Betting on Shorts (BoSs) is an annual shortfilm festival which brings together cutting-edge venues (such as the ICA in London, the Point Ephémère in Paris or KIBLA Multimedia Centre in Maribor) and filmfestivals (such as exground in Wiesbaden and l'Alternativa in Barcelona) across and beyond Europe in a unique shortfilm competition with a simultaneous screening: "More than a Eurovision of Shortfilm".
Each year a themed open call for submissions is posted worldwide. 10 - 15 shorts of any genre (but under 10 minutes) are selected to take part in the competition, which is screened simultaneously in all participating cities. A local winner is chosen by a jury of critics, curators and other film professionals in each city. Once all juries have compared their results the overall winner is awarded glory, fame and cash. So the audience can have some fun as well, we invite everyone to bet on which film will win. Bets must be placed before the screening. But no worries: trailers of all participating films are screened in all participating venues and on the website a week in advance of the competition. Those who have placed their bet[1] well, can win cinema tickets, dvds, books and the like.
[1] To sidestep the issue of a betting licence no money can be bet. It is more like a game than a gamble: The audience will simply be asked to fill in a form with their name and the title of the film they believe to win.
Betting on Shorts: More than a Eurovision of Shortfilm 2009
Call for Submissions
Submission deadline: 1 July 2009
The festival will take place on 14 Nov 2009 simultaneously in Athens, Barcelona, Bucharest, Maribor, Novi Sad, Naples, Istanbul, London, Poznan, Stockholm, Thessaloniki, Wiesbaden and other cities in Europe and beyond.
Awards: Special European Jury Prize + Various Local Jury Prizes
We would like to invite filmmakers from around the world to submit short films (animation, music video, artist films, narrative, documentary etc.) up to 10 minutes on the theme ‘Control'.
Have you ever thought of your life as a walk on a tight-rope suspended between control and its loss? Keep walking, don't waver, don't lose your grip! Or just let go and savour the moments of weightlessness! Control has many shapes and measures. It can be mental, political, physical, social, scientific, strict, loose or something completely different. You might think about control theory, risk and stress control, mastery and skill, borders, surveillance and mind control, birth and pest control, Control panels, Ctrl Alt Delete, or just the remote control lying on your couch. We look forward to unexpected or surprising takes on the theme, but please don't lose control of time - we can't accept anything over 10 minutes! Well, yes we must admit...we are control freaks!
Entry Procedure: Please submit an electronic entry form available on our website http://www.bettingonshorts.com/. The entry form with all required information must also be printed out and sent with a DVD (PAL) preview copy. Your submission (film and entry form) should reach us by 1 July 2009. For preview only DVD copies will be accepted.
Subtitling: All films (including English films) must be subtitled in English. If your film is chosen for the BoSs 2009 programme we will require a dialogue transcript for subtitling in other languages (a spotting list would be ideal).
Please also note that we can only accept one film per director.
Dispatch Costs: Filmmakers are responsible for the costs of sending the preview copy and should the film be selected, also the screening copy. Preview copies can only be returned if you provide a self-addressed and stamped envelope.
Betting on Shorts is run by Ricarda Vidal, Irini Marinaki, Konstantinos Stefanis and Sarah Sparkes.
(dearvidal@yahoo.com)
