EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2019 STUDENT ETUDES COMPETITION LINE-UP!

Friday October 11th, 2019

We announce the line-up of the Student Etudes Competition of the 27th edition of EnergaCAMERIMAGE International Film Festival.

First held in 1997, Student Etudes Competition supports the development of novice filmmakers and provides unique opportunity to confront cinematic achievements of students from various parts of the world. Each year, a growing number of film schools submit their best etudes for consideration of the EnergaCAMERIMAGE selection committee. The winners are chosen by an international jury of prominent filmmakers and industry professionals.

The author of the best cinematography wins the coveted Laszlo Kovacs Student Award - The Golden Tadpole. Silver and Bronze Tadpoles are awarded for the second and third place respectively. Additionally, Polish Filmmakers Association will award the winner of the Student Etudes Competition a cheque for PLN 10 000.

17 HOURS

A short film based on the last moments of a ten-year-old girl named Julia, who has been trapped under debris from an earthquake in Italy for 17 hours.

Original title: 17ساعت
Polish title: 17 godzin
Director: Pedram Noori
Cinematographer: Aean Irani
School: Soore Art University Of Tehran
Country and year: Iran, 2019

ANIMALS

Su Su Myat, a Burmese child soldier, escapes from battle with her brother, Tin Min. When they get captured, she must face the most awful of decisions.

Director: Chen-Wen Lo
Cinematographer: Łukasz Dziedzic
School: AFI - American Film Institute Conservatory
Country and year: USA, 2019

BIKE OF A BOY

War is raging. A boy loses his home in an air raid. Disoriented, he flees on his bike- his only possession- through an increasingly disrupted world. The people he meets and tries to connect with mirror his own search for the right path, although there is no set destination.

Original title: Das Rote Rad
Director: Nicolas Ehret
Cinematographer: Dennis Mill
School: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
Country and year: Germany, 2019

BITTER HERB

In the past, when mothers wanted to stop breastfeeding, they would rub their breasts with an infusion of wormwood, so that the bitter taste would make the child never want breast milk again.

Original title: Piołun
Director: Maria Ornaf
Cinematographer: Zuzanna Zachara
School: Łódź Film School
Country and year: Poland, 2019

CHAOS

Chaos is a fairy-tale about the devil. What are one jogger, one hobo and two pigs doing in a forest? Chaos is a story about greed and its consequences. It’s a short that should be seen several times as, each time, the deeper meaning reveals itself even more.

Director: Samuel Auer
Cinematographer: Lukas Eylandt
School: DFFB - German Film and Television Academy
Country and year: Germany, 2019

CRU

Jeanne, a young chef, has made it in a top restaurant. With an iron discipline, she tries to convince her chef, known for her brutal work ethic, of her talent, but in this kitchen there is a merciless pecking order. It is only when Jeanne cuts her finger that she accidentally creates the perfect sauce - with her own blood. Now she must decide how far she wants to go for her career...

Director: David Oesch
Cinematographer: Ramón Königshausen
School: ZHdK - Zurich University of the Arts
Country and year: Switzerland, 2019

DAY RELEASE

Single mother Kathi is on day release from prison and finds her three-year-old son, who is living with his unstable grandmother, in a terrible situation. She is forced to find a way to make a better future for him, but time is against her - she has to be back in prison at 6PM.

Original title: Freigang
Director: Martin Winter
Cinematographer: Aram Baroian
School: Filmcollege Wien - VHS Polycollege
Country and year: Germany, Austria, 2019

ENCAGED FLOWER

A girl is lying on her bed, reading a book. This is the moment when she is overcome with a desire to explore. The girl will ask herself who she really is, what her legacy is, what she truly wants, and most importantly, is she free? An intimate and melancholic portrait of a young woman who, trapped within a monotony, determines how her life will be.

Original title: Flor de Invernadero
Director: Daniel Álvarez
Cinematographer: Daniel Álvarez
School: Escola Universitària ERAM - Universitat de Girona
Country and year: Spain, 2019

F FOR FREAKS

A world that is defined by neither time nor space. Nature overgrowing, gaping spaces and human emptiness shape this environment. You can get anything here, for the right price. Cheap staff or slaves, surrogate babies, vital organs, anything and everything is possible. The supposed dream of eternal life is for sale, along with human dignity.

Director: Sabine Ehrl
Cinematographer: Stephan Buske
School: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Country and year: Germany, 2019

GRENADINE

After their parents inexplicably leave them to fend for themselves, three brothers must learn to grow up in a world devoid of authority.

Director: Corentin Leroux
Cinematographer: Rob Schmidt
School: Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University
Country and year: USA, 2019

JAKAB

A young man living abroad visits his home-town to deal with the aftermath of his estranged father's death. The unexpected journey forces him to face feelings and affairs long thought to be gone. A film about the inability to connect, or to find a home.

