2011

News

Budget boost for MEDIA as of 2014

On 23 November the European Commission will make a first concrete proposal for the budget and form to be taken by the MEDIA programme, which will then be presented to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. There is two years’ time for negotiations until the start of the new programme. The MEDIA budget for 2014-2020 is to be raised by 20% to 900 million euros. It will be subsumed under “Creative Europe”, under which MEDIA Mundus and the cultural programmes also operate.

The total proposed budget, making allowances for exchange-rate fluctuations, currently comes to 1.8 billion euros. Included in that sum are also 180 million euros for a new financing instrument, which is to be administered by the European Investment Bank.

At the beginning of this year there were still some fears that the European Commission was planning to do away with the MEDIA programme or to continue it in starkly reduced form. At the Cannes Festival in 2011 a petition was submitted to the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, in which 1,800 prominent film-industry figures demanded the continuation of the programme.

When announcing the news of the budget increase, the responsible cabinet head, Philippe Brunet, commented that the boost could be attributed to the fact that not only the cultural achievements, but also the economic benefits of the programme had become evident.

Source: Media Desk

Norway: Film budget boost – short films also benefit || 23/11/2011

The Norwegian government decided in October to increase its budget for film promotion by 47 million NOK (ca. €6 million) to 706 million NOK (ca. €90 million) in 2012. Short films, documentaries and films by new talents, as well as children’s and youth film initiatives will all benefit from the new infusion of funds. A total of 51.7 million NOK (ca. €6.6 million) is earmarked for this film sector – three times the level set aside in the last increase in 2005.

Extra funds are also to be devoted to the areas of computer games, TV drama and support for regional film centres.

Source: http://www.nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/

Professional association founded for the German animated film industry || 23/11/2011

On 21 October, during the DOK Leipzig festival, a consortium for animated film (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Animationsfilm) was founded. The consortium is to function as a nationwide interest group for the entire animated film industry. Among the 26 founding members are some of the leading producers and makers of animated films in Germany.

The press release notes: “With the founding of the AG Animationsfilm, the industry is reacting to increasingly difficult production conditions for animated films. Although German film schools produce excellent animated film professionals, and first-class films are made here year after year, these frequently award-winning works seldom find their way onto television or cinema screens. German television stations have largely withdrawn from financing and co-producing this popular genre and instead purchase foreign-made series.”

The new AG Animationsfilm will work closely with existing professional organizations such as the Produzentenallianz, the AG Dokumentarfilm (AG DOK) and the AG Kurzfilm.

Organizers cancel Jordan Film Festival out of protest || 23/11/2011

The Jordan Short Film Festival will not take place in 2011. The organizers have cancelled the festival as a protest against the murder of two regime critics by government agents. They point out that not one film about the Arab Spring has been produced in Jordan since that incident. Jordanian filmmakers are evidently too afraid to touch the subject.

The organizers say they would deem it “intellectually dishonest” to hold the festival “in a cinema environment where stories about people and events that shape the future of our country cannot be told”. Nor does the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative, coordinator of the festival, wish to take part in a cinema event that would give the false impression of “business as usual”. The decision will be reviewed next year.

Source: http://ammanfilmmakers.alif.com/

Sweden: Filmform puts together educational package on video art || 23/11/2011

The Filmform Foundation (Stockholm) in cooperation with the Swedish Film Institute has put together four educational packages as inspirational material on the theme of video art and experimental film for teachers and pupils. The material is provided on DVDs and in text form under the title “Video art – what’s that?”. Included are film examples, tips on their deployment in the classroom, discussion material and exercises.

Three packages have been compiled according to themes (“Identity”, “Stories and Time”, “Sound and Image”) and the other one is devoted to the works of video artist Catti Brandelius. The series is designed for pupils aged 15 and over and can be borrowed from Filmform.

Filmform is a foundation dedicated to the promotion, distribution and preservation of Swedish art film and experimental video. It is the oldest organization in Sweden dedicated to experimental film and video art.

Info: http://www.filmform.com/projects.html
(see also our article from 2003 <http://www.filmform.com/essays_ff.html>

Danish online portal offers 20 new short films for schools || 23/11/2011

The publicly accessible school-film portal “Filmstriben” has added 20 new Danish short films to its programme. These are fiction films produced by the Filmví¦rkstedet (Copenhagen) in the years 2002 to 2009 that had not yet been available for use in the classroom.

