EFA SHORT
EFA Shorts 2019 – a manifold panorama of contemporary European filmmaking
EFA Shorts is the European Film Academy’s short film tour, which brings the latest EUROPEAN SHORT FILM candidates, nominees and winner to audiences across Europe – and beyond. The programme features a selection from the 20 European Short Film Candidates, each of them selected at a renowned European (short) film festival as candidate for the European Film Awards 2019. In 2019, the EUROPEAN SHORT FILM has been presented in co-operation with the following festivals:
October 2018: Valladolid International Film Festival (Spain), Uppsala International Short Film Festival (Sweden) • November 2018: Cork Film Festival (Ireland) • December 2018: Leuven International Short Film Festival (Belgium) • January 2019: International Film Festival Rotterdam (the Netherlands) • February 2019: Clermont-Ferrand Inaternational Short Film Festival (France), Berlin International Film Festival (Germany) • March 2019: Tampere Film Festival (Finland) • April 2019: Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen (the Netherlands) • May 2019: Krakow Film Festival (Poland), VIS Vienna Shorts Festival (Austria) • June 2019: Hamburg International Short Film Festival (Germany) • July 2019: Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival (Portugal), Motovun Film Festival (Croatia) • August 2019: Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland), Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Odense International Film Festival (Denmark), Venice Film Festival (Italy) • September 2019: International Short Film Festival in Drama (Greece), Encounters Film Festival (UK)
From the complete list of twenty candidates, the participating festivals nominated five short films. Afterwards, the more than 3,600 EFA Members – film professionals from all over Europe – have voted for the overall winner: THE CHRISTMAS GIFT by Bogdan Muresanu, EUROPEAN SHORT FILM 2019. European, in the sense of the European Film Academy, means geographical Europe, both EU and non-EU, and shall include Israeli and Palestinian.
Uppsala EFA Short Film Nominee
(FOOL TIME) JOB
by Gilles Cuvelier
France, fiction, 17’
SYNOPSIS
Pedro has found a new job.
A kind of strange one, but these days, he can’t afford to be fussy. It’s a real chance!
Anyway, he’s never been the kind of getting cold feet …
Leuven EFA Short Film Nominee
A WORTHY MAN
by Kristian Håskjold
Denmark, fiction, 19’
SYNOPSIS
Night after night Erik works alone in his bakery. His only company is the late-night radio show, which he persistently attempts to get through to to be honoured “Joker of the Week”. He has gradually become more and more distant to his family, and all his efforts to re-establish the connection seem in vain. A growing depression hurls Erik into a tailspin, that in the end culminates in a desperate cry for help.
Cork EFA Short Film Nominee
BLACK SHEEP
by Ed Perkins
UK, documentary, 27’
SYNOPSIS
Black Sheep tells the story of Cornelius Walker, whose life changed on 27 November 2000 the day Damilola Taylor was killed. Cornelius’s mother, scared for her son’s safety, moved their family out of London. Cornelius suddenly found himself living on a white estate run by racists and had to fit in.
Locarno EFA Short Film Nominee
BLACK SUN
by Arda Çiltepe
Turkey/Germany, fiction, 20’
SYNOPSIS
After the dog days, a coming storm approaches during a sudden road trip to a distant island for a funeral. While the deceased is buried in haste, a man makes detour through Aegean Turkey: a dip in the sea, a dream at a town hotel, a light sleep at a hammam, a visit to the coffin-maker. After arrival at home, leftovers are eaten while mourning looms. The funeral is eclipsed by a final wish.
Valladolid EFA Short Film Nominee
CADAVRE EXQUIS
by Stéphanie Lansaque & François Leroy
France, animation, 13’
SYNOPSIS
Cadavre Exquis invites to a visual, acoustic and odorous ballad through the wandering of a one-eyed dog. In the maze of Old Hanoi’s narrow streets, daily life and legend mingle on the syncopated rhythm of Hat Xam, the Vietnamese blues.
Hamburg EFA Short Film Nominee
CAVALCADE
by Johann Lurf
Austria, experimental, 5’
SYNOPSIS
Can we believe our eyes? The short films of Johann Lurf often explore the enigmatic territory between the real and the perceived, challenging our senses to comprehend visions and sounds taken from the environment around us by means of subtle, beautiful trompe l’oeil effects. Cavalcade, equally dazzling in 2D or 3D, sees him make a direct intervention into physical space for the first time.
Venice EFA Short Film Nominee
DOGS BARKING AT BIRDS
by Leonor Teles
Portugal, fiction, 20’
SYNOPSIS
School is over and there’s a bustle in the air. In Porto, tourists fill up the streets and cafés. The old and decadent are now highlights of the city’s gentrification. Vicente moves around town on his bike, watching the urban landscape modify day by day. The town is no longer the same, the world is changing and so is he. Among his family and friends, Vicente lives with anticipation the first days of summer and the beginning of a new life.
