27TH EUROPEAN AWARDS European Short Film 2014 The Nominations 1 WELCOME

Welcome to the This year’s short film nominations include every- thing from a refugee documentary to a black-and- white animal story and stereoscopic digital anima- 27th European Film Awards tion. A lot of them are sparked off by a moment of crisis, be it Christmas without presents, chocolate theft and emergency phone calls or shipwreck, battle and death. The way they depart from here CONTENTS: and where they lead the viewer, however, differs greatly. We meet old friends like Cowboy and In- Welcome ...... 1 dian (another episode having been nominated in 2004) and make new acquaintances like a squir- rel searching its scarf and two Icelandic brothers. A TOWN CALLED PANIC: THE CHRISTMAS LOG ...... 2 From the kitchen of a retired Bulgarian general, DAILY BREAD ...... 3 these films take us to the Georgian mountains and DINOLA ...... 4 Lampedusa island, the Indic jungle and wartime EMERGENCY CALLS ...... 5 Sarajevo. LITTLE BLOCK OF CEMENT WITH DISHEVELLED 6 HAIR CONTAINING THE SEA ...... Each of them opens a window into a different world PRIDE ...... 7 and still altogether they can only offer a glimpse SHIPWRECK ...... 8 of the galaxy of human experience, perception and STILL GOT LIVES_ ...... 9 emotion - and of the breath-taking creative diver- SUMMER 2014 ...... 10 sity of European cinema. It is with great pleasure TAPROBANA ...... 11 that we present this year’s nominated short films. THE CHICKEN ...... 12 Agnieszka Holland The EFA Short Film Initiative has long been an es- THE CHIMERA OF M...... 13 Chairwoman tablished item on the annual international short THE MISSING SCARF ...... 14 EFA Board film agenda. It is organised in co-operation with fif- WALL ...... 15 teen partner festivals at each of which an indepen- WHALE VALLEY ...... 16 dent international jury presents one of the Euro- pean short films in competition with a nomination The EFA Short Film Initiative ...... 17 for the award European Short Film. The Short Matters! Tour ...... 17 During the past thirteen years, the interest in the short film initiative and this collection of short films has constantly been increasing. The nomi- nated films go through a series of 50 screenings across the world. From Madrid to Macau, from to , we are proud to draw world-wide attention to these short films and their creators. And I invite you to leaf through this book- let and meet the nominees - creative people from all over Europe.

This great short film initiative wouldn’t be pos- sible without our allies in the world of short films e.V. EFA Productions gGmbH and I wish to thank all our partner festivals for yet Kurfürstendamm 225 Kurfürstendamm 225 another fantastic year full of surprises and dis- 10719 10719 Berlin coveries! I would also like to thank our friends at GERMANY the Film Fest Gent and the Royal Academy of Fine tel. +(49)30 887 167-0 tel. +(49)30 887 167-0 Arts (KASK) for re-establishing the EFA Short Film fax +(49)30 887 167-77 fax +(49)30 887 167-77 IMPRINT Weekend - a great gathering of the nominated di- EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY e.V. rectors in for a first screening of the nomi- www.europeanfilmacademy.org www.efa-productions.com Editor: Pascal Edelmann nated shorts and a weekend of meeting and min- Graphic design: Andrés Castoldi gling. Thank you & bedankt! Director: Managing Directors: Unless otherwise indicated, all Marion Döring Marion Döring, Jürgen Biesinger pictures appear courtesy of the The members of the European Film Academy will Amtsgericht Charlottenburg Amtsgericht Charlottenburg respective production/distribution elect the overall winner who will be announced at 14236 Nz HRB 99369 companies the 27th European Film Awards Ceremony in on 13 December.

Vila do Conde Short Film Nominee 2 / 00:26:30 Venice Short Film Nominee 3 00:18:00

Production: Production, World Sales & Production: World Sales: A TOWN CALLED PANIC: Panique SPRL Press: DAILY BREAD Shtuka sanook Shtuka sanook 109, rue du Fort Autour de Minuit Kobi Azran Katharina Wörner Matalon St Weichselplatz 3, HH 3.OG 77 פת לחם THE CHRISTMAS LOG 1060 Bruxelles 21, rue Henry Monnier BELGIUM 75009 6685714 Tel Aviv 12045 Berlin PANIQUE AU VILLAGE: +32 2 534 68 08 France WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: PRODUCTION DESIGN: ISRAEL GERMANY festivals@ autourdeminuit.com +33 1 4281 1728 Idan Hubel Estee Nemeth +972 5 2540 8911 +49 1577 182 3717 LA BÛCHE DE NOËL PRODUCED BY: Kobi Azran COSTUME DESIGN: Shai Friedman [email protected] [email protected] DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SOUND DESIGN: Moshe Silver DIRECTED BY: Vincent Patar & Stéphane Aubier PRODUCTION DESIGN: Stéphane Aubier David Stagmeister MAIN CAST: Adam Shmidt WRITTEN BY: Vincent Patar, Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Tavier ORIGINAL SCORE: French Cowboy EDITOR: Idan Hubel (Jonathan) PRODUCED BY: Vincent Tavier & Nicolas Schmerkin ANIMATION: Vincent Patar, Stéphane Aubier, Ben Tesseur & DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jan Vandenbussche Steven de Beul EDITOR: Anne-Laure Guégan MAIN CAST: Bruce Ellison, Benoit Poelvoorde

