29th Shorts nominatons

European Film Awards

THE 29th EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS

EUROPEAN SHORT FILM 2016: THE NOMINATIONS

Welcome to the 29th European Film Awards CONTENTS: Welcome ...................................................................................

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Films 9 DAYS – FROM MY WINDOW IN ALEPPO ...........................

90 DEGREES NORTH ..........................................................

A MAN RETURNED .............................................................

AMALIMBO .........................................................................

EDMOND .............................................................................

HOME .................................................................................

I’M NOT FROM HERE ..........................................................

IN THE DISTANCE ...............................................................

LIMBO .................................................................................

SHOOTING STAR ................................................................

SMALL TALK ......................................................................

THE FULLNESS OF TIME (ROMANCE) ................................

THE GOODBYE ....................................................................

THE WALL ..........................................................................

WE ALL LOVE THE SEA SHORE ..........................................

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The EFA Short Film Initiative .................................................

The Short Matters! Tour ...................................................

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European Film Academy e.V. Kurfürstendamm 225 10719 Berlin GERMANY tel. +(49)30 887 167-0 fax +(49)30 887 167-77

EFA Productions gGmbH Kurfürstendamm 225 10719 Berlin GERMANY tel. +(49)30 887 167-0 fax +(49)30 887 167-77

www.europeanfilmacademy.org

www.efa-productions.com

Director: Marion Döring Amtsgericht Charlottenburg 14236 Nz

Managing Directors: Marion Döring, Jürgen Biesinger Amtsgericht Charlottenburg HRB 99369

IMPRINT: EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY e.V. // Editor: Pascal Edelmann // Graphic design: Andrés Castoldi // Unless otherwise indicated, all pictures appear courtesy of the respective production/distribution companies ★

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WELCOME

We are happy to present the short films nominated for the European Film Awards 2016: A lot of them depart from a critical examination of life’s realities, from illness and death to war and the dangers of a traffic island. We meet a family from Kristiansand, neighbours in a Hongkong skyscraper, and a group of refugees. Each of the nominated films opens a window into a different world and still altogether they can only offer a glimpse of the galaxy of human experience, perception and emotion – and of the breath-taking creative diversity of European cinema. It is with great pleasure that we present this year’s nominated short films.

We are proud to draw attention to these short films and their creators and I invite you to leaf through this booklet and meet the nominees – creative people from all over Europe.

This great short film initiative wouldn’t be possible without our friends in the world of short films and I wish to thank all our partner festivals for yet another fantastic year full of surprises and discoveries!

I would also like to thank our friends at the Film Fest Gent and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) for the EFA Short Film Weekend – a great gathering of the nominated directors in Ghent for a first screening of the nominated shorts and a weekend of meeting and mingling.

Thank you & bedankt!

The members of the European Film Academy elect the overall winner who is announced at the 29th European Film Awards Ceremony in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture, 2016.

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

Agnieszka Holland Chairwoman EFA Board

The EFA Short Film Initiative has long been an established item on the annual international short film agenda. It is organised in co-operation with fifteen partner festivals at each of which an independent international jury presents one of the European short films in competition with a nomination for the award European Short Film. During the past fifteen years, the interest in the short film initiative and this collection of short films has constantly been increasing. The nominated films go through a series of 40 screenings across Europe and beyond.

Bristol Short Film Nominee

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The Netherlands/Syria 2015, 13 min

9 DAYS – FROM MY WINDOW IN ALEPPO

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

Directed by: Thomas Vroege, Floor van der Meulen & Issa Touma Written by: Issa Touma Produced by: Jos de Putter Director of Photography: Issa Touma Editor: Thomas Vroege & Floor van der Meulen Sound Designer: Tom Jansen

Production: Deepfocus Webdocs Jos de Putter WG-Plein 385 1054 SG Amsterdam NETHERLANDS info@deepfocus.nl tel: +31 651 03 88 55

World Sales & Press: Some Shorts Wouter Jansen St Annastraat 149 6524ER Nijmegen NETHERLANDS info@someshorts.com tel: +31 622 07 67 17

One morning in August 2012, renowned Syrian photographer Issa Touma saw young men lugging sandbags into his street. It turned out to be the start of the Syrian uprising in the city of Aleppo. Touma grabbed his camera and spent nine days holed up in his apartment, recording what was happening outside. The result? An unprecedented glimpse into a war that has been raging for three years now.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

I think we have a wonderful circuit of film festivals in Europe that are both really politically engaged and passionate about cinema. We really have felt that during the tour of our film. We have a rich history of cinema, a rich culture in arthouse and independent cinema I am very proud of.

Thomas Vroege, Floor van der Meulen & Issa Touma How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

Issa shot the footage during the nine days in 2012 that he was stuck in his apartment in Aleppo. But we edited it in 2015, within a month. We got a little financial support from De Correspondent, an online journalist platform in Holland, which first launched the film, from our co-producer Paradox and the Dutch Cultural Mediafond. It was not much, but all the people involved recognised the importance of the story and made sacrifices.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

That’s difficult. There are a lot of films I think people should see. Maybe DOGTOOTH by Yorgos Lanthimos or PARIS, TEXAS by Wim Wenders. But definitely ENJOY POVERTY by Renzo Martens.

