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Summer Focus on film festivals (1/2) How do they work?

NisiMazine JULY 08

©Program cover design for 2003 Johns Hopkins’ film festival guide designed by Post Typography

Nisimazine is a monthly newsletter published by the association NISI MASA. EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-chief Matthieu Darras Secretary of the editorial Jude Lister Layout Emilie Padellec

Contributors to this issue Zeynep Güzel, Atso Parnanen, Jude Lister, Nina Henke, Zsuzsanna Kiràly Johanna Kinnari, Itxaso Elosua Ramirez - Erratum: thank you to Joanna Gallardo for her contribution last month

NISI MASA (European Office) 10 rue de l’Echiquier, 75010, Paris, France; Tel/Fax: + 33 (0)1 53 34 62 78 + 33 (0)6 32 61 70 26 Email europe@nisimasa.com Website www.nisimasa.com

Editorial A film festival in your home town

can evoke the memory line of your personal history. It can ‘retrospectively’ illuminate your

past as a spectator; the changes in your filmic taste, the things you learned, the people you met, the movie theatres, the cafes and restaurants around them... It provides a whole map of both individual and urban memories. These collective memories include peculiar experiences; merged with the past and the future of the city and the people who live there. Festival directors may be aware of how a good film festival can change one’s life forever.

As a viewer, I think that the spirit of every film festival is felt differently. Just like the films, they have their own narrative. The organisers have an imagined story they would like to tell the spectator (a particular kind of spectator that they hope to find/create) by depicting their different styles and concerns in their programme, developing it over the years. At this point, the date, the

theatres, and the location of the festival also indicate what kind of existing audiences are being targeted and what new ones are being formed.

However, the spectators should not be perceived as an inactive entity. On the contrary, they have a key role from the very beginning, introducing their own concerns and interests. In this issue you can find some perspectives on how film festivals work across Europe. Interviews with festival director Pierre Henri Deleau (p.3) and film critic Lee Marshall (p.4) let us in on how festivals are being managed and how to proceed with the needs of new audiences, we have an article exploring the new functions of film festivals in Europe (p.4), and finally, the first part of our handy A-Z guide, where all the key festival-related buzz-words are explained (p.5).

Happy reading!

* Next Issue...

NISIMAZINE # 12 ~ August 2008

SPEcIAL FOcuS On FILM FESTIvALS (2/2)

In THE SPOTLIGHT: MOvIEMEnT

POrTrAIT: SIMOnE FEnOIL (FrAnTI)

Until July, 6th 2008 Trencing (Slovakia)New Pictures of the Old World workshop

July, 20th

In all the networkDeadline for entries to Rush Up - Editing project organised by NM France (http://blog.nisimasafrance.org)

July, 31stIn all the networkDeadlines for applying to Nisimazine Tehran (Iran) & Nisimazine Kars (Turkey) and One Take Workshop (Kars)

Agenda

Zeynep Güzel

Special Focus: How do film festivals work?*

Interview: Pierre Henri Deleau

Pierre Henri Deleau was the founder of the Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine de Réalisateurs) at the festival de Cannes in 1968, and was its president for the following 30 years. He has created a dozen other festivals in France and Europe. He

is also a member of the European Film Academy.

Are festivals’ roles changing today?No, but there is an adjustment: the film directors are losing power over their own films. It is no longer the director who decides in which festival the film will be screened, it’s the foreign sales agent. Thus festivals are turning more and more into market places. You can see that only the big film festivals which also have a market section - like Cannes, Berlin and Toronto - succeed. But it’s still their task to prepare the styles of tomorrow. I think that there are too many festivals: there are around 200 in France! I must also admit that I don’t have that much respect for today’s festival directors. They take a film because the first film of the director was a success or because of the famous actor who is playing in it. I regret that there are no longer niches for auteur films. And the festival visitors are always in a hurry; they don’t take the time to watch the unknown movies from smaller countries.

Are festivals a place for discovering new talents?You can still discover new talents at festivals, but it happens by accident. I would say that it is more the role of smaller festivals.

If you created a new festival now, what would it be like?I’m still running three festivals! Since 1987 I’ve been working for the FIPA (Le Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels), the biggest audiovisual festival in the world. In my opinion modern festivals can’t stand the competition from television because a few days per year are not enough to change the diversity of films! Public television should play a bigger range of all kind of films from all over the world. I developed Comédiens, Réalisateurs (Luxembourg), and then there is De l’Encre à l’Écran (Tours) - a festival which wants to create interest for literature by showing adaptations of the classics. I think that a festival should also educate younger people by showing classic movies and retrospectives because these filmmakers are our heritage (Truffaut has to stay in mind)!