The year’s end celebrations are coming. Christmas: the tree, the dinner, the presents. Indian and Cowboy are expecting their presents eagerly. Overexcited by the organisation of the celebration, they fight and destroy the Yule log on which Horse was putting the last touch. Horse is livid and cancels the gifts from Santa Claus. How will they win back the favours of Horse and The Old Bearded Man? How will they retrieve their gifts? For Indian and Cowboy a long, very long Christmas Eve begins … Jonathan loves chocolate. One day he steals the last remaining chocolate in the jar. When his stepmother caches him and his brothers ostracise him, he decides to run away.

2009 Cannes FF. Their feature ERNEST & CELESTINE was awarded internationally and received a nomina- How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- tion for the 2014 Oscars. ficult to get financing? How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- It took us eight months from the moment we got the ficult to get financing? financing. The film was funded by the Gesher Fund, It took one year for pre-production (script, financ- Mefal Hapais and the second authority for TV. ing) and seven months (preparation, shooting, post Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- production). Our films aren’t conventional projects pean cinema community”? and also make a stop motion movie in a significant Diversity, love for cinema and art. budget. If you owned a theatre for one night, which films Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- would you screen? pean cinema community? All the films by Robert Bresson. Stéphane Aubier& Vincent Patar It would be impossible to make our style of film with- What is your next project? Both Belgian writers and animation filmmakers, they out European co-productions. Idan Hubel My next project title is VERY BIG LIGHT, a detective studied and met at La Cambre, the Belgian School of If you owned a theatre for one night, which films Idan Hubel is an Israeli filmmaker. He graduated with film that explores the edges of grace. Visual Arts and have become inseparable ever since, would you screen? honours from the Sam Spiegel School of Film and continuously creating funny and outrageous worlds The Fleischer brothers best of films, THE CIRCUS Television in Jerusalem. He wrote and directed two by using a variety of animation techniques. Their by Charles Chaplin, CASINO by Martin Scorsese, student shorts, FATHER SON (2002) and PLEADING animated shorts include the PIC PIC ANDRE SHOOW GROUNDHOG DAY by Harold Ramis. (2004), which have screened at festivals all over the trilogy (1995–99), LES BALTUS AU CIRQUE (1998), What is your next project? world, and won several awards. His first feature, UFO BOVEN GEEL (1999), LA RUPTURE (2000) and We have just finished a script for a new adventure THE CUTOFF MAN, premiered in Venice’s 2012 Oriz- the award-winning series A TOWN CALLED PANIC with Cowboy and Indian and we’re actually writing a zonti section and got great reviews both in Israel and (2000–03), which inspired their 2009 feature debut traditional animation feature with Pic Pic and André, world-wide (the ‘rapporto confidenziale’ declared it of the same name, part of the official selection of the our old characters … one of the five best films of 2012). Grimstad Short Film Nominee 4 Georgia 00:14:38 Sarajevo Short Film Nominee 5 00:14:59

Production: Production & Press: World Sales: DINOLA 20 Steps Productions EMERGENCY CALLS Pohjankonna Oy KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg e.V. Vladimer Katcharava Hannes Vartiainen Stine Wangler დინოლა 10a Akhmeteli HÄTÄKUTSU Nilsiänkatu 10-14 B Friedensallee 7 0159 Tbilisi 00510 Helsinki 22765 Hamburg WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Mariam Khatchvani SOUND DESIGN: Ivane Gvaradze GEORGIA WRITTEN, DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY: Hannes Vartiainen & Pekka Veikkolainen FINLAND GERMANY PRODUCED BY: Vladimer Katcharava MAIN CAST: Nutsi Khaptani (daughter), +995 32 2520945 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY & EDITOR: Hannes Vartiainen & Pekka Veikkolainen +358 50 3209 050 +49 40 3910 6319 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Konstantin Esadze Katie Lortkipanidze (Dino, mother), [email protected] PRODUCTION DESIGN: Hannes Vartiainen & Pekka Veikkolainen [email protected] [email protected] EDITOR: Levan Kukhashvili Vakhtang Chachanidze (bridegroom), www.20steps.ge SOUND DESIGN & ORIGINAL SCORE: Joonatan Portaankorva www.pohjankonna.fi www.shortfilmsales.com PRODUCTION DESIGN: Dimitri Arsanis Datuna Guledani (boy, friend of daughter), ANIMATION: Hannes Vartiainen & Pekka Veikkolainen COSTUME DESIGN: Ketevan Kalandadze Nukri Khatchvani (friend of bridegroom) MAIN CAST: Lauri Hynninen, Jonna Uhrman

In the harsh mountainous countryside of Svaneti (Georgia), happiness is brief and the beloved husband of Dina dies. Tradition says she must leave her child and marry the first man who offers his hand.