The films are geared toward children and young people and are also suitable for film analysis by those learning Danish. All films are shorter than 30 minutes. The package includes works by the most interesting young Danish directors. Among them are “Ynglinge” by Mikkel Munch-Fals, “Sprí¦kker” by Aage Rais and “Catherine” by Mads Matthiesen.

The repertoire of “Filmstriben” can be borrowed by schools in digital form or viewed by pupils online or at public libraries. For copyright reasons, registration is required for non-commercial use, and access is limited to Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

URL: http://www.filmstriben.dk/

Sundance Institute to add marketing tools to its Artist Services || 19/09/2011

In late July 2011 the executive director of the non-profit Sundance Institute, Keri Putnam, announced that the institute would be expanding its Artist Services Initiative. Artist Services is an online platform that helps filmmakers to reach audiences and find financing for their projects. Complementing the festival’s traditional mediation function, this initiative is geared toward boosting independent online film distribution.

The expanded services are designed to give filmmakers the opportunity to reach customers, or viewers, directly, online. With the help of special marketing tools, films can be offered on consumer platforms such as iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, SundanceNow and YouTube. The authors are to retain their ownership rights and the control over their work, however. They can decide for themselves which marketing strategies to adopt depending on the chosen sales channel.

To implement this expansion of services the Sundance Institute is cooperating with the digital content aggregator New Video (New York), which is contributing its marketing skills. Sundance has also concluded a contract for the use of direct-to-fan marketing tools developed by Topspin Media – a self-marketing platform with its own proprietary software for musicians, filmmakers and authors.

The new initiative does not mean that the Sundance Institute itself is entering the distribution business; it merely wants to make available to independent filmmakers the necessary resources to ensure broad exposure of their work while preserving their rights. The initiators view the online distribution platform as a necessary digital extension in a changing film distribution and marketing landscape.

Artist Services is currently still in the “private beta” stage and hence only available to Sundance Institute alumni and not yet to the general public.

Blog: http://www.sundance.org/festival/blog-entry/artist-services-reaches-out/
URL: http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/

Instant Cinema – A forum for experimental film and video art || 19/09/2011

On the initiative of the Dutch filmmaker Rene Daalder, an Internet platform is currently being created for experimental film and video art. The Instant Cinema project – a beta version is already online – aims to make the best works by audiovisual artists of all generations available to a broad public.

For many years now, say the initiators, experimental and artistic films have been screened almost exclusively in museums and at film festivals. Instant Cinema hence intends to compensate for the low level of public visibility of such work. On the online platform film classics from recent cinematic history are to be shown side by side with works by the most talented contemporary media artists.

In order to achieve a high level of quality, membership in Instant Cinema is by invitation only. Each participating filmmaker receives five invitations to send to other filmmakers and artists, who in turn can invite five others to join.

In his introduction to the project, founder Rene Daalder surmises that the principle of scarcity no longer applies these days in the art sector, in particular as regards reproducible artworks on digital storage media. Instead, with the help of the mass medium of the Internet, everyone can and should have the opportunity to view the audiovisual artworks. In describing the concept behind Instant Cinema, Daalder refers to Gerry Schum, who tried something similar in the mass medium of television in the 1960s (TV Gallery).

The project was initiated by Rene Daalder and the Eye Film Institute Netherlands and is sponsored by the Mondriaan Foundation.

URL: http://preview.instantcinema.org/

ACE short film agency launches uniform application form for Spanish festivals

La Agencia del Cortometraje Español (ACE) has published a revised version of a joint application form for Spanish short film festivals. The original six pages have been reduced to two. In addition, version 2.11 includes a PDF with instructions for filling out the form as well as fields that can be imported directly into the festival’s data administration system.

The aim of the initiative is to standardize the film registration process so that filmmakers and producers who want to submit their films to several festivals now only have to fill out a single form. Last year and this year, fourteen festivals with national competitions used the common form. The major international festivals did not participate.

URL: http://www.acesp.info/descargas/documentos/documentos.htm

Africafilms.tv launched || 19/09/2011

The video-on-demand platform Africafilms.tv, announced back in 2010, is now online! The project is designed to help raise international awareness of African films and to ensure that filmmakers and producers receive revenues for their work, which are usually lost due to widespread piracy.

The portal is geared primarily to a worldwide audience and the African diaspora. In addition to feature-length films from African festivals, Africafilms.tv also wants to offer documentaries, soaps and comedy. Also available on the portal are software tools for professional online film marketing. Films are offered in copy-protected DivX format. The platform is currently still in the beta phase.

