International Film News

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François Alaux and Hervé de Crécy’s Logorama

26th Hamburg International Short Film Festival
28/06/2010

By Laurence Boyce

Given that they are temporally and geographically close to one another it’s understandable that comparisons are made between the Oberhausen Short Film Festival and the Hamburg Short Film Festival. Both have carved a reputation as some of the most important short film festivals in not only Germany but across the world with showcases of a wide diversity of new films alongside retrospectives and special programmes. Yet the approaches of both festivals are strikingly different: it’s as if Oberhausen is the sensible older cousin which goes to bed at a reasonable time after serious discussions about aesthetics and politics whilst Hamburg is the rebellious younger member of the family that stays out drinking and smoking until the early morning. Certainly, Hamburg is very much an audience led festival (though it does provide some industry events) that encourages the public to interact with filmmakers at screenings and at the late night festival club. It engenders a relaxed and laid back atmosphere that has made the festival an extremely popular destination for filmgoers and filmmakers alike.

The festival’s International Competition contained many strong films, including Out In That Deep Blue Sea, the Oscar winning Logorama, Jay Rosenblatt’s found footage documentary The Darkness of Days, and the Golden Bear winning Incident By A Bank, all of which are currently making their way across the festival circuit. Other interesting pieces included ultimate winner A Perm from South Korea, the brilliant New Zealand coming of age story, The Six Dollar Fifty Man (which also won the Best Short Film at Sundance 2010), Alex Taylor’s popular British film Kids Might Fly and British experimental filmmaker John Smith’s latest film Flag Mountain. Unsurprisingly, the German Competition proved popular with winning film Holding Still being an intensely moving account of a woman who has been bedridden for 20 years after an assault. The No Budget competition, in which the origins of the festival lie, produced more experimental and esoteric fare with ultimate winner Helmut’s House, from UK filmmaker Jessica Dickenson, a simple but hugely affecting documentary about Helmut, an 89 year-old German who has been living in a self-built shack in the Australian Outback for almost 40 years. Other highlights were the popular and extremely witty Slovenian film Arsy Versy, experimental film Flash Happy Society and Frameframer & Zart_B, two films that utilise video feedback from the catalogue of Austria’s Sixpack Films. There was also the wildly strange with Mike Olenick’s Spaceboy which channelled the spirit of George Kuchar and Ben Rivers and Paul Harnden’s May Tomorrow Shine The Brightest Of All Your Many Days As It Will Be Your Last, a lovingly put together 16mm film about Scottish tramps and Japanese soldiers.

With some exceedingly popular one off screenings including A Wall Is A Screen, the Three Minute Quickies and also a ever expanded children’s festival entitled Mo & Freise, the Hamburg International Short Film Festival is certainly a respite from festivals in which catering to the industry is the be all and end all. Its inclusiveness and general relaxed atmosphere will ensure that it will remain popular for many years to come.

For more information on the Hamburg International Short Film Festival visit www.shortfilm.com.

26th Hamburg International Short Film Festival Winners

Hamburg International Short Film Award

Jury Award International Competition
A Perm (Ran-hee Lee, South Korea)

Special Mention
Joél (Hlynur Pálmason, Iceland)

Audience Award
Logorama (François Alaux, Hervé de Crézy & Ludovic Houplain, France)

No Budget Competition

Jury Award
Helmut’s House (Jessica Dickenson, Great Britain/Australia)

Special Mention
m (Félix Dufour-Laperrière, Canada 2009)

Audience Award
Arsy- Versy (Miro Remo, Slovakia 2009)

German Competition

Jury Award
Holding Still (Florian Riegel, Germany)

Special Mentions
My Mallorca (Bernadette Knoller, Germany)
Gömböc (Ulrike Vahl, Germany)

Natural American Spirit Audience Award
A Day and an Eternity (Anna Hepp, Germany)

Hamburg Competition

Hamburg Audience Award Presented by Pilsner Urquell
Glebs Film (Christian Hornung, Germany)

Three-Minute Quickie: Topic ‘Kitchen’

Audience Award
Latest News (Per Carleson, Sweden)

Arte-Short Film Award
Masala Mama (Michael Kam, Singapore)

ZDF Neo-Award
Coffee’n’Ciggies (Jana Magdalena Keuchel & Daniel Wacker, Germany)

Musik in Shorts Award
Love & Theft (Sound Design: Heiko Maile)
Paris – Taken From the Surface (Sound Design: Franz Ka)

Best Sound Design International
The Sound of the Tree (Sound Design: Dylan Corlay)

mo&FrieSe Children’s Short Film Festival

mo-award sponsored by Geolino
Angry Man (Anita Killi, Norway)

Special Mention
The Postcard (Stefan Le Lay, France)

