“The first talent Campus was amazing, when everybody, the Campus team, the founding partners and the colleagues from our festival realised that the concept worked.“ A talk with Christine Tröstrum, project manager of the Berlinale Talent Campus. The Campus is 10 years old! Surprises are bound to be revealed. Read on!

The Talent Campus is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2012. What was the initial present their idea behind starting the Campus?

Berlinale festival director Dieter Kosslick had an idea to build an international network for co-production and cooperation between young filmmakers from all over the world and to integrate them into a renowned international film festival. He wanted to foster cultural exchange between young filmmakers and established film professionals and engage them with public debates about politics, society and film. We give our thanks to many cooperative partners worldwide, the support of regional and federal funding institutions, the European Union, embassies, the Goethe-Institutes, and the Federal Foreign Office, who’ve all helped to create this platform.

Can you recall the first Talent Campus? What was it like? What has changed since?

The first Talent Campus was amazing, when everybody, the Campus team, the founding partners and the colleagues from our festival realised that the concept worked. I think it was a relief for the upcoming generation of filmmakers to get easy access to a festival like the Berlinale and to meet people from around the globe who had the same experience when they were trying to enter the film business. The basics of the Campus structure are still in our programme: the five Ps – PHILOSOPHY, PRE-PRODUCTION, PRODUCTION, POST-PRODUCTION and PROMOTION, designed by the first Campus manager Christine von Fragstein. After 10 years, the Campus is more focused on the individual coaching of our participants, more hands-on, and the reflection on the process of filmmaking is more holistic and considers teamwork. The Campus also became more of a market place where the next generation could present their projects and work.

The Campus was born out of the idea of helping emerging young filmmakers. Can you tell us what kind of blanks the Campus aims to fill?

The Campus idea was a missing piece in the puzzle: to get practical advice on how to work internationally, to encourage emerging filmmakers, to create new impact and to spread ideas. We know from many participants that the Campus has been a turning point in their careers. The filmmakers learn a lot about why it is so important to create a network and to see that everybody in the world has to struggle with production workflows, financing their projects etc. And the Campus closed the gap between the upcoming filmmakers and the established film industry. The industry knows that we present the next generation of filmmakers every year and they can discover rising talents very easily through the Campus events or our online community of around 4000 filmmakers.

How will you celebrate the anniversary – are you planning any special programmes or events?

We will celebrate it with long-time companions, friends and partners, like the Media Programme of the European Union, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and many more. FOCUS FORWARD, the new Cinelan documentary initiative from New York, supports the tenth anniversary of the Campus and will host the Closing party alongside other events. And the Campus alumni will get a birthday present: together with my colleague Matthijs Wouter Knol we designed a new Berlinale programme, the Berlinale Residency. It will be open not only to Campus alumni, yet our motivation was to continue to support the alumni by offering a four-month scholarship in Berlin to sharpen their scripts and to help them find the right markets and sales – from script to the public.

This year’s topic is Changing Perspectives – what basic perspectives are changing nowadays?

One reason why we had the idea of “Changing Perspectives” was the high demands that are placed on everybody nowadays, to have to be flexible in many levels of our society, especially in this day and age when many different spheres of life are subject to such tremendous digital changes. The challenge, not only for filmmakers – is to react to these changes in a positive way, to be open to new ideas while keeping and preserving what has been acquired. We said in this context, “Changing perspectives means a process that requires active participation: sharing ideas and experiences, approaching filmmaking in an interdisciplinary way, getting inspired by visionary pioneers and being open to the unexpected along the way…”

In your opinion, what is the best way to bring out the most of the Talent Campus?

A good team spirit, nice participants, perfect locations, a good balance between one-on-one meetings, workshops, master classes, parties, food and drinks. Nice encounters between rising talents and masters of cinema, and partners who are eager to invest in the next generation.

The Talent Campus is one of the most desirable places for aspiring filmmakers. This year there were more than 4000 applicants from more than 130 countries. What is so special about the Talent Campus – what is the secret ingredient?