Operator of Africafilms.tv is IDimage, a French production firm and agency based in Lille. The VOD project is being funded by the European Union under the ACP-EU Development Cooperation. IDimage currently also has another project in development: mobiCINE, which is to be realized directly in Africa. That project also deals with the legal distribution of African films and securing earnings for their makers. Planned are fourteen mobile cinemas for rent, to be deployed initially in Bamako and Dakar.

Video-on-Demand-Plattform: http://www.africafilms.tv
mobiCine: http://www.mobicine.org/

Canyon Cinema San Francisco: “This is a very serious letter” || 19/09/2011

In a dramatic open letter, the executive director of Canyon Cinema, Dominic Angerame, has sent out an appeal to the film community to support the renowned film cooperative. Angerame disclosed that the public limited company is on the brink of financial ruin. He primarily blames changes in the film and media scene: many of the authors represented by Canyon Cinema now make their films available on digital media, and most of the borrowers no longer have projectors for the 16mm films distributed by Canyon Cinema. Furthermore, the financial crisis has robbed the organization of another source of income: interest on revenues.

The letter, which proposes various options for saving Canyon Cinema, sparked a public discussion in which critical questions were voiced, such as why Canyon Cinema chose not to establish itself as a non-profit organization in the first place, and why it chose such a high-rent San Francisco address. In mid-August Canyon Cinema did in fact relocate (the former rent amounted to $25,000 a year). But the other problems are far from being solved.

Canyon Cinema is one of the foremost US distributors of avant-garde films. The organization has 320 members and distributes more than 3,000 titles. From August to December 2011 Canyon Cinema is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of special programmes, including spotlights on Bruce Baillie and George Kuchar.

New address: Canyon Cinema, Inc.; Yosemite Place, 1777 Yosemite Ave Suite #210; San Francisco, CA 94124

Source: http://canyoncinema.com/2011/03/31/important-message-to-the-film-community/

Spanish Film Academy amends statutes for Goya Award || 09/07/11

The Academia de Cine has changed some of the rules for the 2012 competition for its prestigious Goya Awards for film. Public attention has focused mainly on the introduction of a minimum age of 16 years for actors’ awards, as actors younger than that have received Goyas in previous years. There is also a change with regard to short films.

In that case, an earlier regulation was reinstated according to which only ten short films can be shortlisted in the categories documentary, animation and fiction. The eligible production period has also been changed to encompass films made from 1 June 2010 (previously 1 December) to 30 November 2011. Films that have already been entered once are no longer eligible. Entry deadline is 2 November.

Source: http://www.academiadecine.com/prensa/nota.php?id_s=5&id_nota=107

Relaunch of Vertigo Magazine || 09/07/11

Ever since its founding in 1993, London-based Vertigo Magazine has been one of the premier English-language publications for independent film. Vertigo also organized film and cultural policy symposia and conferences and published an email newsletter. In 2009 the magazine was forced to close shop due to under-financing. An online edition was still published at first, but in February 2010 the magazine’s makers officially bowed out.

Now a solution has been found for the magazine to resume publication: Vertigo has been acquired by the Close-Up film centre. The magazine is scheduled to resume publication in autumn 2011, with the first issue under the new management dedicated to Jean-Luc Godard. The older online editions are still available for the time being under the old Internet address.

The Close-Up film centre in Bethnal Green (East London) has a Film Library holding over 14,000 titles (video and DVD) that can be borrowed by members. Close-Up in addition puts on weekly film screenings of historical and contemporary cinematic artworks.

URL Vertigo: http://www.vertigomagazine.co.uk/
URL Close-Up: http://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/

Online collection of Hungarian animated short films || 09/07/11

To mark its tenth anniversary, the Kecskemét Animation Film Festival (KAFF) in Hungary, in conjunction with Daazo – European Short Film Centre, has put 15 historical examples from the “Golden Age” of Hungarian animated film online.

Among the works featured are “Fight” by Marcell Jankovics (Cannes award-winner in 1977), “Ashes” by Ferenc Cakó (Golden Bear in 1994) and “Hungarian Pictures/ Slightly Tipsy” by Miklós Varga (1998).

The KAFF animated film festival started out as an annual survey of works produced at Pannonia Film Studios in Kecskemét, founded 40 years ago. Since 2005 KAFF has taken place every two years, with a European competition programme.