What is your next project?

We are working on a follow-up to 9 DAYS and Issa’s story, daily life in Aleppo. Also, Thomas is working on a a longer documentary essay that explores the tragic narrative mistakes of the Western world towards the Syrian revolution.

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Cork Short Film Nominee

Germany 2015, 21 min

90 DEGREES NORTH 90 GRAD NORD DIRECTED BY: Detsky Graffam WRITTEN BY: Detsky Graffam PRODUCED BY: Marianne Graffam DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Hanno Moritz Kunow EDITOR: Karl Peglau PRODUCTION DESIGN: Merlin Ortner

COSTUME DESIGN: Madeleine Edis HAIR & MAKEUP ARTIST: Susi Bär COMPOSER: Mathieu Karsenti SOUND DESIGN: Charlotte Lewis MAIN CAST: Carsten Clemens (Karl), Stefan Dietrich (Herr Harms), Jürgen Haug (Herr Gruber)

Production & Press: K17 Films Marianne Graffam Rhinower Str. 10 10437 Berlin GERMANY hello@k17films.com tel: +49 176 221 64 197

World Sales: Kurz Film Agentur Hamburg Stine Wangler Friedensallee 7 22765 Hamburg GERMANY sales@shortfilm.com tel: +49 40 39 10 63 19

Detsky Graffam How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

The film took two years to make from the first “action!” (well, they actually say “please” in Germany at the start of each take ... which is nice as it’s quite polite and you can vary it depending on what the scene needs at that moment: from a sexy whisper to an existential scream, in this case it was more the latter than the former) ... so from the first “bitte” to the final “here it is on a hard drive” it took two years.

It was tricky to finance. A monster traffic island had to be brought to life! There were effects galore. We had to find a remote location with an extremely wide road and pine trees, as we needed to show four seasons in twenty minutes. But we were lucky and honoured to meet Veronika Grob at the medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, who believed in the project from the start, and to be supported by a large crowdfunding community via Startnext.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

90 DEGREES NORTH has enabled us to meet a lot of European filmmakers over the past year. The community is strong and rich and I am proud to be part of it. May it continue to flourish and do its part in uniting us. Still flabbergasted by Brexit ...

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

I would first think about who to invite and what I want to watch with them. It would have to be STAR WARS for my kids – they haven’t seen any of the saga yet.

I would then invite the cinephiles I want to impress, chuck on THE SEVENTH SEAL by Ingmar Bergman, surreptitiously replace myself with a mannequin in the audience and go and have a pizza with my kids and talk about wampas. Next I would screen SEVEN SAMURAI by Akira Kurosawa for myself and my friends, followed by LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS by Marcel Carné for my wife.

What is your next project?

We are developing a comedy heist feature film set in a conservative German garden colony, as well as a monster movie which will see lots of irritating politicians being eaten.

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

It’s a fact: good Germans wait at red traffic lights. But what do you do when the green man simply won’t appear? Taking place almost entirely on the most pernicious traffic island imaginable, 90 DEGREES NORTH is a humorous, fantastical parable offering an extreme take on the notion of following the rules of a civil society.

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Berlin Short Film Nominee

A MAN RETURNED

Production: Nakba FIlmWorks Patrick Campbell #4 450 Kingsland Road London E8 4AE UK patrick@nakbafilmworks.com tel: +44 785 28 40 462

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

DIRECTED BY: Mahdi Fleifel PRODUCED BY: Patrick Campbell DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Mahdi Fleifel EDITOR: Michael Aaglund SOUND DESIGN: Dario Swade

UK/Lebanon/Denmark/The Netherlands 2015, 30 min

Reda is 26 years old. His dreams of escaping the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain El-Helweh ended in failure after three years of being trapped in Greece. He returned with a heroin addiction to life in a camp being torn apart by internal strife and the encroachment of war from Syria.

Against all odds he decides to marry his childhood sweetheart. A love story, bittersweet as the camp itself.

Mahdi Fleifel How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

A MAN RETURNED took a month to shoot and three months to edit. The shoot was very cheap, I was visiting family in the camp at that time anyway so it was relatively easy to afford and organise.

Funding the post-production was difficult for a few reasons; firstly short docs aren’t very popular, and secondly we were applying at a stage where funders could have very little influence on the project so it took a brave move from our friends at Screen Institute Beirut to get enough to finish the film.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

When it comes to films being made there definitely is a sense of what ‘European film’ is, which is a good thing. When it comes to the audience the idea of a community becomes hazier but it’s not essential that European audiences consume predominantly European films.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

DIE HARD, over and over What is your next project?

A fiction feature set in Athens based on stories of friends who have made, or attempted to make, the journey from Lebanon/Syria into Europe.

