FESTIVAL REVIEW Funded by

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1 FESTIVAL REVIEW Funded by

2 REPORTS MANAGING DIRECTOR S REPORT It was a challenging year for Encounters with the departure of Managing Director Sue Lion, who has taken the festival through many changes over the last few years and established it firmly in the international short film festival circuit. The festival team who were also new, all stepped up to the mark in doing what can be a very challenging job in a sometimes frantic and pressured environment. So my thanks go out to the core team and all the volunteers. Encounters is celebrating its 15 th birthday in 2009 and finally coming of age as are some of the filmmakers who have travelled through the festival over the years. Still hailed as the s premier short film festival by Sight and Sound and still ranked as the third largest in Europe behind Tampere International Short Film Festival and Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival, Encounters, continues to go from strength to strength. With increased audience figures, increased delegate numbers, increased student package bookings, 95% average on satisfaction guarantee for public audience and delegates; it is still the short filmmakers festival of choice for the will be the year Encounters defines its purpose, reaffirms its focus and targets a wider audience. With the introduction of a new strand to platform first-time features and the filmmakers who have made that immeasurable leap from the short form to the long form. This will provide an opportunity not only for first and frequent short filmmakers but also to those trying to establish themselves in the world of feature film. With Filmmaker Focus and in depth Masterclasses, Encounters, will provide access to learn and discover from peer to peer to identify some of the progression routes filmmakers experience. We are indebted to South West Screen, Bristol City Council, South West Regional Development Agency, and Skillset who support us and our grateful to all our dedicated and committed sponsors (see list). Our partnership with the Watershed as our headline venue goes from strength to strength and the staff and management provide all the support, advice and friendship a new Managing Director could want. The relationship with the Arnolfini as the sister venue continues to grow and develop and we welcome our new relationship with Showcase Cinema De Lux in Bristol s new development Cabot Circus, long may they both continue. With the culture and creativity of Bristol developing around us we hope for more partnerships and developments and look forward to 2009 with some interesting events planned for outside the festival. With the financial challenges that are upon us it is important to remain positive and clear about our audience and objectives. In a world were content is king, Encounters Short Film Festival, will provide access to the best emerging talent in short filmmaking, identify talent progression routes with the next generation of feature film talent and continue to showcase the best short films and from around the globe. Liz Harkman Cod Steaks Workshops: Events for Kids CURSING HANLEY, Kelly Harms: Opening Highlights & Int. Panorama 5 MAKING HISTORY, Karen Mckinnon & Caecilia Tripp: B3 Media Blank Slate Showcase TANGO LOLA, Ben Youssef Sami: Int. Panorama 7 CREATIVE DIRECTOR S REPORT Now in its 14 th year it feels as though Encounters has came of age. (I can say that authoritatively having been involved in the festival in many guises since it started) What do I mean by come of age? Well, it feels firmly established as THE place in the for the film industry to meet, to discuss to discover and to promote talent in short filmmaking: from the Film Council s networking breakfasts to the late night partying it felt like business was being done (with a bit of fun in between) It was a particularly rewarding year for Bristol and the South West. Esther May Campbell s September was awarded the British Council Best of British award and went onto win the BAFTA for short film. Leaving by the Omni team had already won the Turner award at the London Film Festival and consolidated its excellence by winning the South West Award and the ITV West Audience Award. Both these films demonstrate how creative, ambitious and professional filmmaking has become in the region: they work excellently as shorts but hint at future feature films potential and if the festival has and can help with that then we have done our job. The international programmes are always a personal (as well as professional!) highlight. The dynamic range of work being made in short film across the world is a privilege to screen and hopefully these films inspire and infect filmmakers and filmmaking in the. The winning film this year demonstrated perfectly how quietly exquisite short filmmaking can be. Encounters is not just about new short films. This year we screened a range of retrospectives promoting other countries contributions to the world of short filmmaking. The most revelatory and magical for me were in the Russian Animation strand. The early pioneering s by Alexander Shiryaev were incredible, his experiments with puppet are extraordinary seen here for the first time courtesy of Bristol University and Aardman Animation - and in effect rewrite the history of Russian! Encounters ventured into the multiplatform digital world we find short film inhabiting - if content is king then Encounters provides a showcase for exciting content - and a clutch of events from Journeys in Hi Def and Electronic Cinematography to Contentainment provides opportunities to explore digital developments. Whilst DepicT! our online filmmaking competition continues to throw up thrilling 90 second filmmaking which is available all year online and, through a partnership with Arts Alliance Media getting into cinemas and international festivals. Finally in the digital world your can continue to experience elements of the festival as we increase the amount of masterclasses - from award winning animator Joanna Quinn to celebrated actor Paddy Considine - available online. Finally the relationship between shorts and feature films became forcibly evident to me once again when I was at the recent Berlin Film Festival and came across Romanian director Radu Jude s first feature The Happiest Girl in the World. Radu Jude won Encounters last year for his wonderful short film The Tube with The Hat and we screened his new short Alexandria this year. I knew this man had potential to develop into a significant feature director. Encounters will continue to mature if we can offer a unique bridge for filmmaker between the worlds of short and feature filmmaking. Mark Cosgrove TERRAFARMER, Will Adams Children s Jury Award ZA PLOTEM, Marcin Sauter: POLISH SHORTS

