We had a post festival catch-up with Regina Mosch, Co-Director of Copenhagen Web Fest and Member of our Shorts Jury for 2019!
Seemingly endless creativity and drive to express whatever it is that moves you — that’s what I was reminded of during my days as a guest at this year’s EIFF. Together with Moyo Akandé and Tara Karajica, I had the honour to sit on this year’s shorts jury and also hosted an event on webseries from Spain as part of EIFF’s Spanish strand.
The 35 short films in competition that we got to see were all equally striking. From 16mm experimental film to Scottish fiction, from touching animations to innovative documentary – I couldn’t say that there was a film that didn’t spark new thoughts in me. It is a true privilege to be invited to a filmmaker’s vision and to how she or he experiences the world. Judging on who does that best is without doubt a challenging task, but allows a jury to have the most enjoyable and passionate discussions over what we love. And even though we were all touched and impressed the most by Anca Damian’s THE CALL, all of the 35 films deserve their own round of applause. Weaving our way through the films, the juries also had plenty opportunities to meet and mingle over lunch, dinner and receptions, not to forget while swirling and sweating at the Ceilidh. I don’t want to cut short the praises of Scottish hospitality and generosity, which in my humble opinion is what makes this festival outstanding.
Our event LOSERS, WEREWOLVES, MURDERERS – SPANISH WEB IN THE CINEMA brought together the pure playfulness and thrill of filmmaking with fresh perspectives on the digital sphere. It was a curious twist to screen those 6 series’, which are usually at home in the web, on the big screen, but showed that moving between formats is nothing new nowadays. We were joined by two of the filmmakers: Rose of Dolls and Ana Ramón Rubio, who allowed us to peek into what it means to make and distribute webseries in today’s film landscape. Webseries is a medium that perhaps is quickly looked at as something very underground, low-budget or as something merely used as a portfolio-piece to get into the ‘real‘ world. But a lot has happened over the past years: rising production values, countries investing public funding into the format, and established filmmakers deliberately choosing the medium over TV. The diversity that comes with the freedom of creating something for the web makes them all the more relevant. So, as our engaged audience of all ages confirmed, fun and good laughs don’t exclude profound discussions about the future of film.
The 2nd Copehagen Web Fest will be held from September 20th - 22nd 2019, with submissions now open for 2020.