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Venice Short Film Nominee

AMALIMBO DIRECTED BY: Juan Pablo Libossart WRITTEN BY: Juan Pablo Libossart PRODUCED BY: Johanna Lind EDITOR: Juan Pablo Libossart PRODUCTION DESIGN: Roland Seer COMPOSER: Åsa Carlson, Anders Kjellberg

Sweden/Estonia 2016, 15 min

Production: Fasad Johanna Lind SOUND DESIGN: Gustaf Berger, Stora Nygatan 33 Lars Wignell 11126 Stockholm MAIN CAST: Margaretha Ulfendahl SWEDEN (Tipuana), Anna Odell (Older Tipuana) johanna@fasad.se ANIMATION: Roland Seer, Denis Chapon, tel: +46 735 202 676

Fork Film Marianne Ostrat Tuvi 16-3 10119 Tallinn ESTONIA marianne@forkfilm.eu tel: +372 523 35 77

Miguel Mealla Black

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

AMALIMBO is the story of Tipuana, a five year-old girl who experiences the limbo when she tries to pass to ”the other side” in her desperate urge to meet again with her recently deceased father.

It is a short story that happens in an undefined place, and also in an undefined future.

Portrait: Jose Figueroa

Juan Pablo Libossart How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

Once the script was ready, it took us about three years to produce and make the film. It was not very difficult to get the financing up to 70% of the costs of the film. Unfortunately, we never managed to finance the remaining 30%.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

I think of people like Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, Emir Kusturica. THE 400 BLOWS. The world I discovered as a kid in Argentina, watching a cable TV channel called ‘Europa-Europa’, if I remember it right.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

Oh! Difficult question. There are so many … But it would be Fellini’s AMARCORD, Almodovar’s VOLVER and Kieslowski’s THREE COLOURS: BLUE. And two shorts, Albert Lamorisse’s THE RED BALLOON and ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ from the FANTASIA 2000. These two were inspirations for making Amalimbo.

What is your next project?

It is my first feature. A story that will combine animation and live action. The idea is to shoot some parts in Tierra del Fuego, a remote place where I spent many years as a kid. For this project I’m hoping to collaborate with a choreographer that I recently discovered and that has blown my mind!

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Uppsala Short Film Nominee

UK 2015, 9 min

EDMOND

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

DIRECTED BY: Nina Gantz PRODUCED BY: Emilie Jouffroy DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Ian Forbes EDITOR: Nina Rac COSTUME DESIGN: Eva Roelfs

COMPOSER: Terence Dunn SOUND DESIGN: Rob Turner ANIMATION: Adam Watts, Nina Gantz, Terri Matthews

Production & World Sales: NFTS Hemant Sharda Station Road Beaconsfield HP9 1LG UK festivals@nfts.co.uk tel: +44 1494 73 14 52

Press: Nina Gantz 19 Buller Rd Brighton BN2 4BH UK ninagantz1@gmail.com tel: +44 742 93 78 332

Edmond’s impulse to love and be close to others is strong ... maybe too strong. As he stands alone by a lake contemplating his options, he goes on a journey backwards through his life, and revisits all his defining moments in search of the origin of his desires.

Nina Gantz How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

It took us one year and two months to make the film from beginning to end, including nine months of animating.

EDMOND was my graduation film from the National Film and Television School which gives you a small budget. We had a team of student heads of department and also worked with a lot of volunteers, friends and family to realise this ambitious project.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

I’ve been very lucky with this film to visit so many different festivals all over Europe and to see the incredible variety and passion which is alive in the animation and film world. The support I received was incredible and made me feel I was part of a fantastic scene.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

With such a big space available I would probably do something I couldn’t do at home. Starting off with a WEST SIDE STORY sing-a-long, then I would show a couple of films. During these films the audience will get three meals that are also depicted in the films.

When the actors drink the audience will also get a drink, when they eat pasta, the audience will also get a plate served. A 4d experience!

I’m not sure which films to show yet, but I’m thinking something like LE GRANDE BOUFFE (The Big Feast)

by Marco Ferreri, BIG NIGHT by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci, and WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY by Mel Stuart.

What is your next project?

Currently, I’m signed as a team with Simon Cartwright with a great London-based production company called BlinkInk. We are in the process of developing new scripts for TV shows, shorts and feature-length films, looking for new ways of combining live action and animation techniques.

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Vila do Conde Short Film Nominee

HOME DIRECTED BY: Daniel Mulloy WRITTEN BY: Daniel Mulloy PRODUCED BY: Afolabi Kuti, Shpat Deda, Chris Watling, Scott O’Donnell, Tim Nash DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Victor Seguin, Paul Mackay EDITOR: Philip Currie PRODUCTION DESIGN: Mrinë Godanca COSTUME DESIGN: Holly Rebecca HAIR & MAKEUP ARTIST: Laura Wisinger

Kosovo/UK 2016, 20 min

Production: Dokufest Film Festival Dokufest, Mimar Sinan No1 20000 Prizren KOSOVO info@dokufest.com tel: +381 29 233 718

Black Sheep Studio 60 Kingly Street London W2B 5DS UK ali.cooper@bbh.co.uk tel: +44 207 734 1677

Somesuch & Co. Unit 2, Royle Studios, 41 Wenlock Road London N1 7SG UK lucy@somesuch.co tel: +44 203 487 1270

