Brussels festival showcases new European directors

Every year at the same time, the Brussels Film Festival competes with hot weather while hosting a selection of first and second films from European directors. This year, there are some 60 films being premiered, with free open-air screenings and concerts.

The official competition consists of:

• AWAYDAYS, Pat Holden (UK, 2009, 105')
• LA CASA SULLE NUVOLE, Claudio Giovannesi (Italy, 2008, 96')
• COUNTRY WEDDING, Valdis Oskarsdottir (Iceland, 2008, 95')
• DONNE-MOI LA MAIN, Pascal-Alex Vincent (France, 2009, 80')
• THE HIGHER FORCE, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson (Iceland, 2008, 80')
• IN YOUR VEINS, Beata Garderler (Sweden, 2009, 92')
• JOUEUSE, Caroline Bottaro (France, 2009, 101')
• KATALIN VARGA, Peter Strickland (Romania, 2009, 82')
• MACHAN, Uberto Pasolini (Italy, 2008, 105')
• NORTH, Rune Denstadt Langlo (Norway, 2009, 90')
• SOMEWHERE BETWEEN HERE AND NOW, Olivier Boonjing (Belgium, 2009, 74')
• UNMADE BEDS, Alexis Dos Santos (UK, 2009, 93')
• LA VERGUENZA, David Planell (Spain, 2009, 107')
• WRONG ROSARY, Mahmut Fazil Coskun (Turkey, 2009, 89')

There is also a selection of recent Belgian films, European award-winners and the Cinematek's Age d'Or sidebar featuring recent world cinema releases.

Amongst the events are talks by the various directors, and Eliot Grove presenting his No-to-Lo Budget Film-making Masterclass.

Check out the full programme here.

L'Aquila movie festival to go ahead

Despite the huge damage caused by the recent earthquake there, the Italian town of L'Aquila has decided to go ahead with its annual festival. This third edition has been made possible by the support of hte festival of Salerno. The competition is open to short, medium and feature films, with a deadline on July 15, 2009.

For details, visit Idea de Cleves.

ScriptBase launches European script competition

ScriptBase, the online screenwriting community that was set up by writers from the Fade In group in Hungary, is launching a free online screenwriting competition. The site acts basically as a writers' group, with people reading and commenting on each others' work. As they are now adding a rating system, they are also starting a competition with a €1,000 prize. The basic idea is simple: post your project, get people to read it and hope that it gets a great rating. ScriptBase and Fade In are both writer-driven initiatives.

A quick glance revealed a strong number of entrants from Eastern Europe - which has a vibrant writing scene for the moment. If you have sometimes wondered who could read your script and give some sort of feedback, ScriptBase is definitely worth checking. I my opinion, the prize money is like icing on someone's cake.

For full details, check ScriptBase.

Stephen Fry: UK TV writers "treated like dirt"

Celebrated British actor and writer Stephen Fry has spoken out against the British TV production system, claiming the writers are "treated like dirt". He particularly points to the fact that writers are generally dispossessed of their work when production starts. In a report in The Stage, he is quoted as saying, “Occasionally, if there’s a good relationship, a writer can come and visit the set, but their job - if they know anything about the etiquette of a set - is to sit very quietly in a corner and is certainly not to talk to an actor about anything but gossip and it is certainly not to talk about the part [they have written], because that undermines the relationship of the actor and director,” he said.

In addition to his high-profile acting, Fry has written for TV and is the writer of "Bright Young Things". For the full story, visit The Stage.

Screenwriting conference in Dublin in June

The Jameson Dublin Film Festival is organising a major scriptwriting conference in June, that will bring together four very different writers: Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), Shane Meadows and Paul Fraser (A Room for Romeo Brass, SomersTown), Eran Kolirin (The Band's Visit) and Conor McPherson (The Eclipse). Other guests are planned. Dates June 4 & 5. "Give Me Direction" will be an opportunity to champion great and original writing for the screen and to deepen the Irish Film Board’s engagement in addressing industry concerns. The conference will follow an informal, mixed format of sessions and interviews: plus a rehearsed read-through and a preview screening.