One of the secrets is the atmosphere created when people come together from over 100 countries and share their passion for film over the course of six days. The second thing is that we invite all fields of work: directors, producers, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers, editors, production designers, score composers, sound designers, distributors and film critics, and encourage exchange between them.

How can you determine that the Talent Campus has been successful? How can you measure it? In prizes, in connections between filmmakers?

The realisation rate of projects we’ve selected in a development stage either for the Talent Project Market, or the Doc and Script Station is very high. Most of these finished films are screened worldwide at major international film festivals. Around 30-40 filmmakers who’ve participated in former editions are selected to the Berlinale every year in the official programme.

Many alumni have won international prizes, the short films of the Berlin Today Award series have won many prizes as well, among them the German short film prize for Best Documentary etc.

We opened the Editing Studio two years ago and realised that many of the projects we chose were very successful internationally. We began worldwide collaboration with other festivals in Guadalajara, Buenos Aires, Durban, Sarajevo and Tokyo and adapted the Talent Campus model to their regions successfully. And last but not least, the concept was copied many times by other institutions and festivals.

I know that Dine & Shine is one of your favourite programmes – can you tell us some scoops or stories about this special event?

Our guests have liked the idea since the beginning because it is different to ordinary evening events, as we do a kind of “musical chairs” over dinner. It has become a secret hot spot as a Berlinale evening event, where festival guests can meet the Talents over a three course dinner. Many people who are now collaborating first met at the Dine&Shine dinner.

“Say Goodbye to the Story” is this year’s tagline of the Berlinale Shorts. If storytelling, as we know it, has come to a halt, what do we have to welcome? What are we looking for now? What is the next step in the short film-making? We spoke to the curator of the Berlinale Shorts, Maike Mia Höhne to find out more.

Your tagline for this year is: “Say Goodbye to the Story” – if storytelling is over, what do we have to welcome? What’s new? What is the next step in short film-making?

SAY GOODBYE TO THE STORY is the LEITMOTIF of this year’s selection – to say good-bye to what is known as the 3-act-structure of a story is only one fact. The other fact is that the variations of HOW TO TELL STORIES is a wonderful, unlimited field of exploration.

Many filmmakers, especially from Asia, understand the tools of making films, to shape their view onto the world – and this view is never the same. The tools of making films, like working with video, already help to keep a certain distance to a thoroughly declining story outline.

The wish to talk about the circumstances and the situation of low budget productions support a different way of storytelling and support the wish to be free in articulation. In South America, storytelling in its known way is much more appreciated, but still – the filmmakers determine the topics and later the way they pay attention to detail, perhaps tiny little events – as they take them much longer into the focus – changes everything. It is their way of interpreting and personalising films – and making a film more than just telling a story. That’s what the Leitmotif of this year’s selection is about.

About going beyond. It is interesting that half of the filmmakers are women – and women do tell stories again in another way- so the possibility of getting inspiration and courage to really follow your own path in filmmaking is very high this year.

What is the process of selecting short films? What do you have in mind when selecting films for the competition? Or is it the other way round: after seeing all these short films, do you know what you want to see at the Berlinale?

The process of selection is a long process of watching films and getting very deep into the vast variety of films that have been sent to Berlin or have been collected throughout the whole year by me and the delegates of the festival – I am looking for the pearls – of the spearheads. Spearheads that show, encourage, try out – where film can also go to, belong to. These are the films I want to see at the Berlinale and want to present them to a big, wonderful audience. An audience that follows the artists to their different fields of exploration.

How many films have you seen this year? How many applicants were there, from how many countries? How can you watch all these films without falling asleep in front of a DVD player?

It is not so much about the quantity of films – at least not for me. It is more about the quality of films and about the discussion we have about all the films that find their way onto the waiting list – discussions about films, trends, movements, feelings – discussions that we can imagine to happen in the cinema later, during the festival as well. These are the moments when film becomes real.

You have seen a huge number of shorts: can you recognise trends in filmmaking? Is there a hype around a country, a theme, a motif, a form, a genre? Besides leaving the story out of the context, of course.