Nina Henke

Given the overwhelming abundance of events out there, one wouldn’t necessarily think that it’s a hard time for film festivals right now. In fact, in the

face of increasing competition and dwindling resources, the difficulties are greater than ever.

So this issue, we decided to focus on the question: ow do film festivals work? This means of course not just the logistical aspects, but also: What are their essential ingredients? What place do they have in the world of cinema and how is this changing, for better or for worse? And how should festival directors be taking action to ensure the success of their events?

It certainly seems that the gap is widening between the more industry-oriented giants and smaller screening programmes intended for the pleasure and discovery of the general public. It is also clear that the less-established of the latter category are now finding themselves obliged to provide a unique ‘selling point’ by focusing their line-up on a particular theme.

For the spectator at least, these seem to be exciting developments – surely all of this competition means more diversity of choice and better quality? The answer could be yes, as long as festivals are able to rise to the challenges ahead.

o

European Coordination of Film Festivals The European Coordination of Film Festivals was created in 1995 by a group of around 10 festivals, and went on to become a 250-strong network. Its main interest was to bring together film and audiovisual festivals, facilitate the circulation of films and people, and support audiovisual education in the EU. In 2006 however, financial support by the European Commission was stopped. The organisation being completely dependant on such sources of funding, it unfortunately had to discontinue its work, and there has been no similar existing network since then.

Read more at: http://www.petitiononline.com/ECFF2/petition.html

Nina Henke

Introduction

Interview: Lee Marshall

Film critic for the most

important European film industry trade paper Screen Daily, as well as writing about film Lee now also writes films himself (he took part in Script&Pitch in 2005).

oHow many festivals do you attend?Writing for Screen International means that I attend a lot more festivals than the average newspaper film critic would. I generally go to around nine or ten a year, mixing the European Big Three (Cannes, Venice, Berlin) with smaller festivals like Udine, San Sebastian, Turin or Dubai. The latter are often the most enjoyable: the pressure is off and I can even get to see some films that I’m not reviewing!

Is there a difference between festivals you might prefer as a journalist and as a cinephile?As a film critic you’re always chasing the world premieres. So festivals like Cannes or Venice which guarantee a high proportion of novelties are essential. But if someone were to fund me for a year just to go to festivals without needing to work, I’d mix in a lot of smaller or specialist festivals - like Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Tromso, Lodz Camerimage, Motovun or Sodankyla. The only one of those five I’ve been to is Sodankyla - and that was thanks to ‘Script&Pitch’. What is your view on the ever-growing amount of festivals and markets? Does it not undermine the value of the awards and nominations given?There are too many festivals for sure. But above all, there are too many festivals that are all trying to do the same thing. Festivals (especially smaller ones) need to differentiate in order to survive - more of them should apply the big scriptwriting question, ‘‘what’s my goal?’’ As for prizes, I think there’s a kind of natural selection - distributors are only going to use the big festival prizes on the poster, because those are the ones that people recognise.

Atso Pärnänen

Special Focus: How do film festivals work?*

(New) functions of film festivals

Film festivals frame the year of the film industry and influence it by being

the starting point of a film’s annual circulation on the worldwide festival and cinema theatre circuit. Success in a (major) festival is crucial for the distribution of a film. Yet beyond the infrastructure of film markets, producer’s

networks, masterclasses and prizes offered, there are new functions, or rather requirements, which will make a festival successful and irreplaceable in the world of cinema in the future.

As there are so many film festivals worldwide with similar programmes, each is forced to be creative and invent new strategies to reposition themselves - to stay unique and competitive. The more specific a concept of a festival is the more it can focus the film selection: it’s about quality before quantity, serving a special interest and creating an outstanding programme in consequence. This can strengthen the economic position as funds and local financial resources

diminish. One new function is not (anymore) thus to show as many films as possible, but to set them in a socio-political relation, be ahead of the times in terms of audiovisual technology, or set trends by concentrating on new young talents - which is easier at smaller festivals than at the major international ones.

A festival can also be pedagogical, especially in creating retrospectives. The world’s cinematic archives are full of treasures that are only shown to a small public. Festivals can here incite enthusiasm and a better understanding from audiences and at the same time raise money for the restoration of old copies (as has been the case at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with the screening of Lola Montes by Max Ophüls).