Daazo.com is a Budapest-based community website for young European filmmakers that is funded by the MEDIA programme of the European Union.

URL: http://daazo.com/kaff2011

Exhibitions: Semiconductor at FACT, Liverpool (UK) || 09/07/11

The British artist duo Semiconductor, Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt, has been invited by FACT to mount a solo exhibition, on view in Liverpool from 1 July to 11 September 2011.
The focal point of the show is the premiere of the work “Worlds in the Making”, a three-channel installation that combines shots of volcanologists at work with animation and seismic data.

For several years Semiconductor has been conjoining film with scientific data, performance and animation. Among their best-known works is the short film “Magnetic Movie”.

Exhibition info: http://www.fact.co.uk/about/exhibitions/2011/semiconductor-worlds-in-the-making
Semiconductor: http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/

Exhibitions: MoMA PS1 presents “Any Ever” by Ryan Trecartin (USA) || 09/07/11

Until 3 September viewers still have a chance to see works by filmmaker and artist Ryan Trecartin at MoMA PS1. The exhibition “Any Ever” presents in a series of adjacent rooms seven films that are interconnected in terms of characters, plots and recurring formal motifs.

Ryan Trecartin, selected by the Guggenheim in 2009 as best new artist of the year, works in his films with video art, digital media, theatrical performance and the repertoire of contemporary art, resulting in pieces that tend to be expressive, loud and shrill. The central theme of his work is the relationship between technology, narration and identity in today’s consumer culture and “attention society”.

Exhibition info: http://ps1.org/exhibitions/view/323
(see also Faits Divers: “short film online”)

On Tour: “Image battles – 2000 years of news from the war” in Mexico || 09/07/11

TTwo years after the exhibition “BILDERSCHLACHTEN – Nachrichten aus dem Krieg” was mounted in Osnabrück in a cooperative project of the EMAF with the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Centre and the Museum of Industry in Osnabrück, some of the main artistic exhibits will now be on view starting 6 October 2011 in Mexico’s four largest cities.

In conjunction with the Goethe Institute Mexico, the EMAF is opening the exhibition on 6 October in the “Cineteca” in Monterrey in northern Mexico and then in November in Guadelajara in parallel with the International Book Fair. The last stations, in February and March 2012, are the “Centro de las Artes” in San Luis Potosi and finally the “Cineteca Nacional” in Mexico City.

The touring programme of the European Media Art Festival 2010/2011 will also be presented in all four cities.

Info on the exhibition: http://www.emaf.de/index.php?id=189&L=2
German: http://www.emaf.de/index.php?id=189&L=0

Film lab of the Association L’Abominable in Paris at risk || 9/5/2011

L’Abominable is a non-profit organization that runs an unusual film lab. With technology it largely developed itself, and thanks to long years of experience, the lab is able to develop and make prints from Super 8, 16mm and 35mm films. Since its founding fifteen years ago, many artists and experimental filmmakers in particular have relied on the services of this film lab. What’s special about L’Abominable is not only that it is one of the few remaining labs processing Super 8 and 16mm film, but also that it is an association run by artists, where filmmakers are able to learn the lab techniques themselves and pass this knowledge onto others.

Now, the future of Association L’Abominable is in danger because the lease on its affordable premises has been cancelled. The association is therefore asking for support and collecting signatures on a petition. The petition states in part: “While the digitalization of commercial cinemas is heavily funded, a structure such as L’Abominable must be given the means to survive this transition […]” This is not least the case now that, with the decline of analogue film in the film industry, more and more filmmakers and artists are discovering its special qualities.

Petition: http://www.l-abominable.org/petition/index.php?langue=uk

Unifrance study on French short film distribution || 9/5/2011

Every year Unifrance Films publishes a study on the dissemination of French short films abroad. The study is based on a survey of more than one hundred producers and sales companies. Now the figures for 2009 have been announced.

According to Unifrance, 130 buyers made 734 acquisitions during that year. This represents an increase of 25% over the prior year. A total of 443 different films were purchased. The turnover accounted for nearly 500,000 euros (somewhat less than in 2008). There were fewer contracts with classic sales channels, while the share of sales through new platforms, such as video-on-demand and mobile phone, rose compared to the previous year by a remarkable 52%.

