Future Shorts Festival will become the first ever global pop-up festival

• From the creators of Secret Cinema
• Anyone Anywhere can set up their own film festival
• Filmmakers, audiences and festival partners come together to create the next generation film festival

Launching in November, the Future Shorts Festival will become the first ever global pop-up festival, showcasing the most exciting short films from around the world. Anyone, anywhere can set up a screening and be part of a massive screening network and a powerful global community.
The festival currently takes place in over 50 cities and 17 countries and comprises a worldwide audience of a half-million people, on and offline. Since 2003, Future Shorts’ defining format showcases a single programme of the best short films from around the world often alongside live music, DJs and art. From London to Moscow, Melbourne to Jakarta, the screenings take place across a huge network of music halls, cinemas, theatres, galleries, clubs and warehouses, providing an alternative to the traditional film festival model.
“The Future Shorts Film festival will unite filmmakers and audiences allowing anyone anywhere to host their own screening and share ideas, creativity and stories from around the world,” says Fabien Riggall Founder and Director, Future Shorts.
Future Shorts breaks boundaries, borders and conventions to connect a global audience to the world’s best short films. Run by the creators of the acclaimed Secret Cinema, Future Shorts has redefined the way we experience film. The festival is a true celebration of cinema as a communicator and community. Even more, Future Shorts Festival is about filmmakers creating a real dialogue with people all over the world moving away from the traditional film festival showcase model.

Kicking off in November, the process to become a part of the Future Shorts Festival will become more accessible for all, on a global-scale. Anyone, anywhere can set up a screening. To find out more, go to www.futureshorts.com/festival
NOVEMBER’S QUARTERLY PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
The next Future Shorts festival programme will screen worldwide from November 1st 2011 to January 31st 2012 as part of the quarterly format. Programme highlights include the Oscar-winner “God of Love”, BAFTA-winning “The Eagleman Stag” and Sundance-winner “Deeper Than Yesterday.”

For more information on the full programme as well as images, go to www.futureshorts.com/festival

For press enquiries please contact:
Emily Burgess / Emily@futureshorts.com / Tel: +44 (0) 207 739 6055
FUTURE SHORTS / SECRET CINEMA / FUTURE CINEMA

NOTES TO EDITORS:
Quarterly Programme (November 1st 2011 – January 31st 2012)
The Eagleman Stag – Dir: Michael Please / UK / 2010

The Eagleman Stag is a unique 9-minute stop-motion animated film that depicts a man’s haunting obsession with the passage of time and his unorthodox relationship with a beetle. Directed by Michael Please, the production was a highly ambition final year film produced while studying at the RCA – it is based on a story he previously wrote entitled “The Life and Time of Peter Eagleman.” Orchestral music was integral to this film and composed in tandem with the animation process.


Winner of Best Short Animation at BAFTA, and Special Jury Prize at SXSW.
View trailer here: http://vimeo.com/13394577
God of Love – Dir: Luke Matheny / US / 2010
Matheny, who wrote, directed and starred in this 19-minute inventive comedy about love-inducing darts won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short in 2011. A recent film student graduate at New York University, God of Love was produced as his thesis film project while enrolled at NYU’s MFA program. At the Oscars, he was hailed as delivering one of the best acceptance speeches of the evening and thanked his mother for her contribution to the movie.

Oscar Winner in 2011 for Best Live Action Short Film.
View trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlQsnMsq_RI

Deeper than Yesterday – Dir: Ariel Kleinman / Australia / 2010

Filmed on an old decommissioned military submarine with 35mm cameras, Deeper Than Yesterday tells the story of a Russian crew who suffer a rather savage form of cabin fever. Directed by Ariel Kleiman, a graduate of the VCA at the University of Melbourne, recently said “The more uncomfortable I feel making a film the better it will be.” Jurors have compared the film to “The Lower Depths,” Maxim Gorky’s best-known play – very Russian with long period of isolation and madness.

Winner of International Short Filmmaking Award at Sundance.
View trailer here: http://www.deeperthanyesterday.com/

Incident By A Bank – Dir: Ruben Ostlund / Sweden / 2009

A detailed and humorous account of a failed bank robbery: A single take where roughly 100 people meticulously recreate an actual event that took place in Stockholm in June 2006. Directed by Ruben Östlund, these events were witnessed first hand along with his producer Erik Hemmendorff while on the way to the Swedish Film Insititute. The film questions the reality of how, really, robberies happen, and what they might or, should, look like. “Making ‘Incident by a Bank’ is a way to correct the false images of robberies we see almost daily in action movies made in Hollywood,” says Östlund.
Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale.
The External World - Dir: David O’Reilly / Germany, Iceland / 2010

A boy learns to play the piano in this rather dark but occasionally humorous mediation on the anxieties and fears of a modern civilized society. Created as a lo-fi animation, The External World is a surreal seventeen-minute collection of vignettes which borrows themes from pop culture, cinema and videogames – classic and contemporary. Some have heralded this short as “a unique reconstruction of the universe” while O’Reilly recently noted in an interview, “I like creating experimental films that have an emotional function.”
Luminaris – Dir: Juan Pablo Zaramella / Argentina / 2011

Inspired by the Argentinian instrumental tango piece entitled “Lluvia de Estrellas” (Star Rain), Luminaris tells the story of a man living in a world controlled by time by light. Each day inhabitants of this fictional world awake and are pulled, as if by some otherworldly force, to their jobs by sunlight. Combining pixilation and stop motion techniques; the surrealist short pairs styles reminiscent of art deco with black cinema. Zaramella explains, "Originally, I approached the project as a puppet animation story, but doing some pixilation tests in the gardens of Fontevraud, just for fun, the seed of the present short was born: the idea of sunlight as a magnetic force.”

Winner of the Audience and Fipresci Award at Annecy 2011 International Animation Festival
To note: For our pro-partner countries (Russia, Finland, Poland, Spain and Australia), there are different terms in place for festival screenings. Please contact festival@futureshorts.com for additional details.

3. ABOUT FUTURE SHORTS
Future Shorts is the largest short film network in the world.
Future Shorts is the world’s most prolific and innovative film organisation, connecting audiences to a global network of film and culture. Working across exhibition, distribution and experiential events, Future Shorts is committed to redefining the ways audiences experience film.
Future Shorts is the product of 8 years of audience development, experimentation and of reacting to the demand for another way of experiencing film. Since 2003 we built a new audience for film across the globe, developed a platform for filmmakers that allows millions of people worldwide to engage with their work.
Operating online, in live events and through commercial distribution, we believe strongly in the social experience of film – in cinema as a communicator and community that should not be restricted by geography, status, wealth, or politics.