2019_International Competition

After careful consideration our programming team have nominated the following 13 finalists in the 2019 international student film competition:


Terror Terror

Yonatan Shehoah

Maaleh School of Film and Television

Israel, 2018

16.00

Dan, 45, is a Jerusalem supermarket employee who suffers from ptsd after being caught up in a terrorist attack.
On a day in which multiple attacks hit Jerusalem once again, Dan is asked to serve at the meat counter alongside an Arab co-worker. As more and more fatalities are reported on the news, Dan tries desperately to reach his wife who was shopping in the area of one of the attacks, but without success. Dan’s fear and panic result in severe consequences for himself and for others.

Yonatan Shehoah was born and raised in Mexico City. From 2013 to 2017, he studied directing and cinematography at the Maaleh School of Film and Television in Israel, graduating in 2018. Terror is his graduation film. Shehoah was also the director of photography for five of his fellow students’ films.

I See in the Dark I See in the Dark

Lana Bregar

Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television

Slovenia, 2019

16.00

We follow three individuals who have lost their sight. Their intimate narra¬tive takes the viewer on a journey to their world and feelings about their loss of vision.

Lana Bregar (1998) finished Secondary School for Design and Photography Ljubljana, studying Photography as her main course of studies. She ex¬pressed her enthusiasm for photogra¬phy at the time of Secondary School, but her desire to connect stories into a more unified whole has brought her to cinema. In Secondary School, she shot her first movies, with some of them being awarded at festivals. She continues her education at Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, studying Film and Television Directing.

Airship of Unknown Direction Airship of Unknown Direction

Alexandra Galitskova

VGIK Russian State University of Cinematography

Russia, 2018

5.00

This story is about Rain, who wants to learn how to fly. Rain was walking on the ground. Suddenly he saw the serene airships in the sky. And the rain had a dream. He dreams of floating in the sky with them too. This is a story about a poet who gives himself to everyone.

Born in Moscow in 1990. Attended the Art School 548 between 2004 – 2007. Between 2009 – 2013 she worked as an artist in BUKA entertainment company. She has been a VGIK student between 2013 and 2018. She has been working as an animator at the studio SOUZMULTFILM since 2019.

The School Bus The School Bus

Ramazan Kılıç

İstanbul Şehir University

Turkey, 2019

13.00

Nebahat, a teacher in her 20s, has just been appointed to a rural village school in Anatolia. She realizes that her students are struggling to arrive at school, hitchhiking tractors, using whatever means they can find. She asks the Ministry of Education for a shuttle, but without a driver, the vehicle is useless. So, she decides to be the bus driver for her students but she does not know how to drive!

Ramazan Kılıç, who was born in Ağrı in 1993, studies Cinema-Tv at İstanbul Şehir University. His first short film Penaber was awarded the first prize at the 29th Aydın Doğan Foundation Young Communicator Competition and it was awarded the second prize at Sabancı Foundation Short Film Competition. The film has many additional awards at national and international festivals. The School Bus is his fourth short film and he is currently pursuing his career as a screenwriter and director.

Transhumant Transhumant

Fatih Ertekin

Çanakkale 18 Mart University

Turkey, 2019

22.00

The documentary film focuses on the culture of transhumance (herding in mountainous pastures) kept alive for centuries by Georgians living in Şavşat’s İmerhev region. Using Cancir plateau’s cultural and aesthetical aspects as a backdrop, the documen¬tary follows the lives of transhumant women, who live in Cancir plateau for 2 months, through the story of Heva.

He was born on July 28, 1995, in Artvin. Due to his interest in docu¬mentary film, he enrolled in Radio, Cinema and Television department at Çanakkale On Sekiz Mart University in 2013, and in 2016, he launched his first documentary film project, Clouds Behind. He continues to work on documentary films.

Dhacka Dhachka

Devik Rathod

Whistling Woods International

India, 2018

15.00

Lata, a 50-year-old woman, is the string that holds her family together. Lata’s husband and her son are always at loggerheads with each other, while her daughter is completely detached from everyone. The family is on their way to attend a wedding. Due to their internal clashes, they lose their way, forcing Lata to take control. After her failed attempts to drive the car herself, she makes her daughter drive while enjoying this newfound power. Losing the way even further, their fight escalates.

Hailing from Gujarat, Devik Rathod studied Civil Engineering. However, the world of cinema had always fascinated him from a young age. Determined to learn filmmaking, he let the internet become his teacher and made several short films, sketches, and advertisements with the members of a film club co-founded by him in college. Having his loyalties set straight, he pursued a Diploma course in Filmmaking at Whistling Woods International which gave him his desired platform. Devik is currently working as a freelance writer-director and aspires to work on a feature film in the near future.

A Sail on the Shore A Sail on the Shore

Murat Can Yağbasan

Dokuz Eylül University

Turkey, 2019

14.00

It’s the 15th century. Fights for the throne have been going on for years, weakening the Ottoman Empire and abandoning its people to their fate. Students of Sheikh Bedreddin, Börklüce Mustafa and Torlak Kemal rebel so that they can build a new order that would eradi¬cate poverty in their region. To quell the resistance, the Sultan sends his son Murat to the region.

