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Programme:

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26.6 Stone Hall 10:00

FILMER FORGE Graphic and visual codes of the comic strip with: Rastko Ciric, Serbia

15:00 - 17:00

International Competition vol.5 Q&A Session & Discussions

17:00 - 19:00

International Competition vol.6 Q&A Session & Discussions

19:00 - 21:00

National Competition vol.2 Q&A Session & Discussions

Open air 18.30 - 3:00

Radio Nula IN THE PALACE - official party vol. 3 DJ Funkusion

00.00 - 1.30

European Film Awards On Focus Vol. 2

Movie screenings

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DEEP WATERS, animation, Canada/France, 12’04”, 2015 POTAPOV’S CONJECTURE, fiction, Russia, 25’, 2016 A BIT NORMALITY, documentary, Germany, 15’, 2015 NIRIN, fiction, Madagascar/Switzerland, 15’45”, 2015 THE LAST TRICK, documentary, Poland, 10’48”, 2015 MS. LILIANE, fiction, Canada, 11’26”, 2015 TIME TO DIE, MOTHERFUCKERS, documentary, Germany, 15’20”, 2016 JACKED, fiction, United Kingdom, 15’, 2015 BALCONY, fiction, United Kingdom, 17’, 2015 OTTO, animation, Netherlands, 10’, 2015 THE MISSING KNIFE, fiction, Australia, 14’35”, 2016 SOMEWHERE ELSE, fiction, Germany, 14’42”, 2015 PULSE, fiction, Bulgaria, 13’58”, 2015 THE HOUSE, fiction, Bulgaria, 14’17”, 2016 RED LIGHT, fiction, Bulgaria, 21’11”, 2016 CARNIVAL GAMES, fiction, Bulgaria, 17’40”, 2016 SOLSTICE, fiction, Bulgaria, 14’35”, 2016

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IN THE PALACE​ - DAY TWO The first Film er Forge, fiction movies and documentaries in the competitive programme, discussions, Q&A sessions, a workshop on script writing on the Film campus for kids and finally a party close d by films from European Awards On Focus Prog ramme: that, in short, was the second day of the IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival.

The day started at 10am with a traditional Filmer Forge programme led by industry professionals.

The first one of them was focused on successful pitching of an idea for a film and was led by Faisal-Azam Qureshi from the UK. The workshop was not just informative; Qureshi led it in an interesting and entertaining way.

The programm e continued at 3pm when the screenings s tarted. The first block of movies brought six international movies, five of them fictions – Touch, Love is a Sting, Are You happy, Samira and Beautiful, and one documentary – Noriaki.

At 5pm the second block of the screenings started which offered four fiction movies – Lost and Found, Bon Voyage, The Boy in the Ocean, I Still Bleed Inside, and one documentary – 33 Microliters.

The screenings of competitive programme were closed by the third block starting at 7pm. The last block contained four Bulgarian fiction movies –

For Eva, You Are Beautiful, Cello and Getting Fat in a Healthy Way. After each block of screenings a discussion and Q&A session with the audience followed. Some of the movies were very touching and brought a lot of emotions, some forced the public to think about them and their topics.

One of the most touching movies from the second day was, according to the public, the Swiss Bon Voyage made by Marc Wilkins. It concerned a current topic – the refugee crisis – showing two contrasting realities and mentalities of people; one from the ´west´ and the second from the Arab world in a plausible story.

Each block served a mix of movies, sometimes seemingly unconnected and confusing, as the pictures varied in their weight. At the same time, such an approach was definitely and effectively inspirational.

At the end of the day, a party full of good music took place in the open air space in the gardens of the Palace. Radio Nula, which is in charge of the music programme, teamed up with Croatian DJ Adrian Bijan and created a great party. After that, during the first hours of the new day, films from European Awards On Focus Programme were presented.

Writen by: Michaela Šedová

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In Deep Waters, Animation, Canada / France , 12'04'', 2015 tThrough In Deep Waters Sarah Van Den Boom tries to depict a particular experience such as the syndrome of the missing twin. With an echo to the maternal womb, the title hides a beautiful metaphor of the sensation of loneliness that characterizes the three protagonists of this short film.

The calm narrating voices and the softened background noises bring the viewers in the submerged world of the survivors, completely succeeding in portraying the sensation of emptiness that afflicts them. Solitude and inadequacy are translated into a mixed animated style made of soft hedges and realistic backgrounds with occasional tempera vivid images that highlight the most emotional implications of this condition.