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The European cinema community is a great opportu- nity for new writers and filmmakers to get their films exposed. My film has reached viewers with the help of the European cinema community. Being human is a fragile and fleeting opportunity to experience life and the universe around us. In the face If you owned a theatre for one night, which films of overwhelming darkness all we can do is to rely on and find solace in one another. This film is based on would you screen? authentic emergency calls and radio traffic. It all depends on who the viewers are and in what country. www.pohjankonna.fi What is your next project? My next project is a feature film named DEDE. Shot How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- like a documentary, it is a fictional film based on ficult to get financing? true cultural aspects of the Ushguli people. Ushguli, Originally we thought we could do it in one year but Mariam Khatchvani where I am from, is a small village at the base of a in the end we needed two. Finding emergency phone Born in 1986 in Georgia, Mariam Khatchvani stud- Georgian glacier. The highest settlement in Europe, calls that we could clear the rights to was rather ied Film Directing at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre it has a population of under 150 and is like paradise. difficult and time-consuming. The film is financed and Film State University and directed various short This community is very unique in their language and mainly by the Finnish Film Foundation with support documentaries. culture, unlike any other in the world. I feel it needs also from AVEK and YLE. How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- to be shared with the world. I want to expose the If you owned a theatre for one night, which films ficult to get financing? difficulties and hardships of this community. Nine would you screen? I spent half a year writing the script and ten days months of the year this village is in winter and during Hannes Vartiainen & Pekka Veikkolainen That would be a night of Charlie Chaplin. for the actual filming. The financing was not difficult this period there are many ghostly experiences. Dur- Hannes Vartiainen (born 1980) has a background in What is your next project? because the Georgian Film Center really enjoyed my ing this period families house ghosts in their homes. film. Pekka Veikkolainen (born 1982) has worked in We are working on a travelling science exhibition and script. In my film I want to show the entire four seasons in- the fields of animation and illustration since 2000. a film for dome cinemas that utilise 3D X-ray tomog- Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- cluding this long period of winter. The two started their own production company in raphy to reveal the internal structures of the macro- pean cinema community”? 2008. scopic world that surrounds us. Cork Short Film Nominee 6 00:15:32 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Nominee 7 Bulgaria/Germany 00:30:00

Production, World Sales & Press: Production: World Sales: LITTLE BLOCK OF CEMENT WITH Jorge López Navarrete PRIDE Portokal KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg e.V. Av. Marques San Mori, 133-141 1º 1ª A Vanya Rainova Alexandra Heneka DISHEVELLED HAIR CONTAINING THE SEA 08914 DIRECTED BY: Pavel Vesnakov 137 Evlogi georgiev Blvd. Friedensallee 7 SPAIN WRITTEN BY: Pavel Vesnakov & Vanya Rainova 1504 Sofia 22765 Hamburg PEQUEÑO BLOQUE DE CEMENTO CON PELO +34 64 6722 376 PRODUCED BY: Vanya Rainova BULGARIA GERMANY [email protected] DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Orlin Ruevski +359 887 916692 +49 40 3910 6328 ALBOROTADO CONTENIENDO EL MAR www.littleblockofcement.com EDITOR: Karen Tonne [email protected] [email protected] PRODUCTION DESIGN: Nikolai Zlatanov www.shortfilmsales.com WRITTEN, DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY: Jorge López Navarrete SOUND DESIGN: Cristina Arias SOUND DESIGN: Veselin Zografov DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Carlos Mora ORIGINAL SCORE: Carlo Marchionni EDITOR: Jorge López Navarrete MAIN CAST: Kinara, Tomi PRODUCTION DESIGN: Cristina Martínez & Carlos Enríquez

Manol − a retired general, a loving grandfather − is a patriarch of firm morals and fixed beliefs, which he has upheld in his household. But on this day he learns that the boy he raised is gay. The life choices of his loved ones challenge his values in a battle he has lost by default.

