EFA and Filmfest Hamburg Introduce Film Award Presented by European University Students

 
The European Film Academy (EFA) and Filmfest Hamburg are launching the European University Film Award (EUFA) – a new award presented and voted for by university students across Europe. 

The aim of this initiative is to involve a younger audience, to spread the “European idea” and to transport the spirit of European cinema to an audience of university students. It shall also support film dissemination, film education and the culture of debating.

The following 13 universities from 13 European countries will participate in this year’s first EUFA edition:
•    Czech Republic: Charles University/Prague
•    France: Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3
•    Germany: University of Rostock
•    Greece: University of the Aegean/Mytilini (Lesbos)  
•    Hungary: Pázmány Péter Catholic University/Budapest
•    Ireland: Dublin City University
•    Italy: University of Udine
•    Netherlands: Utrecht University
•    Poland: University of Lodz
•    Portugal: University of Lisbon
•    Sweden:  Linnaeus University/Växjö
•    Turkey: Kadir Has University/Istanbul
•    United Kingdom: John Moores University/Liverpool

Based on the lists of 50 feature films and 15 documentaries from the EFA Selections 2016 a committee of film experts will decide on the nominations: five films from five European countries. This year’s committee consists of Feo Aladag (director/Germany), Dagmar Brunow (academic, Linnaeus University/Sweden), Luis Martinez Lopez (journalist, EL MUNDO/Spain), Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (director/Ukraine) and Patrick Sobelman (producer/France).

The announcement of the five EUFA nominations will take place during Filmfest Hamburg on 5 October.
 
Afterwards, the five nominated films will be viewed and discussed in the respective university classes and each institution will select its favourite film. The films will be viewed between 5 October and 5 December exclusively by the students in the participating classes (10 to 15 persons each). The films will be made available via the EFA VOD Platform for this special purpose. 

In early December, one student representative from each university will attend a two-day deliberation meeting. In the moderated debate the students will decide on the overall winner. The announcement of the winning film will take place in the week of the European Film Awards (10 December in Wroclaw/Poland, European Capital of Culture 2016).

The initiative is supported by the Körber Foundation (www.koerber-stiftung.de), The Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S. (www.toepfer-stiftung.de) and Creative Europe Desk Hamburg (www.creative-europe-desk.de) and realised in co-operation with NECS–European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (www.necs.org) and Prix collégial du cinéma québécois (PCCQ) (www.prixcollegialducinema.ca). 

Berlin and Hamburg, 8 September 2016