This year’s Talents and Short Film Market will be an opportunity to reflect on the state of the short film industry. The panels’ topics will range from extended reality and the meaning of film festivals in the current landscape to production design and film education. Discover the full list of panels below:

Animation & XR: an Incorruptible Marriage

28.11.2022 
14h00—15h00                  
Circolo dei Lettori, Sala Grande 

Visual artists and animators from all over the world have found an immediate attraction for the extended realities mediums and their innate possibilities of endless expansion of the visual possibilities. The panel will presents some players that have been approaching this combined world: the “traditional” animation production landing (also) on new challenges and opportunities of financing within Europe; the commitment and passion of the animation industry in creating platforms of development that creates networks and connection between art & engineering; the development of the two mediums in a work of art that is also capable of reflecting on accessibility and how to overcome social barriers. The panel is presented in collaboration with Creative Europe Desk Italy MEDIA – Turin that will introduce a keynote about the new call Video games and immersive content development.

Panelists: Fabian Driehorst (Fabian&Fred); Aneta Ozorek (Kaboom Animation Festival, CEE Animation Forum); Martina Raponi (Artist, Director, Writer & Educator)

Moderator: Carla Vulpiani (Animation Extended Lab & XR Manager, TSFM)

Introductory Keynote: Silvia Sandrone (Creative Europe Desk Italy MEDIA Torino)

 

in collaboration with Creative Europe Desk Italy MEDIA – Torino 

 

Fake it till you make it – The how to Production Design 

28.11.2022 
15h30—16h30                  
Circolo dei Lettori, Sala Grande

Production design is one of the oldest craftsmanship of cinema. Although it still plays an important role in feature film productions, it might seem that the budget investment is too expensive for short films. However, production design might be fundamental as well for some short film productions, without which some stories could not be told. The panel will address various practical approaches to production design which were used by two directors in their movies – from classical set design, to the use of green screens – in order to discover the narrative opportunities those techniques offered them and the related costs on the budget.

Panelists: Douwe Dijkstra (Director), Thanasis Neofotistos (Director)

Moderator: Sigrid Hadenius-Ebner (Uppsala Kortfilmfestival)

What is the point of festivals?

29.11.2022 
11h00—12h00                  
Circolo dei Lettori, Sala Grande

It is said that festivals are the exploitation and presentation platform par excellence for short films. But what exactly are festivals? What specifically do they do and what has changed as a result of the pandemic? Has our view perhaps been sharpened in times when gatherings in front of screens were impossible?

Katrin Mundt’s keynote gives an overview of the extraordinarily diverse short film festival landscape in Germany. It discusses the different contexts in which short film is presented, and the changing ways in which it finds its audiences. It asks how the work for and collaboration between festivals has been impacted, and in what kind of geography festivals are likely to operate in the future. And finally, how can the structures of financing, organisation and communication be rethought to make festival work more sustainable?

The panelists, representing different forms of festivals, contribute to the discussion based on their experiences and invite the audience to join in the discussion about the future and potential of short film festivals.

Panelists: Maike Mia Höhne (Director and Film Curator), Katrin Mundt (EMAF), Arne Papenhagen (FiSH Film Festival) Moderator: Anne Gaschütz (Locarno Film Festival, FILMFEST DRESDEN)

Weapon of Choice – Short Films as tools for empowering under-represented communities

29.11.2022
14h00—15h00                  
Circolo dei Lettori, Sala Grande

Since the analog and then digital video revolutions the cost of the means of labour that are necessary to the production of a short film has radically dropped. This has granted people from under-represented communities the access to the short format – the so called audiovisual democratisation. The medium allowed them to tell stories – quite often political and identitarian – from a perspective other than the one of the dominant capitalist based western society. Starting from the personal expertise and experience of the speakers, the panel aims to debate the concept of short films as the ultimate cultural and expressive weapon for under-represented communities in the film industry.

Panelists: Eroll Bilibani (DokuLab), Laurence Richard (Wapikoni), Hoda Taheri (Director)

Moderator: Sigrid Hadenius-Ebner (Uppsala Kortfilmfestival)

Where have all the buyers gone? 

29.11.2022
15h30—16h30                  
Circolo dei Lettori, Sala Grande

The acquisition market of short films has changed dramatically in just a few years. Not so long ago, television was the dominant media for showcasing short films to a more general audience, mostly unaware of the genre. Undoubtedly the rise of streaming and vod platforms has broadened the possibilities of showcasing short films, however, at what price? The number of short film buyers actively attending B2B events and markets have noticeably lowered while the number of sales or distributors seems to have increased, thus creating a short circuit in the demand and supply chain. The panel will address this market imbalance by analysing how the role of short film buyers has changed over time.

Panelists: Catherine Colas (ARTE), Inga Diev (OUAT Media), Paola Ruggeri (Mediaset)

Moderator: Emilia Mazik (Short Waves Festival)

Introducing 

29.11.2022
17h00—18h00                  
Circolo dei Lettori, Sala Grande

Conceived in collaboration with Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur as a twin event, in this panel three industry representatives will present themselves and explain the scope of their work. They will introduce brand new or little-known platforms and opportunities that can have an impact on other professionals of the short film circuit. The introduced novelties will be the cash rebate scheme for short films offered by EKOME in Greece, FilmConnector, a brand new distribution platform for both companies and single filmmakers developed by Radiator IP Sales, and the work promoted by the Swiss short film association ProShort aimed at lobbying for a major recognition of the short film industry.

Panelists: Vasiliki Diagouma (EKOME), Ben Vandendaele (Radiator IP Sales), Laura Walde (ProShort)

Moderator: Aneta Ozorek (Kaboom Animation Festival)

in collaboration with Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 

Learn to Fly – Film Education and the Short Film Festival Circuit

30.11.2022 
15h00—16h00                  
Circolo dei Lettori, Sala Grande

Film schools and universities teaching filmmaking play an important role in the training of new professionals. Short films are undoubtedly the format alumni are required to develop in order to advance through their academic careers. This implies a massive production of works labelled as “school films” that are often treated as a subgenre – almost detached from the rest of the industry – albeit formally equal to other shorts presented in the circuit. The panel will mainly address the relationship between film education and the festivals – figuring out the existing connections and gaps between the two – and how academic institutions prepare students to face the big leap into the film industry.

Panelists: Siiri Häidma (Baltic Film, Media and Arts School of Tallinn University), Delphine Jeanneret (HEAD Genève), Marcin Malatyński (The Polish National Film School in Lodz)

Moderator: Amos Geva (T-Port)

in collaboration with T-Port 

Short Film Criticism, a new hope?

30.11.2022
16h30—17h30                  
Circolo dei Lettori, Sala Grande

An article published in 2004 titled The Short Film and Critics: Do They Ever Meet? written by Laurence Boyce for FIPRESCI reports the outcomes of a workshop on Short Film and Criticism held at the 50th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen. Its reading is a useful insight in order to retrospectively understand the relationship between film criticism and the short form of cinema as it was almost 20 years ago. In the meantime, however, much has changed: paper outlets have lost prominence, while online publications have flourished. Starting from a historical point of view, the panel aims to investigate the impact and influence film criticism has on the short film industry today and vice versa.

Panelists: Laurence Boyce (Cineuropa), Savina Petkova (Talking Shorts), Niels Putman (kortfilm.be)

Moderator: Emilia Mazik (Short Waves Festival)

in collaboration with Talking Shorts