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A dog and a mare embark upon a voyage together. With every step they take, the differences between It took me more than three years to finish this film, them become inevitably clearer, and yet the profound mutual knowledge they develop over time shows the but I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to potential to suddenly produce a luminous moment between the two. work with these brilliant actors and crew. The expe- rience was very special for me and because of it I www.littleblockofcement.com now see cinema from a different perspective. It was difficult to get financing, but not impossible. Jorge López Navarrete Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- was born in Barcelona. pean cinema community”? pean cinema community”? After working on adver- These three words, separately, hold very positive and The whole European culture is going through diffi- tising for several years strong meanings, so all together must contribute to cult times these days and the next few years will be he started developing build something truly worthy. very important for it in terms of preserving its diver- personal video projects If you owned a theatre for one night, which films sity and richness. And here I want to quote one of and attended an interna- would you screen? Pavel G. Vesnakov my favourite directors, : “Relating tional filmmaking work- I could pay homage to Granada, a really beloved city Pavel G. Vesnakov is an award-winning Bulgarian a person to the whole world: that is the meaning of shop at San Antonio de pretty close to my parents’ town, exhibiting works film director born in 1987. He holds a bachelor’s de- cinema.” los Baños Film School and performances from two of its most inspiring gree in Visual Arts and a master’s degree in Film Arts If you owned a theatre for one night, which films in Cuba and completed creators: José Val del Omar, cinema experimental- from the New Bulgarian University. He is the script- would you screen? a master in Digital Video ist and inventor, and Enrique Morente, avant-garde writer, director and editor of the short film trilogy A MAN ESCAPED by Robert Bresson, ANDREI RUBLEV at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona. This is flamenco singer. INCHES OF SUBURBIA, consisting of TRAINS (2011), by Andrei Tarkovsky, THE PASSENGER by Michelan- his first professional short film, a self-produced low What is your next project? THE PARAFFIN PRINCE (2012) and PRIDE (2013). He gelo Antonioni, AURORA by Cristi Puiu, BALLAST by budget project recorded in Ecuador. I have just written the first version of a script con- has worked as a matte-painting artist, photographer, Lance Hammer, WENDY AND LUCY by Kelly Reichardt How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- nected with the forces of disintegration and conser- editor and director in companies like World Wide Ef- and AMOUR by . ficult to get financing? vation inside and around us. I still do not know the fects, Nu Boyana, Bulgarian National Television and What is your next project? Once in Ecuador, and with the script already written, length. Miramar Film. Currently Pavel G. Vesnakov is work- Currently I am finishing the work on my fourth short it took a month to assemble a basic crew. We filmed ing on his first feature film. film called ZEUS’S VOLKSWAGEN and meanwhile I for ten days. Being a self-financed project, we had How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- am writing a script for a feature film. Both projects the final version completed after one year and a half. ficult to get financing? are set to be co-productions. Locarno Short Film Nominee 8 00:14:57 Drama Short Film Nominee 9 Germany 00:23:00

Production: Production, World Sales & Press: SHIPWRECK Deepfocus Morgan Knibbe STILL GOT LIVES_ Hamburg Media School Jos de Putter Hasebroekstraat 85-2 Petra Barkhausen DIRECTED BY: Morgan Knibbe WG-plein 259 1053CR Amsterdam ICH HAB NOCH AUFERSTEHUNG_ Finkenau 35 PRODUCED BY: Jos de Putter & Wink de Putter 1054SE Amsterdam NETHERLANDS 22081 Hamburg DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY & EDITOR: Morgan Knibbe NETHERLANDS +31 6 8114 6787 DIRECTED BY: Jan-Gerrit Seyler COSTUME DESIGN: Miriam Aksoy GERMANY SOUND DESIGN: Noah Pepper, Taco Drijfhout & Vincent Sinceretti +31 6 51038855 [email protected] WRITTEN BY: Katarina Kokstein SOUND DESIGN: Hartmut Teschemacher +49 40 413 468 661 ORIGINAL SCORE: Carlos Dalla-Fiore [email protected] PRODUCED BY: Thorsten Heger ORIGINAL SCORE: Stefan Paul Goetsch [email protected] DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jürgen Kemmer ANIMATION: Toni Sattler & Tobias Graff www.hamburgmediaschool.com EDITOR: Max Mittelbach MAIN CAST: Swantje Kohlhof, Bazon Rosengarth PRODUCTION DESIGN: Sabine Kasch

Marco and Lisa are in love. Online, they fight side by side against dreadful monsters. However, Lisa refuses to meet Marco in real life. When one day she stops showing up for the game, Marco decides to go searching for her. He finds a new world. And learns real dread. On 3 October 2013, a boat carrying 500 Eritrean refugees sunk off the coast of the Italian island Lampe- dusa. More than 360 people drowned. Abraham, one of the survivors, walks through a graveyard of ship- wrecks and vividly remembers the nightmarish experience. Meanwhile, chaos breaks loose at the har- Jan-Gerrit Seyler Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- bour, whilst hundreds of coffins are being loaded onto a military ship. Born in 1979, Jan-Gerrit pean cinema community”? Seyler has been com- An immense diversity. Stories told to matter and mitted to visual as well touch without being overly manipulative. Better get- with a small budget by a journalism platform called as performing arts since ting used to read subtitles quickly. Exchange of sheer ‘De Correspondent’ (3,000 EUR). They approached his childhood. His first endless perspectives. Making friends Europe-wide me after seeing a promo I made for my upcoming short film was HANDI- and making borders vanish in our heads. Laughing feature film. CAP (2007/08) which out loud while shouting out a new learned national Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- he made as writer and toast. pean cinema community”? director. He studied film If you owned a theatre for one night, which films That it must be either very big or medium-sized at the European Film would you screen? but probably not a very small community. And that I College in , graduating with his final proj- I would invite friends and family and ask my dad to somehow seem to be a part of it, even though I don’t ect CAMILLE, and directing as a post-graduate at the do a compilation of his beloved Charlie Chaplins (on really understand its perimeters. Hamburg Media School in Germany. Among his other 16mm) alternating with Super-8-family-recordings If you owned a theatre for one night, which films shorts: THE PHILATELIST (2011), COWBOYS AND IN- (still not digitalised). Maybe a Cassavetes in the end. would you screen? DIANS (2011) And a Dresen. And … Morgan Knibbe COME AND SEE by Elem Klimov, HANA-BI by Takeshi How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- What is your next project? Morgan graduated from the Netherlands Film Acad- Kitano, THX 1138 by George Lucas, IRRÉVERSIBLE by ficult to get financing? I’m obsessed with a kind of reversed PRETTY WOM- emy in 2012 with his short experimental film A Gaspar Noé, INVOLUNTARY by Ruben Östlund, BEN- Basically three quarters of a year. I got spoiled by AN story. Without the kitsch. A man searching love TWIST IN THE FABRIC OF SPACE. It was selected for NY’S VIDEO by Michael Haneke, DISTRICT 9 by Neill my school which took care of the financing. And where sex is being sold, wanting his beloved pretty the IDFA and won a so-called wildcard by the Neth- Blomkamp and the work of Chris Cunningham. Yes, yes, I was bound to their rules for this. It became an and young prostitute to be his at all costs and trying erlands Film Fund which enables a young director the audience will have to watch ALL of it. exercise in how to achieve the utmost within a corset to become a part of the underworld. But I also will to continue creating a personal cinematic language. What is your next project? of dos and don’ts (concerning primarily narrative do a film about tango in the near future as I have to How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- I am finishing a feature film, THOSE WHO FEEL THE issues). I will never forget the phone call forbidding combine my passions. ficult to get financing? FIRE BURNING, which revolves around the lives of il- me to change even a single word of the lines during It took about one month. The project was financed legal immigrants at the borders of Europe. the 6th day of shooting. Well, too late anyway. Krakow Short Film Nominee 10 00:12:00 Berlin Short Film Nominee /Denmark/Sao Tomé and Principe/Sri Lanka 00:24:00