Besides effectively describing the void felt by its characters, In Deep Waters leaves room for a sort of happy ending where the key word is acceptance.

POTAPOV'S CONJECTURE, Fiction, Russia , 25', 2016

What could you do in order to help your beloved ones? This is the main idea we can extract of Mark Rasskazov’s movie Potapov’s Conjecture. An ordinary security guard who has to take care of his little daughter is the main character of the movie. He lost his wife, one of the reasons he feels so pressured when it comes to offer the best education for his daughter.

In this film Mark Rasskazov’s explores the relationship between a father and his daughter.

The clearest message is that for those ones we love and appreciate, for those one we want us to see as important and essential, we could do almost the impossible.

A BIT NORMALITY, documentary, Germany, 15', 2015 “A bit normality” is a documentary about a drug addicted mother and her son. The topic is a social taboo in Germany, since this social problem affects 40,000 – 60,000 children in the Country.

E reason for the title is fastly discovered: the mother struggles with her addiction and despite that, or maybe because of that, still looks for “a bit normality” in ther everyday life.

This short movie does a good job revealing how a dependency can affect or even distroy a whole life. It is not possible for the audience to remain indifferent to the character’s issues and feelings: in one of the most emblematic scenes the mother shows her heartbreaking sense of guilt when she admits her greatest moment of happiness is drug-related and while she knows that the socially acceptable answer would have been the birth of her son.

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NIRIN, fiction, Madagascar/Switzerland, 15'45'', 2015 Here’s the story of a mother who is ready for a change.

Nirin is her eldest of her three sons who are going on a trip with their mum. A trip whose meaning and destination are mysterious and hidden throughout the whole story. The audience can only imagine the end of the journey. It is worth to mention that the young actors playing the sons are really amazing and manage to bring a lot of reality to this short film: they are probably the main reason that keeps us stuck to our chairs in front of it.

THE LAST TRICK, documentary, Poland, 10'48'', 2015

SCENARIUSZ I REŻYSERIA MARCIN NOWAK ZDJĘCIA MARCIN NOWAK DŹWIĘK ARTUR WALASZCZYK MONTAŻ MARCIN SUCHARSKI OPIEKA ARTYSTYCZNA PAWEŁ ŁOZINSKI KIEROWNICTWO PRODUKCJI AGATA GOLAŃSKA PRODUKCJA STUDIO MUNKA – STOWARZYSZENIE FILMOWCÓW POLSKICH KOPRODUKCJA KOLEKTYW FILM FILM WSPÓŁFINANSOWANY PRZEZ POLSKI INSTYTUT SZTUKI FILMOWEJ

From the synopsis we learn that the main character of ‘The Last Trick’ , Zenon Andryjewicz, has been running a children’s circus school in Lviv for many years and that nowadays, his thoughts are turning more and more often to retirement... Marcin Nowak in his documentary piece about the Ukrainian teacher is doing a wonderful job in showing the former, while the latter is not that obvious: in the faces of the master and his students, in the empty seats amongst the audience of a circus, in the silence, in the effort made by young performers, in the small details of a city life. I did enjoy that very much being also a bit disappointed that a lot was left untold.

A short film, which is... too short. Nonetheless, the moral of this story is simple and clear: the show must go on.

MS. LILIANE, fiction, Canada, 11'26'', 2015 Escaping from the black hole of a smartphone is difficult, if not impossible.

And even harder if we are waiting for a phone call that might change our life forever. Nonetheless Ms Liliane has to pay attention to her pupils as if it was a normal day. A normal day in which, as usual, her pupil Mathieu does not pay attention and tries to break the calm of her classroom.

Director JunaChif invites us to travel back in time into the normality and peace of a common primary school classroom. With smooth and pale colours, together with a subtle contrast between the natural light of our normality and shadows of our fears, the spectator immerses into a calm, tender story.

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TIME TO DIE, MOTHERFUCKERS, documentary, Germany, 15'20'', 2016 Under the heavy iron skies people are living their lives of machine parts in an everlasting golem of the world economy. Working in contemporary glass houses they are missing something, an escape from glowing screens and documents to process. For some, a way is to give their fate into someone else’s hands. Those hands are rough, the instructing voice doesn’t accept excuses, and they follow it into mud and misery. That’s a reality of the apocalyptic boot camp portrayed in the short film by Annika Sehn and Jonas Spriestersbach.

The audience is left with the sense of fascination by some people’s choices and a heavy weight of the gloomy side of modern surroundings.

