Loading

Monthly archives: October 2010

This is the end. My only friend, the end

25 comments

Ladies and gentleman, the festival is over. The winners have been crowned and Elvis has left the building. This year has been a great one. Fantastic films, more people and just a great atmosphere. So without further ado, I present to you this years winners.

The Cage (Colivia) by Adrian Sitaru won the international prize for best film or the Uppsala Grand Prix as it’s known around the water coolers. Not only does Mr. Sitaru go home with the Uppsala Film Jackdaw award, he also leaves 25 000 Swedish kronor richer. The Cage is a great little film where a young boy finds a injured pigeon and wants to keep it but his father refuses. I never thought this would win, but after hearing the jury’s reason it all made sense.

“A beautifully simple and simply beautiful tale of a father’s love for his son, that is shrouded in musicality whilst never leaving the confines of the characters’ apartment. With a perfectly judged pace and tone this is short film making at its finest.”

The people have also spoken. The Cage was crowned by a jury but then we have the peoples vote. And as I consider myself more of a man of the people than a man of the jury (wow, that was very John Grisham of me) I found this result more interesting. The winner of the Audience Award for best international film was Tussilago. When I heard that I gave myself a mental high-five. I was worried that my predictions in my previous post would crumble like a house of cards but when Tussilago by Jonas Odell was called out it was all good.

On the Swedish front the winner for best film was Not Panic (Ingen Panik) by Elisabeth Marjanovic’ Cronvall. Once again, a film I really enjoyed but thought nothing else to it. However after seeing it again I really understood what the jury meant with their motivation:

“We don’t know exactly what we are watching, and we like that. The future is wide open and uncertain, and you’re not to panic Head on, with all systems go and a strong sense for detail, the films portrays a group of young people on their way into the adult world where everything is possible; you can become an underwater-welder, a baker, drive a really huge excavator or become an actor. And the adults aren’t turned into clichés either.”

The Swedish Audience Award went to Miss Remarkable And Her Career (Fröken Märkvärdig och Karriären) by Joanna Rubin Dranger. This is an animated film that really got loved by a lot of people. Was it my favourite? No but it’s still a damn good film and I’m very happy for the director.

Do you want to read about more winners you can visit the Uppsala Short Film Festival homepage and there you can find other winners like who won for best children’s film, best cinematography or the new prestigious Ingmar Bergman award. All with motivations and information about the people behind the film.

I want to sincerely congratulate all the winners of the festival for their great films but I would also want to take the time and applaud all film makers that managed to get their films into the festival. I wish you all the luck in the future and hopefully I’ll see you next year when Uppsala Short Film Festival turns 30 years old. I’ll bring the cake!

Signing out from Uppsala.

Chris Gardner - Film

October 31, 2010

The wait is soon over

14 comments

Half the day has now passed and I’ve managed to consume about 12 films so far. After the festival I’ll be doing a ”Best of” kind of thing and go through the highs and lows of the festival. This will also include fun categories as best silent film, best looking film, best Swedish and so on. I’ll even throw in some fun stats like how often I fell asleep or found myself wanting to run for the emergency exit (don’t worry, it didn’t happen often). The festival is really keeping a high standard this year. Last year I managed to pick out the festival winner after only two days and bagged myself an interview with them before the winner was announced. This year it’s much harder.

Later tonight the winners will be announced. Going through the films there really aren’t many that go far and beyond the others. That’s a true sign of quality. However if I had to guess I would go with the following films.

Tussilago for best Swedish film. This is the one I want to win. Will it? Maybe not since it’s animated and pretty fast paced so I can see that a lot of people wont see the appeal and greatness that I found in it. It also competes on a International level but there I think the ones with more meaty stories will come out on top. Second runner up is Autumn Man, this quirky story is one of a kind and a fun little film. In third place I would say Incident By a Bank. Technically this is the most impressive film coming out of the festival. My favorite documentary, I’m Painting Some Imagination, will probably go unnoticed.

For best international my money is on Samaritan from Norway. It’s one of the few great films I think most people in the audience can take in and digest. This is probably because it’s one of the few films with a real beginning, middle and end. Second runner up here is Bubbles, a Spanish film where a couple of girls think the bubbles from soda works as a birth control. Tied in third is Viki Ficki, where an 11 year old girl comes to terms that her mom is a porn star, and Dolls from Germany. Dolls brings up the subject of incest and child abuse. All these films do, in one way or another, have a three act structure. And even though I don’t feel that all films need this, I just see it easier for most people to take in and feel satisfied.

Here are the pictures I promised you from yesterdays Watch Awards.

The winner of the Watch Audience Award, Gabriela Pichler. Photo: Chris Gardner


The Watch award tries to make a run for it but doesn’t get far.

Chris Gardner - Film

October 30, 2010

And the winner is…drum roll please

3 comments

Today the Swedish Institute gave away the Watch Audiene Award to one lucky film maker and that was Gabriela Pichler for the film Scratches (Skrapsår). This is the competition that has been going on for a few weeks now on Sweden.se/watch. The winner received 15 000 Swedish kronor and in my opinion an awesome statue. Who needs the golden bald guy when you can get a white spacey one instead?

