The 2013|14 Topic of the Year ‘Zukunftsort: EUROPA’ at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, in cooperation with interfilm Berlin, the Deutsche Kinemathek, the Film and Television University ‘Konrad Wolf’ (HFF) Potsdam and filmArche, calls on film-makers throughout Europe to participate by submitting films for the Forum EUROPE: UNLIMITED Competition.
Three prizes will be awarded: 1st Prize 2,500 € / 2nd Prize 1,000 € / 3rd Prize 500 €
The short films submitted should find answers to the question: ‘Is there such a thing as Europe and if so how many?’ All genres are permitted: the short films can reveal points of view on Europe in narrative shorts, animations, documentaries through to experimental film. The films should be no more than three years old and no longer than ca. 15 minutes in length. Closing date for submissions is 31 July 2014.
The selected films will be presented in mid-November 2014 at the two-day Forum EUROPE: UNLIMITED, at which topics of relevance to Europe will be debated between academia and the public sphere. The highpoint of the event is the award ceremony on 14 November 2014. On the online platform www.europe-unlimited.eu some contributions can already be viewed and discussed in advance. The submissions there are not necessarily part of the competition and may not be more than three years old. More information and the competition rules can be found here.
ABOUT EUROPE: UNLIMITED
Europe is more than an institution, an economic and currency union. Europe is a cultural and legal sphere with a definition that shifts depending on who defines it and when, and who is presenting visions of the continent’s future. Europe is thus always the place where Europe is being re-designed – even in the current crises. The fact of Europe’s heterogeneity is often obscured in public perceptions by a unitary narrative of ‘Europe’. But is Europe a real, functioning place, or just a group of places with shared outer borders? What holds Europe together and what drives it apart – where do old solidarities end and new ones form? How can people with very different ideas of life and different cultural and social backgrounds successfully live together?
And how are we experiencing the current crises: as European - anti-European - global?
The Forum EUROPE: UNLIMITED wants to encourage the discovery of new narratives for Europe and to illuminate original wishes for the future. Europe will be given complex expression in the Forum debates between scholars and film-makers discussing around 20 selected films.
THE COMPETITION
is interested in individual points of view. It should not be about academic analyses: rather, the submissions should reveal authentic images of the current mood and describe large, small or just unusual aspects of the diverse forms taken by Europe. We invite film-makers to make their own contribution to fruitful dialogue at the interface between art and academia, one that shakes off conventional thinking about Europe and offers long-lasting inspiration for the future. Counter monotony, and film for diversity!
EUROPE: UNLIMITED is made possible by the generous support of Stiftung Mercator.