Born in 1995 in İzmir, he studied graphic design in high-school. During that time, he published a humor mag¬azine with his friends. While creating comic strips, he got interested in Animation design. He enrolled in Do¬kuz Eylül University’s Animation Film Design and Directing department. He produced graphic novel projects and he still continues to do so.

Invisible Women Invisible Women

Pablo Cruz Villalba

Escuela Superior de Cine

Mexico, 2018

17.00

Hipolita works in Samuel’s house. Her growing class-consciousness and the invasion of her privacy lead Hipolita to take control of her work and her life.

Pablo Cruz Villalba (Mexico City, 1992) studied Philosophy at UNAM and Cinematography at ESCINE. He produced and directed Invisible Women. The short film premiered at the 16th International Morelia Film Festival, it won at the 5th Campeche Film Festival and was presented at more than fifteen national and international festivals.

Biotope Biotope

Paul Scholten

University of Television and Film Munich

Germany, 2018

10.00

Life in Neuperlach, a Munich suburb, is quaint. It is a safe neighborhood, where people know and always greet each other. Everybody has his own backyard; single car garages are lining the narrow footpaths and everything is groomed. But for some time now that peace¬fulness has been a troubled one be¬cause refugees are supposed to move in next door. As some of the residents are afraid of the noise they are sure the foreigners are going to make, they are putting up a noise protection wall. Biotope shows the life of the locals and gets to the bottom of the reason for building that wall.

Paul Scholten was born in 1996 in south Germany. He started film¬making when he was 17 years old. His films were screened at various international festivals. Since 2017, he has been studying at the University for Film and Television Munich in the field of documentary film.

A Moment of Love A Moment of Love

Julian Rachev

National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts

Bulgaria, 2018

29.00

Magda and Kalin are deeply in love, but their time together is too short. This relationship creates conflicts at home between Magda and her hus¬band, Ivailo. They love their son Joan very much. Magda is under excessive pressure and she has to make a decision. The pain is inevitable.

Born on July 15, 1984, in Ruse, Bulgar¬ia, Julian Rachev is a director, writer, editor, and actor. He studied acting in theatre college Luben Grois 2005 – 2008. He has more than 20 roles as an actor in television and cinema. In 2018 he graduated from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts, NATFA. He has around 40 shows as a director on the most-watched tv show on Saturday night in Bulgaria – The Show Of The Channel. He was the director of 25 fiction and documen¬tary short films and 10 music videos. Editor of more than 50 documentary short films. Creator of over 100 videos and commercials.

Eavesdropper Eavesdropper

Ahmet Toğaç

Okan University

Turkey, 2019

22.00

Working at the old switchboard of a company about to move to a big cen¬tral hub and waiting for his transfer, Selamet spends his days listening to the phone calls of strangers. With no activity in his life aside from solving Sudoku puzzles, Selamet discovers that he feels a growing intimacy towards a stranger on the phone and attempts to imitate the life of that stranger.

Ahmet Toğaç was born in Erzurum in 1995. He graduated from İstanbul Okan University Cinema and Televi¬sion Department in 2019. He wrote for Film Arası Magazine and various web sites such as Sinema Mynet. He currently writes for the 82Ekran web magazine, as one of the founders, and he works for the Center for Turkish Cinema Studies. His first film Eavesdropper (Kulak Misafiri) is his graduation project.

Daughter Daughter

Daria Kashcheeva

FAMU

Czech Republic

14.00

In a hospital room, the Daughter recalls a childhood moment when as a little girl she tried to share her experience with her Father about an injured bird. A moment of misun¬derstanding and a lost embrace has stretched into many years all the way to this hospital room.

Daria Kashcheeva studies animated film at FAMU in Prague. Her student films featured at many international festivals. Daria’s original To Accept won the Nespresso Talents 2017 film competition in Cannes. In Daughter, her Bachelor’s puppet animation, Daria experiments with camera motion and explores the topic of a father-daughter relationship. The project was pitched within the CEE Animation Forum 2018. The film has a premiere at Annecy Animation Film Festival and got Cristal for the Best Student film and Young Jury award in the Student film section. Daughter has been nominated for the Student Academy Award in the category Animation (International Film Schools).

Wild Cab Wild Cab

Elisa Gómez Alvarez, Paul Choquet, Olivia Frey, Moustapha Guèye, Yoro Mbaye, Tianze Song

Ecole Cantonale D’Art de Lausanne

Switzerland, 2019

17.00

Dakar, district of Pikine. Yadou is a clandestine cab driver. Diégui is a schoolgirl. Today, she is late for class. She negotiates a fee for a ride and hops on Yadou’s taxi. It might have been the wrong choice: the wild cab is slow as molasses. Rolling through the city, Yadou and Diégui bond while facing the urban transformation of Pikine. This encounter will stay on Yadou’s mind for the rest of the day.

Coming from various geographies and backgrounds, Elisa Gómez Alvarez, Paul Choquet, Olivia Frey, Moustapha Guèye, Yoro Mbaye, and Tianze Song all met in École cantonale d’art de Lausanne and produced their first short film together, Wild Cab.