SOUND DESIGN: Jon Clarke MAIN CAST: Jack O’Connell (Dad), Holliday Grainger (Mum), Tahliya Lowles (Daughter), Zaki Ramadani (Son) ANIMATION: Carl Phillips

Portrait: Jetmir Idrizi

Daniel Mulloy How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

It took about a year to make from conception to completion. The financing was put together in a piecemeal fashion from several different sources. It was led by a man named Shpend Qamili who worked closely with Dokufest. Shpend connected to the idea and theme and put a huge amount of passion into pulling together the financing. The remaining amount was contributed by the producers and I. Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

Highly talented, invested and hard working artists and technicians willing to travel and collaborate to create something with power and beauty. Individuals, with a shared passion, often find one another and when they do, it is natural for them to want to create something and nurture it into being.

If you owned a theater for one night, which films would you screen?

It would be a mix of new films I haven’t seen and classics. I would love to discover Ralitza Petrova’s GODLESS and Barry Jenkins’ MOONLIGHT on the big screen for the first time and then re-watch Arta Dobroshi’s stunning performance in LORNA’S SILENCE and Robert De Niro’s in RAGING BULL. What is your next project?

It is a feature film. I am currently writing the script in an incredible public library in Prishtina, Kosovo’s capital. This library is the perfect place to work. It is a unique building with a serene atmosphere, created in part by the natural light that pours in through perspex domes in the roof. Most importantly there are no distractions such as internet or the temptation to read (as my Albanian is way too basic to make sense of a book). So I sit in a prime spot and after some time sink into the world in my mind, there I explore and feel around until I get groggy. When this happens I wonder through the isles to an underground cafe.

There I sip a shot of espresso and take in the turbo folk and neon strip lights. The coffee buzz gets my body going and my brain racing. That’s where I’m writing my next project and I love it, just not on Sundays when it is closed.

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

Thousands of men, women and children struggle to get into Europe as a comfortable English family sets out on what appears to be a holiday.

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Krakow Short Film Nominee

I’M NOT FROM HERE YO NO SOY DE AQUÍ

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

DIRECTED BY: Giedrē Žickytē, Maite Alberdi WRITTEN BY: Giedrē Žickytē PRODUCED BY: Patricio Gajardo, Maite Alberdi, Giedrē Žickytē DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Pablo Valdés EDITOR: Juan Eduardo Murillo PRODUCTION DESIGN: Maite Alberdi

Chile/Denmark/Lithuania 2015, 26 min

Production & World Sales: Micromundo Producciones Patricio Gajardo Huelén 285, apt. 10, Providencia 7500658 Santiago CHILE pato.r.gajardo@gmail.com tel: +56 951 204 862

Press: Kouzi Productions Dimitra Kouzi 4, Melinas Merkouri 115 21 Athens GREECE dimitrakouzi@gmail.com tel: +30 694 6060 862

An 88-year-old Basque Country native, Josebe, lives in a nursing home in Chile. She’s obsessed with finding out where the rest of the elder people she lives with come from. Everyone tells her that they are Chilean, not Spanish as she is. Josebe insists on thinking about her youth in the Basque Country. After a full year living in that house, she struggles to remember that she is living in a nursing home. After 70 years in Chile, she still remembers her homeland lively.

GZ: I think we are less brave than our colleagues 3040 years ago, but we still keep this specific European way of “seeing” and preserve respect for the author as well as for the cinema itself.

Maite Alberdi & Giedrė Žickytė How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

Giedrė Žickytė: It was financed by CPH:DOX and the Danish Film Institute in co-operation with the Lithuanian Film Centre and Chilean funds afterwards.

CPH:DOX LAB is a special talent development lab, they invited us to make a film together.

Maite Alberdi: It was a blind date, we had to find some common ground and work together. We were both interested in working memory from an alternative viewpoint, that which you remember when all is forgotten. It took us one year to make our short film.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

MA: It is a community that respects and promotes the diversity of styles and topics and is really interested in cinema in all its forms.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

MA: I would screen FIRE AT SEA by Gianfranco Rosi. It was the last film that really moved me. I was touched by its deep subject and the fact that a film about refugees could be made in such a cinematic way.

GZ: I would open with a short documentary masterpiece, TEN MINUTES OLDER by Herz Frank, which for me, conveys the whole essence of cinema. Afterwards I would give the screen time to a good debut film by a young filmmaker.

What is your next project?

MA: My next film, THE GROWN-UPS, is about a group of friends with Down Syndrome who have been in the same school for 40 years. They are tired of being students. They are grown-ups, and they want to be treated as such.

GZ: I am in production of the documentary THE JUMP, a story about a Lithuanian sailor who tried to defect with a breath-taking leap from a Soviet boat to an American vessel over the icy ocean. I follow his dramatic journey towards freedom and investigate what happens when his dream becomes reality.

Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Nominee

IN THE DISTANCE DIRECTED BY: Florian Grolig WRITTEN BY: Florian Grolig PRODUCED BY: Florian Grolig EDITOR: Florian Grolig SOUND DESIGN: Tobias Boehm, Christian Wittmoser ANIMATION: Julian Vavrovsky

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Germany 2015, 7 min Production: Florian Grolig Weigandufer 9 12045 Berlin GERMANY fgrolig@gmail.com tel: +49 176 632 00 508

World Sales: Kurz Film Agentur Hamburg e.V. Friedensallee 7 22765 Hamburg GERMANY stine@shortfilm.com tel: +49 40 39 10 63 19

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

It’s calm and peaceful above the clouds. But chaos lurks in the distance and each night, it draws closer.

Florian Grolig How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

I still had some FFA funding granted for my previous short MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE and received some more from Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film, which was not difficult, but lucky. With a total budget of EUR 25,000 I still had to put quite a lot of money into the production myself. This meant I had to take breaks for commercial work quite often. That is the main reason why it took me about three years to get from the idea to finished film. That, and me being lazy.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

I think of all the fine people from all over the world that I met over the past years during festivals. Some of them are good friends now. I’d rather call it a ‘world community’, though.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

Maybe I’d invite some friends and everyone would bring a short film. If I had to pick just one I’d go with Godard’s PIERROT LE FOU. It’s probably my favourite film of all times.

What is your next project?

Right now I work commercially till the end of the year to be financially prepared for a new project in 2017.

Hopefully it will not take three years to finish. It’s a short animation. And maybe I’ll make another game.

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Sarajevo Short Film Nominee

LIMBO

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

DIRECTED BY: Konstantina Kotzamani WRITTEN BY: Konstantina Kotzamani PRODUCED BY: Ron Dyens, Maria Drandaki DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Yorgos Karvelas EDITOR: Yannis Chalkiadakis PRODUCTION DESIGN: Dafni Kalogianni COSTUME DESIGN: Vasileia Rozana HAIR & MAKEUP ARTIST: Evi Zafiropoulou, Hronis Tzimos COMPOSER: Lawrence English

France/Greece 2016, 30 min

Production: Sacrebleu Productions Ron Dyens 10 bis rue Bisson 75020 Paris FRANCE distribution@sacrebleuprod.com tel: +33 1 42 25 30 27

Homemade Films Maria Drandaki Fratti 14 11742 Athens GREECE info@homemadefilms.gr tel: +30 213 0415 200

SOUND DESIGN: Alexandros Sidiropoulos MAIN CAST: Felix Margenfeld (Dead Boy)

The leopard shall lie down with the goat.

The wolves shall live with the lambs.

And the young boy will lead them.

12+1 kids and the carcass of a whale washed ashore …

Konstantina Kotzamani How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

LIMBO took me more than four years to finish.

It was an enduring process, a demanding project that I carried inside me for a long time. Unfortunately, the economical instability in my country in the past three years spoiled many opportunities to gather the budget we needed, so I just had to wait for long periods. At the same time I was doing other film projects that kept me alive and connected me with the cinema world.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

I perceive Europe as a vari-coloured picture, a diverse and progressive cinema, a non-ending cinematic language. At the same time Europe is a safe, connecting net for us to make films, a net that grows larger and larger.

But personally I feel it is difficult to speak about a “community” in such fragmented and harsh times.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

18.00 animation program FANTASTIC PLANET by René Laloux.

20.00 PARIS, TEXAS by Wim Wenders 22.00 THE HOUSE by Sarunas Bartas and after midnight THE MIRROR by Andrei Tarkovsky What is your next project?

My next project is called TEXCOCO. Texcoco was a natural lake within the Valley of Mexico. In the middle of the lake the Aztecs built their ancient city. But later the city got lost, because Mexico City was built on top of it.

I was really attracted by the name of this lake and the shivers of a lost society covered by and overlapping with a new one.

In my Texcoco, there is a huge trash dump and in the outskirts of it a small city-camp is built. Most of the people there actually live from the garbage, people with diverse origins and personalities. Their lives glow as a surreal mosaic. In the heart of this trash there is a lake that is almost drained. One day, on the banks of this lake a strange fossil skeleton gets unveiled.

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Drama Short Film Nominee

SHOOTING STAR

ПАДАЩА ЗВЕЗДА DIRECTED BY: Lyubo Yonchev WRITTEN BY: Lyubo Yonchev, Yassen Genadiev PRODUCED BY: Lyubo Yonchev, Lyubo Kirov, Carola Jessica De Lucia DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Damian Dimitrov EDITOR: Lyubo Kirov PRODUCTION DESIGN: Hristina Dyakova

Bulgaria/Italy 2015, 28 min Production: Crystal Frame Ltd. Lyubo Yonchev Mladost 1A, bl.510A, entr.2, ap.55 1729 Sofia BULGARIA info@crystal-frame.com tel: +359 88 656 45 38

COSTUME DESIGN: Hristina Dyakova HAIR & MAKEUP ARTIST: Doriana Paneva COMPOSER: Alexander Kostov SOUND DESIGN: Dimitar Rusev MAIN CAST: Stefka Yanorova (Lilly Mancheva), Stefan Popov (Martin), Kalia Kamenova (Alexandra)

Lyubo Yonchev How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

I started developing the idea in the middle of 2014, and with Yassen Genadiev we kept re-writing the script for a few months, until we smoothed out everything that we didn’t like to the very last detail. We shot the film in 2015, and at the end of the year I was ready to show it. It wasn’t easy to find financial support, it’s entirely privately financed. But we had a lot of friends who helped us because they liked the idea.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

The first thing that crosses my mind is co-production. The future of European cinema is in co-produc-

tions. Especially for the South-East European region, where the financial sources are restricted by very tiny budgets. The best way to realise your idea is in partnership with another country.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

I would definitely show films that the wider audience has no access to. The movie theatres prefer to show Hollywood blockbusters and often the European masterpieces, with plenty of prizes, are left behind.