Director: Attila Dávid
Cinematographer: Péter Lehr Juhász
School: SZFE - Színház- és Filmmûvészeti Egyetem, Budapest
Country and year: Hungary, 2018

LAST CHILDREN IN PARADISE, THE

In the countryside, siblings Leah (14) and Theo (10) live with their grandmother in an isolated farmhouse. But it's when their grandmother suddenly dies, and the two kids find themselves completely on their own, that Leah - on the brink of puberty - has her first encounter with the opposite sex. We watch as Leah struggles to cope with being the woman of the house, and we see her torn between taking responsibility for her brother, and being thrust into womanhood. As a thunderstorm approaches and, along with it, a group of troublesome teenagers, Leah and Theo's paradise is threatened to be destroyed forever.

Original title: Die letzten Kinder im Paradies
Director: Anna Roller
Cinematographer: Felix Pflieger
School: HFF München - Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film
Country and year: Germany, 2019

LEFTY/RIGHTY

The death of a patriarch bridges the gap between a divorced cowboy and his young daughter. What follows is a tale of forgiveness, albeit in few words.

Director: Max Walker-Silverman
Cinematographer: Alfonso Herrera Salcedo
School: NYU - Tisch School of the Arts
Country and year: USA, 2018

MARIAM AND NATHAN

A story of love in which a mother and her son are united in the face of a very difficult situation.

Original title: Mariam i Natan
Director: David Bajerski
Cinematographer: David Bajerski
School: Łódź Film School
Country and year: Poland, 2018

MEMORIES OF TOMORROW

Fulvio is a seventy-five-year-old man, who has spent his whole life with his wife. One day he decides to travel to a little village, where he had spent the best days of his life. But as soon as he gets there, Fulvio realises there is something missing. He meets Valentina, a 17-year-old girl, and they start to get to know one another.

Original title: Il Ricordo Di Domani
Director: Davide Petrosino
Cinematographer: Leonardo Kurtz Trimeloni
School: CSC - Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Scuola Nazionale di Cinema
Country and year: Italy, 2019

MY WAR

Haunted by the memories of war, a veteran struggles to return to normal life. Nina experiences a severe PTSD episode during her first Independence Day in America. As the explosions of the fireworks intensify, so too does her anxiety. Alone and without any support, she is forced to relive a traumatic event related to her combat experience in a supermarket.

Polish title: Moja wojna
Director: Jojo Erholtz
Cinematographer: Leonel Escobar
School: AFI - American Film Institute Conservatory
Country and year: USA, 2019

NOVEMBER 1ST

A mother and daughter travel across the state to witness a long-overdue execution.

Director: Charlie Manton
Cinematographer: Molly Manning-Walker
School: NFTS - National Film and Television School
Country and year: UK, 2019

READING GAOL

Based on Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Reading Gaol focuses on Oscar Wilde's time in prison after being convicted of "gross indecency" for his relationship with his lover, Alfred Douglas. As his body and spirit break under the cruelty of prison life, and the people closest to him grow ever more distant, he only finds refuge in writing.

Polish title: Więzienie w Reading
Director: Aymeric Nicolet
Cinematographer: Mahesh Bharadwaj Ramakrishna
School: NFS - Northern Film School at Leeds Beckett University
Country and year: UK, 2018

SKIN

This is the story about the harsh, complex, aggressive relationship between teenager Mateusz and his father, Włodzimierz. This tense relationship will come to a head on the day that the boy loses his school report.

Original title: Skóra
Director: Mateusz Znaniecki
Cinematographer: Kamil Małecki
School: Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School
Country and year: Poland, 2019

TOM

Iris is going on an agonising journey in the middle of the night, which, for the first time, may actually bring her some peace of mind.

Director: Rotem Katz
Cinematographer: Zohar Mutayn
School: The Department of Film & Television at Tel-Aviv University
Country and year: Israel, 2018

WHAT REMAINS

Mania, a city-born journalist, lives in a picturesque cottage in north-east Poland. One day, she finds herself facing the unexpected death of her beloved husband. She decides to lock herself in her home with his body and deal with this loss in her own private way, against the judgment of the local community.

Original title: To, co zostaje
Director: Eliza Godlewska/ Alan Ruczyński
Cinematographers: Alan Ruczyński/ Eliza Godlewska
School: Warsaw Film School
Country and year: Poland, 2019

XIAO XIAN

Xiao Xian is in charge of finishing a dress. Her mother has decided that she is going to take care of it that night, and Xiao Xian obeys, as usual. Sheng Xia, her best friend, shows up at her house to convince her to come to a party. Xiao Xian accepts, but she cannot imagine what will end up happening that night.

Director: Jiajie Yu Yan
Cinematographers: Alejandro Rapariz, Mario Lerma
School: EFTI - Centro Internacional de Fotografia y Cine
Country and year: Spain, 2018