THE ECHOES OF THE 9th ISFF PÍSEK 2009 IN THE THEATER AERO

Prague, 25. 3. 2010/ On Friday March 19th, the day when Josephs around the world celebrated their name day, the art theatre Aero hosted the first Echoes of the International Student Film Festival in Písek '09. This standard retrospective on individual festival years traditionally takes place in the Písek Cafe U Vavřiny. The Prague Echoes has made its priority to familiarize viewers of the hundred-towered city with our festival. With your help we would like to transform this event into a regular gathering of students from our schools and you, the viewers and so that together we can engage in first-rate film experiences through clips that have originated on the grounds of film schools.

Our classmate, Vojta Kotek, getting hold of the moderator microphone, invited the director of the festival, Vladana Terčová, and honoured host of the night - the art director of IFF Karlovy Vary - Eva Zaoralová onto the stage moments before the respective projection began. Vojta teased, that he had borrowed dioptrical glasses with dark spectacle frames from Jiří Bartoška so that Mrs Zaoralová could feel at home, even here, among students.

Together, all three of them with a symbolic toast baptised the winning signature clip of the next festival year. The actress Martha Issová who accepted the offer to become the star of this anniversary year will invite you to our festival from the city of Otava at the end of the summer when the local forests here will start to reveal its autumn colours. The author of the winning signature clip, inspired by the naivety and nonchalance of Barrandov era of the First Czechoslovak Republic, is a student in his third year on the Film Academy of Miroslav Ondříček, Jan Vejnar. The casting of Martha was an "obvious choice" for him.

The collection of last year’s winning films was then presented on the big screen of the Aero Theatre. Viewers who didn't get the chance to participate in the festival before were able to partially correct their mistake and see the Polish clip Hands (Dlonie, 2008) which is about a mass done in sign language, the Estonian film Obsession (Haaratus, 2008) which was awarded by the jury for best directing, the Indian clip Rebello (Rebello, 2009) winning the Award of Vladana Terčová and the film Play (2008) which gained special recognition for directing. Further the program also encompassed the best documentary film Where the Mind is Without Fear (2009) , the best animated clip Leave ideals (Opustíme vzory, 2008) and the "topping on the cake" was the Korean film My Dear Childlike Cinderella (2009) awarded with the Grand Prix, the Award of Václav Krška - a Písek native and classic of Czech cinematography.

In the course of an informal after-party, taking place in the foyer of the Aero theatre after the projection, a heated discussion broke out between the judges most qualified for the job - the viewers.

ISFF Písek is organized by the Independent Film College and the Film Academy of Miroslav Ondříček in Písek and the students themselves partake in its course and organization. The festival is becoming more and more popular which is confirmed by the fact that the number of submitted films is growing and also evidenced by the higher quality and level of individual clips. The respective selection of the best films for the competition is becoming more difficult each year.

For this upcoming festival year we have invited a professional in the field of festival competitions to help us out. Eva Zaoralová has accepted this invitation to be the head of the festival’s jury because, as she said herself „...it is important to keep track of our film students in their creative activity. It is they who are going to apply for the right to represent our cinematography in major film festival competitions such as ours in Karlovy Vary, but even in Cannes, Berlin, Venice and so on.“

The invitation to our festival from Vladana Terčová, the director of our festival, which was expressed in the name of our students and teachers, was not only meant for viewers in the Aero theatre but also aimed towards you all. We are looking forward to see you there in Písek (from 30. 9. – 2. 10. 2010), when the local theatre Portyč will offer its silver screen so that we can search for and discover top class films of this upcoming anniversary festival competition. Any required information can be found on the internet website of our festival www.filmfestpisek.cz.

author: Lukáš Buchar
translation: Thomas Krakora

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