Source: http://www.unifrance.org/

Indiestribucion – New short film platform based in Argentina || 9/5/2011

A new online platform for short film has been launched in Argentina: “Indiestribucion” publishes announcements of new films and festival competitions and filmmaker portraits, along with other news. It is the first initiative of its kind in Argentina to be devoted exclusively to the short form.

Indiestribucion was founded by Nicolás Carelli, a graduate of the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, and has an international scope. The five sections – Filmmakers, Films, Festivals, Technology and In Progress – are published in both Spanish and English. Independent filmmakers and organizers can post a portrait, synopses of their films, or competition entries on Indiestribucion using a Web form. Further services are to be added to the platform in May.

URL: http://www.indiestribucion.com

Balkans Beyond Borders || 9/5/2011

In June the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival will be held in Athens. On view there will be films by youth from the Balkan nations who were invited to participate in a competition on the subject “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Crisis?”.

Balkans Beyond Borders (BBB) is an association based in Athens that was founded by nine young activists from South-Eastern Europe. The goal of BBB is to promote intercultural dialogue and cooperation between the Balkan countries. The organization’s activities also include film workshops, networking and seminars. The festival events take place each year in a different country.

URL: http://www.balkansbeyondborders.eu/

Animate Projects’ application for portfolio funding from the Arts Council England rejected – Other institutions also affected || 9/5/2011

Despite widespread protests and a host of objections, the Arts Council has denied Animate Projects portfolio status. This means that, starting in 2012, the organization will not receive any public support for three years. The reason given for the rejection was that there are “other arts organizations whose contribution fits better into the national picture”. Other institutions working in marginal cultural or artistic fields, in particular the digital sector, have also been denied further funding, namely Mute, Lumen, Lovebytes and Onedotzero.

On a more positive note, Animate Projects has met with success in its resubmission of a previously rejected application for project funds from the programme “Grants for the arts”. With this support Animate Projects can now continue its online exhibitions project until next year. The money is not sufficient, however, to cover the ongoing operation of Animate Projects, i.e. the agency responsible for the exhibitions. And a reapplication for portfolio funding is not possible.

http://www.metamute.org/en/mute_100_per_cent_cut_by_ace
http://www.onedotzero.com/blog/2011/04/onedotzero-arts-council-england-decision/
http://www.animateprojects.org
See also our Report

On Main cultural centre presents short films on Vancouver’s Skytrain || 9/5/2011

To mark the 125th anniversary of the founding of Vancouver, the On Main cultural centre there plans to show a programme of artistic short films on screens mounted in the Skytrains run by Canada Line. For the project “10 Seconds”, On Main, and curator Paul Wong, have commissioned artists from Vancouver to produce silent, ultra-short videos. A different work will be featured each month, repeated every two minutes on monitors in the urban light rail trains. The films will hence be seen each day by some 100,000 commuters.

Kicking off the programme in April is the artist Dana Claxton with her found-footage work “Hippie Chick”. The clip celebrates Vancouver’s history as home to the counter-culture and is composed of edited archive material showing the first illegal be-ins, which took place Easter 1967 in Stanley Park.

“10 Seconds” received funding from the City of Vancouver’s project budget for public art as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations. Riders on the train can catch “10 Seconds” from April 2011 to March 2012. Release on other platforms (YouTube/DVD) is also planned.

On Main originates and curates exhibitions, screenings, lectures and talks by Canadian artists and visiting international artists in the visual, media and interdisciplinary arts whose work is marginalized by its political, social or artistic form or content.

(see also Faits Divers: “short film online”)

“El cortometraje español en 100 nombres”: Spanish short-film guide published || 16/03/2001

The new book “Spanish short film in 100 names” provides an overview of current short film production in Spain and a look at the country’s short film scene. The hundred names stand for persons and institutions that play a key role in Spanish short film. A total of one hundred filmmakers, producers, distributors, associations, institutions and festivals are showcased.

Each name has its own uniformly structured chapter, consisting of elements including a photo, a profile of the person or institution, an editorial, and answers to ten questions posed to all of those portrayed, along with address and contact details.

Publisher and editor of the book is documentary filmmaker Eduardo Cardoso, who has been closely involved in the organization of numerous festivals and short-film initiatives. The book came about under the auspices of the Aguilar de Campoo short film festival (Castilla y León) with support from the Instituto de la Cinematografia y de las Artes Audiovisuales ICAA.

The publication, in Spanish, is available on CD and as a free 150-page PDF download.

