This year was attended by 262 accredited participants from 13 countries – mostly from Europe, but also from The Philippines and Vietnam. The festival opened with the screening of the Academy Award winning classic The Godfather. The film was introduced by Christopher Newman who was nominated for the film in the sound category.
Four master classes, one workshop, five case studies
Four masterclasses by renowned professionals took place during the Visegrad Film Forum's four days. The Academy Award winning sound mixer Christopher Newman also lead a separate two-day workshop focused on sound in film for young filmmakers.
The first master class was held by Christopher Newman. In an all-day event he introduced his long career (more than 70 feature-length films, 5 Academy Award nominations, 3 wins) and during the workshop he shared his views on how the students should think about sound in film: „Students who are working in sound have to concentrate on what the film is about, what the scene is about, and when they know what the film is about and what the scenes are about then they will know what sound is most appropriate for those scenes. It is as simple as that. It is a very difficult question necessarily to answer but that's how you do it.“
Fabio Grassadonia opened the third day with a conversation with Matthieu Darras from Torino Film Labs. They talked about the success of his debut he made with his longtime creative partner Antonio Piazza. Salvo tells a story of a mafia hit-man who spares the life of a blind girl. It won two awards at Cannes Critic's Week in 2013.
The topic of success at prestigious festivals was further explored by Ľudmila Cviková, who shared her experiences with students from international film festival she cooperated with such as Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Sarajevo or Rotterdam, where she worked as programmer for 15 years.
Visegrad Film Forum 2015 was closed by master class from Danish investigative documentary filmmaker Mads Brügger, who talked about his controversial method of filmmaking. Mads Brügger creates fake identities to access environments controlled by dictators (North Korea) or corrupt politicians and businessmen (Central African Republic).
A case study about the film Free entry with Hungarian editor Brigitty Bacskai was also part of the lineup. The feature debut of young Hungarian director Yvonne Kerékgyártó was shot with a small crew during two Sziget music festivals in Budapest.
Four screenings, eight partner schools
Each of the eight partners schools – ADU Zagreb (Croatia), AGRFT Ljubljana (Slovenia), FAMU Praha (Czech Republic), LMTA Vilnius (Lithuania), Lodz Film School (Poland), SZFE Budapest (Hungary), UNATC Bucharest (Romania) including our co-organizing school FTF VŠMU Bratislava (Slovakia) – screened a collection of their best films from last year in a form of a friendly battle, where two schools were screened back to back in one block. The screenings were followed by discussions with students.
Our youtube channel, where you can find daily videos of VFF 2015: http://bit.ly/1EiIxUq
Our Facebooku page: www.facebook.com/VisegradFilmForum
Our website: www.visegradfilmforum.com
Visegrad Film Forum (VFF) is a networking and educational platform for emerging film professionals, students with major in film, media or audiovisual studies and film enthusiasts. Through open dialogue, sharing and exchange of innovative experiences it aims to strengthen cooperation among young film professionals. VFF's main goal of is to set up an educational base focused on film-making issues specific for Europe and to promote quality projects of young filmmakers, allowing them to introduce their work and find partners for their international co-productions. VFF is divided into several sections, including screenings of student films, master classes with renowned experts and case studies of interesting film projects.
Organizer: Boiler, o.z.
Co-Organizer: Faculty of Film and Television VŠMU
Financially supported by: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, International Visegrad Fund
Partners: City of Bratislava, Slovak Film Institute, Hostel Blues, Embassy of the United States of America, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Bratislava, Hungarian Institute in Bratislava, LIVEAUDIO, Hotel Devín, Penzion Grémium, Falkensteiner Hotel Bratislava, Soupa, Rustique Restaurant, Peugeot, Citroën, KC Dunaj, Tuli, Ofprint, Traco Computers, MTA AIR TOUR, J&J
Media partners: Denník N, KINEČKO, Kinema.sk, Rádio FM, .týždeň, Harmony for Home, in.ba, 25fps, Daazo, Film&TV Kamera, Filmreporter.ro, Film New Europe
Partner schools: Vysoká škola múzických umení / VŠMU (Slovakia), Akademija dramske umjetnost / ADU (Croatia), The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts / FAMU (Czech Republic), The Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television / AGRFT (Slovenia), Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre / LMTA (Lithuania), The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz / Lodz Film School (Poland), The Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest / SZFE (Hungary), The Caragiale University of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography / UNATC (Romania)
