3/18/2009
GO SHORT TAKES OFF

Today at 20.00 h. the moment is there: Go Short will officially be opened by the mayor of Nijmegen, Thom de Graaf. The opening doesn’t only take place in Nijmegen but also on the internet. Starting today a festival for European short films will be available online. The festival, which revolves around European short films, lasts until Sunday March 22 and is organized in cooperation with Arthouse LUX.

Go Short aims to make a connection between the familiar big screen and new interactive and online applications. Starting on March 18, a special selection of short European films will be shown online under the name of Go Short Online Selection. The online program is a reflection of the festival program: all genres will be addressed. The 12 films vary in length between 4 till 20 minutes. The Go Short Online Selection is made possible by Online, main partner of Go Short. The short films are from today till April 20 available at www.online.goshort.nl, a website specially developed by Go Short partners Mediadepot and Streaming Media Partners Europe.

EXPO
Jens Jonsson, special guest of Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen, will open the Expo@Go Short on Thursday March 19 at 17.00 h. At the Mariënburgkapel at the square in front of Arthouse LUX are, during the festival, three extraordinary expositions about visual (film)culture. In From Storyboard to Moving Image we see how Jens Jonsson prepared his film shootings of his highly rewarded television series Good Morning Children, by using storyboards. Also in the Mariënburgkapel, the audience can admire an installation called Light & Interactivity by students of Interactive Design at the ArtEz academy at Arnhem. At the square in front of the chapel Go Short presents Piscina Cinema, an installation by media artist Jordan Artisan, specially designed for Go Short.

Festival
The programme of Go Short is available at www.goshort.nl. You can also watch the trailers of the selected films on here. You can order tickets at the selling point of LUX, at 0900-5894636, or online at www.belbios.nl.

PROGRAM GO SHORT LAUNCHED & ONLINE MAIN SPONSOR OF GO SHORT

The program of Go Short – International Short Film Festival has been launched. In various different competitions and film programs, a total of 172 films from all over Europe will be screened. The festival’s program can be found on www.goshort.nl. The trailers of all the films that have been selected, can be viewed on this website as well. Go Short will be opened at March 18 by the Mayor of Nijmegen with the screening of Oscar winner Toyland (Jochen Alexander Freydank), the Irish documentary No Regrets in the West (Colm Quinn), the Dutch experimental film Steigerpijp (Barbara Hin & Martin van der Veen) and the honored short film Brother of Mine by Special Guest Jens Jonsson.

Waldemar goes short
This week the campaign with actor and ambassador Waldemar Torenstra will kick off. A short impression of the photo shoot in which the actor goes for short can be found at www.goshort.nl. Together with Jens Jonsson, Waldemar Torenstra will teach a public Masterclass Directing to the participants of the Breaking Shorts Campus, organised in cooperation with Breaking Ground.

Online main sponsor of Go Short
Internet provider Online joins Go Short as main sponsor. With Online, Go Short presents the GO SHORT ONLINE SELECTION, a program consisting out of various European shorts. “We are main sponsor of a truely renewing festival and we are very proud to be so” says Bernard Uyttendaele, Managing Director at Online. “Being an internet provider, we want to help users and stimulate them to explore especially the entertaining part of internet. The ability to watch short films online is a good example of that. Go Short draws attention to short film and Online wants to contribute to this cause by offering its customers new and unique experiences. By working together, we have set up a fun, new experience, and we are giving the event an online component as well. We invite everyone to check out the GO SHORT ONLINE SELECTION.’’
The online program will commence at the same time as the actual festival and can be seen until April 20 on www.online.goshort.nl.

Breaking the Ice: Icelandic Shorts
With pride, Go Short and the Icelandic Film Center present BREAKING THE ICE: ICELANDIC SHORTS, a program focused on the Icelandic short film. There has been a wealth of successful, prize winning Icelandic shorts in the recent years. And truly, the artistic quality and diversity has never been more pronounced. Besides a film program consisting of 13 recent films in which contemporary and especially urban issues are addressed, there will be a panel discussion between Grimur Hakonarson (director of the pricewinning short Wrestling), Sydney Neter (director of distribution company SND Films), and Gisli Darri Halldorsson (director of the music video Whatever). The discussion will be moderated by film Birgir Thor Møller, film scholar and Head of Film department at the North Atlantic House in Copenhagen. Thor Møller will also give a short lecture recent developments in Icelandic cinema.

Tickets
From March 10 onwards you can order tickets at the selling point of arthouse LUX, by telephone at +31 (0)900 5894636 (on weekdays from 10.00 till 22.30 and in weekends between 11.00 and 22.30 h.) Ordering online is possible through Belbios: www.belbios.nl.

OSCAR WINNER TOYLAND SHOWN AT GO SHORT

Toyland (Spielzeugland) by Jochen Alexander Freydank, before being shown at Go Short, has seen its way collecting the Oscar for best short film on Sunday February 23. This highly acclaimed German film goes about depicting the troubles of lying and deception. Set in 1942, a German mother tries to protect her 9 year old son by lying and making him believe that his Jewish friend and his family will be taken to the imaginary Toyland. As he doesn’t see through the lie, the boy secretely sneaks away to join his Jewish friend on the journey to Toyland. Freydank worked on Toyland for four years. He produced and directed the film himself.