What is your next project?

My next project is another short film. A human story about the religious “war” in a contemporary civilised world. I don’t want to tell more, because you know that in the creative process it could change a lot.

When it’s ready, once again we’ll make everything possible for it to get to as many people as possible, like we did with our first film SHOOTING STAR.

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

Lilly is a divorced mother of two – Martin, who has recently come of age, and little Alexandra. One cold winter evening Martin picks Alexandra up from kindergarten. In the dark streets of the neighbourhood they become a part of a tragic accident that can hardly be forgotten or erased. Lilly and her kids have to make tough decisions, the consequences of which will change their life for good.

Tampere Short Film Nominee

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Norway 2015, 21 min

SMALL TALK HAIR & MAKEUP ARTIST: Christine Ahlbom Andersen SOUND DESIGN: Marius Ytterdal MAIN CAST: Elisabeth Robstad (Elisabeth), Espen Gustensen (Espen Dvergsnes), Eivind Bøksle (Voiceover)

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

DIRECTED BY: Even Hafnor, Lisa Brooke Hansen WRITTEN BY: Even Hafnor PRODUCED BY: Jon Michael Puntervold DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Steivan Hasler EDITOR: Erik Andersson PRODUCTION DESIGN: Liz Grunwald

Production, World Sales & Press: J.M. Puntervold Filmproduksjon Jon Michael Puntervold Batteriveien 15 4878 Grimstad NORWAY puntervold@gmail.com tel: +47 94 79 20 68

Welcome to the Dvergsnes family! In this short film we follow the Dvergsnes family from Kristiansand, Norway, through three events that took place during the fall and winter of 2014.

European cinema is ballsy, boundary-breaking and really interesting! Its heritage and tradition is just unbelievable. It looks like European filmmakers still feel the urge, and are allowed, to follow their visions and not necessarily serve commercial interests. A truly great thing! Hopefully these conditions will still apply in the time to come.

Even Hafnor & Lisa Brooke Hansen How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

It took a year and a half from the script being done until the film had its premiere. It was difficult to get financing. A regional film centre saved us and financed the film.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

Let’s kick off the evening with a glimpse into the Scandinavian way of living in Roy Andersson’s short film WORLD OF GLORY. Then: Woody Allen’s ANNIE HALL. HOLY MOTORS by Leos Carax. And the rest of the night we’ll screen a compilation of every movie scene with Bill Murray in it.

What is your next project?

A short film called RECONSTRUCTION. It’s a film about an adult son’s miserable attempt to try to connect with his dad.

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Locarno Short Film Nominee

Belgium/France 2016, 14 min

The Fullness of Time (Romance) L’immense retour (Romance) DIRECTED BY: Manon Coubia WRITTEN BY: Manon Coubia PRODUCED BY: Nicolas Rincon Gille DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Nicolas Rincon Gille EDITOR: Manon Coubia SOUND DESIGN: Aline Huber MAIN CAST: Malika El Barkani, Annie Alonso

Production: Voa Films Nicolas Rincon Gille 37, avenue Sleeckx 1030 Bruxelles BELGIUM voa@collectifs.net tel: +32 473 70 06 35

World Sales: CBA Javier Packer-Comyn 19F, avenue des Arts 1000 Bruxelles BELGIUM mail@cbadoc.be tel: +32 222 72 230

Press: CBA Gabriella Marchese 19F, avenue des Arts 1000 Bruxelles BELGIUM promo@cbadoc.be tel: +32 222 72 230

Manon Coubia How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

It took one year and a half. The project did not get money from any film commission before the shooting. I produced it myself with my friend from our group of art-

ists, VOA, in Brussels.

I bought bits of photographic film and filmed in two phases. One for the pictures in Brussels. One for the sound in Chamonix at the Argentière glacier.

I spent two weeks with my sound engineer, Aline Huber, at the ‘Polygone Etoilé’ in Marseille, four weekends inside an independent photo lab in Brussels and one weekend at a music studio in Douarnenez in France. I did the mixing at the Fresnoy centre in Tourcoing.