Everybody dies. What you do to feel alive and how you live is what matters.

JACKED, fiction, United Kingdom, 15', 2015 Jacked is a story that follows a car stealing event that turns into life changing decision.

In the beginning we have Yasayuki Otsuki’s title sequences keyed into the side of a car. They are perfect way of showing the movie theme and mood in the opening titles, so we have the movie signature in the first few seconds. Thomas Turgoose and Charley P. Rothwell are filmed mostly from inside the car, so we have that feeling that we are inside the car also.

There is also Tony Coote’s music to follow up the aesthetics and the actor’s performances enabling us to enjoy the full picture as a complete piece of cinema.

In the end Jacked is short film full of life philosophy made in a great and noticeable British manner.

Balcony, United Kingdom, 2015 ‘Balcony’ is the brutal and devastating short film by director Toby Fell Holden, telling the story of two teenage girls caught up in a gritty, modern day fairy-tale that unexpectedly twists and turns until reaching its disastrous climax.

Tina, a violent and lonely teenager is infatuated with a newly arrived girl from Afghanistan. From the very beginning, there is a tangible sense of foreboding, addressed in Tina’s dooming commentary, that this story is not going the end well for Dana, the subject of her deep fascination.

The biggest success of Holden’s film is that is makes us question the stereotypes that we ourselves project upon other people. This film takes you on a whirlwind journey into this tragic story of two teenagers from very different backgrounds and very different lives that collide in a skillfully created movie.

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(OTTO), animation, Netherlands, 10', 2015 The animated short film (Otto) was inspired by an actual event, experienced by a child. The movie, telling the touching story of a small girl and a couple facing an obstacle, appeals to both children and adults. From the first scene the audience starts feeling intrigued and their attention remains fully focused on the screening. The film is colourful and feelgood, but also meaningful and brings an important message.

The most impressive thing about the animation is that there is no language.

Filmmakers use mimics, gestures, music and sounds to create meaning.

Watching the film people can see the usage of interesting techniques and are influenced emotionally. No matter what age you are, (Otto) will make you smile.

THE MISSING KNIFE, fiction, Australia, 14'35'', 2016 In ‘The Missing Knife’, writer and director Bella Monticelli invites us for a trip down the traumatized lane of her main character’s mind.

Naira is a young woman, soon to be a mother. We meet her in the last moments of the pregnancy. Husband is leaving for a business trip. Naira, alone in the house, hides all the knives but is missing one. In the middle of the night, she receives a Skype call from her significant other. The conversation is interrupted by an unwanted visitor. All that is shown in the mist of Naira’s memories blended with unnerving visions hunting her reality. When younger, she was trying to follow footsteps of her ancestors and that lead to an event which scarred her for life, fueling fear for the not-yet born child.

SOMEWHERE ELSE, fiction, Germany, 14'42'', 2015 A midsummer night’s dream’ – that’s how you could describe this film in four words. Somewhere Else is a subtle love story from an 8-year old child’s perspective, mirrored through his naïve, idealistic eyes. This is a story about one’s longings to figure out his family, when his own memories of a father are so uncertain, rather, non-existent, that it is difficult to even separate where the reality ends and the fantasy starts. Especially when the mother breaks in between these two fragile dimensions.

The director Borbála Nagy has created a magical motion picture, with the right touch of various languages – from the sound of a seashell to a dance of one’s body and soul, it captures a fight with a dilemma between choosing where to belong –here or somewhere else.

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PULSE, fiction, Bulgaria, 13'58'', 2015 Euthanasia is a really heavy question, discussed in many countries in the world. In this short movie the focus is on doctors: seems that they have in their hands the present and the future of their patients, but often is not true. It’s deeply tormented the doctor’s choice about life and death of a patient.

For mark in a special way this concept in this story also the patient is a doctor and he is asking her to let him die, but she sees hope and other possibilities. Is it possible to create a dialogue between such a different points of view? Maybe there’s not right answers, but the only thing to do is to listen and try to please those who have a deep awareness of themselves and what they want.

THE HOUSE, fiction, Bulgaria, 14'17'', 2016 The House is where you grow up. The House is where you make choices.

The House is where your family gives you love. So how is it possible that sometimes we forget where we come from? Yana Titova, who started her career as a theatre actress at a young age before working in the cinema industry, tries to bring all these sensations back to our minds. She decided to challenge herself as movie director and study Filmmaking at the New Bulgaria University. The House is her graduation project.