Production: Production, World Sales & Press: SUMMER 2014 Wojciech Sobczyk TAPROBANA Mutual Respect Slomczynskiego Str 12/28 Rua da Barroca 59 LATO 2014 31-234 Krakow WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Gabriel Abrantes EDITOR & PRODUCTION DESIGN: Natxo Checa 1200-047 Lisboa POLAND PRODUCED BY: Gabriel Abrantes, Natxo Checa, SOUND DESIGN: Hugo Leitão & Daniel Gries PORTUGAL WRITTEN, DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY: Wojciech Sobczyk ORIGINAL SCORE: Bartosz Chajdecki +48 600 765 287 Marta Furtado, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Tine Fischer MAIN CAST: Jani Zhao (Dinamene), Natxo Checa +351 93 8137 310 DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY & EDITOR: Wojciech Sobczyk ANIMATION: Wojciech Sobczyk [email protected] & Patricia Drati (Camões) [email protected] SOUND DESIGN: Michał Jankowski & Michał Fojcik [email protected] DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Gabriel Abrantes

A pessimistic view of the human fate, a universal tale of the world possessed by evil. The same piece of land is shown multiple times in different scenes. At the beginning, there is a bloody battle of swords, axes and spears, followed by plagues and conflagration. Next it becomes an arena of war, uprising and famine – observed through a cemetery wall. After a short while grains and grass sprout from the blood-soaked earth. Nature is reborn, it flourishes and presents itself in its fullest form: as summer. However, the repetition is painful and pessimistic, the world, trapped in a vicious cycle of evil, is unable to break free. Luís Vaz de Camões, the greatest Portuguese Renaissance poet, struggles creatively while engaging in a hedonistic, coprophagic, and drug-addled lifestyle. The film follows the poet, and his lover Dinamene, as Institute and the city of Cracow. It was originally go- he writes his masterpiece, the epic poem Os Lusíadas. He travels from the cacophony of the Indic jungles, ing to be SUMMER 2007 but eventually became SUM- surrounded by allegorical elephants and rhyming macaques, to the frontier of Heaven and Hell, where he MER 2014. is confronted by his fantasy: fame and immortality. Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- pean cinema community”? I would like to regard European cinema as an artistic Gabriel Abrantes How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- cinema. However, it is not always so. Artist and filmmaker Ga- ficult to get financing? If you owned a theatre for one night, which films briel Abrantes, born in It took over a year to make and was made with very would you screen? 1984, studies at The Coo- little financing − a commission by CPH DOX:LAB and For quite some time I haven’t seen Krzysztof per Union, École National the direct support of Mutual Respect Productions Kieślowski’s THREE COLOURS. These films are des Beaux-Arts and Le and Vimukthi’s production company. always worth watching again, especially BLUE Fresnoy Studio National Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- Wojciech Sobczyk and RED. Of course, there should also be anima- des Arts Contemporains. pean cinema community”? Animated film director, illustrator and photogra- tion, e.g. Mirosław Kijowicz’s CAGES and Zbigniew His films, among them A You’re a pee’n, Sin o’ my community. pher, he was born in 1974 in Piotrków Trybunalski. Rybczyński’s TANGO. HISTORY OF MUTUAL RE- If you owned a theatre for one night, which films He graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the What is your next project? SPECT, have won various would you screen? Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow where he currently First was SPRING 1999, now SUMMER 2014. Next awards and he has exhibited his work in museums Kenneth Anger’s KUSTOM KAR KOMANDOS followed works as an academic at the Animated Film Studio. should be AUTUMN. I hope it won’t be so remote in such as the MIT:List Center for the Arts in Boston, by Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS 4. How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- time. It will be another pretext to contemplate human Palais de Tokyo and Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris, What is your next project? ficult to get financing? and nature’s nature. and Museu Serralves in Porto. I’m finishing two shorts – FREUD UND FRIENDS and It took seven years and it is fully original: I have per- I would like AUTUMN to be more optimistic but I seri- THE HUNCHBACK (this last one is co-directed with sonally hand-drawn and animated almost all 17,000 ously doubt it. Ben Rivers.) I’m also getting ready to shoot my first frames. The film was subsidised by the Polish Film feature, which is co-directed with Daniel Schmidt. Bristol Short Film Nominee 12 Germany/Croatia 00:15:00 Rotterdam Short Film Nominee 13 UK 00:25:00

