The European Film Festival, now in its 25th year, feted the winners of its short film competition for Lebanese students Sunday evening. Julia Koch de-Biolley, deputy head of the European Union delegation, distributed prizes to Luana Chaptini, Karel Malkoun and Patrick Elias.This year’s contest saw 12 short films, selected by 12 Lebanese universities with departments of audio-visual studies, projected at Metropolis Cinema Sunday. The jury was comprised of the Goethe-Institut’s Vesna Chamoun, l’Institut Français du Liban’s Mathilde Chassagneux, Katarzyna Tuszy?ska-Niesio?owska from the Embassy of Poland in Lebanon, and the Metropolis Association’s Nour Ouayda.
Chaptini, a student of IESAV, won the Polish Embassy award for “The Trophy,” which the jury appreciated for its strong ecological message, clever writing, and researched cinematography.
Malkoun took the Goethe-Institut Award for “Mots et lumieres,” a “touching coming of age story of a young woman.” The NDU student charmed the jury for successfully depicting the beauty of innocence, strong atmosphere.
A student of ALBA, Elias was awarded the Institut Français Award for his “Bombardement dore” (Golden Bomb). The jury enjoyed his “successful use of the comedy to speak about an otherwise tragic situation, [his] creative use of sound, location [filming], and well-chosen cast.”
“Take the story of Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya, who won one of the Best Students Shorts Award at the EU Festival in 2012 for his short film ‘Film Kbeer,’” de-Biolley told her Metropolis audience. “A few years later, Bou Chaaya released his first feature ‘Film Ktir Kbeer,’ which went on to win numerous international recognitions and was chosen as Lebanon’s official submission for the Foreign Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards.”
The winners of this year’s contest will have the opportunity to attend an international film festival, including the Oberhausen Film Festival (in partnership with the Goethe-Institut), a festival in France (thanks to IF Liban) and the International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Camera in Krakow (thanks to the support by the Embassy of Poland in Lebanon).
Rabeh Sager to headline Mother of the Nation festival. To read more click dubaiblogpost.com