Friese-Award Sponsored by Springer Bio-Backwerk
Free Chips Forever! (Claire Dix, Ireland)

“High Five”-competition

1st Prize
Heartache (Lennart Döhle, Germany 2010)

2nd Prize
Lara’s New Knit Pullover (Lisa Ecker, Germany 2010)

3rd Prize
Milk tooth and Silver Hair (Jeremy Philipp, Germany 2010)

Jakub Stozek receiving the Golden Dragon for Out of Reach

The 50th Krakow Film Festival
23/06/2010

By Laurence Boyce

Having reached an impressive 50 years, the Krakow Film Festival celebrated both its rich history (Krzysztof Zanussi, who was on the jury of the first edition of the festival, returned to head the short film jury) and those filmmakers who are currently poised to be the future of cinema. Alongside its traditional competitions (for feature and mid-length documentaries and international and national short films), the festival also played host to a retrospective of the work of legendary documentary maker Jonas Mekas who was present to receive The Dragon of Dragons (the festival’s highest accolade). There was also an impressive industry component to the festival with a useful market and videotheque and numerous documentary pitching sessions and workshops.

It was quite fitting that, on the 50th anniversary of the festival, a Polish film would walk away with the Golden Dragon. It was a deserved winner as Out Of Reach is a powerful documentary about two young girls who are determined to find their erstwhile mother. Very much in the tradition of Polish documentary filmmaking, it’s an emotional and sensitive work. The winner of the Golden Hobby Horse, Warsaw Available, was another example of powerful and well-observed documentary that follows young Polish village girls experiencing the big city for the first time. More transcendent is the Czech documentary I Love My Boring Life, in which a middle-aged lady reads from her diary whilst – through some brilliant cinematography – we piece together her life. A fine piece about how the mundane can also be beautiful.

Whilst the documentaries at the 50th Krakow Film Festival have been strong – indeed, with the introduction of the competitions for feature length documentaries, the festival has shifted its focus somewhat over the past few years, there were also plenty of excellent animations and fiction shorts. Incident At A Bank (the winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival) is a technically impressive account of a heist. Shot in one take, it does what shorts can do so well by focusing upon how seemingly small events can be life-changing. The same goes for the intriguing Out In That Deep Blue Sea, a sensitive and controlled portrayal of a real-estate agent desperately trying to cling on in uncertain times. Other highlights included Swedish director Jonas Odell’s latest film Tussilago, Divers In The Rain, the latest film from legendary Estonian animator Priit Pärn and his wife Olga, Tobacco Girl, a powerful German documentary about a Macedonian girl caught between tradition and her desire to be educated, and Alice In Modernland, Marie-Eve Signeyrole’s surreally compelling fable featuring a turn from Emir Kusturica.

In light of increased competition from other festivals in Poland, it’s clear that the Krakow Film Festival still has a unique and important place on the festival calendar and the fact that it has reached 50 is an extraordinary achievement.

BFI Celebrates Kurosawa on Screen and at Home
23/06/2010

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Akira Kurosawa and as an accompaniment to the impressive two-month retrospective being held at the BFI Southbank, the British Film Institue have released an anniversary box set of the director’s most famous samurai films. Comprised of his Macbeth adaptation, Throne of Blood, Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, Sanjuro and the epic Seven Samurai, the collection shows Kurosawa at his very best.

The collection also coincides with the general release across the UK of arguably the director’s most famous film, Rashomon.

Elsewhere, the BFI are continuing with their Blu-ray updates of previous DVD releases with the majestic The Leopard, directed by Luchino Visconti.

The BFI have also released Ken Loach’s little-seen Black Jack, an 18th century children tale, which features a commentary by the director.

Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Apichatpong Weerasethakul Wins Palme d’Or at Cannes 2010
26/05/2010

The 2010 edition of the Cannes Film Festival ended on Sunday 23 May with the Palme d’Or awarded to acclaimed Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul for his film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. In a year that featured few standout titles, Weerasethakul’s entry, one of the last competition films to screen, was seen as a worthy winner. Among the other prizes, there were a number of suprises, particularly in Mike Leigh and Rachid Bouchareb’s failure to pick up any awards.

Another festival favourite, Xavier Beauvois’ Of Gods and Men, received the Grand Prix, but lead actor Lambert Wilson, regarded by many as a shoo in for the Best Actor Award, was beaten by Javier Bardem, as a man diagnosed with a terminal illness in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful and Elio Germano for his powerful performance in Daniele Luchetti’s Our Life. Juliette Binoche was one of the few predicted prizewinners, picking up the Best Actress prize for her performance in Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy.

Another actor, who caused the biggest upset in the main competition, was Matthieu Amalric, who picked up the Best Director prixe for On Tour. The Jury Prize went to Mahamat-Saleh Haroun for A Screaming Man.