Krakow EFA Short Film Nominee
EDNA – ONE OF MANY
by Vuk Mitevski
North Macedonia, animation, 11’
SYNOPSIS
Edna is animation which was inspired by the refugee crisis, where Macedonia played the unfortunate role of a transit country; in essence it is a love story set in a very unusual circumstances, told in a very abstract and poetic way.
Vienna EFA Short Film Nominee
EGG
by Martina Scarpelli
France, animation, 12’
SYNOPSIS
A woman is locked in her home with an egg, which she is both attracted to and scared of. She eats the egg, she repents. She kills it. She lets the egg die of hunger.
Sarajevo EFA Short Film Nominee
EXCESS WILL SAVE US
by Morgane Dziurla-Petit
Sweden, documentary, 15’
SYNOPSIS
In a small village of the North of France, an attack alert has been set off due to the combination of two events: the beginning of the hunting season and an argument between drunk Polish workers.
Rotterdam EFA Short Film Nominee
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
by Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani
Germany/Italy, experimental, 30’
SYNOPSIS
Evoking the Olympic marathon in Rome 1960 in which Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won Africa’s first gold medal, running barefoot and becoming a sporting legend and symbol of an Africa freeing itself from colonialism in the process, the artists have re-contextualised this amidst Rome’s controversial rationalist architecture a new race involving refugees and immigrants staking a claim to ‘freedom of movement’.
Nijmegen EFA Short Film Nominee
HARD ON
by Joanna Rytel
Sweden, experimental, 19’
SYNOPSIS
Secretly she is filming everything.
In a surreal apartment a cougar, a guest, a child and promises of a dog if the child plays along.
Odense EFA Short Film Nominee
OSLO
by Shady Srour
Israel/Germany, fiction, 16’
SYNOPSIS
Ziad, a Palestinian day laborer, is denied entry into Israel for work that day. The East Jerusalem border guards offer no explanation. Not wanting to return home empty handed after promising his daughter meat for dinner, he needs to get creative. The journey back is long, and what he encounters in the dry mountains challenges his dignity.
Clermont-Ferrand EFA Short Film Nominee
PATISION AVENUE
by Thanasis Neofotistos
Greece, fiction, 12’
SYNOPSIS
Yanni’s mum is on her way to audition for a role as Shakespeare’s Viola, when she learns that her young son has been left home alone. Through a series of phone calls, she fights to balance the most important roles of her life, whilst walking in the most controversial area of central Athens, Patision Avenue.
Motovun EFA Short Film Nominee
RECONSTRUCTION
by Ji?í Havlí?ek & Ond?ej Novák
Czech Republic, fiction, 15’
SYNOPSIS
Olda (17) is an accused waiting for his trial in a detention centre for juveniles. The monotone prison life is gradually intertwined with memories of a police reconstruction. It took one summer night for the holiday boredom to turn into a cruel fun that resulted in death.
Tampere EFA Short Film Nominee – Winner European Short Film Award 2019
THE CHRISTMAS GIFT
by Bogdan Muresanu
Romania, fiction, 20’
SYNOPSIS
On the 20th of December, 1989, a few days after Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s bloody repression in Timisoara, a father’s quiet evening turns to sheer ordeal as he finds out that his little son has mailed a letter of wishes to Santa. As far as the child understood, his father’s desire was to see Ceausescu dead.
Vila do Conde EFA Short Film Nominee
THE MARVELOUS MISADVENTURES OF THE STONE LADY
by Gabriel Abrantes
France/Portugal, animation, 20’
SYNOPSIS
Tired of being a banal architectural ornament, a sculpture runs away from the Louvre to confront real life on the streets of Paris.
Bristol EFA Short Film Nominee
THE TENT
by Rebecca Figenschau
Norway, fiction, 17’
SYNOPSIS
A dysfunctional family of four is going camping, and poor communications skills make it a struggle to co-operate when trying to put up a complicated tent. The kids are reacting badly to the increasingly uncomfortable tension, as an underlying conflict between the two parents is slowly forced to the surface – and a shocking secret is finally revealed.
Berlin EFA Short Film Nominee
WATERMELON JUICE
by Irene Moray
Spain, fiction, 22’
SYNOPSIS
Barbara and Pol spend a few days on holiday with a group of friends in a house surrounded by nature. They want to have a good time and find a peaceful space where they can enjoy their intimacy.
With the support of Pol, in the midst of nature, between tears and laughter, Barbara will heal old wounds and redefine her sexuality.
Drama EFA Short Film Nominee
WEIGHTLIFTER
by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Ukraine/Poland, fiction, 30’
SYNOPSIS
Professional weightlifter Petro is preparing for an important competition. But before the competition, he receives tragic news that force him to make a difficult decision. Petro’s inner conflict makes him into more than just a mechanical bundle of muscles.