Production: World Sales & Press: World Sales: THE CHICKEN ZAK Film Productions Salaud Morisset THE CHIMERA OF M. LUX Jelena Goldbach Francois Morisset Benjamin Cook WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Una Gunjak SOUND DESIGN: Sebastian Morsch & Hermann-Maaß-Str. 34 Schönhauser Allee 8 DIRECTED BY: Sebastian Buerkner MAIN CAST: Micheal Grime (M.), James French 18 Shacklewell Lane PRODUCED BY: Jelena Goldbach Raoul Brand 14482 10119 Berlin WRITTEN BY: Sebastian Buerkner & John Mosely (male voice), Martina Schmücker (female voice) E8 2EZ DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ORIGINAL SCORE: Bernd Schurer GERMANY GERMANY SOUND DESIGN: Gernot Fuhrmann UK Matthias Pilz MAIN CAST: Iman Alibalić (Selma, +49 151 5608 6028 +49 152 251 923 36 ANIMATION: Sebastian Buerkner, Peter Caires, +44 207 503 3980 EDITOR: Anja Siemens younger sister), Esma Alić (Azra, older [email protected] [email protected] Timothy Divall & Natalie Rose Young [email protected] PRODUCTION DESIGN: Ivana Škrabalo sister), Mirela Lambić (mother), Mario www.lux.org.uk COSTUME DESIGN: Martina Franić Knezović (soldier)

Entering the already unfamiliar virtual space of a stereoscopic digital animation, viewers find themselves behind the eyes of an unseen and distinctly unreliable protagonist, so evasive that he and his motives can hardly be identified. Arriving by train at a town where he once lived, he moves through the old haunts seemingly attempting to re-engage with two abandoned relationships, one with a man, one with a woman, yet frequently appearing simply to become more engaged with quotidian objects made hallucinatory by As a present for her 6th birthday, Selma gets a live chicken. When she realises the animal is going to be close scrutiny. The very fractured and expressive manifestation of the three-dimensional space in this killed to feed the family, she decides to save it and set it free, unaware of the high stakes such action will stereoscopic film, combined with the protagonist’s point of view, puts the viewers inside these contort- lead to. While trying to bring back the missing chicken, Selma’s mum becomes the target of a sniper shoot. ed relationships. The pounding and intimate interactions of the characters have to be endured by being Sarajevo, 1993. pushed through each situation locked into the identity of someone who refuses to participate, or maybe even to be. www.thechicken-shortfilm.com

Una Gunjak Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- Sebastian Buerkner How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- Sarajevo-born, London- pean cinema community”? Sebastian Buerkner ficult to get financing? based editor and film- If I were to choose single words to associate with a (born in 1975 in Berlin) The production took about a year and a half, as it took maker. Sensitive listener, European cinema community, they would be: charac- lives and works in Lon- time to get a handle on the opportunities and fragili- passionate storyteller, ter, diversity, voice, cultural wealth, co-production! I don. He completed an ties of the stereoscopic animation space. Most of the devoted worshiper of hate to think about cinema as a horse race and that MA at Chelsea College funding came from a submission process at Film the moving image. In my is why, I guess, I chose these terms; I believe this is of Art & Design in 2002 London through the FLAMIN scheme. spare time I speak pro- what filmmaking is in Europe. and was awarded their If you owned a theatre for one night, which films ficiently in English, Ital- If you owned a theatre for one night, which films Fellowship Residency would you screen? ian and Bosnian, fluently would you screen? 2003. From 2004 his art What about a triple bill: MEET THE FEEBLES by Peter in French and I mostly I guess no one would leave the cinema without see- practice has shifted ex- Jackson, THE PUMPKIN EATER by Jack Clayton and make a fool of myself in Spanish. ing A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE. Then the audience clusively to animation. Recent solo shows include FEMALE TROUBLE by John Waters. How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- would like it so much that we could just screen the Tramway, ; The Showroom Gallery, Art on What is your next project? ficult to get financing? entire DECALOGUE after which we could freestyle the Underground and Screen at Canary Wharf, Lon- I have done two smaller projects and a major solo From the moment I took it out of the drawer till the across the rest of Kieslowski’s catalogue. don and he has also participated in group shows and exhibition since. So right now I enjoy probing two premiere, it took about 2 1/2 years. It was very diffi- What is your next project? screenings at Tate Modern, London and Kunsthalle ideas and their potential for further development cult to get it off the ground. I’m a Bosnian filmmaker, I am currently writing my first feature film, dealing Wien, Vienna. and funding. One of them would see me working with UK-based, with a background in editing; let’s say it with notions of female identity and migration. camera instead of animation for the first time since involved a lot of application forms and pitches. a decade. Valladolid Short Film Nominee 14 Ireland 00:06:35 Tampere Short Film Nominee 15 00:11:00

