60th Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival ) -the Audi Short Film Award

BERLINALE SHORTS: INTERNATIONAL JURY CONFIRMED AND THE NEW AUDI SHORT FILM AWARD

The short film has a long tradition as an art form at the Berlinale and is an important component in the festival’s artistic profile. Since 1956 the Berlin International Film Festival has awarded a Golden and a Silver Bear to the best short films. Now in the 60th year of their presentation, they will be joined by still another award whose winner will also be selected by the Berlinale Shorts International Jury:

The Audi Short Film Award will go to a director who has an extraordinary artistic signature. The winner will take home 20,000 euros. This makes the Audi Short Film Award one of the most generously endowed short film prizes in the world. With this award, Audi is considerably expanding its partnership with the Berlin International Film Festival.

“The award sponsored by Audi ideally augments our commitment to the short film and underscores its importance. We are delighted that Audi has launched this initiative to promote new and gifted directors further,” states Dieter Kosslick, Director of the Berlinale.

“The Audi Short Film Award is yet another step in our cooperation with the Berlinale. As a progressive brand, we want to enable people to fully experience the connection between Audi and filmmaking in the future, and in many different ways. And to us that also includes an award that shines the spotlight on the creative talents of short film directors,” said Wayne Griffiths, Head of Sales Germany at AUDI AG.

The nominees for the Audi Short Film Award are all those directors participating with their films in the competition for best short film in the Berlinale Shorts programme. Appointed by the Berlinale, a three-member International Jury will decide who gets the award, which will be presented to the winner on February 14, 2015 during the Berlinale Awards Ceremony.

Jury 2015

This year’s International Short Film Jury will award the Golden and the Silver Bear, and the Audi Short Film Award. It will also nominate a short film for the European Film Awards in the category Best Short Film. The prize-winners of 2015 will be chosen by Wahyuni A. Hadi (curator, author and executive director of the Singapore International Film Festival), Halil Altındere (artist, curator and publisher of art-ist Magazine) and Madhusree Dutta (filmmaker, curator and pedagogue).

© Rebecca Toh

Wahyuni A. Hadi, Singapore 

Curator and author Wahyuni A. Hadi is the executive director of the Singapore International Film Festival. In 2013 she co-produced Ilo Ilo, which won many awards, including the Caméra d’Or at the Festival de Cannes. She is a partner in Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, and founding member of the independent short film distributor Objectifs Films. As leading expert and advocate of Singaporean cinema, she initiated in 2009 the Singapore Short Film Awards with filmmaker Chai Yeewei and The Substation, Singapore’s contemporary art centre.

© Sitki Kosemen

Halil Altındere, Turkey

The Istanbul-based artist Halil Altındere explores political, social and cultural codes, and focuses largely on depicting marginalisation and resistance to oppressive systems. Altındere has been a central figure in the Turkish contemporary art world since the mid-1990s, not only as an artist but also as the publisher of art-ist Magazine and as a prominent curator. His works have been included in exhibitions at the Documenta, the Manifesta, and the biennials in Istanbul, Gwangju, Sharjah and São Paulo, as well as at MoMA/PS1, New York. In 2015, the Kunstpalais Erlangen will present a large solo exhibition of his work.

Madhusree Dutta, India 

Since the 1990s, filmmaker, curator and pedagogue Madhusree Dutta’s inter-disciplinary engagement revolves around urbanology, migration, gender and identity. Madhusree’s films have been screened at film festivals and art events all around the world. Her latest multi-disciplinary, multi-scalar curatorial project Cinema City(2009 - 2014) was shown at Berlinale Forum Expanded in 2010. She is the executive director of Majlis, a centre for rights discourse and multi-cultural art initiatives in Mumbai.

Kerala State Chalachitra Academy honoured veteran film historian P.K.Nair .

The Kerala State Chalachitra Academy ,organizers of the International Film Festival of Kerala honoured P.K.Nair ,the veteran film historian and first Curator and former Director of National Film Archive of India during the closing ceremony of 19th edition of International Film Festival of Kerala. Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan. Minister for Cinema, Rajeevnath, Academy Chairman ,Joshy Mathew ,Vice Chairman, Aryadan Showkath and Ramachandra Babu Executive Board Members participated in the honouring ceremony .

 

“Paramesh Krishnan Nair, better known as PK Nair, is the man responsible for founding and managing the National Film Archive of India (NFAI). Having joined the Film and Television Institute in Pune as a Research Assistant in 1961, he did much of the spade work for an autonomous NFAI, which began in 1964. From 1965, when he was appointed Assistant Curator, till 1991, when he retired after nearly a decade as its Director, Nair acquired 12,000 films — 8000 Indian, the rest foreign. The numbers are impressive in themselves, especially for a government archive in a country where government institutions are notorious for their inefficiency and corruption. But if there is a single thing that Celluloid Man manages to convey, it is that that Nair's accomplishments cannot be measured in 

quantitative terms.

. 