For more details, visit the JDIFF.

La Palme dort!

Brilliant headline from France's "Scénaristes" magazine: "La palme dort". Translated, it means "The Palm is sleeping". Sub-headline: "The world's biggest film festival continues to marginalise scriptwriters. How about a change?"

An example? It's probably worth remembering that last year the scriptwriters of France's biggest hit (by far), "Bienvenu chez les Ch'tis/Welcome to the Sticks", were not invited to attend the screening at Cannes. No room on the list, apparently. Cannes is basically a celebration of the cult of the director-as-author, to the point where the actual writers drop off the map. I'm not sure if Scénaristes can change that. But the French writers' union UGS that publish the magazine are very active at Cannes, organising a script market tied with breakfast meetings with producers and directors, as well as a "white night" - definitely worth checking at Cannes. Check here for details. Way to go.

"John Rabe" picks up Germany's Lola Award

Director/writer Florian Gallenberger's "John Rabe" picked up the awards for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design at Germany's Lola Awards last Friday. "John Rabe" is being hailed as "China's Schindler", as it tells the tale of a German manager of Siemens that tries to save Chinese civilians during the Japanese invasion of Shanghai during the Second World War.

Özgür Yildirim’s "Chiko" picked up the Best Screenplay Award.

Complete list of winners:
Golden Lola for Best Film: John Rabe by Florian Gallenberger
Silver Lola for Best Film: A Year Ago In Winter by Caroline Link
Bronze Lola for Best Film: Cloud 9 by Andreas Dresen
Best Documentary: Nobody's Perfect by Niko von Glasow
Best Children’s Film: Nothing Else Matters by Julia von Heinz
Best Screenplay: Özgür Yildirim for Chiko
Best Director: Andreas Dresen for Cloud 9
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Ursula Werner in Cloud 9
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Ulrich Tukur in John Rabe
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Sophie Rois in The Architect
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Andreas Schmidt in Fleisch ist mein Gemüse
Best Cinematography: Kolja Brandt for North Face
Best Editing: Sebastian Thümler for Chiko
Best Production Design: Tu Ju Hua for John Rabe
Best Costume Design: Lisy Christl for John Rabe
Best Score: Niki Reiser for A Year Ago In Winter Best Sound: Christian Bischoff, Tschangis Chahrokh, Heinz Ebner and Guido Zettier for North Face

Pirate Bay: a writer's perspective

The Pirate Bay ruling has unleashed a lot of emotion on the web. It's interesting that the discussions have centred on movies rather than music this time. Coming from the music biz, I can safely say to the movie businesses: "you ain't seen nothing yet" in terms of piracy. For creators, trying to find justifications for Pirate Bay is a very dangerous game to play for - in my opinion - two major reasons. 1) it promotes piracy on a very, very large scale indeed, and 2) by centralising free content it also blocks any of the other initiatives that creators might try and put in place.

Let me explain: the one big lesson people are not taking from the music debacle is that creators need to connect directly with their audiences. This is even more important to me than individual distribution. We have to build and nurture audiences so that they are available to us, rather than third-party sites. The good news for people that like it is that giving stuff away is going to be a major part of the new biz anyway. But WE have to be giving it away to OUR audiences. The freebies have to be part of OUR strategy, not Pirate Bay's or YouTube's. People have to come to OUR sites, and be exposed to OUR goodies, T-shirts, Director's Cuts, downloadable scripts, public appearances and OUR ads. Otherwise we will never be able to control our futures.

By giving everything away both YouTube and Pirate Bay short-circuit our ability to build audiences as they hold onto both the visitor data and the advertising revenue, leaving us the crumbs from our own table.

Most people I know are aware that people spend money to create music and movies, and are willing to participate in one way or another. Personally, I like visiting the sites of writers and directors, reading their comments and occasionally buying their books, movies or whatever. But both Pirate Bay and YouTube increase the distance between the creator and the spectator, which is why I think they both should be treated with caution.

All the rest about freedom, copyrights and the end of the world as we know it is editorial chatter.