URL: http://www.elcortometrajen100nombres.com/

ARTE France reinforces its commitment to short film || 16/03/2001

On the occasion of the short film festival in Clermont-Ferrand in February 2011, television station ARTE France confirmed its dedication to short film by announcing some concrete measures. The purchase rate is to be raised by 10% – to 550 euros per minute for regular purchases, and for pre-purchases to 1,100 euros for the first fifteen minutes. In addition, the broadcast slot for the magazine “Kurzschluss” will be extended by ten minutes to a total of 52 minutes. Two new mini-series are also in the works, each of which will present ten to fifteen episodes of extremely short films.

Source: http://www.artepro.com

Tacita Dean: “Save 16mm in the UK” || 16/03/2011

The Soho Film Lab is the only lab in the UK that still handles 16mm film. After its takeover by the US firm Deluxe, however, the lab announced that the new owners had instructed it to discontinue making 16mm prints.

In reaction, British artist Tacita Dean launched the campaign “Save 16mm in the UK”. For her and around 170 other filmmakers and artists who regularly had their work processed at Soho Film Lab, the change means that they will now have to have all prints made abroad. Elsewhere as well, the future of 16mm looks far from rosy. Deluxe itself has already discontinued production at its sites in New York and Toronto.

Tacita Dean notes that not only filmmakers remain loyal to the format, but also in particular younger artists, who are rediscovering 16mm projection for exhibition purposes. In association with other artists, Dean is now sending out a worldwide appeal for signatures to an online petition addressed to Ron Perelman, owner of Deluxe and also a well-known art patron and “philanthropist”.

URL for the petition: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43288.html

YouTube founds Creator Institute || 16/03/2011

YouTube has established a Creator Institute as a new school for content creators. The Creator Institute is a summer crash course for filmmakers who would like to benefit from instruction by film school lecturers and experts from the film industry. The institute will be launched first in the USA.

The first crash course is scheduled for 25 May to 22 June at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles. All aspects of online content creation, from screenwriting to production to marketing, will be addressed. Entry deadline is 25 May.
Another course with a different focus will take place from 31 May to 22 July at Columbia College in Chicago. The subject will then be content for mobile media, in particular mobisodes, webisodes and viral videos. YouTube will cover course fees and accommodations for selected participants.

Info: http://www.youtube.com/creatorinstitute

Spanish film news portal CINE por la RED again available to all || 16/03/2011

CINE por la RED is the leading Spanish online news magazine for film and cinema. For the past twelve years the Madrid-based editorial team has been putting news from Spain and abroad on the internet via the portal. Originally free of charge, the magazine switched a few years ago to a pay-for-use subscription system. Now, however, the organizers have decided to change their business strategy and as of the beginning of the year made all sections of the magazine accessible for free.

CINE por la RED publishes unfiltered news items and press releases from the film industry and cinema scene, updated daily. A new search function enables users to research the magazine’s extensive archive. One section of the magazine is dedicated to short film.

All parts of the magazine can now be called up directly, without the user first having to register and log in. As an additional service, users can have the day’s headlines sent to them by email. Further new functions are to be added in the coming weeks.

URL: http://www.porlared.com

6th Talent Campus Buenos Aires || 16/03/2011

Concurrent with the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente, the 6th Talent Campus Buenos Aires will be held from 6 to 9 April. Eligible to participate are young film professionals, film critics and journalists from South America.

For four days, seminars and workshops will be offered under the guidance of local and international film experts and university lecturers. The theme of this year’s Talent Campus, which will take place at the Universidad del Cine, is “El cine y las formas”. The questions to be addressed include how certain forms have prevailed throughout cinema history and whether new technologies also lead to new forms of film.

URL: http://www.ucine.edu.ar/talent_campus/index.php

New award sponsor for the Grimstad Short Film Festival || 16/03/2011

The Norwegian Short Film Festival Grimstad has added Zentropa International Norway as new sponsor. Zentropa will endow The Golden Chair in the amount of 50,000 Norwegian kroners ($ 8800).
The nominations for The Golden Chair for Best International Short Film 2011 will be announced at the Cannes Film Festival in May and the award ceremony is scheduled for 19 June in Grimstad.

Quelle: http://www.kortfilmfestivalen.no/en/articles/2011/Zentropa.html

“Kyrgyzstan – land of short films” || 11.01.2011

Kyrgyz filmmakers have launched a new project they call “Kyrgyzstan – land of short films”. The promotion scheme was initiated by the “Aytysh Movie” studio to support the country’s film studios. Funding is to be provided for the production of ten short films each year.