In the end, I found help in cash from the Centre Belge de l’Audiovisuel (CBA), a real support for indepen-

dent filmmakers!, and from the Wallonie Brussels Fédération. I was able to pay the last expenses at the laboratory and to make a good projection copy.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

A paradox. This idea deserves reflection outside of institutions. A notion defended by the authors.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

According to my mood on this day of autumn 2016: Late at night, THE LEOPARD by Luchino Visconti. At the heart of the REM phase, REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUANIA by Jonas Mekas. I continue with SHAME by Ingmar Bergman. I calm down my insomnia with CARLITO’S WAY by Brian de Palma. I return to full consciousness with CHARLES, DEAD OR ALIVE by Alain Tanner. The first daylight with SACRIFICE by Andrei Tarkovsky.

What is your next project?

I’m just completing a short film, LES ENFANTS PARTENT A LAUBE.

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

Seated on the edge of the gaping rift, she waited so long, too long for the mountain to give back her lover, prisoner of the ice.

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Valladolid Short Film Nominee

THE GOODBYE EL ADIÓS

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

DIRECTED BY: Clara Roquet WRITTEN BY: Clara Roquet PRODUCED BY: Sergi Moreno, Tono Folguera DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Gris Jordana EDITOR: Mounia Akl, Carlos Marques-Marcet PRODUCTION DESIGN: Evelin Hernandez, Ana Pons-Formosa COSTUME DESIGN: Vinyet Escobar HAIR & MAKEUP ARTIST: Laura De Bruyn

Spain 2015, 15 min

World Sales: Marvin & Wayne - Short Film Distribution Pablo Menéndez Pelai 9, 2-2B 08001 Barcelona SPAIN pablo@marvinwayne.com tel: +34 93 486 33 13

COMPOSER: Paul Tyan SOUND DESIGN: Diego Casares MAIN CAST: Jenny Rios (Rosana), Mercè Pons (Mercè), Júlia Danés (Júlia)

Production: Lastor Media Sergi Moreno & Tono Folguera Ronda Sant Antoni, 44 08001 Barcelona SPAIN sergi.mcastillo@lastormedia.com tfolguera@lastormedia.com tel: +34 93 443 0769 Press: Ariadna Dot adot@lastormedia.com

Rosana, a Bolivian maid, has worked for Angela, the elder matriarch of the Vidal family for the last ten years. On the day of the funeral of her beloved Angela, Rosana is not allowed to grieve with the rest of the family. On the contrary: she is forced to work. THE GOODBYE is an intimate story about how emotional bonds supersede social conventions, racial labels or family regimes.

Clara Roquet How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

It took us around a year, starting with financing in June 2014 and finishing post-production in May 2015. I was lucky to have the support of the producers Sergi Moreno and Tono Folguera from Lastor Media from early on. They have a lot of experience financing bigger projects so, thanks to their good planning, we were lucky to receive financial support from ICAA in Spain, even though it was not enough to make the short and we had to invest some more money. Luckily, THE GOODBYE was then sold to HBO Latino in the US and Movistar + in Spain, and that allowed us to get all the invested money back.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

I think about a very rich and diverse community, with many distinct voices and auteurs. I don’t see it as a

unified market/creative community but I think that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since Europe has so many different cultures. Although I do wish sometimes that we got more access to the films made in other European countries. For example, in Spain there are way more American films released in theatres than European films, and I wish it was the other way around.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

I would screen HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR by Alain Resnais, THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE by Victor Erice and FANNY AND ALEXANDER by Ingmar Bergman.

And since I would screen the long version of Fanny and Alexander, I guess it would be the next morning already and they would kick me out of the theatre, but the list goes on.

What is your next project?

I just finished another short film called GOOD GIRLS, co-wrote the film PETRA that will be directed by Jaime Rosales and I’m writing an adaptation of THIS TOO SHALL PASS, a great book by Milena Busquets, with Daniel Burman.

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Gent Short Film Nominee

THE WALL LE MUR DIRECTED BY: Samuel Lampaert WRITTEN BY: Samuel Lampaert PRODUCED BY: Nicolas George DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Bernard Vervoort EDITOR: Nicolas Bier PRODUCTION DESIGN: Marc Ridremont COSTUME DESIGN: Lily Beca HAIR & MAKEUP ARTIST: Catherine Thilman

Belgium 2015, 8 min Production: Les Films du Carré Nicolas Georges 56, rue des Eburons 4000 Liège BELGIUM aurelie@lesfilmsducarre.be tel: +32 4 250 16 02

World Sales: Origines Films Olivier Berlemont 15, rue Roussy 69004 Lyon FRANCE olivier@originefilms.fr

COMPOSER: Pierre Gillet SOUND DESIGN: Aline Gavrois MAIN CAST: Yves Yan, Steven Eng, Cathy Min Jung ANIMATION: Mikros Image Liège

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

Hongkong. A multitude of concrete skyscrapers without personality. Inside, cramped studios where the anonymous live among themselves. Until Chung, single, decides to hang up a picture ...

Samuel Lampaert How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

Starting from an idea of just a few lines, I wrote the screenplay of THE WALL quite quickly by imagining myself as a Chinese in Hong Kong, even though I don’t know the country at all. The project immediately appealed to the producer, followed by the CNC right away. Afterwards, everything took a lot lot lot of time.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

European cinema is different from other filmmaking, but still it is universal, that’s the magic of cinema.

