The contenders for the On the Road Award and its monetary prize of five thousand euros will include the competition’s winner from 2006, French director Jean-Gabriel Périot, with his film L’art delicate de la matraque (The Delicate Art of the Bludgeon), about an interestingly executed police intervention. Another section veteran is German director Harald Schleicher, who had a film in each of the last two competitions. This time he will introduce no less than two pictures: Don’t Bogart that Joint and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. His experimental work utilizes found footage, from which he collects and assembles thematically similar fragments from pre-existing films, resulting in a completely novel cinematic reality.
Another interesting title with a particularly witty punchline is True Beauty This Night from American director Peter Besson, who has racked up fifteen film awards so far. This time he offers a unique perspective on what a man in love is capable of. Winner of the Golden Bear for Best Short Film from this year’s Berlinale, Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Händelse vid bank (Incident by a Bank) could be taken as a crash course in what to steer clear of when planning a bank robbery. The Norwegian film Ella (d. H. Larsen) was awarded the Special Jury Award at this year’s prestigious Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. It tells the short yet powerful story of what may well be the world’s most disagreeable old lady; under her repugnant mask, however, she hides a shocking secret from her past. At the same festival, the National Competition Grand Prix went to the black comedy ¿Dónde está Kim Basinger? (Where’s Kim Basinger?, d. E. Deluc), about the pitfalls of Buenos Aires’ nightlife.
The competition’s shortest film of all is Der Da Vinci Timecode (The Da Vinci Timecode, d. G. Alkabetz), at a mere three minutes. But this suffices for a unique exploration of Da Vinci’s famous painting "The Last Supper", searching for meanings hidden until now. On the other hand, the longest picture is the Slovak film Ďakujem, dobre (Thanks, Fine, d. M. Prikler) at nearly forty minutes in length, the only allowed exception to the competition’s usual limit of thirty minutes. The film was officially selected for the Cinéfondation student competition section at Cannes this year.
Art Film Fest’s competition will offer many more fascinating pictures. Ahate pasa (Duck Crossing, d. K. Almandoz) depicts a previously overlooked phenomenon of world cinema – shots of passing ducks, while Glenn Owen Dodds (d. F. Bailey) features a distinctive hypothetical look at God’s work. Le Technicien (d. S.O. Fecteau) reveals what an average TV repairman can do with the content of news programmes, and La historia de siempre (The Same Old Story (The S.O.S.), d. J. L. Montesinos) demonstrates how a convincingly told story can captivate every listener.
All this and much more will be offered to festival visitors at the International Competition of Short Films.
Photographs can be found at artfilmfest.sk in the Press section.
The Art Film Fest International Film Festival Trenčianske Teplice/Trenčín is made possible through the financial support of the Audiovisual Fund and the European Union Programme MEDIA.
Organizers: ART FILM, n. o., Forza, a. s. Co-organizers: the Town of Trenčianske Teplice, the City of Trenčín, the Trenčianske Teplice Health Spa General Sponsors: Dôvera Medical Insurance, AquaCity Poprad Main Sponsors: Tatra banka, Slovnaft, Veolia Voda – Central Slovakian Waterworks, OHL ŽS, Alison Slovakia Official Transport Provider: Lancia Logistics Sponsor: DHL; Free student cinepasses provided by: Prvá stavebná sporitelna (First Housing-Construction Savings Bank) Sponsor of the Slovak Season section: Zlatý Bažant; Sponsors: AVI Studio, Baske Guest House, Park Hotel na Baračke Official Suppliers: HUBERT J.E., Kláštorná, GS design, Philips, A Briliant Media Sponsors: Slovak Television, Markíza Television, FilmBox, CSTV, Central Europe Television, Rádio Europa 2, Rádio Hit FM, Pravda, .týždeň, Markíza, Pardon, Cinemax, Kam do mesta, zoznam.sk, Boomerang Media, SITA, euroAWK, superobed.sk