 

According to the director of Aytysh Movie, Sadyk Sher-Niyaz, the national cinema does not have sufficient means to produce more than one or two feature-length films per year. On the other hand, Kyrgyzstan has many talented directors. They would have a chance to shine if given an opportunity to produce short films.

 

Currently, 60 people are cooperating on the project, with a budget of 90,000 dollars at their disposal. The promotion measure also helps filmmakers to show their work at festivals. For the European Film Festival, a short-film event in Bishkek, 25,000 dollars have been set aside. Film critics and journalists are also part of the campaign.

 

Source

Finnish Film Foundation promotes short films as calling cards || 11.01.2011

The Finnish Film Foundation has launched a new sponsorship programme promoting the production of short films for use as so-called “calling cards” for young professionals. Special funds have been earmarked for the scheme, with the Finnish government approving a budget of 1.5 million euros.

 

Support is to be given in particular to short films, but under certain circumstances feature-length projects by young filmmakers can also receive funding. At least 30% of the budget is designated for young people under 30 years of age.

 

The Finnish Film Foundation is a state-sponsored institution charged with promoting the production, distribution and screening of Finnish films.

 

Further information

The Sol Cinema – the world’s smallest solar-energy-powered cinema shows short films (UK) || 11.01.2011

Swansea in Wales is home to the smallest cinema in the world to be run on solar energy. Installed in a caravan, the cinema travels through England screening short films – primarily on environmental themes – for up to 9 adults or 12 children.

 

The Sol Cinema is a project of Undercurrents, a non-commercial counterculture media organization. The mini-cinema was designed by artist Jo Furlong, who furnished an old caravan with all the trappings of a classic film theatre, including upholstered seats, Greek columns and a red curtain. The films are shown using an LED video projector.

 

Filmmakers are invited to submit works of up to ten minutes in length.

 

Website

Lux (London) launches VERSUCH || 11.01.2011

VERSUCH is a journal and exhibition project. Every issue of the journal accompanies a concurrent exhibition. The journal is not meant to be a catalogue of the exhibition, nor is the exhibition designed as an illustration of the texts in the journal. Rather, “each of these works attempts to articulate its premise in the light of the other”. The title chosen for the project is the German word “Versuch” – which means an attempt or essay.

 

The journal VERSUCH will be published on the Internet as a blog consisting of texts, images and films. Three chapters are already online. Editor of the journal is Gil Leung (Distribution Manager at Lux).

 

website 

ARTE Creative – an international platform for artists and cultural producers (D/F) || 11.01.2011

In early 2011 the German-French cultural channel ARTE TV plans to go online with a new Internet platform. According to the press release, ARTE Creative is “an international platform and network for creative people – editorially animated, respectful and noncommercial.” ARTE Creative will present outstanding works from the areas of art, pop culture, design and architecture: all creative fields will be represented, from photography, painting, street art, new media, web art and video art to music, advertising and gaming and onward to graphic art, product and web design, and typography. Together with its community, ARTE Creative intends to develop new editorial formats and to experiment at the interface between Web and TV – collaborating with art, film and media schools, as well as with festivals, museums and other institutions.

 

Participants in the platform’s launch in Germany are the Zentrale Intelligenz Agentur, the street artist blog JUST and the Transmediale festival. The first issue will feature projects by Ubermorgen.com and Ignan.TV. ARTE Creative is also cooperating with the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe – ZKM), the Neue Berliner Kunstverein and Arsenal – Institut für Film- und Videokunst (Institute for Film and Video Art), each of which will present key works from its collection for a period of one month.

 

For a further project planned by the platform, called the “Striver Bonus”, the editors are looking for art students who would like to present their works, preferably videos, in week-long features. Artists selected will receive 300 euros. 

Unifrance puts on online film festival || 11.01.2011

In cooperation with the cinema platform Allociné, Unifrance is launching an online film festival in January 2011 called “my French Film Festival”. Unifrance intends with this initiative to take advantage of the latest developments in media consumption in order to reach a new international audience for French film.

 

For the first online festival, ten feature films and ten short films were chosen that will compete for three prizes: an Audience Award, a Foreign Blogger’s Award and an International Press Award.

 

Excerpts from the films and interviews with the filmmakers can be viewed free of charge. The complete films will be offered as paid-for video-on-demand in their original version with subtitles in a choice of German, English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or Russian.

 

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