Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival 2011 addressing the question of “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad crises?” took place with great success on the 20th- 22nd of June 2011 in Athens at six D.O.G.S. venue. People from the Balkans and beyond attended a 3days screenings programme with 37 short films.
The Competition Programme consisted of 22 films created by young Balkan film makers ( Albania, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Italia and Greece) demonstrating the diversity of the way in which crises can be understood. The Special Screening consisted of 15 films which were produced during the collective film making workshops that BBB organized during the year. (see bellow). As parallel events of the Festival there were a photo exhibition with photos of the Making of of the films and the workshops, a DJ party with Pani Karydi on the decks and a live gig with LikedisLike band from Turkey.
AWARDS
The prize for the “Best Film 2011″ went to the film ESCARGOT, an animation by Manuel Šumberac from Croatia, which will also be directly included in the competition of the Naoussa International Film Festival. The winner will also receive 500 Euros and a lomography camera. The “Audience Prize 2011″ went to the film Love At Last, a fiction/documentary film by Stasha Tomic from Serbia. The “Audience Prize” winner will also receive a lomography camera. The jury was composed of Konstantinos Rigos, a highly appreciated Greek director, Violana Murataj from Albania, Alex Iures from Romania, Milica Denic from Serbia and the Art Director of Balkans Beyond Borders Adela Demetja.The Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival 2011 award was designed by Marieta Lyriotaki, a local artist who supported the festival.
Film Making Workshop Project
The second day of the Festival was devoted to the Film making workshops that Balkans Beyond Borders organized in collaboration with Tirana Art Lab from Tirana and Line Initiative and Movement from Skopje. The workshop in Athens (June 2011) was the third out of a series of three one-week workshops that took place in Skopje (March 2011) and Tirana (May 2011) with the aim of bringing together young film makers from the Balkan region to work and reflect on the problem of ‘crisis’ by developing short films. 32 participants from all over Europe produced more than 20 films that were projected on the 21st of June in the context of the BBB Short Film Festival 2011.
The facilitators of the workshop were Effi Weiss & Amir Borenstein, two well respected artists who graduated in 1999 at the Bezazel Academy of Fine Arts in Jerusalem, and in 2002 continued with their education at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. They are currently active in video making and organising video workshops for different target groups.
The project was financially supported by the European Cultural Foundation.