunderstood beast go free, revealing the hunters as the true villains of the story.

The good thing is that both winners (Mozart… and Peter and the Wolf) are very well made, brave atworks, but watchable, entertaining shorts at the same time; this is what we prefer on Daazo too.

And don’t forget: we already presented an Oscar-winning animated short: Ferenc Rofusz’ The Fly.

Award Winners of the Berlinale Shorts

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

The members of the International Short Film Jury Marc Barbé (France), Ada Solomon (Romania) and Laura Tonke (Germany) award the following prizes:


The Golden Bear to
O zi bună de plajă by Bogdan Mustaţă (Romania)

The film raises questions about its issues rather than bring resolution to them. It does so in a very precise and unpredictable way.
We feel that it is one of the most precious things when a film stays with you and keeps unravelling long after the final credits have ended.


The Silver Bear to
Udedh bun by Siddharth Sinha (India)

The Silver Bear goes to Udedh bun for its modern narration. A sharp focus that relies on a harmony between images and sound rather than words.
We are also sensitive to the new erotica brought to the traditional figure of the desired woman in the history of cinema.

Prix UIP to
Frankie by Darren Thornton (Ireland)

A simple and powerful approach. The straight forward point of view of a working class teenager on love, responsibility and fatherhood.
We also want to re-encourage the director in developing his project of short films for young makers.

DAAD Short Film Prize
B teme by Olga Popova (Russian Federation)

We feel this film achieves a physical and sensual intimacy with its subjects without ever violating the secret of this intimacy. We wish to encourage the director’s talent as a filmmaker.

And two Special Mentions to

A special mention for directing goes to a film for its precise and sensitive direction on a topic which otherwise would have felt politically correct. Superfície by Rui Xavier.

A special mention for a very contemporary gesture in animation in a wonderful nasty sense of humour goes to RGB XYZ by David OReilly

Festival of Very Short Films

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

Tres Court Film FestivalParis based short film festival is open for filmmakers, who have short films under the length of 3 minutes. This festival has a very nice atmosphere. If your film is selected it will be screened in more than 40 cities all around as the festival runs a franchise system. So here we go:

The festival of Very Short is about fifty films in an international selection, screened in only one meeting of a little bit more than two hours. It is also a competition, with four prices awarded by the Jury, and of course the price of the public awarded by you. It is also screenings organized simultaneously in forty cities in France and all around the world as well…

A new edition is actually in preparation and the festival of Très Short is more than ever present in about 40 cities to propose to you the best and undoubtedly the shortest of the international audio-visual film production.

Trés Court Film Festival
Deadline for registration: 12th February, 2008

Find more info here: Trés Court Film Festival

Register your film here: Register form

Short Film, Long Bang!

Monday, December 17th, 2007

We are happy to present, that our friends and partners, the organizers of Budapest Short Film Festival (BuSho) sent us the entry form and the deadline of BuSho 2008!

busho

Enter your film, and have a few great days in Budapest at one of the coolest short film festival in Europe!

Please find the details below!

The 4th BuSho International Short Film Festival accepts entries
in the categories of fiction, animation and experimental film.
Entry deadline: 3. May 2008.
Online entry form here.
Details on: BuSho’s homepage!