One topic is for sure that reality got very close – to everyone of us. So many of the selected films throw back the questions raised to the viewers and make them to think about one’s own attitude in such situations – without a raised index finger, but a right to involve everyone in certain ethical questions.

If you want to say goodbye to the story you have to tell a story. So: storytelling in whatever way is important for many filmmakers. Animation is very powerful this year and Asia is very powerful in all its different aspects of seeing the world.

The Berlinale is the first major short film festival in the year, so your selection shapes the taste and trends in short film making. Do you agree with this statement? Do you see your, or the Berlinale’s taste in trends?

Yes, I absolutely agree with this assumption – because we select the latest films of the previous and the first films of the new year, we have – and this goes for all sections – the finger on the pulse of the time. Short films are often faster in production so we are even closer than feature length films – but still: it is the beginning of a new year and the audience wants to see what the movements for the new year, interests etc. are. The Berlinale Shorts selection allows a certain spirit of freedom in style, form and approach – to give such a sign in the beginning of the year evokes power and freedom in other artists.

What do you have in mind when creating screening sections from the selected short films? Do short films have to be related or similar somehow, or on the contrary – do they have to be totally different to create a powerful section?

To curate a programme every year, different aspects lead me to the programmes – basically, it is about me, feeling the films and trying to build bridges & gaps, possibilities to jump and to relax, to deepen a feeling or follow another aspect of a certain subject. Like every year, the films are very different to each other – so every year the way of combining, the art of curating them is different. The curated programmes are possibilities to get involved – with or without talking – that’s what I want.

This year you have an actress, a Palestinian artist, and one of the Berlinale’s favourite filmmakers, David O’Reilly in the jury panel. How do you select the jury members for the short film competition?

David and Sandra are both very much related to the Berlinale – they both have bears in their houses. Emily Jacir is one of the most interesting artists – not only of her region, but far beyond that.

The art world has known her for a long period of time – and as she is working with video and film a lot I thought that it could be very interesting to combine her point of view with that of the two others – everyone coming from a very special corner in filmmaking! I like it when jury members of the International Short Film Jury in Berlin have a certain link, connection, feeling, movement, interest in the short form – that makes it much easier, but it is not necessary. An artist is an artist and will always be able to receive films in the way they want to be understood.

You have a special screening focus on Hungary’s omnibus film. Why did you decide to make an exception with this movie? You even have a discussion about that with the Hungarian mastermind Béla Tarr.

It is necessary to put into focus what is happening in Hungary at the very moment. The very right-wing situation and the actual laws show tendencies that are dangerous. Dangerous for everyone, except for the rich. It is far beyond feeling pity for a country. Hungary is a country known for its cinematographic art – now, with the right-wing government, restrictions are getting more and more intense – in money and, I suppose in not such a far future, censorship. And Hungary is not the only country in the area… Is it a tendency, a trend? How can artists resist and follow their path? What about changes? We want to focus on the political and social situation in Hungary with Béla Tarr. The film itself is an outcry for the injustice happening – so please come along and join the discussion!

You will have a discussion after the regular screenings as well. What will it be like? Will you have Q&A sessions? Will there be any other events related to the Berlinale Shorts?

After every screening in the afternoons, we will have an intensive Q&A at the Cinemaxx5 with the filmmakers present. We have time – there is no hurry. So we can speak about more than just the idea from where the oeuvre comes. Through-out the last years this extra hour or two with the filmmakers widened the horizon for every single film, artist and audience. Lovely moments of concentration- knowing about the hustle and hustle and bustle outside the cinema!

We will have another wonderful event at the Canadian Embassy – presenting Trevor Anderson’s (selected to Berlinale Shorts 2009 with THE ISLAND) latest film: The Man That Got Away: a musical documentary that tells the true life story of Trevor’s great-uncle Jimmy in six original songs.

