International Shorts Collective’ Showcasing International Short Films

Pune, June 12, 2019 :Film lovers of Pune are going to get a rare chance to watch critically acclaimed short films from France and Germany. The ‘International Shorts Collective’ will mark its premiere in Pune on the 15th of June 2019. The Pune Film Foundation, Goethe-Institut Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, Alliance Française de Pune, and National Film Archive of India will present globally awarded short films to the Pune audiences. This festival will be a curtain-raiser of the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF).

The event ‘International Shorts Collective’ will take place on Saturday, June 15 at 4 pm to 9 pm and on June 16, Sunday in between 10 am to 3.30 pm, at Kothrud auditorium of NFAI, situated near Doordarshan Kendra. Entry to this event is free and open for all viewers above the age of 18.

The organizers held a press conference to announce the event in presence of Dr. Jabbar Patel, Chairman, Pune Film Foundation and Director, Pune International Film Festival (PIFF), Heidi Wetz-Kubach, Director, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan,Ketaki Rajwade, Cultural Coordinator at Alliance Française de Pune, Prakash Magdum, Director of NFAI and Renu Jamgaonkar.

Dr. Jabbar Patel informed that the Pune International Film Festival will be held from 9 to 16 January, 2020 next year. “There is a year long gap between the two film festivals of PIFF. To fill this gap and to reach out to more number of cine-buffs we have organized few theme-based festivals of shorter duration. This is the first step in this regard and we feel that such an initiative will help to reach out to a large number of audience. The films will have many different interesting sections and viewers will be introduced to various topics of life,” said Patel.

The Pune Film Foundation will be associating with various organizations and conduct two festivals in the city- both of two-days with ‘International Shorts Collective’ being the first of them, he added.

Ketaki Rajwade, Cultural Coordinator at Alliance Française de Punebriefed the media about the film selection of the Très Court International Film Festival which comprises of sixty-two films of less than 4 minutes representing the best in this category of very short films. Be it fiction, animation or documentary. “All kinds of short films are represented in this selection. This initiative by the Alliance Française de Pune also offers a competition around the festival where the audience members will be asked to vote for their favourite films from the International selection. Along with this, the AFP will also screen a special Francophone selection of French language short films,” she said.

The German contribution to the festival is a series of 20 films selected from the Berlinale Spotlight, Short Film Export 2018 and Short Films on Tour. From bizarre to exciting to warm-hearted and hilarious stories, everything is included. Similar to a kaleidoscope, they show different facets of German reality and thus offer a multidimensional image of Germany.

“For many years now, the Berlinale has extended its presence beyond the festival season with specially curated programmes. These activities are known as Berlinale Spotlight. The Berlinale spotlight has two packages on offer at the ‘International Shorts Collective’ – Dialogues (Queer Mix Berlinale Shorts & Generation Section) and People only sing when they are in love(Animation / Experimental),’” said Heidi Wetz-Kubach, Director, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan informed the media.

The festival will showcase 62 French and 20 German short films.

Prakash Magdum, Director of NFAI, expressed his thoughts about such unique festival and NFAI support towards good cinema to reach out to the audience. The uniqueness of this short film festival is the selection of films it includes; which are shown in renowned festivals like Tres Court International Film Festival, the Berlinale Spotlight, Short Export 2018 and Short Films on Tour. These films are otherwise rare to watch.