Newsletter No. 7

[Iris Pfleging]

http://www.shortfilm.de
NEWSLETTER No. 7

EDITORIAL

Dear Readers!

After taking a summer break, the Newsletter is back with the latest news 
and dates from the world of short film.

We took some time over the summer to check, edit and make additions to all 
of our link lists. Under the "Links" heading you will now find 500 links to 
websites relevant to short film. This means the Short Film Magazine now 
offers the largest collection of short film links in the world!

Our topic of discussion in this issue is short film on the Internet. Since 
the advent of streaming about five years ago, the presence of short film on 
the Internet has exploded. Today thousands of short films are viewed online 
across the world by millions of users. Keeping pace with the simultaneous 
commercialization of the Internet, online distribution of short films has 
become a big business. Our TOPIC illuminates some aspects of this 
development. As always, we invite our readers to provide their comments on 
this theme. We would be especially interested to learn about filmmakers’ 
own experiences with Internet distribution. Feel free to use our "return 
channels" in the Forum or per email to give us your feedback!

Till next time,


Reinhard W. Wolf
Editor

mailto:editor at shortfilm.de


TOPIC

Short Film Online - The Golden Age of the Shorts?

Short film and business – they somehow seem to be mutually exclusive. But 
now all of the sudden -- who would have thought it? – short films have 
become ‘big business’. Unfortunately, however, only online! Perhaps it all 
started at the NAB ‘98 in Las Vegas, when the computer industry approached 
the television and film world with its new AV products. Adobe introduced 
Premiere 5.0, Macromedia presented its editing programme, FinalCut, 
Truevision a video capture card and Apple its cross-platform QuickTime 
media player. DVD, DV and audio streaming were already available at that 
time on the Internet. Back then everyone was wondering, "What’s Steve Jobs 
doing at NAB?" His answer: "We have to talk about this stuff!" And the 
bosses at the big media conglomerates immediately stood up and took notice. 
While the film industry’s initial concern was fear of illegal distribution 
of feature films over the Internet, the media groups, television networks 
and telcos were busy holding meetings and hatching out deals. At the same 
time, a new generation of entrepreneurs was coming into its own, founding 
dozens of so-called dotcoms right and left, based on Steve Jobs’ ‘stuff’. 
Just two years after the NAB, a short film called "More" (Mark Osborne) was 
viewed 50,000 times on the iFilm.com site, while AtomFilms (on the Web 
since March 1999) was reporting over 15 million visitors each month.

In May 2000, CNN.com senior writer Jamie Allen wrote an article entitled: 
"The golden age of the short – Shorts move from film-class project to big 
time on web". As an example, Allen describes the career of unknown T-shirt 
designer Joe Shields, who was able to swiftly take the Internet world by 
storm with his self-made animated film, mere seconds in length. His second 
cartoon, a simple Flash animation called "The Frog Bender" (a frog in a 
blender), which he put up on the Web under his pseudonym Joe Cartoon, was 
soon scoring 2,500 hits a day, overtaxing the limits of his homepage 
server. Shields took his cartoon to the more powerful AtomFilms server, 
where it then racked up 700,000 hits per day! "Frog Bender" went on to 
become a legend. Matt Hulett of AtomFilms estimates that some 30 million 
users had already viewed its successor, "Gerbil in a Microwave", by 
mid-2000. This is a degree of exposure that can easily hold its own with 
prime-time television ratings or a mega box-office hit.

Suddenly a whole new distribution alternative seemed to open up for 
filmmakers who until then had shown their short film at maybe a dozen 
festivals before retiring it to the shelf. (...)

more:
http://www.shortfilm.de/ikf/pages/magazin/index.php?id=112&lang_id=2


NEWS

Florida Film Festival qualifies for the Short Film Oscars® || 24.06.2002

The Florida Film Festival in Orlando has now been acknowledged by the 
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an additional festival from 
which nominations for the short film Oscars will be chosen. The first film 
from the Florida Film Festival having this chance is "Bus 44" by Dayyan Eng 
(USA/Hong Kong), which won the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short.
Only 50 festivals worldwide are included on the Academy’s roster. The films 
presented at these festivals ‘automatically’ qualify for participation in 
the Oscar® competition, provided they have won the grand prize in their 
category and otherwise comply with competition regulations. The 
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is the only German short film 
festival devoted exclusively to short film to have achieved this 
recognition to date, sharing honours with the Berlinale and the Stuttgart 
Animated Film Festival.
The (not yet updated) list of festivals can be accessed at the following URL:
http://www.oscars.org/74academyawards/rules/rules_shortfest.html

