Shnit international shortfilmfestival
The shnit international shortfilmfestival is an annual international film festival based in Berne, Switzerland.
History
The festival was founded in 2003 under the name shnit Kurzfilmnächte.
Over the course of the next couple of years the event for short films of all kind quickly evolved into a festival with an international competition, and a big variety of special programmes, workshops and public film talks.
Since 2005 the shnit shortfilmfestival takes place in the PROGR center for cultural production and in various cinemas in the old town of Berne.
Since 2007 the festival is host of the Slam-Movie-Night and also holds the REALTIME film challenge.
With 6 festival locations, more than 65 screenings and an attendance of around 15'000 the shnit shortfilmfestival is the largest festival of its kind in Switzerland.
Competition and Festival Concept
More than 2000 short films from all continents are annually submitted to the selection process.
The centre point of the festival is the international competition shnit OPEN COMPETITION. Each OPEN programme consists of about 6 to 7 short films (occasionally with good animations too), lasting about 80-minute. There are usually 10 OPEN COMPETITION Programmes that are programmed and screened in each participating city/playground. Among the OPEN COMPETITION entries, an official festival jury awards films in the following categories:
- SMART JOE (films under 4 minutes) - MAGIC JACK (films from 4 to 10 minutes) - LONG JOHN (films over 10 minutes)
The total prize money of the shnit-Open is CHF 100'000 (approximately US$100,000).
In addition, audience could attend the screenings and vote their favourite film in all the cities. Chosen film with the highest votes get a good chance to win 'AUDIENCE AWARD' conferred by the shnit competition organizer.
Film competitions held in each city award their best film (e.g. Swiss Award, South Africa Award, German Award, Austria Award) with their respective film awards/prizes.
Other Festival Programmes
Besides the OPEN COMPETITION screenings and to make the festival more enjoyable and dynamic, other interesting short films are also curated into different programme sections (which changes every year). Within the following section are various 90-min programme blocks which every playground/city can opt to screen the programmes:
- A REAL TREAT - OUT OF CURIOSITY - FOR SPECIAL INTEREST
Playgrounds
Besides Bern (CH), the festival soon attracted participation from different cities including Cologne (DE) in 2009, Cape Town (ZA) in 2010, as well as Vienna, San Jose and Singapore in 2011. These cities will be screening the OPEN COMPETITION short films over a few days at the same time, in the first week of October every year. These cities are known as PLAYGROUNDS, and each runs a set of similar festival programmes with their available local resources in terms of sponsorships, partnerships and grants. Audience are welcome to vote for their favourite film during the screenings. Results will be sent to Bern to award the 'AUDIENCE AWARD' film at the end of the week.
In 2012, Switzerland Embassy of Singapore supported the festival in Singapore.
Award winners
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| South Africa Award | German Award | Austria Award | ||||||||||||||||||
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| SMART JOE (under 4 minutes) | MAGIC JACK (from 4 to 10 minutes) | LONG JOHN (over 10 minutes) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Festival Jury
2005
- Anne Walser (producer C-Films)
- Ulrich Kündig (former director of Swiss Television)
- Ursula von Keitz (Cinema Studies, University of Zurich)
2006
- Andreas Thiel (satirist)
- Bettina Oberli (director)
- Daniel Ritz (video producer)
2007
- Tom Traber (director)
- Lucie Bader (Department for Performing Arts and Film, Zurich)
- Franz Fischlin (editor and moderator, Swiss Television)
2008
- Christoph Schaub (director and producer)
- Veronika Grob (Swiss Television)
- Moritz A. Sachs (actor)
2009
- Rolf Schmid (producer)
- Horst D. Scheel (director)
- Joris Gratwohl (actor)
- Kathrin Raabe (editor)
- Thomas Allenbach (journalist, cultural editor)
2010
- Ivan Engler (producer, director)
- Dirk Werner (director)
- Kerstin Krause (director)
- Simone Ritscher
- Thomas Allenbach (journalist, cultural editor)
2011 LONG JOHN JURY
- Peter Baminger (editor)
- Gereon Blaseio (film studies lecturer)
2011 MAGIC JACK JURY
- Lars Wiebe (distribution, international sales)
- Ivan Madeo (producer, director)
2011 SMART JOE JURY
- Olivier Hermanus (director)
- Chris Niemeyter (producer, director)
2011 SWISS MADE JURY
- Rapold Martin (actor)
- Thomas Allenbach (journalist, cultural editor)
- Christine Repond (director)
2011 MADE IN AUSTRIA JURY
- Julia Fabrick (production co-ordinator, film reviewer)
- Christian Clerici (director)
- Sabrina Reiter (actor)
2011 MADE IN GERMANY JURY
- Iris Bergmuller (casting manager)
- Lisa Gotto (professor for film history and film analysis)
- Patrick Wolff (director, scriptwriter)
2011 MADE IN SOUTH AFRICA JURY
- Moneen Lee (artiste/talent agent)
- Simon Hensen (director)
- Akin Omotoso (actor, director, producer)