It is these major aspects that represent a change, or a need for change, in the direction of film festivals. It remains to be seen also how different events will succeed (or not) in reinventing themselves with yet more new functions.

Zsuzsanna Kiràly

The future of film festival audiences? © Motovun Film Festival

Special Focus: How do film festivals work? Special Focus: How do film festivals work?

Awards From the lower profile ‘best set-design’ to the more grandiose ‘lifetimeachievement’, festival awards can at best offer an instant career boost (and at least a confidence boost) for film professionals. Whilst one does sometimes wonder about their real meaning or value - I’m sure all of us have been lured, and subsequently disappointed, by the promise of a film poster loaded with

golden prizes - arguing over the politics of a jury’s selection and which films were unjustly rewarded / overlooked can of course be part of the fun. (JL)

Co-Production Markets

A place for professionals to enjoy cocktails and sign those deals negotiated beforehand and developed over months and years. For newcomers a chance to catch decision-makers and hope they will listen to their pitch and give the magical green light, the go ahead. Many festivals have markets that offer a chance for the industry to set up multiple meetings, come to meet colleagues… basically do the networking everyone talks about. Markets offer a possibility for people with extremely busy schedules to plan and scout for the next project that might just be the one. (AP)

Debating Cinema

Are film festivals still the right place for debating cinema? Or have they become more and more like market places? Spectators of course discuss the films they have seen or heard about, though the big newspapers no longer give a lot

of space for films and filmmakers. They prefer to write about the new gossip and the actors, but not so much about the content of the film or a new cinema wave. Less focused on industry and hype, smaller festivals in general seem to give a better possibility to meet other cinephiles and to discuss cinema in a more intimate setting. (NH)

Glamour

Line-UpWhat is this year’s fall collection or the colours of the summer? The line-up is the programme of films chosen for screening, the selection that everyone browses in the catalogues to see who is in and who is out. Like a

meat market for movies, who gets to compete for an award or be in the “out of competition” series can affect distribution deals. It is not easy to produce a line-up that the makers, critics and audiences are all happy with. In any case, comparing the different selections that festival committees create can often tell you as much about current events and recurring themes as it does about f lavours of the month or long overdue retrospectives. (AP)

Midnight ScreeningMany festivals have strange spots for the screenings: like basements, beaches, parks, roofs, or swimming-pools (see picture, Badeschiff Berlin). These last outdoor ones are often favourites for the midnight

screenings - when it gets dark and eerie the festivals like to choose surprising or scary movies. In Cannes the midnight screening is a special section in itself. One wonders though if these special events at midnight, on ceilings, walls or in city squares affect the reception of a movie or if the festivals only use them to try to get more attention. (NH)

Compiled By Atso Parnanen, Nina Henke, Jude Lister, Zsuzsanna Kiraly

© Paris Cinéma 2007

© Berlinale

An A-Z of Film Festivals: Part 1

You can’t return from a major festival without reporting on the stars you have seen. Everyone wants to know. Stars = red carpet = paparazzi = glamour, this formula is the sexiest and easiest marketing tool a festival can have. It attracts more media, more sponsors,

more visitors and tourists, as well as more actors and actresses to present their recent films. The number of stars attending a festival is kind of a status symbol and also a competition between the well reputed festivals, just as the competition of having the best selection of films. But which competition is more important? (ZK)

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The future of film festival audiences? © Motovun Film Festival

© efp

Latest newsCALL FOR ENTRIES 7TH INTERNATIONAL KANSK VIDEO FESTIVAL

The small city of Kansk in Siberia may seem like an unlikely place for an international film festival - although funnily enough, as their website explains, it is pronounced exactly the same as “Cannes” in Russian, hence providing a handy ready-made marketing gimmick.

Quite apart from its location however, the organisers are keen to position the event as radically alternative. It focuses especially on innovative, avant-garde, experimental, and/or low-budget productions, the programme thus spanning “beyond the mainstream in cinematography, as well as in contemporary art”.

The festival will take place from the 1st – 7th September. The maximum length for film submissions is 30 minutes.

