In this edition of the Arts, we look at this year’s Fresh Film Festival, UK food prices rise 8.3% in 2008 ...
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Now in its fifth year, the Fresh Film fest specialises in showing innovative work by young moviemakers from film schools all over the world. Fresh Film’s venue is Karlovy Vary, a town that is better known for its A-Category international film festival, which regularly attracts Hollywood megastars such as Robert de Niro and Robert Redford.
Although Fresh Film cannot quite match the glitz and the glamour of Karlovy Vary’s main movie event, it has found its own place on the international festival circuit and was attended this year by established Czech film directors like Jan Němec and Věra Chytilová..
Martin Pošta, a recent graduate of Prague’s prestigious FAMU film school who is the director of Fresh Film, says that the event has found its own specific niche in the world of cinema. So what does he think distinguishes it from other film festivals?
“Well I think its liveliness is one thing. And a different approach to films itself. And maybe there’s a different approach to living the festival. A lot of it is about films but a lot of it is also about socialising, sharing experiences, networking and even just partying.”
With thousands of young people attending Fresh Film over five days, Martin Pošta says that the festival has gradually evolved into a large-scale event, which offers an extensive programme of high-quality movies in various categories such as feature debuts, animated film and experimental movies.
“It’s quite big considering that it’s a student festival. And it’s also professionally organised, which would be a unique characteristic of an event of this nature. Normally, when you hear about a student film festival, it’s usually a punk kind of event. This is not supposed to be like that. We’re actually growing and becoming one of the more significant events of this kind, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.”
This year more than 900 films were submitted for screening at the festival, and only about 200 of these were selected.
Martin Pošta says that an event like Fresh Film has specific criteria for choosing films, which help ensure that the festival retains its distinct student identity:
“We try to stay fresh by all means possible. The team that makes the festival is quite young. But also the approach towards films is intended to present movies that are different and which have a new approach. Maybe, they don’t necessarily have to be technically perfect, but they should have a different view and a different mindset. They may deal with things that have been described already, but they should do it in a more unique way. Our main focus is definitely not technical quality or professionalism. We are mainly looking for ideas.”
(radio-Prague)
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