It’s necessary to continue helping auteur cinema in Europe, that’s essential.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

BREAKING THE WAVES by Lars von Trier, FESTEN by Thomas Vinterberg, THE LIVES OF OTHERS by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, and also something funny like MY NAME IS NOBODY by Tonino Valerii.

What is your next project?

No more short films. I’ve just started writing a new feature-length fiction project, TRAITEMENT DE FAVEUR, a drama. The treatment is written in French and English, the rest will follow quite quickly. It’s a small cast, the film can be shot in any European country and in any language. I very much believe in it and cannot wait to send it to curious and enthusiastic producers.

Rotterdam Short Film Nominee

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Spain 2016, 17 min

We all love the sea shore Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer Production & World Sales: El Viaje Films Lourdes Pérez C/ Magdalena 29, 3-5 28012 Madrid SPAIN lourdes@elviaje.es tel: +34 654 48 98 55

Press: El Viaje Films Keina Espiñeira Av. Felipe II, nº 2, 3 izq 28009 Madrid SPAIN keina.espineira@gmail.com tel: +34 652 63 63 33

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

DIRECTED BY: Keina Espiñeira WRITTEN BY: Keina Espiñeira, Samuel Delgado PRODUCED BY: Lourdes Perez DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jose Alayón EDITOR: Samuel Delgado PRODUCTION DESIGN: Lourdes Perez SOUND DESIGN: Raul Espiñeira MAIN CAST: Boubacar Barry, Aliou Diallo, Mohamed Diakité, Abdoulaye Diallo

A group of men is waiting at the fringes of a coastal woodland for the journey to Europe, in limbo between time and place. A film is shot there with the men playing themselves. Fiction and documentary constantly intertwine. Myths from the colonial past collide with dreams of the future. The landscape changes and where they are is no longer their motherland. There are no beautiful beaches, the water is not transparent, not clear. Memory survives as an echo of those who call them from a distance.

Keina Espiñeira How long did it take to make your short? Was it difficult to get financing?

It took about one year and a half. The shooting took one week, but the pre- and post-production were long because it was essential to dive into the landscapes and share time with the protagonists.

The financing came from a university research project in which I was working as a geographer. In this regard, making this film was a challenge for the university itself, as it provokes the transgression of certain normative scientific imaginaries by the means of filmic language.

Which thoughts come to mind concerning a “European cinema community”?

I find it quite difficult to think of cinema in terms of an identity community, as I feel like a mix of several cultures and geographies. What I find particularly interesting from the original conception of cinema in some European countries is the fact that it should be protected and preserved from the tyranny of the production capitalist logic and its markets.

If you owned a theatre for one night, which films would you screen?

I’m still captivated by colonial and post-colonial cinema. For one night I will probably screen THE MAD MASTERS by Jean Rouch, HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR

by Alain Resnais or BARRAVENTO by Glauber Rocha.

What is your next project?

Currently I’m working on two projects, what they have in common is that I will continue exploring transitional spaces, myths and the feeling of being displaced.

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SHORT MATTERS!

The EFA Short Film Initiative The short film initiative is organised in co-operation with a series of film festivals throughout Europe. At each of these festivals, an independent jury presents one of the short films in competition with a nomination in the European Film Awards’ short film category. In 2017, the initiative includes the following festivals:

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 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 than 3,000 European film professionals − get to watch all nominated short films and it is they who elect the overall winner: the European Short Film, which will be presented at the 30th European Film Awards Ceremony on 9 December 2017 in Berlin. * European, in the sense of the European Film Academy, means geographical Europe, both EU and non-EU, and shall include Israeli and Palestinian

SHORT MATTERS! Short Film Nominees on Tour SHORT MATTERS! is the European Film Academy’s short film tour which brings the nominated short films to audiences across Europe – and beyond: www.europeanfilmacademy.org

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016

★ 11 - 21 Oct. 2016: Film Fest Gent (Belgium) ★ 22 - 29 Oct. 2016: Valladolid International Film Festival (Spain) ★ 24 - 30 Oct. 2016 Uppsala International Short Film Festival (Sweden) ★ 11 - 20 Nov. 2016: Cork Film Festival (Ireland) ★ 25 Jan. - 5 Feb. 2017: International Film Festival Rotterdam (the Netherlands) ★ 3 - 11 Feb. 2017: Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France) ★ 9 - 19 Feb. 2017: Berlin International Film Festival (Germany) ★ 8 - 12 Mar. 2017: Tampere Film Festival (Finland) ★ 28 May - 4 Jun. 2017: Krakow Film Festival (Poland) ★ 8 - 16 Jul. 2017: Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival (Portugal) ★ 2 - 12 Aug. 2017: Festival del film Locarno (Switzerland) ★ 11 - 19 Aug. 2017: Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia & Herzegovina) ★ 30 Aug. - 9 Sep. 2017: Venice Film Festival (Italy) ★ 18 - 23 Sep. 2017: International Short Film Festival in Drama (Greece) ★ 19 - 24 Sep. 2017: Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival Bristol (UK)

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 presentation of the European Film Awards.