3 AWARD WINNERS INTERNATIONAL JURY AWARD BEST OF BRITISH AWARD ITV WEST AWARD & SOUTH WEST SCREEN AUDIENCE AWARD 4MATIONS INTERNATIONAL NEWCOMER AWARD CHILDREN S JURY AWARD DENNIS Dir: Mads Matthiesen Denmark 18 mins SEPTEMBER Dir: Esther May Campbell 21 mins LEAVING Dir: Richard Penfold and Sam Hearn 22 mins OUR WONDERFUL NATURE Dir: Tomer Eshed Germany 5 mins OFFICE NOISE Dir: Mads Johansen, Torben Søttrup, Karsten Madsen and Læke Enemark Denmark 3 ms 45 secs FILM COUNCIL AUDIENCE AWARD DEPICT! AWARDS FOR THE BEST ENTRY OF 90 SECONDS OR LESS SKHIZIEN Dir: Jeremy Clapin France 13 mins 35 secs ENOUGH JURY PRIZE Dir: Tor Kristoffersen BREAKING THE MOULD ONLINE AUDIENCE Dir: Rebecca Manley and Luca Paulli WHAT S VIRGIN MEAN? NFTS AWARD Dir: Michael Davies NAHEMI / KODAK PRIZE FOR CREATIVE FILMMAKING KODAK / NAHEMI CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD CARTOON D OR NOMINATIONS STAND UP Dir: Joseph Pierce 6mins 50 secs ISLAND TO ISLA Dir: Jem Garrard 12mins 49 secs VARMINTS Dir: Marc Craste 24 mins THIS IS JO3 Dir: Once Were Farmers Scotland 3 mins

4 STATISTICS DELEGATE EVENTS FREE TOTAL ATTENDANCE 6613 DELEGATES 540 FILMMAKER DELEGATES 177 COUNTRIES REPRESENTED BY DELEGATES 17 TOTAL SPECIAL GUESTS 59 FUNDERS PRINCIPAL SPONSORS Including MAJOR SPONSORS Karim Allag, Axel Behrens, Balazs Bolygo, Viktor Bocharov, Esther May Campbell, Paddy Considine, Camilla Deakin, Terry Flaxton, Stuart Harris, Phill Jupitus, Clare Kitson, Peter Lord, Larisa Maliukova, Lynda Myles, Barbara Orlicz, Simon Perry, Joanna Quinn, David Sproxton, Brian Tufano, Arian Utley, Ken Wardrop, Richard Williams, Paul Young. SPONSORS PROGRAMME SUBMISSIONS REPRESENTING COUNTRIES 1183 FILMS SCREENED WORLD PREMIERE S PREMIERE S INTERNATIONAL BRITISH SOUTH WEST LIVE-ACTION DRAMA ANIMATION DOCUMENTARY SCREENING PROGRAMMES EVENTS AWARDS SPECIAL COMMENDATIONS PRIZE MONEY ,000 WEBSITE PAGE VIEWS (OCT & NOV) 127,627 HP VIEWING LIBRARY VIEWINGS ENCOUNTERS FILM SCHOOL TOTAL ATTENDEES 1, SPONSORS IN KIND MEDIA SPONSORS

5 Encounters Short Film Festival is a leading international short film event and a key hub for talent discovery. Screen International Winning Best British Film, was a tremendous surprise and a genuinely touching, exciting response to a film with such a distinct, idiosyncratic cinematic voice. It really uplifts and feeds my hopes for future, bigger scaled work. I m thrilled Esther May Campbell, director of September PADDY CONSIDINE: BAFTA Short Film Paradise Watershed, 1 Canon s Road, Harbourside, Bristol BS1 5TX Esther May Campbell, dir. SEPTEMBER, with jurors Simon Perry & Adrian Utley Saw the Polish short films on Sunday and I loved them! They were really meaningful, thought provoking, full of humour and touching. Left Watershed feeling homesick! and it took me 2 days to recover. No regrets, only wish I d seen the whole festival. Well, definitely next year! Thank you so much for inspiring me! Ula, Audience Member, Bristol resident from Poland Watershed Cinema Encounters Short Film Festival is a leading international short film event and a key hub for talent discovery. Screen International Encounters is easily the s largest International Short Film Festival and the calibre of entries is undeniably superior. The Guardian T +44 (0) E info@encounters-festival.org.uk LOOK OUT FOR THE 15 TH ENCOUNTERS SHORT FILM FESTIVAL NOVEMBER 2009