Production, World Sales & Press: Production, World Sales & Press: THE MISSING SCARF Belly Creative Inc. WALL ProductionProton Cinema Eoin Duffy Julia Berkes WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Eoin Duffy SOUND DESIGN: Gavin Little & Joe McHugh Old Chapel Lane FAL Pozsonyi út 14 PRODUCED BY: Jamie Hogan ORIGINAL SCORE: Tobias Norberg & Gavin Little Co. Carlow, Tullow 1137 Budapest DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY & EDITOR: Eoin Duffy ANIMATION: Eoin Duffy IRELAND WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Simon Szabó SOUND DESIGN: Alex Hunyadi HUNGARY PRODUCTION & COSTUME DESIGN: Eoin Duffy MAIN CAST: George Takei (narrator) +1 604 728 244 PRODUCED BY: Julia Berkes ORIGINAL SCORE: Ekaros Ekaros +36 70 422 7110 [email protected] DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY & EDITOR: MAIN CAST: Sándor Tóth (Laci) [email protected] www.wearebelly.com Albert Czomba protoncinema.hu PRODUCTION & COSTUME DESIGN: Judit Sinkovics

George Takei narrates this multi-award-winning fable about a wise squirrel on an increasingly existential Laci is a 16-year-old gypsy boy, who lives off casual jobs. One day, he gets picked up from the streets, quest to find its scarf. The film sets out on a misadventurous route to answering four common human along with a small group of workers, for a construction job. He has to participate in the completion of a fears. Presented in order, they are: fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of rejection and, finally, fear of wall that surrounds a series of tenement buildings. The film follows the various stages of the construction death, which is comically blown out of proportion to include the entire universe. For each fear both sides as Laci helps out the other workers. In the end, Laci is asked to complete the work. He now takes his first of an argument are presented but visually no real resolution is delivered. This allows the audience to form look beyond the wall, which holds an unusual revelation for him. their own conclusion for each argument.

themissingscarf.com Simon Szabó Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- Born in 1979, Simon pean cinema community”? Eoin Duffy enjoyable. The film was generously funded by the Szabó is a well-known In my view the European cinema community, apart Eoin Duffy is an Irish di- Irish Film Board, a multi-tiered procedure which took actor, director and mu- from the element of entertainment, focuses on Eu- rector and filmmaker. around 3-4 months. sician/DJ. He won the ropean social and cultural heritage, providing a com- His work has been short- Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- prize for best short film mon platform in the form of film and discussion to listed for an Oscar at the pean cinema community”? for LET’S ROLL at the see each other’s problems and to reflect on them. 86th Academy Awards. The European cinema community is a much needed Hungarian Film Week If you owned a theatre for one night, which films In addition, his films alternative to Hollywood, which gains more ground in 2008 and in 2009 he would you screen? have secured multiple each and every year. The diversity in European cul- took home the Sándor Maybe people would expect me to list the great international accolades ture is reflected in the diversity of films it produces. Simó Award for his first works of film history, but I’d choose THE CROW with including awards at the If you owned a theatre for one night, which films feature PAPER PLANES. Brandon Lee because I’ve never seen it on a big San Francisco IFF, Sa- would you screen? How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- screen and I’d love to, as it is my favourite movie. vannah FF, Dallas IFF, Seminci and many others. 12 ANGRY MEN by Sidney Lumet, AMÉLIE by Jean- ficult to get financing? What is your next project? How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- Pierre Jeunet and THE GARAGE by Carl Thibault. The whole production of WALL took almost one year I hope to make my second feature in the summer ficult to get financing? What is your next project? but the shooting itself took only three days. After the of 2015. Set in 1995, this will be a story of a teen- It took 12 months to complete from initial concept, My next film is another short animated film called I Hungarian National Film Foundation collapsed it was age boy who has behaviour problems, therefore his through three dozen script re-writes, to the final AM HERE, which tells the tale of a celestial traveller’s very hard to get any financing for our film. parents send him to a boarding school. It’s a kind of labour-intensive process of animation, but all search for higher meaning. autobiographical story :) Ghent Short Film Nominee 16 Denmark/Iceland 00:15:29 17 SHORT MATTERS!