We will also head over to the Talent Campus, together with Forum Expanded. We’ll present a selection of Beirut’s contemporary video artists – all selected for this years Berlinale. Marcel Schwierin, an expert in the whole area, will screen their works and relate to the special and leading role that Lebanon has had in Video Art since the inauguration of Askhal Alwan in the middle of the 1990s. This artists’ talk will also be followed by drinks – all shortfilm lovers are welcome to join us!

Last year, when we at Daazo.com – The European Short Film Centre – decided to make short interviews with some of the directors from the Berlinale Shorts competition, we did not really believe at first that we had found such a big black hole in the film industry.

On the one hand, it was a disappointment that the accomplished ‘established’ media had nothing else in their sights but red-carpet with A-listers and the world of feature films. On the other hand, we felt that this was the perfect time to create a World of Shorts.

It started as no-budget blog entries, continued as low-budget, but beautifully designed, .pdf magazines at the Cannes and Sarajevo IFFs, and now we have got to the point when we are able to print a real live, proper, paper magazine, with the same creativity and enthusiasm as standard of course!

The Berlinale is the perfect occasion to come up with the printed version of World of Shorts. This is a well-cu-rated short film competition, which presents one-minute spicy animations
to 30-minute-long heavyweights – no matter who they come from, whether it’s an accomplished director or a newcomer.

Nothing else counts: just the overall quality and style of the work and – even more important – the general standards of the Berlinale: being personal, self-reflecting and telling a universal story, having it worked out with the filmmaker’s own handwriting. So we asked this year’s Berlinale Shorts directors to map their minds and send us a drawing if their films. It could be a symbol, a landscape or the main character’s childhood phobias – anything. There were no rules. Just pure, spontaneous thought-drawing.

There is no doubt that the Talent Campus is one of the most important forums of today’s short film marketplace. Nowhere else do so many young filmmakers come together to get to know each other and to get familiar with the freshest waves in the film industry – both from an artistic and technical point of view. Besides having lectures about the newest 3D technologies and the new ways of short film distribution, the Talent Campus has an even more important aspect: it provides
self-awareness for young people who have just started their career in the filmmaking business.

After participating in the Talent Campus they can identify themselves as professional filmmakers, who are part of an international network with dozens of contacts. You can read about the expectations of this year’s talents, and we also asked Zaid Abu Hamdan to tell his own charming success story after having taken part in the Talent Campus.

We strongly believe that the current climate – despite the economical difficulties – is perfect for the brand new world of short films. As we experience day by day, there are more and more new platforms for presenting shorts: smart phones, smart TVs, tablets, VOD platforms etc. People need and want these gadgets, but the really exciting news is that these gadgets (and their manufacturers) need talented people who create content to watch and enjoy. So there are plenty of opportunities for young filmmakers, which is good news, but that alone doesn’t make things simple: being up-to-date is crucial in this business. That’s what we do with the World of Shorts magazine.

But this is just a part of our job regarding short films. We also have a freshly redesigned community web platform: www.daazo.com, where you can watch quality short films, upload your own works to build your portfolio or submit them to film contests to win valuable prizes. You can find us on mobile platforms, smart TVs, tablets, etc., and we also organise short film events.

So we welcome everybody to the World of Shorts. We would be very glad to be your guide during the Berlinale’s short film-related programmes and we hope you will stay with Daazo.com and the World of Shorts magazine for the rest of the year too.

Digitally yours, the Daazo team

Munich International Short Film Festival is pleased to invite filmmakers from all over the world to enter their recent works for this year’s competition.

The festival run by the Munich Film Society (Muenchner Filmwerkstatt e.V.) will showcase the world’s best contemporary short films from June 21st through 27th in the Bavarian capital. All filmmakers with a film in competition do not only have the chance to win the festival’s prestigious awards, but are also invited to come to Munich and attend a two-day master class held by an internationally renowned film professional, participate in our Kino-Sports-Cup (more info below) and/or visit the world famous beer gardens of Munich. So send in your submissions today!

