The 14th International Film Students Meeting will take place on 22nd-25th September at the 63rd edition of the San Sebastian Festival and is going to have Tabakalera-Contemporary Culture International Centre as new headquarters
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Yet another year the San Sebastian Festival and Tabakalera present the International Film Students Meeting, an event seeking to shed light on the work of students from film schools across the world. The pre-selection of works for this 14th Meeting saw the participation of 193 short films from 89 schools in 35 countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Germany, Netherlands, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Lithuania, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA and Venezuela.
The Meeting will take place at Tabakalera (Duque de Mandas, 52), from the 22nd to the 25th of September after its inauguration at the European Capital of Culture 2016 hub (Easo, 43). The selected short films will be presented at sessions open to the general public and Festival guests.
Short films and Schools Selected |
| Black Friday Roxana Stroe (Romania) National University of Theatre and Film (Romania) In the Communist era, queueing for food is something normal. After a long wait on an empty stomach, Mihail doesn't receive his food ration. The next day he tries to be the first in line. |
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| Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird) Nicolás Gutiérrez Wenhammar (Spain) Bande à Part, Escuela de Cine de Barcelona (Spain) A young 17 year old girl finds a bird trapped in the factory where she works. She decides to take it home and care for it, until she finally sets it free again. She starts wondering about her decision to escape the terrible atmosphere she lives in to seek her own freedom. |
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| El Enemigo (The Enemy) Aldemar Matias (Cuba) Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (EICTV) (Cuba) In a fumigation centre in Havana, Mayelín has the thankless task of doling out fines to citizens who have the dengue mosquito in their homes. With a demanding boss and conflictive workers, Mayelín will have to impose her authority to gain respect. |
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| Espagnol niveau 1 (Spanish Level 1) Guy Dessent (Belgium) Haute École Libre de Bruxelles / INRACI (Belgium) Víctor, a young Belgian-Uruguayan boy, returns to Belgium. In order to be able to receive his family allowances, he has no option but to enrol in a Spanish course at level 1 and pretend not to know a word of his mother tongue. |
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| GROUP B Nick Rowland (UK) National Film and Television School (United Kingdom) It is 1986, the peak of high-octane Group B rally driving. Known for its incredibly dangerous off-road races, notorious lack of crowd control, and some of the most powerful and sophisticated cars the world has ever seen. |
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| Kav Hebron / Stationed Nitzan Zifrut (Israel) The School of Audio and Visual Art, Sapir College (Israel) Ruthi is stationed in Hebron. When her soldier friends ask her to spend the weekend with them she agrees. But during their 3 days together she understands the impossibility of existing as a woman in the military system. The realisation pushes her to break her promise and reveal herself as she really is. |
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| L'Offre / The Offer Moïra Pitteloud (Switzerland) Haute école d'art et de design - Genève, Département Cinéma / Cinéma du réel (Switzerland) Sami, a young Swiss-Algerian man, is looking for a work that would match his qualifications. He applies for a job at the Swiss intelligence service. |
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| Los pájaros miran hacia el norte (The Birds Look to the North) Pepe Gutiérrez (Mexico) Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos CUEC-UNAM (Mexico) Miguel leaves everything he knows and loves to go and work as an illegal immigrant in the United States. His wife Mónica suffers his absence in silence. The memories and the nostalgia are always there. |
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| Nueva Vida (New Life) Kiro Russo (Argentina - Bolivia) Universidad del Cine (Argentina) Mysteries, worries and dreams of a new life. |
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| Strach (Fear) Michal Blaško (Slovakia - Czech Republic) The Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava (Slovakia) Marek is a young boy who witnesses a violent attack in a bus He is able to shoot the whole incident on his cell phone, but his fear and conscience prevent him from doing the right thing. |
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| Volando voy (I'll Fly Higher) Isabel Lamberti (Netherlands) Netherlands Film Academy (Netherlands) Two young brothers wander around in a big empty world without a clear destination. As society rages on around them at only a few yards distance, it couldn't seem farther away. Together they try to escape reality, but how do you relate to an undeniable world that you don't seem to be part of? |
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| Wada' / Prediction Khaled Mzher (Germany) Deutsche Film - und Fernsehakademie Berlin (Germany) A close relative has disappeared in the Syrian war region. Ibrahim, an instrument maker and family man struggles with his feelings of responsibility towards his family back home. The war is thousands of kilometres away and yet it destroys everything. |
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Out of competition The Meeting will also include the out-of-competition screening of three short films. Two of them from the Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris, a project that fosters international collaboration and production processes. It involves the participation of the film schools La Fémis and the Filmakademie in Baden-Württemberg: |
| FAIS LE MORT William Laboury (France - Germany) Atelier Ludwisburg-Paris Tom is 16 years old, and he is the whipping boy of Evan who manufactures artisanal weapons. Since he survived the 'spudgun experimentation', he avoids passing by Evan's place. Only, Evan doesn't want to stop already as it just started to make fun ... |
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| FRENCH FRIES Luzie Loose (Germany - France) Atelier Ludwisburg-Paris Nina is from Berlin, Fabien is from Paris and they are united by always being separated. They can never stay in one place for a long time. Torn apart between wanderlust, self-fulfillment and settling down they are looking for a new way to live their relationship. Fabien wants to fully commit to Nina – but she just got offered a great job in another city. |
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The third one is part of the collaboration between the San Sebastian Film Festival and BioBioCine Festival Internacional de Concepción Chile. A Festival, that as well as the Meeting does, it fosters the film students’ exchange of experiences and knowledge in the audiovisual field. |
| Francesca Sebastián Palominos (Chile) Escuela de Comunicación DuocUC (Chile) Francesca is a transsexual in an unsteady relationship with Marcelo, who leaves her when she finds out that he had another woman. Just then, her old friend Paula reappears in a deplorable state and heavily pregnant. Francesca takes her into her home. |
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AWARDS A specific jury, consisting of one student from each of the schools selected to compete and chaired by a well-known figure from the movie world, will choose the winner of the International Film Students Meeting award, going to the director of the winning short film. -
The Panavision Award, carrying a complete camera package including RED Epic camera and Primo standard lenses for four weeks of filming, or a voucher worth €10,000 for renting any kind of Panavision material, for the winning director.
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The Freak Agency / Feelsales Award that includes the free submissions of the winner film to 50 international film festivals selected by the team of Freak and Worldwide sales agreement except for the school's country of origin.
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The BioBioCine - Duoc UC Award, with which the winning short film of the Meeting will be directly selected to participate in the next edition of BioBioCine Festival Internacional Concepción Chile.
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The Jury will also name the three directors who will have the possibility to participate with their works in the Short Film Corner at the next Cannes Festival.
A specific jury will give the Orona Award to the most cutting-edge short film of the Meeting, with an endowment of € 5,000. This Jury will consist of students from Basque schools, coordinated by a professor from the Mondragon University, and chaired by the Orona Fundazioa's Development Director.
A representative from the TorinoFilmLab will be in charge of awarding one of the directors taking part in the Meeting with the Torino Award, with which the winner will be guaranteed attendance to a TorinoFilmLab programme within 2 years after the award is given. The International Film Students Meeting is co-organised by the San Sebastian Festival and Tabakalera-International Centre for Contemporary Culture. The Meeting will enjoy the support of San Sebastian 2016, European Capital of Culture, which advocates the development of a continued process of backing for audiovisual creation that will make it possible to convert San Sebastian into a European centre of attention as regards production in small or medium format. |
