EnergaCAMERIMAGE’s Film and Art School Etudes Panorama line-up revealed

Film and Art School Etudes Panorama is a non-competitive section at the EnergaCAMERIMAGE International Film Festival featuring student fiction shorts whose high visual and artistic qualities make them a must-see at our film festival.

BALLAD OF KYCHIEV

During the war, in eastern Ukraine, Dmytro, a 50-year-old volunteer, transports humanitarian supplies to Kychiev, a city occupied by Russian troops. He bribes a Russian soldier to take Dasha and her daughter, 10-year-old Polina, in his car and drive them to the nearest train station.

Original title: Ballada Kyczyjewska
Director: Piotr Kamiński
Cinematographer: Mateusz Gzel
School: Warsaw Film School
Country and year: Poland, 2023

DER BRUDER

After the death of his parents, Heinrich reunites with his sister Susanne in the abandoned childhood home. But his childhood guilt floats through the silent rooms of the house, and the prospect for reconciliation is remote.

Director: Jeremias Zeh
Cinematographer: Felix Pochlatko
School: Institut für Film und Fernsehen – Filmakademie Wien
Country and year: Austria, 2022

CHILDREN OF LIGHT

In the 1960s, a Korean boy (16), kidnapped and assaulted at a juvenile centre on a remote island, must escape with his rival to survive.

Director: Minkyu Kang
Cinematographers: Jeong-seok Park
School: Columbia University School of the Arts
Country and year: USA, South Korea, 2023

FERRET

Ferret is a film journey of self-discovery and acceptance. The film delves into the depths of the human psyche, drawing inspiration from Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage and exploring the concepts of identity, sexuality and the duality of human nature.

Director: Halil Tanisan
Cinematographer: Halil Tanisan
School: Lodz Film School
Country and year: Poland, 2023

GRAIN

While staying with her daughter in a Ukrainian bomb shelter at the beginning of the Russian invasion, Maya is looking for an opportunity for them to go somewhere safe.

Original title: Ziarno
Director: Stefan Żółtowski
Cinematographer: Artem Rachkelyuk
School: Lodz Film School
Country and year: Poland, 2023

HIDDEN

Hidden is a short period drama that explores World War II from the perspective of a young Jewish girl, Esther, who lost her father to Holocaust. Years later, with a heavy heart she reveals the truth about the horrifying events of the past, and tells the stories of those who never had a chance to share them.

Director: Lidia Bienarz
Cinematographer: Chloe Kelly
School: Cambridge School of Art – Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)
Country and year: UK, 2022

HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR PARAKEET

Arvo is lonely, and his annoying big sister Ulla is no help. Arvo decides to get himself a new friend: a parakeet.

Original title: Kuinka huolehtia undulaateista
Director: Roosa Vuokkola
Cinematographer: Iina Lallo
School: ELO Film School of Aalto University
Country and year: Finland, 2023

NEW LIVES

In 1950s Brooklyn, Holocaust Survivors try to deal with the burden of the past while adapting to their new lives in the States.

Director: Joey Schweitzer
Cinematographer: Kevin Yu
School: Tisch School of the Arts, Institute of Film and TV at New York University (NYU)
Country and year: USA, 2022

PLEASE RISE

A short political drama about a committee that is formed to choose a new national anthem after a fictional country goes through a revolution. We begin at the end of a meeting in which they have unanimously voted and everything seems to have gone smoothly. However, celebrations are cut short when their choice is disqualified for undisclosed reasons.

Director: Sheida Sheikhha
Cinematographer: Bruno Grandino
School: Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU)
Country and year: Czech Republic, 2023

RISKY REALITY

To escape loneliness in her impassive life, Leni hacks into her neighbours’ computers and observes them in everyday lives. In this way she is searching for love in her own, reality-distant life, and in consequence she is caught in her digital sphere.

Original title: Risiko Realität
Director: Rebekka Sceleji
Cinematographer: Boris Creimerman
School: Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design
Country and year: Germany, 2023

SYNCOPE

©Linus von Stumberg

After Whim makes it through the unconventional audition for the dance piece Syncope, the choreographer finds himself unsatisfied with her full commitment. But what she and the other dancers experience in the rehearsals is just a glimpse of what his dark vision will demand from them.

Director: Linus von Stumberg
Cinematographer: Gaétan Nicolas
School: Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)
Country and year: Switzerland, 2023

VICTIM OF THE MOON

Inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, The Master and Margarita, this is the story of poet Ivan Bezdomny’s struggle with the dreams that haunt him during the full moon, infused with the work of a writer he met years ago.

Original title: Ofiara księżyca
Director: Piotr Szubra
Cinematographer: Jakub Kaźmierczak
School: Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School
Country and year: Poland, 2023

WHERE RAVENS FLY

Colorado, 1880. Sophie lives peacefully with her father Ernest, a former colonel of the US Army, and their Indian mare Nola, the only remaining vestige of the Cheyenne presence. Their existence is shattered when James and Hank Lewis, the sons of Ernest’s former soldier, happen to pass through their farm.

Director: Charly Lehuede
Cinematographer: Guillaume Pradel
School: ENS Louis-Lumiére
Country and year: France, 2022

WITH LOVE FROM AIDAN

In this dark satire family drama, Aidan, an experimental AI, has an unsettling realisation that shatters his digital existence driving him to seek an end there, where he never truly belonged. While he attends his sister Sarah’s birthday party for the first time, Sarah apologises for not being the best sister, but Aidan gives a speech thanking her for teaching him what it means to be human, revealing that he brought a surprise gift for her birthday.

Director: Reuben Harvey
Cinematographer: Eamonn Macmahon
School: National Film School (NFS) at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design & Technology (IADT)
Country and year: Ireland, 2023

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Each year hundreds of students from all over the world come to EnergaCAMERIMAGE. For many of them, a week at the festival feels like they are taking part in a short yet extensive film course. It’s like a knowledge given in a nutshell.

We know how important, especially for young filmmakers, who are just at the beginning of this tough and demanding path is the opinion and advice of experienced filmmakers.

That is why, this year, the Film and Art School Etudes Panorama will be followed by the Round Table session – equal and open discussion devoted to the cinema. The authors of presented films will be joined by the acclaimed filmmakers Stephen Lighthill, ASC and Constanza Sandoval.

We believe that the participant of the very first Round Table will gain a valuable experience, and will get to know not only other fellow filmmakers but thanks to that they will have a unique chance for knowledge exchange.

After each block of the Film and Art School Etudes Panorama, approx. 90 minutes discussion will be carried on, conducted by Stephen Lighthill, ASC and Constanza Sandoval and with participation of the authors of the screened etudes.