Submissions are open to non-German language films of all genres (fiction, animation, documentary, experimental, etc.) from any country. All non-English films must have English subtitles. Also, the general conditions of the participation assume that films must not have been shown in Bavaria at a festival, in a theatre or on television (including arte) before, and must not exceed a length of 15 minutes. The festival preferably screens HD film files. The deadline for submissions is February 29, 2012. Please check the complete submission requirements at http://www.kaliber35.de/entry.html

To submit a film, please register at reelport.com – after registering, you will be guided through the necessary steps, from the entry of simple data requests to the upload of your video file. You may also send a DVD preview copy to the address mentioned on the reelport website. Please do not send your preview copy directly to the festival – it would not be considered.

If you don’t have a suitable film ready, there’s another way to take part in the festival: for the second time, the Munich Film Society organizes this year a Kino-Sports-Cup called KURZ&KNAPP (SHORT&TIGHT), giving filmmakers 35 hours to write, shoot, edit and complete a short film. The kick-off is on Friday, June 22nd at 11pm. There will be elements announced which every film will have to include – just to make sure that no film is pre-arranged. Then the teams of filmmakers have 35 hours until Sunday, June 24th at 10am to drop their film at the Munich Film Society. On the same evening at 9pm, the Award Ceremony will take place with all the films shown, all the filmmakers presented and the winners chosen. The participation fee of 35 Euros is waived for international guests with a film in competition.

Please don’t hesitate to share this information with anyone who may wish to be a part of the KALIBER35 Munich Int’l Short Film Festival. We thank you in advance and are very much looking forward to meeting you in Munich this June!

Kino5 is looking for young video journalists and filmmakers from Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia to create a TV show covering the CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival Linz / Austria, which takes place from 24th – 29th of April 2012.

The Austrian participants will be students of the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz.

You could be one of six international and the six Austrian young people who meet in Linz to create this Festival TV programme. Ever wanted to be the host of a live TV show or do the live-editing behind the scenes? How about doing a report on a film you liked? You will have a chance to do what you’re good at, but also to experiment and try out new things.

In addition to you and the eleven other participants, there will be four young tutors from kino5 who will help you where needed and host mini-workshops on topics related to video and film journalism. Together we will decide on what to do: invite internationally renowned directors for the live show, discuss with the audience at the screenings, meet the artists in residence, etc…

CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival Linz is Austria’s second largest international film festival. Since 2004, CROSSING EUROPE has devoted its programme to idiosyncratic, contemporary and socio-political auteur cinema from Europe. Over the six days of the festival, CROSSING EUROPE offers international film and press representatives and guests of the film industry (nearly 700 accredited festival participants) and the local cinema audience a programme with approximately 150 outstanding, hand-picked films, documentaries and short films.

DORF TV is a user generated TV station in Linz that will be broadcasting the pre-recorded material and the live shows that we will create together. Production facilities as well as equipment will be provided by the University for Art and Industrial Design Linz.

This project is organised by kino5 – platform for independent filmmakers, member of NisiMasa – European network of young cinema, in cooperation with Art University Linz – Institute of Media Studies, ÖH University of Art Linz and CROSSING EUROPE. The festival will cover 75% of your travel costs to Linz and back, provide accommodation, equipment for shooting and editing and festival accreditations (including evening events). Aside from being productive, you will have the chance to watch films and enjoy the festival!

In order to apply, you must be fluent in English, have some experience either in filmmaking or journalism and fill out the form until the 9th of March. You should arrive in Linz on Monday, 23rd of April or Tuesday, 24th of April by 2pm latest and stay until Monday, 30th of April.

Seize your chance to create your own FestivalTV programme!

If you have any questions, mail at office@kino5.net. If you want to be part of the project you must be a resident of the countries mentioned above and over 18 years old.

Send us your application by filling out this form or go to www.kino5.net.

Recognizing what is dubbed the Festival’s most innovative and experimental program, the Sundance Film Festival Awards for Best Short Films were just announced in a location that most definitely subverts expectations: the Jupiter Bowl, an irreverent, fluorescently-lit, DJ pulsing mega-bowling-plex. The awards were hosted by actress Michaela Watkins who described coming back to Sundance with her second film as returning to summer camp “when your boobs come in.”

