Prix UIP Ghent: RAAK (Contact)
by Hanro Smitsman, Netherlands 2007, 10 min, fiction
Synopsis: How an offensive remark rebounds like a boomerang on the one who launches it! Revenge as a motive plays a key role in the study of the causes and consequences of rude conduct. A string of succinct conflicts leads, with changing perspectives, to a surprising climax, and teaches us that the wounded person can never efface his or her pain by hurting someone else, because in many cases the unforeseen effects are quite far-reaching.
Prix UIP Cork: THE APOLOGY LINE
by James Lees, UK 2007, 10 min, documentary
Synopsis: In 2006, James Lees and William Bridges set up an art project called “The Apology Line” which involved a free telephone number for the public to call and apologise for whatever may be weighing on their conscience. These messages formed the basis of the film.
watch interview with director James Lees
Prix UIP Valladolid: UN BISOU POUR LE MONDE (A Kiss for the World)
by Cyril Paris, France 2007, 9 min, fiction
Synopsis: A primary school teacher shows her pupils some daily newspapers. Leo, a ten-year-old boy, wanting to get a closer look at his paper, promptly tears “Le Monde” (the world) into pieces. When the teacher becomes aware of what’s going on, she punishes Leo and orders him to put the paper back to gether again. Leo diligently tapes the pieces together and goes proudly to the front of the class to read the headlines of his newly assembled world.
watch an interview with director Cyril Paris
Prix UIP Angers: PROCRASTINATION
by Johnny Kelly, UK 2007, 4 min 5 sec, animation
Synopsis: An investigative and exploratory hands-on gloves-off study into the practice of putting things ‘off’. Sometimes the only way to get something done is to do two dozen other things first.
watch interview with the director Johnny Kelly
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Prix UIP Rotterdam: JOY
by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy, UK 2008, 10 min, fiction
Synopsis: JOY is a story about a 17-year-old girl who has gone missing. The film is a police reconstruction of Joy’s last known movements in a local park. By the time the reconstruction is ended it is clear that the film is more than just a reconstruction of a teenager’s last movements but rather a meditation on the fragility of youth.
watch interview with Christine Molloy, one of the directors, here
Prix UIP Berlin: FRANKIE
by Darren Thornton, Ireland 2007, 12 min, fiction
Synopsis: Frankie is 15 and preparing for fatherhood. He is determined to be the best dad ever, but as his day goes on, he starts to realise how impossible this will be for him.
watch interview with the director Darren Thornton
Prix UIP Tampere: THE PEARCE SISTERS
by Luis Cook, UK 2007, 10 min, animation
Synopsis: An amusingly bleak-hearted tale of two weather-lashed old spinsters. Lol and Edna Pearce live on a remote and austere strip of coast. They scrape out a miserable existence from the sea. THE PEARCE SISTERS is a tale of love, loneliness, guts, gore, nudity, violence, smoking, and cups of tea.
Prix UIP Cracow: TIME IS RUNNING OUT
by Marc Reisbig, UK 2007, 7 min, animation
Synopsis: A little world is in trouble. The film explores the inhabitants’ reaction to the impending doom. One man tries to stop the inevitable.
Prix UIP Grimstad: UGUNS (Fire)
by Laila Pakalnina, Latvia 2007, 12 min, fiction
Synopsis: 1970s. Already before Marija is born it is clear that she will be a person getting into trouble all the time. When Marija turns five, Santa Claus brings her a doll she doesn’t like, and also a lady-bird crawls into her ear. However, that’s not all. The most important thing is that she is often alongside firemen. Is it because things around her catch fire?
watch an interview with director Laila Pakalnina
Prix UIP Edinburgh: SMÁFUGLAR (2 Birds)
by Rúnar Rúnarsson, Iceland 2008, 15 min, fiction
Synopsis: 2 BIRDS takes place during one bright summer night and follows a group of young teenagers on a journey from innocence to adulthood. The main character is a timid boy who has a typical schoolboy crush on a girl his age, who happens to be a friend of his mate.
watch interview with director Rúnar Rúnarsson
Prix UIP Vila do Conde: LOVE YOU MORE
by Sam Taylor-Wood, UK 2007, 15 min, fiction
Synopsis: Summer 1978. London. Georgia sits in a Geography class covering her exercise book with graffiti. Her classmate Peter watches her with long ing. Georgia turns and catches him - but ignores his gaze. After school Peter goes to the local record shop to buy the new Buzzcocks single, “Love You More”. It’s the day of its release and he’s desperate to own it. As he’s flicking through the rack of ‘New Releases’ Georgia comes in. She’s after the same record…
Prix UIP Sarajevo: TOLERANTIA (Tolerance)
by Ivan Ramadan, Bosnia & Herzegovina 2008, 6 min, animation
Synopsis: After a long sleep, the hero of this story - a Bosnian - awakes and starts building a wonder. His reasoning is not something you should be jealous of, but he is not very different from you, either. You share some things with him, deep inside…
watch interview with director Ivan Ramadan
Prix UIP Venice: DE ONBAATZUCHTIGEN (The Altruists)
by Koen Dejaegher, Belgium 2008, 14 min, fiction
Synopsis: In a world where people’s happiness is based on their right to freely sell and buy relatives, Franz sells his brother and uses the money to buy himself a girlfriend.
watch interview with director Koen Dejaegher
Prix UIP Drama: TÜRELEM (With A Little Patience)
by Laszlo Nemes, Hungary 2007, 14 min, fiction
Synopsis: An office clerk as seen during her daily routine - all the little vibrations of her face. And a man, impatiently waiting for her, beyond the windows.
watch interview with Laszlo Nemes