This is a man who lived his work: who legendarily screened and watched films from the late to the wee hours, and was never to be found in the theatre without his small torch and a notebook in which he meticulously recorded, reel by reel, the content and condition of every single film print. He didn't let his personal taste influence his collecting and he wasn't above making quick overnight copies of loaned international prints to serve the larger cause: as he says with a twinkle in his eye, "a true archivist should have the immunity to overcome such legalities". Nair combined this indefatigable, almost childlike enthusiasm for the cinema with a seriousness that daunted the frivolous student and unfailingly encouraged the genuinely interested. Jaya Bhaduri, for instance, proudly remembers being the only girl at Nair Saab's late-night screenings because he had told the hostel matron she wasn't using them as an excuse to "gallivant" around an almost-wholly male campus. Vidhu Vinod Chopra recounts the thrilling privilege of being allowed a few hours' access to the institute's print ofBreathless so as to figure out how Godard achieved the "smoothness" of his cuts. Then there's the tale of how John Abraham — the late Malayali filmmaker — walked into Mr. Nair's house at 3 am and demanded to watch Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Mathew, and how Nair not just agreed but watched it with him. They then discussed John's plans for Amma Ariyan (it was to be his most remembered film), had breakfast together, and only then parted company”.(The Sunday Guardian)

19th IFFK- The Argentinian Film REFUGIADO directed by Diego Lerman won suwarna chakoram award

The 19th edition of Imnternational Film Festival of Kerala concluded today with the announcement of the prestigious Chakoram awards.Governor of Kerala P Sathasivam presented the awards to the award winners.Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Minister for Cinema,Minister for Culture K.C.Joseph,Leader of the Opposition, V S Achuthanandan were present on the occasion. While delivering the presidential address , Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Minister for Cinema said that ‘The government has planned to conduct two regional film festivals apart from IFFK, and this will enable more people to participate in the film festival.‘Everybody has appreciated the selection of films,he added. The government will try its best to implement all the possible recommendations of Adoor Gopalakrishnan Committee’ said the Minister.The academy also honored P.K Nair ,the veteran film historian and former Director of National Film Archive India .
Cultural Affairs Secretary Rani George welcomed the gathering and S Rajendran Nair; Secretary of Chalachithra Academy expressed the Vote of Thanks. Festival Programme Director Indu Shrikent was present. The film Refugiado, which bagged the Golden Pheasant Crow award, was screened at the Nishagandhi Open Theatre after the function. 

19th IFFK List of Awardees

Award: Suwarna Chakoram for The Best Film
Awardee: REFUGIADO directed by Diego Lerman and produced by Nicolas Avruj..Award Price: 15 Lacs
    

Award: RajathaChakoram for The Best Director
Awardee: Hiroshi Toda for “Summer, Kyoto”
Award Price: Certificate, Memento & INR 4 Lacs/-

Award: RajathaChakoram for The Best Debut Director
Awardee: HosseinShahabi for “The Bright Day”
Award Price: Certificate, Memento & INR 3 Lacs/-

Award: Malayalam Films in the Market – Certificates of Merit
Awardee: Unto the Duskdirectedby SajinBaabu
                 Zahirdirectedby Sidhartha Siva
                 CR No. 89directed by P. P. Sudevan
                 Kanyaka Talkiesdirected by K. R. Manoj
Award Price: Certificate

Award: The Audience Poll Award goes to
Awardee: Unto the Dusk directed by SajinBaabu
Award Price: Certificate, Memento & INR 2 Lacs/-
 

FIPRESCI Award: Best International Film
Awardee: They Are The Dogs directed by HichamLasri
Award Price: Certificate & Memento

NETPAC Award: Special Mention goes to
Awardee: Oblivion Season directed by Abbas Rafei from Iran
Award Price: Certificate & Memento 

NETPAC Award: Best Asian Film
Awardee: Summer, Kyoto directed by Hiroshi Toda from Japan
Award Price: Certificate & Memento

FIPRESCI Award: Best Malayalam Film
Awardee: ORAALPPOKKAM directed by SanalkumarSasidharan from India
Award Price: Certificate

NETPAC Award: Best Malayalam Film
Awardee: ORAALPPOKKAM directed by SanalkumarSasidharan from India
Award Price: Certificate& Memento

 
 

Award:Best Theatre Aesthetics goes to
Awardee: Kalabhavan
Award Price: Certificate & Memento

Award: Best Theatre Technical goes to
Awardee: New Theatres
Award Price: Certificate& Memento

Award: The Best Radio Mediumgoes to
Awardee: Red FM
Award Price: Certificate, Memento & INR 10,000/-

Award: The Best online reporting goes to
Awardee: Asianet News Website
Award Price: Certificate, Memento & INR 10,000/-

Award:Best Reporting on TV Channels goes to
Awardee:Jisha K. Raj of Jaihind
Special Mention for reporting on TV goes to S.Sheeja (Kairali TV)
Award Price: Certificate&Memento