Out of the nearly 7,000 short films submitted to the Festival, 64 films were accepted into the Short Film program presented by Yahoo! The 7 favorites below were selected for awards by three jurors: Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill creatorMike Judge; the director of the award-winning short film and subsequent feature film Pariah, Dee Rees; and Shane Smith, director of public programs at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Smith turned to the shorts programmers at the beginning of the ceremony and called them “suckers” for having to watch all 7,000 films when he only had to watch the chosen few.

Director Cutter Hodierne receives $5,000 Jury Prize from Yahoo!

The Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking went to FISHING WITHOUT NETS, directed by Cutter Hodierne, and co-written by Hodierne and John Hibey. An epic tale of Somalian pirates – told from their perspective – this short film humanizes a group of rogue men who have made headlines across the globe. Yahoo! presented this film with a $5,000 award for the Jury Prize. “I’m about to puke,” said Hodierne before he thanked his producers and crew who journeyed to Africa with him to make the film. “We went to East Africa for a three week trip, which ended up being five months,” he said, describing the hardships of filming the short which included being held at gunpoint. “It’s a sensitive subject that we wanted to tell with a real human perspective,” Hodierne added.

Director Kibwe Tavares and Juror Mike Judge

Sometimes two filmmakers are better than one. The Jury Prize in Short Film, U.S. Fiction was awarded to brothers Benny and Josh Safdie for The Black Balloon. The Black Balloon is not like other balloons—he rises above NYC to gain a fresh look on the Big Apple.

A film from Kosovo took the Jury Prize in Short Film, International Fiction: The Return (Kthimi),directed by Blerta Zeqiri, and written by Shefqet Gjocaj. In the film, a man’s homecoming from a Serbian prison is complicated by his struggles to continue where he left off with his wife and son. “We come from Kosovo, so you know we have a war-torn country. We are the youngest country in the world and tonight we became a true unsupervised independent country, so this award means a lot,” remarked producer Blerim Gjoci, standing alongside the director.

Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos, Jessie Ennis

Today was a big day for Lucy Walker’s The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, which was nominated for an Oscar early this morning. Tonight, Cherry Blossom picked up the Jury Prize in Short Film, Non-Fiction. A visual haiku and a story of survival, this short film documents the resurrection of life in Japan following tragedy. “I think the film is about life and death and truth and beauty,” said Walker upon accepting the award. She was flustered by the remarkable events of the day, “I got nominated for an Academy Award and I got carded here,” joked Walker.

The second film to be nominated for an Oscar today, the Jury Prize in Animated Short Film was presented to Grant Orchard’s A Morning Stroll. Mike Judge introduced the prize for “sly commentary” to A Morning Stroll, which poses a deep, philosophical quandary: who is pluckier – a New Yorker or a chicken?

The jury acknowledged The Arm for a Special Jury Award for Comedic Storytelling by the female trio of directors and screenwriters: Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos, Jessie Ennis. The film provides an up-to-the-minute social commentary on teen love in a time of technology.

Last but not least, the jury also gave a special recognition to director Kibwe Tavares’ Robots of Brixton with a Special Jury Award for Animation Direction. Drawing on the history of racial tension in a neighborhood, the film imagines a future where robots suffer from poverty and discrimination. Tavares gave a sweet shout out to his girlfriend and his family for crossing the pond to be with him at Sundance.

(Photo credit by Jonathan Hickerson.)

The Berlinale is expanding its portfolio with an additional initiative and extending a four-month invitation to six filmmakers and their new projects to the creative metropolis of Berlin in autumn 2012.

The new international fellowship programme, Berlinale Residency, will help filmmakers to complete their scripts successfully, as well as to develop the audience potential of the films together with their producers in a “Script to Market” seminar. Working in close contact with individually selected mentors from the Nipkow Programm and international market experts, the filmmakers can take a decisive step toward placing their next film project on the way to a successful theatrical release. Directors who have already celebrated a feature film success at a renowned international film festival can apply for the four-month Berlinale Residency.

