The International Student Film Festival in Písek will be celebrating its 10. anniversary year!

Prague, 12. 8. 2010/ The 10. anniversary of ISFF in Písek will take place on September 30th until October 2nd in the Portyč Theatre. Students from both film schools in Písek are already working on preparations for the festival. This tenth year of evaluation is offering more space for presentations of creative student activity from Písek high schools and universities as well as art schools within and beyond the South Bohemian Region. This year will have a strong humanitarian accent as well. Friday, October 1st will be devoted to the work of handicapped artists. The organizers of the Mental Power Prague Film Festival and Domov PETRA Mačkov, an institution for social care, which was founded by the South Bohemian Region, have promised to cooperate with us in this matter.

The star of this year's festival is actress Martha Issová, who a third year student of FAMO, Jan Vejnar, cast into his festival signature clip. The festival's signature clip traditionally originates as one of the school's practical exercises and its victory - during a secret ballot - is decided by students from both film schools. Jan Vejnar has also automatically become the director of both festival nights.

Films from 21 countries of the world were entered into this year's competition such as Brazil, Israel, Iran and Taiwan. This year, the international jury will be led by our regular festival host and art director of the Karlovy Vary IFF, Eva Zaoralová. Other members of the jury include Korean director and scriptwriter LEE Jong-woo who won the Grand Prix - the Award of Václav Krška of the 9th ISFF Písek 2009 for the film My Dear Childlike Cinderella (2009). A seat in the jury is automatically offered to the winner of the Grand Prix - the Award of Václav Krška which LEE Jong-woo accepted with enthusiasm. Pablo Berti, a Uruguayan camera operator who collaborated on the films Frida (2002), The Legend of Zorro (2005) and Álvaro Brechner's film Bad Day to Go Fishing (Mal día para pescar, 2009) which was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Language Film this year in Uruguay. Deana Jakubisková – Horváthová, film producer and actress who graduated from Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava and is known thanks to films such as Sedím na konári a je mi dobre (1989), An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World (Nejasná správa o konci sveta, 1997) and Bathory (2008). She had been last cast by Petr Jákl jr. in the film Kajínek (2010). The longstanding actor of the of the theatre Divadlo Járy Cimrmana, Petr Brukner, who has, aside from “Cimrman” films such as Jára Cimrman Lying, Sleeping (Jára Cimrman, ležící, spící, 1983) and Dissolved and Effused (Rozpuštěný a vypuštěný, 1984), also appeared in Ball Lightning (Kulový blesk, 1978), My Sweet Little Village (Vesničko má, středisková, 1985), Ruffiano and Sweeteeth (Lotrando a Zubejda, 1996), I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, 2006) and Empties (Vratné lahve, 2006).

A rich accompanying program awaits viewers during the festival which will take place in Palackého sady and in the theater Divadlo Pod čarou. We can look forward to the bands Tata Bojs, Jamchestra, Green Smatroll, WWW, Maradona Jazz and DJ ZIG ZAG. Mardoša and En.dru will be there as well. The festival will also offer a diverse collection of workshops. Composer, conductor and showman Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer, who visitors could have met two previous years before and whose workshops have had a great amount of success, has promised to attend. This year's workshop is going to focus on the making of film music and films made by film students from both Písek film schools will serve as vivid examples.

The festival is made possible thanks to the gracious support of the Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, the Czech State Fund for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography, the South Bohemian Region and the city of Písek. Any information about the festival and current events in regard to the festival can be found on our official festival web page www.filmfestpisek.cz.
author: Klára Wagsteinová
translation: Thomas Krakora