Submissions for short films are now open. We are looking for narrative, documentary, animated or experimental films under 45 minutes. Selected films will be part of the Competition programme at Kustendorf 2020 and their authors will be invited to the Festival in January.

Submit your film by filling out the application form. Please include streaming/download links for the film, director’s portrait and film stills. Send it all to kustendorffestival@gmail.com not later than 1 December 2019.

The new film by the Brothers D’Inoccenzio, Boys Cry (2018), was shown on the last day of the 12th Kustendorf festival, as a part of the Conteporary trends programme selection. After the screeinig, the authors joined the audience and discussed the film and their own views on cinema. The work process, as explained by D’Inoccenzios, consists of devouring films, but at the same time one needs to be aware of the influences and keep own specific film language. The brothers described their film as a testament of social and political crisis that Italy is in right now. Althrough, they have described themselves as pessimists, their message was clear: the search for beauty must be a priority regardless of the subject.

 

The new documentary by Wim Wenders Pope Francis: The Man of His Word was shown on the fifth day of Kustendorf. After the screening, Andrea Gambetta, the producer of the film, held a workshop for the guests of the Festival. Gambetta has a long history with the Festival and with profesor Emir Kusturica. He was a member of the jury in the first year of Kustendorf, and is guilty, as professor Kusturica said, for the forming of No Smoking Orchestra. Also, Gambetta was a producer on Kusturica’s first documentary film Super 8 Stories (2001). The conversation about the film Pope Francis: The Man of His Word sparked a number of issues. Gambetta emphasized that this documetary was the first time the Vatican used the mеdium of film to speak directly to the world.

On a third day of Competition programme in Damned Yard Theatre the audience has seen five films: Manila is Full of Men Named Boy directed by Andrew Stephen Lee, I’ve Got Something for You presented by film director Iwo Kondefer and director of photography Natalia Pietsch, The Divine Way by Ilaria di Carlo, All Inclusive by Corina Schwigruber Ilić and Nikola Ilić and Autumn Waltz by Ognjen Petković.

On the fourth day of Kustendorf, within the programme Retrospective of Greatness, the audience had the opportunity to see Gus Van Sant’s film Drugstore Cowboy (1989) starring Matt Dillon. After the screening, the actor held a workshop with the Festival guests. Dillon talked about his acting journey, from his beginnings when he was just fourteen in On the Edge (1979), to his recent collaboration with Lars von Trier in The House That Jack Built (2018). He described his acting philosophy with the word verisimilitude. Although acting and the whole art of film are an imitation, they need to be responsible to the truth. This conviction directs his choice of roles and the only acting method he follows. Verisimilitude helps him distance himself from non-artistic projects which fail to talk about human life. Apart from acting, Dillon also spoke about directing. He has three directing credits and he particularly singled out the documentary film about the Cuban scat singer Fracnsico Fellove, currently in post-production. A long-term project, it embodies the actor’s love for music in general, especially scat singing.