In a night full of emotions, Victor will rediscover which values are important in life and what significant things he has lost on the way to become who he is now.

RED LIGHT, fiction, Bulgaria, 21'11'', 2016 In his latest work, Red Light, the Bulgarian filmmaker Toma Waszaraw presents a global story told through a simple bus trip. It involves a bus full of people of different ages, an apparently broken traffic light and a driver who is determined to follow the rules beyond any logic. Based on a true story, this short film dives into Bulgarian culture to show the different reactions of the passengers.

With a simple gesture, the film opens up a wide variety of topics about life and how to live. At one point, a red light appears in front of us and we have to decide: what should I do; what I have to or what I really want to?

An entertaining masterpiece, open to interpretation.

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CARNIVAL GAMES, fiction, Bulgaria, 17'40'', 2016 Carnivals, puppets, masks‌ the time where everyone can be someone else, where everyone can hide behind a new character, where everyone can play savage for a while without being judged. The right moment where everyone can find an excuse to run away from themselves...

Is this carnival time precisely the time when we are ironically the most sincere to ourselves? The time when, behind our masks, we reveal more truths than the ones we hide? The time when we are the most exposed, vulnerable and daring to discover our suppressed, inevitable human nature?

SOLSTICE, fiction, Bulgaria, 14'35'', 2016 Reni Yoveva takes us to a peaceful Bulgarian village, where the wonderful photography makes it impossible not to relax. Solstice, filmed in 2016, tells us the story of two best friends that have to be separated. However, this is not the only topic covered: the subject of a girl living in a boy’s world and the role of the little brothers is present during the whole short.

The characters, a group of kids mostly from the same village, are all synchronised in the football scenes and even if they don’t have any experience as actors, they do a very good job. Technically, the film is amazingly created, since director and editor work hand in hand.

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INTERVIEW WITH : JOSUA HOTZ

Why did you choose this scenario?

“It’s actually based on my story. Nirin is my second name in Malagasy. I was six years old when I left my native village in Madagascar. Accompanied by my mother and my two little brothers, it was the first time we left, we were going into the unknown. For me it was the start of a great trip.”

“I have only vague memories of this episode. I did not know I was going to leave my two brothers and be forever separated from my mother. From these facts, I started to write a life-story.”

Nirin’s happiness contrasts with how things end. Would you like this to be a kind of lesson for the viewers?

At the end of the film, the spectators feel sadness for Nirin and cannot forgive what the mother did. But we must look deeper: will he be better there? Will

his future will be better there? At the end of the tunnel we see the light; I wanted to show a message.

a detail in our lives. The key is the observation, look around you to better understand our world.

As we see it, expressiveness of the eyes in this movie is taken into strong consideration, the images and the glances it catches are beautiful.

What was the most challenging process while filming?

The hardest part was to recreate different kind of situations (sadness, joy or discovery). I was glad to have met this child who never left his neighborhood. He discovered everything for the first time. We were able to capture with the camera all those moments. Sometimes situations have to be recreated.

The most important thing is to be on the same page as the children and of course to be able to adapt. We chose the nimblest cinema equipment and we shot it like a documentary (with no light gear).

The two children are real brothers and the mother is their true mother. So we mainly focused on their connections in the family.

What kind of projects would you like to do in the future?

Where do you search for inspiration?

Inspiration is in everyday life. What we experienced,

My goal is to continue working with children.

Childhood is an important step in the development of the child. It is the basis of our adult life. Understand and better learn the challenges of our world through training (education) and art (cinema). The film ‘Nirin’ was shown at different film festivals for children (6-17 years old). I did not know what their reaction will be but at that age they truly understand what happens.

12 This is going to be the premiere of your film. How do you feel when your movies are shown for the first time?

“I get very worried about public screenings of my films, especially when it’s the first time. That moment is the most important test of your life - how successful was all your hard work for which you and your colleagues gave part of your life and your soul? How will the audience receive your story? How interesting is it and will it evoke empathy?

Indeed, there is nothing more important for a film than its first screening. At that moment you feel totally naked and defenseless. You are waiting for the verdict from the viewers. You feel exceptionally agitated and your body feels like it is ready to explode from this. Your whole purpose of existence is defined by this unforgettable moment. It is the greatest catharsis. In many respects, it is for this that you make the film. A sincere reaction from the audience and applause are the greatest reward for your efforts.”

Where did you search for inspiration?

