Press release No. 1
April 28, 2009
While the five Berlin Today Award 2009 short films on the theme "My Wall" successfully travel to festivals around the world, the new round of the Berlinale Talent Campus' short film competition is underway. 250 young filmmakers from 65 countries responded to the call for project ideas on the motto "Straight to Cinema". The motto for the Berlin Today Award 2010, which is supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg for the eighth year in a row, encourages young filmmakers to take inspiration from the power and possibilities of cinema and develop a short film for the big screen. In addition to Campus Talents, producers from the Berlin-Brandenburg area interested in realising a short film project could also apply. 15 pre-selected Talents and 10 production companies were invited to present their projects at a "Producers’ Meeting" during the Berlinale Talent Campus. The Talents and producers then voted, providing a basis for the jury's deliberation, in which representatives from the Berlinale Talent Campus, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg and the Berlin Today Award e.V. participated.
The following five Talent-producer teams were selected by the jury to continue to the Berlin Today Award 2010 finals:
Sergi Portabella from Spain will realise The Astronaut on the Roof together with Penrose Film. The comedy follows two young screenwriters torn by the trials and tribulations of developing a screenplay who disrespectfully quote the films of their favourite directors. By Night, by Juan Diaz B. from Colombia, will be realised in collaboration with Knudsen und Streuber Filmproduktion. The film tells a love story about Martin and Camille, a couple living happily in a world where night never falls, until Martin discovers that Camille is living a second life in an alternate reality. The Georgian filmmaker Giorgi Mrevlishvili will realise his documentary film project Reflection with A-Film Productions. Giorgi will organise an outdoor film screening in the remote Georgian village Ushguli during which he'll make a portrait of the village's residents. In the film Hum, Rebecca Daly from Ireland tells the story of a woman who flees her daily life and searches for perfect silence in an abandoned house. The project will be produced by Lichtblick Media. Finally, Anna Wendt Filmproduktion will produce Jonah and the Vicarious Nature of Homesickness by Bryn Chainey from Australia. The film is a science-fiction romance about Jonah, who has left his family and glides through space and time in a cardboard spaceship.
The five short films will be realised until the end of 2009 with support from Medienboard and in-kind contributions from the film industry. The five finalist films will celebrate their world premiere during the opening of the Berlinale Talent Campus 2010 (February 13 – 18, 2010). A jury composed of prominent filmmakers will select the winning film and bestow it with the Berlin Today Award. More information at www.berlintoday.de.
The Berlinale Talent Campus is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, a business division of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a decision of the German Bundestag, in co-operation with MEDIA - Training programme of the European Union, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg as well as Skillset and UK Film Council.