“The Berlinale Residency is a logical progression of the previous Berlinale initiatives,” explains Festival Director Dieter Kosslick. “The fellowship serves as a follow-up project for filmmakers who already had a feature in the official programme of the festival, who were selected with projects in the Berlinale Co-Production Market or Berlinale Talent Campus, or who were supported through the World Cinema Fund. However, we are also looking forward to receiving other filmmakers from around the world, whom the programme will entice to Berlin.”

Kirsten Niehuus, Managing Director of film funding at the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg said: “We were particularly impressed that the Berlinale Residency not only practises traditional story development, but also works on the projects in close relationship to the market and with corresponding experts from the industry. Audience orientation and effective analysis are more important today than ever before.”

The first call for entries for the Berlinale Residency, which will begin in September 2012, starts at the opening of the Berlinale on February 9, 2012 online at www.berlinale-residency.de.

The six selected projects (feature and documentary films and cross-media projects) will be worked on from September to December. Afterwards, they will be presented, in order to find additional partners for financing and – where appropriate – co-production. On offer as initial presentation platforms are the Berlinale Co-Production Market and the Guadalajara International Film Festival, which takes place in March and along with its affiliated Film Market is a partner of the Berlinale Residency. Depending on the project, further presentations at co-production markets in Buenos Aires, Durban or Sarajevo are being considered.

The Berlinale Residency is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, a division of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH, the Nipkow Programm and the Guadalajara International Film Festival, in co-operation with the MEDIA Mundus Programme of the European Union and the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

More info: http://www.berlinale.de/en/branche/berlinale_residency/berlinale_residency_1.html

The future of filmmaking explored: 150 experts join the anniversary edition of the Berlinale Talent Campus #10 including Mark Cousins, Alex McDowell, Thomas Demand, Tony Gatlif, Uli Hanisch, Brillante Mendoza, and Keanu Reeves

For the tenth edition of the Berlinale Talent Campus, 150 experts from all over the world will join the Campus to meet, talk, mentor and intensively coach 350 filmmakers from around 90 countries at the Hebbel Theater am Ufer (HAU) between February 11-16, 2012.

The future of filmmaking

The question of the future of filmmaking runs like a red thread through the six-day programme, including the panel “Building Narrative Worlds: Digital Design for Cinema” on Monday, February 13. Renowned production designers Alex McDowell (Minority Report, Fight Club), Uli Hanisch (The International, Cloud Atlas), Habib Zargarpour (The Bourne Identity), and acclaimed German visual artist Thomas Demand will be moderated by Andrew Shoben and discuss the current state of production design, in which the ability to create entirely new digital worlds and alternate universes; offering exciting perspectives for screenwriters, directors and artists when it comes to storytelling (Monday, Feb 13, 2pm, HAU2).

The way in which audiences interact with stories has also transformed radically over the past decade. How can storytellers and filmmakers adapt, as audiences move effortlessly from one platform or device to the next – from mobile to social media and other digital platforms? Leading cross-media experts like Michel Reilhac (ARTE France Cinema) and Timo Vuorensola (Iron Sky, Panorama 2012) will shed light on the new storytelling language and behavioural mindset that cross-media stories require and will share their experiences building narrative worlds, characters and locations (Monday, Feb 13 and Tuesday, Feb 14, 2pm, HAU3).

(Photo: David Ausserhofer, Berlinale 2011)

The Post-Production Studio offers emerging directors, cinematographers, editors, and producers the opportunity to work with the newest camera equipment and to learn from mentors Stefan Ciupek and Dirk Meier about the intricacies of corresponding digital workflows. The Post-Production Studio is run in cooperation with dffb and Camelot Broadcast Services.

The future of digital filmmaking is the main theme of Chris Kenneally’s Side by Side, featured in this year’s Berlinale Special and produced by Keanu Reeves, who also conducts the interviews in this documentary film. Together with director and film critic Mark Cousins (The Story of Film – An Odyssey, Berlinale Special), Reeves will delve into the art of interviewing and the skills required to deliver an on screen conversation that moves audiences and engages with them. Both Cousins and Reeves will use a plethora of interview excerpts from their respective films (Thursday, Feb 16, 11:15am, HAU1).