“From my experience, and the experience of other directors too, inspiration needs to come from those areas of life which are most important to you personally. Only that which moves you can give the chance

INTERVIEW WITH : Mark Rasskazov What are your future projects? Do you have something in mind?

of making a film, which moves viewers and makes them experience it with you. It’s the only way to tell a good story in a film – to talk about what is painful and close to you.”

What were the most challenging aspects of creating this short film?

“I spent a long time looking for a story which contained a dramatic father-daughter plot. And when I found this script, it grabbed me immediately. Especially since previously I shot mainly comedies or intellectual films, not psychological ones. And I really want to make a moving film about simple, human feelings.

If you have the chance to make your dream come true, why not do this? I am very happy that I made a film which helped me develop professionally and also which gave me a chance to look deep inside myself.”

“At the moment I am busy working on a large project – a feature length film. It’s a criminal tragicomedy with elements of a parable. It’s a harrowing plot, again a father-daughter theme.

It’s a drama about how an orphan girl is rescued from some bandits and how the protagonist, to his surprise, decides to adopt her.

And this happens after his young daughter dies before his eyes, and she dies as a result of his actions.

Contrasting several amusing, in many respect comedic situations, I want to tell a harsh, almost tragic story.

I think this combination will heighten the effect it has on the audience to the max. I want to make the viewer laugh and cry at the same time from experiencing the fate of two lonely hearts who find each other during a difficult time.

I hope that this film will be interesting for an international audience. You see, it is a universal story about how we can do everything, even the impossible, for the sake of our families and our friends. I would like to find partners with whom I can work on this incredible film.“

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2ND DAY WORKSHOP: RASTKO CIRIC ON COMIC STRIPS LANGUAGE On Monday 26 th June, the IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival hosted a workshop led by theSerbian Professor of Illustration and Animation Rastko Ciric. The teacher is also Vice-Rector at the sameuniversity and he has worked on at least 14 animated films.

The first part of the workshop focused on the specific features of the comic strips as a media.

So he explain the several tricks and rules in order to communicate the feelings of sounds and music in the drawings.

Eventually he talked about the movement. Pictures don’t have movement but with the shape of bodies and the use of lines is possible to characterise motions and speed.

Three media converge in the printed comics: graphic arts, literature and films. The graphic feature consist in the drawings, along with the arts elements and style coming from painting and visual arts in general. Literature gives the dramatic element. Literature, even without written speech and dialogues in the frames, gives the dramaturgy and contents. Last but not least, the filmic elements, through the disposal of pictures and frames permits the continuity and the narration in time.

After this, he explained, by screening lots of examples, the main element which is at the base of the printed comics. Firstly frame outlines, and secondly the passing of time. The use of them is not supposed to be mandatorily chronological. However there’s always a logical structure behind it. He focused also on the many ways to present dialogues, with or without balloons.

Another essential feature of comics is the sound. It’s not obviously possible to represent the sound with paper, except if you tear it out.

These limitations, in movements, time and sounds characterise and make the comic strips recognisable as a specific media. We can eventually expand this statement to every media.

In the end, some questions by the audience followed. They focused especially on the difference between interactive and printed comics and the peculiar style of western comics compared with manga’s. by:Nicola Cucinella

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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2016 - VOLUME II Founded in 1988, the European Film Academy (EFA) now unites more than 3000 European film professionals with the common aim of promoting European film culture. Throughout the years, 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, workshops whose common goal is to build a bridge between creativity and the industry. These activities culminate in the annual presentation of the European Film Awards in Berlin.

In the Palace International Short Film Festival is glad to present the nominated short movies from EFA’s 29th edition in its ON FOCUS programme for three days of screenings starting tonight, June 25th, at MIDNIGHT in the beautiful Open Air Stage area.

Here’s the films that will be on tonight:

-A MAN RETURNED (Denmark/Lebanon/Netherlands/UK) by Mahdi Fleifel 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.

-THE FULLNESS OF TIME (Belgium/France, 2016) by Manon Coubia 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.

-SMALL TALK (Norway, 2015) by Even Hafnor, Lisa Brooke Hansen 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.

-EDMOND (UK, 2015) by Nina Gantz A story of all-consuming love, told with handmade felt puppets and 2D drawn animation.

-THE GOODBYE (Spain) by Sergi Moreno, Tono Folguera 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.

НАЦИОНАЛЕН ИНСТИТУТ ЗА КУЛТУРНИ ИЗСЛЕДВАНИЯ И ПОЛИТИКИ

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