International Student Competition
43rd Drama International Short Film Festival (DISFF – 2020)
The International Student Competition is a brand new initiative and one of the most promising programs of the Drama International Film Festival.
Film Schools from around the world and Greece will participate. It’s an ambitious step/project aiming to underline the outwardness of the DISFF and goes hand in hand with the outwardness characterizing Greek cinema over the last ten years.
The International Student Competition, as well as the upcoming establishment of the Film School in Drama, will form an educational background for Cinema. This will offer participants the opportunity to be exposed to one of the major ways in which the Film Industry functions today.
Besides, the new festival aims to be a forum for young promising filmmakers – the future of cinema, to show their work and hopefully it will give rise to new film trends. Last but not least, this new department will offer the DISFF a further enhance its status as asset in its fair claim for a place as one of the leading Short Film Festivals in Europe.
International Student Competition is taking place along with the National, and the International Competitions of the International Drama Short Film Festival.
The applications for the newly-established International Student Competition of the 43rd Drama International Film Festival reached 700, a number that reveals the dynamics of student film.
22 films from 16 countries were chosen– including 3 Greek films. Of the 22 competing directors, 12 are men, 9 were women, and 1 is gender non-conforming.
They are students from 21 cinema schools around the world, 12 of which are internationally renowned. The festival has secured 7 World premieres, 2 European, 4 Balkan, and 9 Greek.
According to the International Student Competition, Thanassis Noefotistos:
“This year’s program comprises films that inspired us, gave us a very relieving feeling of creative envy, and which we would love to see reach the festival’s audience”.
Among the 700 films we received for the International Student Competition, there were numerous interesting short films, many more than we could choose from. This made our job more difficult, on the one hand, but gave us great joy, on the other, to see commendable film from students who have something to say, and are trying to forge a distinct cinematic voice. We are reassured that as long as there are people like these students, who feel the need to tell their stories, cinema will prevail- even in the most adverse of circumstances”.
