The winning ED08 filmmakers - Michal Mróz from Warsaw, Poland (Drzewo / The Tree) and South West Award winners Josh Cawthorn (pictured left) and Simon Roberts, two undergraduates from the School of Creative Art at UWE (Stand and Stare) all won a trip to BUFF - The International Children and Young People’s Film Festival in Malmö, Sweden with Tim Crawley, Eshed.net Coordinator. They were invited to take part in the SCREEN workshops which aim to give young filmmakers the opportunity to meet industry professionals. Here’s how it all went…
The Trip
So here we are at Copenhagen airport, waiting for the high speed train to cross the Oresund bridge into Malmo Central. After a three and a half hour coach journey to Gatwick Airport, two hours of waiting and 1 hour 40 mins on the plane, we finally experienced our first mild condition of ‘ooer I’m in a foreign land and none of the signs are in english, how do i know what to do!?’ Luckily enough the first Scandy we came across spoke English, was extremely friendly and pointed us towards the right train, the ‘Oresund High Speed Express‘ with onboard wi-fi and power sockets next to each seat. This suit was set to follow for the duration of our trip; lovely, friendly, good looking Scandinavians in a modern, clean, expensive city hosting us, and a four day festival of film and media for children and young people. Instead of myself (Tim Crawley) giving you my own detailed, lightly humored account of the trip, in a moment I’ll hand over to the guys who earned their right to be there…. our ED08 prize winners. For most of them it was their first time at a festival of this scale. It was an opportunity to gain experience of networking on an international scale, attend various practical workshops through SCREEN and present their film through our Electric December presentation.
Steve Dunne from UWE, Sound Designer/Composer for ED prize winning film Stand and Stare
Being a soundtrack composer I was potentially quite out of place at a film festival but I found the whole experience useful, inspiring and really enjoyable. I am always cautious of coming across egos in these sorts of situations but, while i did spot a few overblown heads, what I encountered far more was people who are passionate about their art. I watched some interesting and funny short films, i watched many feature length films which varied massively in style, acclaim and budget. While some weren’t really to my taste and some I loved, I was able to take a lot away from these, as a composer. There were so many creative and clever ideas throughout all these films I felt inspired and more confident to move on with my own work.
It was a great chance to network too. I met people in different areas of the film industry and it was great to be able to make contact with them and showcase our work. More than that, though, it was great to feel part of a wider community of people who are committed and passionate about their particular brand of creativity. That translates to anyone, be they editor, director, animator, composer etc. I would recommend this type of festival to anyone and would certainly recommend BUFF film festival.
Simon Roberts from UWE, Director/Animator Stand and Stare
- Simon Portrait
Simon seemed a pleasant mild mannered chap with an array of talent and a knack for coming up with odd questions such as.. ‘how much money am i going to spend?’ to which I could only answer.. well it depends what you buy Simon.
Josh Cawthorn from UWE, Director Stand and Stare
- Josh Portrait
With the meatballs in my mind and the pickled herring in my head we began our time in Malmo, Sweden.
The festival was brilliant fun and i especially enjoyed the diverse amount of documentaries and short films that where screened. What stood out to me the most was that despite me being a student and not strictly a ‘film director’, i was still treated as a professional regardless.
We screened our film to a multi-European audience for the first time in a cinema setting and it was received well I also got a chance to speak to some well known film directors from Sweden, Germany and Norway, I will also be in contact with them from now on. Overall it was a brilliant experience and i really enjoyed the chance to meet some real industry people in a wonderfully creative environment. I am excited by the idea of my next festival and I feel like some kind of hippy by saying, “I’m going to all the festivals man!”
Michal Mroz (right), from Warsaw in Poland, Director/Animator of The Tree