Deadline for entries:July 25, 2008

For more details, see:www.festival-cannes.ru

FOOD PROJECT: CALL FOR FILMSFunding has now been confirmed for the ‘Food Project’, which has been awarded a grant from the

Europe for Citizens programme! This summer the European Office will be working on creating an official website for the project. Watch out for a call for films coming up in September…

DIVIDED GODBringing together around 50 young filmmakers from Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey and Germany (NM member filmArche is a partner), the ‘Divided God’ project aims to question the role of religion in different countries and societies, more specifically the question: Do religions contribute to tolerance and the solving of conflicts or do they to some extent actually generate these problems?

During a period of 18 months, exchanges involving research-based video workshops, panel discussions, and an internet forum attempted to approach this issue from multifaceted viewpoints. The results include a range of short documentaries and a series of lecture papers. The films were recently premiered at a final conference in Ljubljana in June.

Visit the project website: http://www.pozitiv.si/dividedgod

EUROPEAN SUBURBAN REPORTAGE Online Paris-based video channel regards2banlieue – “views from the suburbs” is looking for one or several groups of 4 young Europeans aged 18-25 with a passion for video and reportage.

rather than a peaceful image of jumble sales and well-mowed lawns, the French word for ‘suburbs’ (‘banlieue’) is most often associated with housing projects surrounding the city centre which are considered as disadvantaged areas.

The plan is to realise a 52-minute international reportage which investigates the similarities, differences, and life quality of

the inner suburbs of Europe’s capitals – Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, rome, Budapest, Stockholm and Paris. Interviews and debates will be made with local people, urbanists, and relevant community associations. Shooting will take place in early 2009. contact: contact@regards2banlieue.tv

ARCHIDOCTRAINING

Organised by the prestigious Femis film school (France) and supported by the Eu MEDIA programme, Archidoc is an archive-based documentary development workshop. The three sessions (which will take place in October and november 2008, and January 2009) will include tutored synopsis re-writing, re-editing of a trailer, master classes, conferences, and a pitch to producers and Tv commissioning editors. The workshop will be directed by experienced doc filmmakers Erez Laufer and Stan neumann.

10 European filmmakers with an ongoing documentary film project using archives will be selected. The full participation fee is 2000 euros, however some grants will also be available. Applications must include a detailed project synopsis and examples of previous work.

Deadline:September 2, 2008For more details, see: www.lafemis.fr (‘Formations’)

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In the spotlight Some members

ActivitiesAs well as organising the nM script contest in Finland, Euphoria Borealis has experience of hosting international workshops (Jury Meeting, Nisimazine Helsinki). In terms of future projects, there’s a plan for a NM 10th anniversary event to take it place in Turku in 2011!On a national level the association organises cine-clubs, with films and music. recent events where set up in Helsinki and Sodankylä. One aim has been finding a way to connect Finnish film associations and find a meaningful activity for all of them. Euphoria Borealis is always growing and finding better ways to manifest itself.

One of the architects of NISI MASA

was and still is an association called

Euphoria Borealis. During its eight-

year lifetime it has tried out various

ways of approaching audiovisual culture

and supporting a forum between young

Finns and their European colleagues.

Members are placed in many different

cultural fields, and the essence of this group

perhaps lies in this exchange of views.

Eero ERKAMOEero has been a member from the beginning. The last time he was involved was in organising the Nisimazine Helsinki workshop. He is undertaking a Masters in theatre research and also film and television studies at the University of Helsinki, and works as Secretary of The Central Association of Finnish Theatre Organisations. He likes travelling around the world and hiking beyond the polar circle.

Lasse LECKLIN A founding member of NM, Lasse has been in the Board since 2003 (currently as General Secretary). He has previously studied communications and photojournalism, and is now doing a Masters in photography at the University of Art and Design of Helsinki. He works actively as a freelance photojournalist for the press and as photographer for several film festivals, which allows him to travel and meet people - for his great pleasure. Next destination: New York.

Emilia LEHTINENEmilia has been a member of NM since the start and attended numerous enjoyable workshops. She is currently working on a long documentary, teaching cinema classes, and has also directed short fictions. Emilia majored in cinema and television studies at the Turku University, and has also studied at the Turku Art Academy and the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. Her favourite pastimes are writing and cooking.

Sonja LöFSTROMSonja is almost finished with her cultural production studies at the University of Applied Sciences, Humak. She’s working more or less constantly for the DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, Helsinki Intl Film Festival and Midnight Sun Film Festival (from which she is still recovering). Sonja has been member of Euphoria Borealis since 2005. She enjoys late awakenings accompanied by 2 ½ cups of dark roast, fair-trade coffee with a droplet of milk.

