Announcement of the programme of the short competition

Almost a third of the shorts competing for the Golden Bear at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival have been shot on film as opposed to digital: a remarkable statistic for a form that has often been on the forefront of digital technology. It not only promises a programme that will explore the nature of cinema itself but continues to show that – even as an A-List festival that primarily concentrates on features – the shorts at Berlin are a fascinating and anticipated selection of films that play with form and shine the spotlight on new filmmakers.

This year’s competition will feature 25 films from 21 countries. It will include Ulu Braun’s new work BIRDS described as “…a poetic approach [that] unites nature and urban life, enabling us to see parallels that would otherwise be lost in the momentum of our lives.”  A winner of the German  Short  Film  Prize  2013  for  Best Experimental Film with FORST, Braun’s new film will be eagerly awaited.  Another German director, Frieder Schlaich, travels with Patti Smith to Jean Genet’s grave in Laroche to fulfil a promise in Three Stones for Jean Genet. Films from Poland, Austria, Greece, Denmark, the Netherlands and France also appear in the competition.

The International Short Film Jury awards a Golden and a Silver Bear, the DAAD  Short  Film Prize  as well  as  the  Berlin  Short  Film Nominee  for  the  European Film Awards. This year’s jury includes Indonesian director Edwin, who last participated in the Berlinale Competition in 2012 with Postcards from the Zoo; Nuno Rodrigues, the artistic director of the Vila do Conde short film festival and founder of Agência – the Portuguese Short Film Agency and Lebanese curator Christine Tohme. 

The full list of films is:

Afronauts, Frances Bodomo, USA, 13’ (IP)

BIRDS, Ulu Braun, Germany, 15’ (WP)

La Casona (The Big House), Juliette Touin, Cuba, 25’ (IP) 

darkroom, Billy Roisz, Austria, 13’ (WP)

Do serca Twego (To Thy Heart), Ewa Borysewicz, Poland, 10’ (IP)

Im Tekhayekh, Ha’Olam Yekhayekh Elekha (Smile, and the World Will Smile

Back), Familie al-Haddad/Ehab Tarabieh/Yoav Gross,  Israel /  Palestinian

Territories, 21’ (WP)

Kamakura (Snow Hut), Yoriko Mizushiri, Japan, 5’ (WP)

LABORAT, Guillaume Cailleau, Germany, 21’ (WP)

Marc Jacobs, Sam de Jong, Netherlands, 17’ (WP)

Om Amira, Najy Esmail, Egypt, Germany 25’ (IP)

Optical Sound, Elke Groen/Christian Neubacher, Austria, 11’ (WP)

Person to Person, Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 18’ (IP)

Raconte-moi des salades (Salad Days), Olias Barco, Belgium / France, 10’

(WP)

As Rosas Brancas (The White Roses), Diogo Costa Amarante, Portugal / USA,

20’ (WP)

Sky Lines, Nadine Poulain, Serbia, 10’ (IP)

Solo te puedo mostrar el color (I Can Only Show You the Color), Fernando

Vílchez Rodríguez, Peru, 26’ (WP)

Symphony no. 42, Réka Bucsi, Hungary, 10’ (WP)

Tant qu’il nous  reste des  fusils à pompe  (As Long As Shotguns Remain),

Caroline Poggi/Jonathan Vinel, France, 30’ (WP)

Taprobana, Gabriel Abrantes, Portugal / Sri Lanka / Denmark, 24’ (WP)

Three Stones for Jean Genet, Frieder Schlaich, Germany, 7’ (WP)

Unogumbe (Noye’s Fludde), Mark Dornford-May, South Africa, 35’ (EP)

Un Paraíso (A Paradise), Jayisha Patel, Cuba, 14’ (WP)

Washingtonia, Konstantina Kotzamani, Greece, 24’ (WP)

WONDER, Mirai Mizue, France / Japan, 8’ (WP)

Xenos, Mahdi Fleifel, Denmark / United Kingdom, 13’ (WP)

(WP = World premiere, IP = International premiere)