“Cool (digital) films!” at 2015 Kinofest Digital Film Festival

     The short film festival that reached its 9th edition (2015, September 25-27) is one of the independent events that brings to the audience films that are outside of the usual movie theatre circuit.
Valentin Partenie, the enthusiast short films collector is pretty pessimistic about the evolution of the festival. Even if this year he could also organize an online competition and screenings in clubs where the young audiences usually go to, he is not sure about being able to organize the next year`s edition. Beyond the usual problems of making a selection, of choosing a jury and the spaces for the screenings, Kinofest is the kind of event that require finances and the cultural budgets of the big companies go to more commercial events.
This year 225 short films were screened at Cinemateca Union, Elvira Popescu movie theatre, Energiea Pub, Seneca Anticafe and Carol 53. 96 of them were part of the five competitional sections: Fiction, Offline Animation, Online Animation, Online Fiction, Micromovie. The 52 films from 17 countries that were part of the online competition, were voted by the audience.
For the other films the members of the jury were: Mihai Fulger – film critic, Iulia Verdeș – actress, Alexandra Păun– screenwriter and independent film producer for the section Fiction. For Animation the members of the jury were Piotr Kardas, director of the O!PLA animation festival from Poland, Bogdan Lazăr – animator, Radu Tinc – art director and Andrei Cotruț – cartoonist.
 
     Piotr Kardas is the director of the O`PLA independent festival, so he fully understands the problems of organizing such an event; the difference is that in Poland he has to choose from 200 annual animation short films. He is familiar with the Romanian creations, he had watched Anca Damian`s Crulic and he`s looking forward to seeing The Magic Mountain.
      Imagine: Dan Țuculescu

     The 2015 Kinofest awards are: Best Fiction Short Film – CLOUDY CHILDREN (Iran, 2014, Reza Fahimi); Best Animation – HIPOPOTAMY (2014, Poland, 2014, PiotrDumala); Best Online Fiction – EL DESPIDO (Spain, Juan Manuel Aragon); Best Online Animation – MENAGERIE (co-production Canada-Costa Rica, Julian Gallese); Best Micromovie – HUNTING (Taiwan, Chun-Hao)
2015 Kinofest International Digital Film Festival is organized by Kinofest Association, with no support from any state institution whatsoever.
Kinofest counted on the support of the following partners: CinematecaEforie, KissFM, British Council, Romstal, Seneca Anticafe, Bucharest French Institute, Studio MEKA, VICE, Days and Nights, Iqads, Aimee, A.R.C.E.N, Carol 53, 220.ro, Timişoara French Institute.
Detalii: Youtube / Kinofest.com