Other confirmed experts include directors Brillante Mendoza (Captive, Competition 2012) and Tony Gatlif (Indignados, Panorama 2012) as well as acclaimed editors Andrew Bird (The Future), Susan Korda (For All Mankind), Gesa Marten (Low Lights), Alex Rodriguez (Children of Men) and Molly Malene Stensgaard (Melancholia).

For more information about the Berlinale Talent Campus #10, please visit www.berlinale-talentcampus.de

European Short Film Co-production Forum.
31 January – 1 February 2012

This new initiative in favour of short film co-production is a must-attend event for European producers, commissioning editors and financial partners. Some twenty exciting new projects with a European creative and audience potential will be presented.

Euro Connection is the marketplace for short film co-production in Europe. This event is open to active European producers, TV commissioners, fund representatives, and distributors. Entrance is free to Short Film Market accreditation holders. Prior registration is necessary. Seats are limited and access will depend on availability. Early booking is strongly advised. A simultaneous translation will be provided in English and in French.

This year, 17 European projects have been selected to Euro Connection. The Book of Projects and Producers will be available for download a few days before the event.

Presented by the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market, in association with the MEDIA Desk France and the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Euro Connection receives support from the MEDIA programme, Audi talents awards and the PROCIREP.

More info: http://www.clermont-filmfest.com/index.php?m=46&m=174

Call for Ekran 2012 organized by Wajda Studio and Wajda School is open now.

EKRAN (the Polish word for “screen”) is an international training program focusing on the creative pre-production process based on shooting practice. EKRAN focuses participants on exploring, identifying and refining the tone and visual language of film.

Deadline is January 31st, 2012. Participation in EKRAN is free.

WHAT IS “EKRAN”?

The European training programme EKRAN is a collaborative project between Wajda Studio and Wajda School, FOCAL (Switzerland), Austrian Film Institute (Austria), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH (Germany), nordmedia GmbH (Germany) with support of Polish Film Institute, AGORA Foundation and MEDIA EU Programme.

EKRAN (the Polish word for “screen”) is an international training program focusing on the creative pre-production process based on shooting practice. EKRAN focuses participants on exploring, identifying and refining the tone and visual language of film.

As the creative pre-production process is based on teamwork, EKRAN includes each of the key creative roles in its training curriculum.  Every participating project is therefore represented by a Creative Team consisting of a director (or writer/director), a writer (or co-writer), a producer and, optionally, a director of photography.

EKRAN trains directors not only to develop each aspect of their Projects, but also to tighten the collaborative working process with the writer/co-writer, producer and DOP.

EKRAN is also a brilliant and unique opportunity for producers to develop their project using the most cost effective and creatively concentrated methods. EKRAN offers to participants a production component prepared in close collaboration with EAVE; one of the best programs for producers available in Europe.  The EKRAN training component for producers focuses on creative aspects of film production.

EKRAN aims at advancing participants’ treatments/scripts and producing two scenes from each script/ treatment.

The EKRAN process includes:
-Treatment and / or script development; group and individual work on scripts and / or treatments
- Preparation for shooting; casting, storyboard and individual consultancy with tutors
- Shooting; tutors’ directing consultancies
- Editing; tutors’ editing consultancies
- Evaluation; individual, group and tutor analysis of the produced scenes
- Pitching; individual and team presentation of participants’ projects
- Production and Marketing strategies; individual, group and tutor consultancy on participants’ projects

The creative team (director, screenwriter, and producer) are offered a choice of locations, actors and set design within the usual logistical and budgetary constraints.  EKRAN supports shooting with expertise and help from casting directors, set designers and production managers.

In order to ensure the best possible market opportunities, EKRAN will favor applicants with independent film projects with a strong personal vision.

More info: http://www.wajdastudio.com/en/news/nabor-na-ekran-2012