Hannaleena HAURUA new member, Hannaleena became involved after winning the 2005 NM script contest with If I Fall. Graduated from the Tampere Film School, she is now continuing studies at the school of Motion Pictures in Helsinki, majoring in scriptwriting. In addition to filmmaking she has been working as a theatre producer. Though making sad, poetic films like So there are no poems coming to me (Snow Workshop), she considers herself as a happy person. Hannaleena is now writing her first feature film.

Atso PäRNäNENAtso is a writer/director/producer of various short films. He’s been involved in feature film projects and film festivals - especially in the UK and Finland, having divided his time between the two countries for the past few years. He is now based in the NM European Office in Paris, as Head of Film Productions. He is also participating in the Script&Pitch workshops.

Not forgetting…Volunteers Helena Mielonen (EB’s Presi-dent - see ‘‘Portrait’’, January issue) and Johanna Kinnari.

e u p h o r i a b o r e a l i s r y

Anna Wolbank

Pictures on the left from the top:

Emilia, Eero, Lasse Atso, Sonja, Hannaleena Compiled by

Johanna KinnariThanks!

More infowww.

euphoriaborealis.net

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Maartje Alders (MeccaPAnZA)

Port

rait

She wipes a lock of blonde hair out of her eyes.Puts her bag on the table. Unzips it and sticks her hand in.Rummaging through its contents, she gives me a

mysterious smile, before taking her hand out of her bag again and producing the fresh croissant she bought for me at the train station.

That’s often the first image of the day when we meet on Mondays to work on our MeccaPANZA projects. Needless to say, our cooperation - which started at the Helsinki nisimazine workshop last January (where we both participated as journalists) - is as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

Behind that smile lies a girl who has been active in almost as many fields as she has fingers on her hands. Currently working part-time as a sous-chef in a restaurant, where she produces starters and desserts amongst other things, 25-year-old Maartje is not one to avoid a challenge. When she applied for the job she had never professionally cooked in her life and the head chef (who has as much knowledge of the art of cookery as the split beans in his fridge) just threw her into the deep end. She had to figure out vague recipes jotted down by past chefs on pieces of paper, containing such cryptic descriptions as “carrots julienne”.

The same goes for her other endeavours; challenges and hurdles are there to be taken. And she does. No wonder she headed off to the USA for one year to study art and foreign languages. Plus, for one thing, I know she sinks her teeth into budgets and doesn’t let go, until the whole thing works perfectly. She puts her heart and soul into the projects we are setting up, and that’s definitely visible. Mondays at the office are not only fun but incredibly productive.

Her true passion, however, lies in images, both still and moving. Every day with her little camera she takes enigmatic photographs of the world around her, for the Flakes online art project she’s been involved in since November 2007. She has also made beautiful

documentary-style photos in both Bali and Nepal. In fact, she’s about to jet off to Rome for three weeks to photograph archaeological excavations, combining two of her interests in one project.

Maartje has been studying documentary-making alongside her archaeology course at the University of Leiden for the past three years. She’s now preparing her final documentary film and thesis. Wanting a more hands-on experience, she had switched from studying anthropology to archaeology. But that wasn’t enough. The filmmaking bug kept buzzing, so she tried her hand at documentary-making by partaking in a special programme at her university, and making a film in her spare time that got selected for a NISI MASA project in Vienna in 2007 (Survive Style – being young in Europe: a risky business?).

A good thing she did, for here she found what she was craving; an opportunity to let her creativity flow and combine her interest for human interaction and history, and her love for imagery. She loves to tell small stories about people’s lives in her documentaries, and if it was up to her that’s what she will be doing for the rest of her life. One can only hope that she will continue taking photographs as well.

Maartje sees the details that other people often miss, the small quirky things that make day-to-day life interesting. She sees their humour and relevance, and looks for the stories behind them. That’s a rare quality to have, and one to cherish once you’ve found it. Especially for a filmmaker. The best stories come from small events, after all. She pulls her camera out of her bag and takes a photograph of a shop window full of long-necked wig stands. She smiles enigmatically at me again, winks, and says “that will be today’s photograph”. We walk on to the supermarket, fill up a basket with goodies for lunch, pay for them and cheer with glee when we get free plastic smurfs from the cashier. Maartje’s spirit can’t be captured in one single article.

www.flakes.nu

Itxaso Elosua Ramírez