More News:
- State government of North Rhine-Westphalia plans to close Filmbüro NW
- International Association of Environmental Festivals established
- New management at VIPER
- Mitch Levine new director of the Palm Springs International Film Festival
- Shorts Welcome switches from Kirch Intermedia to Tiscali
- Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial Short Video Festival 2003 in the works

Further information:
http://www.shortfilm.de/ikf//pages/magazin/index.php?id=389&lang_id=2


FAIT DIVERS

- The Art of the Short Fiction Film by Richard Raskin
- Book revealing secrets of US film distribution now available in Europe
- "The Hire" -- BMW commissions new short film series
- EMAF Osnabrück presents "Underground Zero"
- Norsk Stil – Short films out of Norway on DVD
- "Blue Absinto" – Max Ophüls Prize Festival now offering short film reel
- Night of the Shorts on tour
- "Brasil Digital" now open to international entries

Further information:
http://www.shortfilm.de/ikf/pages/magazin/index.php?id=59&lang_id=2


AWARDS AND HONOURS

13º Festival Internacional de Curtas-Metragens de São Paulo || 31.08.2002

Favoritos da audiência - Filmes Internacionais / Audience Favorites – 
International
1. "Aria", Pjor Sapegin (Norway)
2. "Sweetnightgoodheart", Daniel Zeff (UK)
3. "Slo-Mo", John Krokidas (USA)
4. "Hoy por ti, mañana por mi", Francisco Torres (ES)
5. "Gente que Llora S. A. ", Hatem Khraiche (Cuba-ES)
6. "La Milpa", Patricia Riggen (México)
7. "Desaliñada", Gustavo Salmerón (Spain)
8. "Três Irmãs no Lago da Lua", de Julia Kwan (CAN)
9. "Una bala", Edgar San Juan & Ibon Antuñano (México)
10. "Noche Santa", Mario Martinez (México)
Favoritos da audiência – Filmes Brasileiros / Audience Favorites – Brazil
1. "À Margem da Imagem", Evaldo Mocarzel
2. "Artesãos da Morte", Miriam Chnaidermann
3. "Como Se Morre no Cinema", Leulane Loiola Corrêa
4. "Dadá", Eduardo Vaisman
5. "Dona Cristina Perdeu a Memória", Ana Luiza Azevedo
6. "Morte", José Roberto Torero
7. "Na Lona", Wagner Morales
8. "O Encontro", Marcos Jorge
9. "Palace II", Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund
10. "Um Trailer Americano", José Eduardo Belmonte
Canal Brasil Acquisition Incentive Award (R$ 5 mil): "À Margem da Imagem 
(On The Fringes of São Paulo: Homeless)", Evaldo Mocarzel; "Dona Cristina 
Perdeu a Memória (Miss Cristina Loses Her Memory)", Ana Luiza Azevedo
Prêmio TV Cultura de Curta-Metragem (R$ 5 mil.): "Lugar Comum (Common 
Place)", Leo Falcão; Menção Honrosa: "Vaidade", Fabiano Maciel.
Prêmio ABD- SP: "No Passo da Véia", de Jane Malaquias
Prêmio Mix Brasil/Troféu Coelho de Prata: "Sexy", Tom Whitman
Prêmio Espaço Unibanco de Cinema; "À Margem da Imagem", Evaldo Mocarzel; 
"Artesãos da Morte", Miriam Chnaidermann; "Como Se Morre no Cinema", 
Leulane Loiola Corrêa; "Dadá", Eduardo Vaisman
Prêmio Cine Mambembe: "O Lobisom e o Coronel", Elvis Kleber Figueiredo
Prêmio Revelação: "Tabaco" Henrique Rodriguez
Menção Honrosa: "A Encomenda, de Alan Minas".
http://www.kinoforum.org


More Awards and Honours:
- 9th International Animation Festival - Hiroshima
- FIRST STEPS 2002
- 17th International Odense Film Festival
- Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films
- Festival Cinema Ragazzi e Gioventi - Giffoni
- Film Festival 2002 of the TFH Berlin

Further information:
http://www.shortfilm.de/ikf/pages/magazin/index.php?id=60&lang_id=2


DATES

Festivals in Germany
International Festivals
Deadlines

Further information
http://www.shortfilm.de/ikf//pages/magazin/index.php?id=113&lang_id=2


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