Award:      Best Print Media
Awardee:shared by K. Sajeevof Mathrubhoomi Daily&C.P. Sreeharshan, Kerala Kaumudi
Award Price: Certificate, Memento& INR 10,000/- (Award Money will be shared)

19th International Film Festival of Kerala 2014-Gonul Donmez-Colin In conversation with Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Gonul Donmez-Colin,the writer and festival consultant and Nuri Bilge Ceylan ,the renowned film maker from Turkey and director of Winter Sleep,Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,Three Monkeys,Climates,Distant,Clouds of May and The Town exchanged their views on films. Ceylan shared his life with films and  views on his latest film Winter Sleep ,which won this year's Cannes Film Festival Palm d' Or award and shown in the World Cinema category of IFFK.During the conversation Ceylan said the Women are more stronger than men in all aspects.He said he has plans to do his next film but he won't disclose details as it is a very personal matter.He also said that film once made is like a letter written and posted to unknown recipients...

"Over the course of his seven feature films – the last five of which have won prizes at Cannes – the Turkish filmmaker and photographer Nuri Bilge Ceylan has moved from a  dramaturgy  primarily based in photography (in films such as 2002’s Distant) to one based firmly in screenwriting, as in the elegant structure and dialogues of 2011’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. This development as a screenwriter has been accomplished in tandem with his wife, Ebru Ceylan, with whom he has co-written the last three films.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan was trained first as a chemical and then electrical engineer before turning to photography and cinema, and his writing shows traces of an engineer’s methodicalness. Climates, in which he co-stars with Ebru, is written in three acts of almost uniform length. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia takes place in two nearly equal acts, the first at night and the second during the day. His latest, Winter Sleep, continues developing the couple’s screenwriting approach. Its 196-minute running time is structured around long dialogue scenes, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan worried whether audiences would accept this more literary approach; that the film won the Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival indicates some have.

Filmed in the stunning Anatolian landscape of Cappadocia with its fairy tale cliffs, Winter Sleep is a Chekhovian family drama, both intimate and epic at the same time, focusing on Aydin, a former actor who has retired to remote Anatolia to run a hotel that belonged to his late parents. He is a reluctant landlord resented by his tenants, as well as by his beautiful wife Nihal, with whom he has a difficult relationship. His divorced sister Decla, who has returned from Istanbul to live at the hotel as well, considers him a pompous hypocrite. Aydin’s inheritance has allowed him to live as a bit of a tyrant, blind to his effect on other people’s lives and utterly unwilling to examine his illusions about himself. As in a Chekhov story (1999’s Clouds of May was dedicated to the writer), we meet these characters as their way of life is coming to an end. All this is set off in an early scene when the son of one of Aydin’s tenants throws a rock at his car, shattering his window. The delicate balance that had allowed the characters to maintain their untenable situation begins to crumble."

19th International Film Festival of Kerala (19th IFFK 2014)-My Selection

1.  SIVAS
 2.  THE PRESIDENT
3.  ONE ON ONE
 4.  CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
5 Summer in Kyoto
5.  STILL THE WATER [241/DCP]
6.  WHITE NIGHTS OF A POSTMAN
 7.  HOPE
8.  TRACK 143
9 Oblivion Season
10One for theRoad
11 REFUGIADO
 12THE GOLDEN ERA  
 13BLACK COAL THIN ICE  
14 NARROW FRAME OF MIDNIGHT
 15 GOOD BYE TO LANGUAGE
16 MOMMY
 17 LEVIATHAN  
18 WINTER SLEEP
 19   THE TRIBE
20  FOREIGN BODY
21 FIELD OF DOGS
22 TIMBAKTU
 23 RED AMNESTY
24  NATURAL SCIENCES
 25  CORN ISLAND
26Melbourne
27Mommy
28Majority
29Narrow frame of Midnighte
30Man of the crowd
31They are the Dogs
321000 Rupee Note
33Bird People
34The Bright Day
35Girl at myDoor
36Hanezu
37The Longest Distance
38Narrow frame on Midnight
39  PANDORAS BOX

19th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala –Simple and Elegant Opening Ceremony .

Oommen Chandy, Chief Minister of Kerala lit the traditional lamp at a ceremony held in the Nishagandhi open-air auditorium marking the inaugural of the week-long festival of moving images .From the midst of dignitaries, the compeers invited  Italian director Marco Bellocchio to receive  the lifetime achievement award.Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan,Minister for Cinema presented the coveted award to him Tawfeek Barhum, main actor of the opening film ‘Dancing Arabs’ was also present during the inaugural ceremony. Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said government has plans to digitize Malayalam classic films. Xie Fei ,renouned Chinese director and the Jury Charman also addressed the gathering. Without much fanfare and non cinema related entertainment programmes the opening ceremony  continued with  the screening of Eran Riklis’s Israeli movie ‘Dancing Arabs’ with an  introduction by Indu Sreekant, the  Programme Director of the fest. The festival will continue upto December 19.