Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur gets underway

The 18th edition of the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur began yesterday and promises to showcase the cutting edge of short filmmaking whilst also providing a meeting point for both audiences and industry.

The festival promises 242 films contained in 10 competition programmes and 25 curated short film programmes. 10 competition programmes in total will show the audience the latest short film productions and present filmmakers from all over the world.

“From documentaries to hybrid films, from fiction to experimental – the International Competition covers the whole spectrum and impresses once again with that eagerness for experimentation that is so defining for short films. With regard to the Swiss Competition, it’s a pleasure to have many fiction films worth seeing in competition alongside the traditionally strong documentaries,” says the festival’s artistic director John Canciani.

The Main Focus of the thematic, curated programmes of this year’s Kurzfilmtage is entitled “Framing Europe – Die europäische Idee”. 11 programmes try to grasp the concept of Europe: Is it a continent? A culture? Or quite simply a political, economic, legal merger? A vision of the future, an idea, an illusion? A dream, or even a nightmare?

The Small Focus called “Indigenous Cinema – Through Our Own Lenses” shows us a cinematic culture that originates in the history and the daily lives of indigenous people. This year’s “Person In Focus” is the new star director of French auteur-cinema, Yann Gonzalez.

Talks include examining the role of short film in times of political crises (in “EUkraine”)  and the relationship between Switzerland and Europe (“Special Case Switzerland”). On Friday and Saturday, the industry will meet behind closed doors to discuss trends with regard to hybrid genres, new formats as well as financing and production strategies for short films on occasion of the “Producers’ Day” and its focus on “Crossing the Border”. And as part of the first “Writers’ Room”, film directors and authors sit down at one table to talk.

Cineuropa Shorts will be in attendance to give you some of the highlights and industry events at this renowned festival.  

05 November 2014, by Laurence Boyce