During the award ceremony Gabriela was nice enough to return fire to questions that some people threw at her. How many days did it take to shoot? How did you find actors? Do you have facebook? Ok, maybe not the last question because who doesn’t have facebook? It took about 10-14 days to shoot and it was mostly street casting. For you who don’t know what that is it’s simple. They basically look for people that fit the part instead of actors that come in and audition. Most people have no previous acting expereince. This is a very popular way of casting, especially in shorts. However it is a risk. You could end up with some horrible results. I’ve been to this festival a few times now so trust me on that one. This film has very good acting in it with some absolutely great scenes so it only goes to show that Gabriela knows what she’s doing. I had the oportunity to ask Gabriela a few questions after the ceremony and the most important question was of course: “What are you doing now?”. Turns out that she has a feature film in the making, aiming to begin production in the beginning of next year.

You can see Scratches in its entirety here. I will also include the film in a later post for all you “I can’t be bothered clicking on a link”- people out there, along with some photos from the event.

Yesterday was a slow film day and today was kind of the same. This happens if you consume as much film as I did in the first couple of days. It’s all re-runs. I caught some of my favorites again but that’s about it. But I do have some good news. The film makers I reached out to the other day about an interview are in so hang tight. An interview with Ellen Fiske, Caroline Gynther and Cajsa Jönsson will soon surface.

Chris Gardner - Film

October 30, 2010

“It’s still storytelling”

15 comments

I know what you’re thinking. TWO posts in one day? Chris, you’re an animal. Oh, that’s not what you’re thinking? Oh, I guess it’s just me then.

Today I did the wise choice of going back to Stockholm for the night. To sleep in ones own bed is worth more than gold sometimes. But before I hit the wonderful place called dreamland I want to share with you a very interesting seminar I went to today. Besides, what I might dream after seeing so many short films scares me a little.

Today I had the great privilege of sitting through a seminar about editing by no other than Martin Hunter. This is the man that has edited films like Full Metal Jacket and even did sound editing for The Shining. During the last 20 years he has edited more than 20 films. We are talking everything from Event Horizon to Underworld. Last year he edited a Swedish film by the name of Princess (Prinsessa). During this two hour event he showed clips from films like Full Metal Jacket, Underworld and Kalifornia and shared moments that he saved by editing and scenes he’s particularly proud of. He even threw in a few stories about Stanley Kubrick so for a cinema lover this was a high point of the festival.

Mr. Hunter also went into sharing do’s and don’ts of the trade. He called out that rookie editors think too much about continuity of action in a scene instead of the pace of it, dramatic flow over action.

He also went into the changes that the editing occupation has gone through over the years. Editing tables and Moviolas are now exchanged for keyboards and hard drives. But this is something that Martin Hunter thinks is fantastic and says “editing is writing with other peoples words” and no matter what you edit with,“it’s still storytelling.”

Chris Gardner - Film

October 27, 2010

A serious dose of Swedish film: part 2

9 comments

The block that impressed me the most yesterday was the last one and I will be focusing on that one now. The block was called Här & nu (Here & now) and it’s all film from Uppland. This doesn’t mean it’s necessarily filmed here, just that it’s got production connections to Uppland.

First I just have to squeeze in a film by the name of The Jaukka Brothers (Bröderna Jaukka). It’s written and directed by Peter Grönlund and it’s one of my favourites of the festival for one reason and one reason only, the genre. The film is a small crime tale that creates great tension. Jani and Toumas are brothers. They are in the business of robbing and burglary. In other words, not the kind of guys you want your daughter bringing home for dinner. The film takes place during a meeting between these brothers and a Russian by the name Micha. Of course Micha has his crew of bad guys with him and there’s something rotting in Denmark. It’s fantastic how quickly the film gets you on pins and needles and keeps you there until the end credits. Check it out if you get the chance.

But back to the Here & now block of films. There were quite a few that deserve your attention. The first one of the night, A Moment Of Reality (Yek Lahzeh Az Yek Vagheiyat), is probably the strongest documentary so far. It’s about the Iranian election in 2009 and the whole thing is filmed by eyewitnesses of the riots that broke out during this time. I have to warn the little more sensitive people out there that you do see people die on screen. It’s a strong statement from the film maker, Sara Sam.

Another short but lovely film was the documentary Hand Gymnastics (Handgymnastik). We get to join a group of elderly ladies sitting around a table doing hand gymnastics. It’s made in a very simple way but delivers a lot of heart and gave the audiences probably the biggest laughs of the night.

The film makers of Hand Gymnastics, Ellen Fiske, Caroline Gynther and Cajsa Jönsson, are probably very hungry film makers because they actually had two films in this block. The other one, We Are Fourteen (Vi är fjorton år), is about three teenage girls that are best friends and we get to follow them through their daily lives. It’s a great insight to the sort of teenager that normally really bug me. We are talking about the girls that use way to much make-up and way to little brain power. In my head it’s the people that would sit in the back of the class and eat crayons if you told them it would make them smarter. This film was little over 30 minutes long but never felt boring. It was interesting and very funny. And to be fair, I would sit in the back and eat crayons as well if someone told me I would get a script sold.

I have reached out to the film makers of these two films and asked for an interview. Let’s see if they reach back.

Chris Gardner - Film

October 27, 2010