FAMUFEST s3tk8ní opening now: Vršovice’s Kino Pilotů will come alive with students’ works
The 38th edition of FAMUFEST will start in Prague’s Vršovice quarter this Wednesday. From 30 March to 3 April, the student film festival will showcase more than 62 films, and not only by students. Visitors interested in genres other than film will also find a lot to like. The festival team from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague has prepared an exhibition, lectures, workshops, concerts, staged reading and much more to experience.
Kino Pilotů will screen films made by FAMU students. The dramaturges have structured 62 films into nine sections based on shared topics. As a result, visitors can see sections titled Gin & Tonic, Dog & Cat, Home & Alone and more. A true specialty, the Beer with Béla section will present students’ films created during the autumn mentoring programme guided by Hungarian director Béla Tarr. Viewers should not miss Famu versus La Fémis, a section of student films from France’s prestigious La Fémis school whose authors will be present at the festival. Young German director Leonie Krippendorff will visit the festival to introduce her own Looping. Other festival guests will be Europe’s leading film producers, Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska with films such as Ada and Šarlatán under her belt, and Dyveke Graver whose latest production, The Worst Person in the World was nominated for the Oscar. They will describe various approaches to European co-productions in a discussion.
The Vzlet culture centre will host workshops, staged reading, a part of the exhibition and the closing ceremony. On Saturday, the local café will host staged reading from the fragments of the script of the unfinished sequel to the cult classic Daisies co-written by Věra Chytilová and Ester Krumbachová in 1990. Taking place for the third time as part of FAMUFEST this year, KinoKabaret will introduce the works of students from the Department of Scriptwriting and Dramaturgy in the form of staged reading and performances.
Svět HUB will turn into an industry hub on Friday and Saturday. It will host a total of eight debates and lectures not only from the audiovisual world. Topics range from pitching of Production students’ master projects to the Ne!musíš to vydržet (You Don’t Have to Endure It) lecture on appropriate conduct (not only) on academic soil to a debate on Teaching Game Design across Schools. A lecture titled Czech Sound in International Films will answer the question of quality of the Czech post-production facilities and the talent of the local sound designers. The discussion titled Your Podcast in a Sea of Podcasts will educate visitors on the emerging podcast genres and how the auditive plane influences the listeners’ experience. A lecture titled Canon: A Photographer’s Workflow will offer a peek behind the scenes of pro photography, from communication with the client to handing the job over and billing. The panel discussion Music Block: Want to Score Film Music? will enlighten visitors on the specific aspects of scoring music for student films. The practical workshop on How to Care for Your Mental Health? will offer tips for dealing with mental stress not only in the film industry.
Although the event is primarily a film festival, music fans will find a lot to look forward to as well. Café V Lese will offer indie, synth-pop, electronica, rap and techno over the course of three nights. demowave, Metastavy and Gondor Flames will perform on night one. Underground electronica artists Expand Collapse & Aras, Oliver Torr, Evil Medvěd and Freddie Hudson will take the stage on Thursday. On Friday, the club will host Méta Monde, a duo that won the Radio Wave Startér competition in 2021, Good Times Only and Mutanti Hledaj Východisko. The music programme will climax at Ankali and Planeta Za on Saturday with performances delivered by Lotus Wash, Amphibian Records, Malachi Constant and more. Bad Flash Bar will function as the primary meeting point where visitors can refresh themselves with a special festival beer and create their own festival merch. Bad Flash and the windows of other cafés and shops near Krymská Street will also offer space or an exhibition of photographs and art objects by FAMU students.
The full programme is available at www.famufest.cz. Accreditations are available now through GoOut. Czech TV is the main media partner to FAMUFEST.
The festival is organised with the financial support from the Czech Film Fund, the City of Prague, Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.
About FAMUFEST: www.famufest.cz
FAMUFEST is a student film festival with many years of tradition at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Thousands of viewers visit it every year to use a unique opportunity to meet the up-and-coming generation of audiovisual artists who will go on to shape the cultural environment in the Czech Republic and beyond.
For more information, please contact Matyáš Melíšek, mobile: 606 794 003, e-mail: pr@famufest.cz