SFF-rated ATHENS

32 shorts competed this year for the Audience Award for Best Short. As in the previous years, the Audience was asked to answer the question “Would you watch this film for a second time?”

19 shorts out of the 32 got a “yes” answer 50% or more -keeping stable the percentage of films exceeding the half-empty/half-full threshold compared to 2009.

And the Award remained in Spain.

The short film that scored the highest percentage, an impressive 90%, and the Winner of the 2010 Audience Award for Best Short is

“El Nunca Lo haria” (He’d Never Do That), Spain, by director Anartz Zuazua.

It is Zuazua’s first film as a director! What does he have to say to the Greek Audience?

<<I’m very happy for the award, and I would like to thank  the festival for giving me the possibility to show my short film there. I would like to thank the audience also for the award they conceded me. It’ s my first short film as a director and it’s really important to receive this award, because I understand cinema as something made for the audience>>.

Anartz Zuazua

Well, then you should have been there Anartz, to see how irresistible your short was -a short dealing with the delicate issue of how societies treat people of old age, in a totally unexpected, in-your-face way but also with a redeeming humor that permitted the audience, not to laugh away the issue but to let it sink in in a tolerable manner.

2nd in the Competition Section was “Corporate” (Italy) by Valentina Bertuzzi, a short taking to its logical conclusion all the “Help” devices we gradually accep into our life – what if emotional and psychological advice came no longer from friends or certified doctors, but from AI machines speaking to us through our bluetooth earplug?

3d in popularity was, again, a short from Spain. “Maquetas” (Miniatures) by Carlos Vermut, was a short-short of 4 minutes, with a wow! idea: interviewing emotionally struggling survivors of vintage “Japanese & co” monsters’ attacks! It was also the short for which many members of the audience felt compelled to single out in the “comments” section of the questionnaire.

I seems that this year the Mediterranean Connection was very strong, while Continental Europe appeared more strongly too, if one looks at the full list of the 19 Competition Shorts that persuaded the SFF-rated 2010 audience to dedicate to them more of their time (in order):