Production: World Sales: WHALE VALLEY Join Motion Pictures Magnetfilm Anton Máni Svansson Georg Gruber The EFA Short Film Initiative HVALFJORD +354 615 0005 +49 163 80 10 753 [email protected] [email protected] The short film initiative is organised in co-operation with a series of film festivals throughout Europe. At each WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson www.joinmotionpictures.com www.magnetfilm.de of these festivals, an independent jury presents one of the short films in competition with a nomination in the PRODUCED BY: Anton Máni Svansson & Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson European Film Awards’ short film category. In 2015, the initiative includes the following festivals: DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Gunnar Auðunn Jóhannsson Fourhands Film EDITOR: Anders Skov Jacob Oliver Krarup PRODUCTION DESIGN: Júlía Embla Katrínardóttir +45 2629 8389 ★ 14 - 25 Oct. 2014: Film Fest Gent (Belgium) COSTUME DESIGN: Helga Rós V. Hannam [email protected] ★ 18 - 25 Oct. 2014: Valladolid International Film Festival (Spain) SOUND DESIGN: Gunnar Óskarsson www.fourhandsfilm.dk MAIN CAST: Ágúst Örn B. Wigum (Ívar), Einar Jóhann Valsson (Arnar) ★ 7 - 16 Nov. 2014: Cork Film Festival (Ireland) ★ 21 Jan. - 1 Feb. 2015: International Film Festival Rotterdam (the Netherlands) ★ 30 Jan. - 7 Feb. 2015: International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand (France) ★ 5 - 15 Feb. 2015: Berlin International Film Festival (Germany) ★ 4 - 8 Mar. 2015: Tampere Film Festival (Finland) ★ 31 May - 7 Jun. 2015: Krakow Film Festival (Poland) ★ June 2015: Norwegian Short Film Festival Grimstad () ★ 4 - 12 Jul. 2015: Curtas Vila do Conde - International Film Festival/ (Portugal) ★ 5 – 15 Aug. 2015: Festival del film Locarno () ★ 14 - 22 Aug. 2015: Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia & Herzegovina) ★ 2 - 12 Sep. 2015: Venice Film Festival () ★ 14 – 19 Sep. 2015: International Short Film Festival in Drama () The film shows a pure love story between two brothers who live in a remote Icelandic fjord with their ★ Sep. 2015: Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival Bristol (UK) parents. When the younger brother, a little boy, witnesses a life or death moment involving his big brother it sets in motion the possibility of either a great tragedy or a turning point to better times in both of their lives. To be considered for a nomination, a short film has to screen in competition at one of these festivals. Eligible are directors born in Europe or with a European passport* whose films do not exceed a running www.whalevalley.com time of 30 min and match the genre regulations of the respective festival. When the annual cycle is complete in September, the members of the European Film Academy − more Guðmundur Arnar I like the rich collaboration between countries and than 3,000 European film professionals − get to watch all nominated short films and it is they who Guðmundsson the variety of films being made. I believe it is very im- elect the overall winner: the European Short Film, which will be presented at the 28th European Film Born in Reykjavik in portant that we continue to nourish filmmaking as an Awards Ceremony on 12 December 2015 in Berlin. 1982, he graduated in art form alongside the market orientation because fine art from the Icelan- those two aspects combined make European cinema * European, in the sense of the European Film Academy, means geographical Europe, both EU and non-EU, and shall dic Art Academy, then strong in my opinion. include Israeli and Palestinian moved to Denmark and If you owned a theatre for one night, which films studied screenwriting. would you screen? Guðmundur works as a It would hopefully be a multi-screen theatre as filmmaker and a part- there are so many films I would like to screen. If I time teacher in film and have to pick one then on top of my mind comes Alain SHORT MATTERS! video art. Resnais’ LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD. A beautiful cin- How long did it take to make your short? Was it dif- ema experience! Short Film Nominees on Tour ficult to get financing? What is your next project? SHORT MATTERS! is the European Film Academy’s short film tour which has brought the It took us about a year from story to final cut. The It will be my feature film debut HEARTSTONE. The nominated short films to audiences across Europe in Aarhus, Alcalá de Henares, Athens, Batumi, funding was difficult but we managed to go into film is set in the beautiful yet harsh nature of Iceland Bitola, Braunschweig, Bristol, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Drama, Girona, Grenoble, shooting by getting help and support from many good and portrays the journey of friendship and love that Helsinki, Jerusalem, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Krakow, Lecce, Lille, Limassol, London, Madrid, people and with raising enough money to cover the two boys go through as one tries to win the heart of Moscow, Münster, Nicosia, Odense, Prizren, Riga, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Setúbal, uncontrollable costs. After that we could show the a girl while the other discovers new feelings toward Siauliai, Sofia, Tabor, Tallinn, Tampere, Timisoara, Trondheim, Uppsala, Viana do Castelo, material and manage to fund the post-production. his best friend. Vila do Conde, Vilnius and Wiesbaden – and to , , Macau, Sri Lanka and Taiwan! Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “Euro- pean cinema community”? Founded in 1988, the European Film Academy (EFA) now unites more than 3,000 European film professionals with the common aim of promoting European film culture. Throughout the year, the EFA initiates and participates in a series of activities dealing with film politics as well as economic, artistic, and training aspects. The programme includes conferences, seminars and workshops, and a common goal is to build a bridge between creativity and the industry. These activities culminate in the annual pre- sentation of the European Film Awards.