Besides Toyland, Go Short will present the film Succes by Diederik Ebbinge. This Dutch production has recently won the Fernand Raynaud Award for best comedy at the International Short Film Festival in Clermont Ferrand, France.

Go Short is very proud that these and other international successes are part of the program during the festival, March 18 till 22. The complete program of Go Short 2009 will be online from March 6 onwards.

NPS connects itself to Go Short

The Dutch broadcaster NPS and short films are sharing a long history. Go Short is very proud to call the NPS its partner, and is honored to be able to present the NPS / Go Short Awards for Best European Short Film in four different categories. The NPS will also be present at Go Short through NPS Micromovies, workshops and two productions in the competitions.
'For short films originality and focus are of essential importance. Not rarely the individuality of the maker is sharper and more clearly visible in short films. It’s a master test that asks for creativity, sportive ease, precision and length. Not length in minutes, but like a good wine has. A short film can resonate, lag, taste like more. If it’s good. The NPS has been connecting itself for years to New Arrivals, NPS Kort!, Micromovies and now, with pleasure, to Go Short in the shape of the NPS Award. Because of the length of a short film.' Marina Blok, Head Drama Deparment NPS

Tickets

From March 10 onwards you can order tickets at the selling point of arthouse LUX, by telephone at +31 (0)900 5894636 (on weekdays from 10.00 till 22.30 and in weekends between 11.00 and 22.30 h.) Ordering online is possible through Belbios: www.belbios.nl.

PROGRAM GO SHORT FILM FESTIVAL ALMOST COMPLETED

At the moment the program for Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen is almost completed. Films will be shown from 18 different countries in several competitions. The Dutch short film Succes (Diederik Ebbinge), recently awarded at the prestigious short film festival of Clermont Ferrand, and the for an Oscar nominated short film Toyland (Jochen Alexander Freydank), are part of Go Short’s European selection. The award ceremony will take place on 21 March in theater De Lindenberg at Nijmegen.

More than film
In cooperation with Viva La Focus! from Groningen, Go Short organizes a workshop ‘filming with your mobile phone’, Iceland expert Birgir Thor Møller MA will lead a debate about Icelandic film, and Prof. Dr. Anneke Smelik (Academic Visual Culture, Radboud University Nijmegen) gives a lecture regarding The Surrealist Eye, a film program composed in cooperation with arthouse LUX. A film program in which short films by well-known directors will be shown as well, and will be commented on by Drs. Gerwin van der Pol (Media and Culture, University of Amsterdam). This is just a small aspect of the many events of Go Short.

Famous Dutch actor Waldemar Torenstra (Amsterdam, 29 March 1974) will be the ambassador of Go Short. He will be prominently featured in the Go Short campaign, and will be attending several activities during the festival. Waldemar Torenstra connects himself to Go Short because he wants to contribute to helping young talents. For young film makers, short film is the medium to develop themselves. Experienced actors are able to support and stimulate young directors. In Belgium, for example, it already happens quite frequently that experienced actors perform a mentor role for young film talent.

Mayor Thom de Graaf opens Go Short
The opening of the first edition of Go Short will take place on Wednesday evening, 18 March, at arthouse LUX. Thom de Graaf, mayor of Nijmegen, will officially open the festival. Lately the Province of Gelderland has provided Go Short with a four-year structural subsidy.

The full program of Go Short will be available online on 6 March, at www.goshort.nl. From 10 March you can order tickets at the selling point of arthouse LUX, by telephone: 0031 (0)900 5894636 (on weekdays from 10.00 till 22.30, in weekends between 11.00 and 22.30). If you want to order your tickets online, please go to the website of Belbios, www.belbios.nl (only in Dutch).

Film Festival Go Short Flooded by Entries

For its first edition, Go Short has received over 700 entries. The amount of entries surpasses all expectations of festival directors Lisa ter Berg and Kirsten Ruber. Next to these submissions, a great number of European student films has been gathered by the travelling European student film festival Breaking Ground. Breaking Ground will make a selection that will compete in the student competition of Go Short named ‘Breaking Shorts’.

The deadline for entries was set on the 18th of December 2008. Films from different European countries have been sent in. From all 700 entries only 100 films will be selected to participate in one of the competition programs. There will be different competitions for short fiction films, short documentaries, short animation films and short experimental films. The selection for the student film competition ‘Breaking Shorts’ will be made by Breaking Ground, the travelling European student film festival from Utrecht.

Next to the different competitions another 60 films will be shown in one of the special programs during the festival. This year there will be extra attention for the short film from Iceland and films by Swedish film maker Jens Jonsson. The Swedish film maker will be a special guest and will be present for q&a’s and other activities during the festival. Another special program is Masters of Go Short: this program consists of short films from contemporary celebrated feature film directors. The maximum duration of the films presented during Go Short is 40 minutes.

Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen takes place from 18th till 22nd of March 2009. The final program of Go Short will be presented in the first week of March 2009 on our website www.goshort.nl.
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If you would like more information about this topic, or to plan an interview with directors Kirsten Ruber and Lisa ter Berg, please send an email to Marlijn Klerk at marlijn@goshort.nl.

Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen
P.O. Box 1449
6501 BK Nijmegen