From 28th May to 9th June 2013 Porta Portello Padua Italy
The 7th edition of the River Film Festival marks a turning point in the history of this event. Above all, because the Festival has now truly moved into the international dimension, not only because the jury, as always drawn from the world of cinema and the Arts will have two thirds of the members from countries other than Italy, but also because one of the cardinal points in the Festivals mission is being met. As well as promoting the seventh Art, the Festival has always also sought to encourage new talent, to support and encourage not only Directors but anyone who dreams of making films, and to offer encouragement especially to young film-makers living today in this desert, where Italy’s Cinema has been abandoned to meet its fate, with no funding, and with no ideas.
This is a year of innovations, one being this, the Festival’s new website, which has been completely re-designed and has had new functions added. There are also two new categories in the Awards: Best Extreme Short Film “Supercorto”, shorts that last from one and a half to five minutes, and can shot with any means, from a camera to a mobile phone, and Local short “Corto locale”, reserved for works shot and produced by filmmakers active in the Veneto Region.
Both this latter and the second edition of the Best local short award offer an opportunity, the only one in the Veneto area, to local authors to reach a wider public. We hope to help discover new authors by giving them a way of bridging the gap between wanting to, and being able to shoot a short, and to offer them the technical, knowledge and expertise in film-making as well as the economic help they may need to overcome the difficulties of shooting a short film. Furthermore, the ease of shooting and immediacy of showing the Extreme short films will allow the whole city to get involved in the event: throughout the Festival the general public, in particular passengers on the city’s metro-tram, on Aps (local transport) buses, or standing at bus stops waiting for the bus, will be able to watch the Extreme short films competing for the “Best” award. The films will be projected, in continuous loop, onto lcd screens on trams and buses and in bus shelters and the public asked to vote and take part in choosing the five Best extreme shorts.
There is also a new non-competition section, the Festival of Festivals, where the shorts than won the other five international festivals River Film Festival is twinned with will be shown: the Berlin International Film Festival (Germany), The Belgrade Festival of documentaries and shorts (Serbia), Oporto International Short Film Festival (Portugal), Teheran International Short Film Festival (Iran), Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentary & Shorts Films (Egypt), Kazan International Muslim Film Festival (Tatarstan, Russian Federation) and Seoul International Extreme-short Image & Film Festival (South Korea).
As always all the films selected by the jury will be projected onto the Festival screen that floats, on its raft, moored on the waters of the River Piovego in the beautiful setting of ancient river port of Padua, Porta Portello. We hope to see you again this year, as numerous and curious as ever, ready to join us on this marvellous dream journey through films that is now in its seventh year.