Filminute Jury

an array of uniquely strong characters whose heartfelt and transformative journeys have touched audiences around the world and influenced the course of Turkish cinema for the last twenty years.

Pelin’s 2005 documentary film ‘The Play won the top directing award at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film, which follows a band of peasant women from a small mountain village in southern Turkey as they embark on a surprising theatrical journey, went on to win numerous other global awards and praise, including from Time/CNN who called it, ‘A joyous celebration of the strength that comes with finding your voice.”

Fourteen years later, Pelin revisited the same women in her film Queen Lear (2019) a powerful retelling of the classic that played in more than 30 festivals worldwide and which powerfully conveyed how much the theatre experience had empowered and transformed these women’s lives.

In between these two landmark documentary films, Pelin made three beautiful and deeply moving fiction films, all of which screened at leading festivals around the world and won a variety of top awards: 10-11 (2009), a fictional follow-up to her 2002 documentary ‘The Collector;’ Watchtower (2012), which premiered in Toronto and Rotterdam; and Something Useful (2017) which won the FIPRESCI prize at the 2017 Istanbul Festival, where it was praised as “a film that is as enjoyable as it is poetic and thought provoking, a rich, unique and useful work of art.”

As the world moves inexorably to acknowledge and celebrate more diverse points of view, the films of Pelin Esmer take on increased importance and relevance.

Turkey’s presence and success at Filminute has grown in recent years thanks to Turkish film professor Feride Çiçekoğlu who not only has introduced us to Pelin, but is herself responsible for inspiring four films that have made previous Filminute shortlists. Thank you, Feride, and welcome Pelin!

Born in Okinawa of Chinese, Ryukyuan and Australian descent, Ann Marie is well known for her 2016 animated feature film Window Horses which is voiced and co-produced by Canadian actress and Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh. The film won top awards at festivals worldwide including Best Animated Feature Film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, the Jury Prize at the Bucheon International Film Festival, and Best Picture as awarded by the Canadian Association of Online Film Critics. The film, about a young Canadian poet discovering her family history, is notable as well for having been successfully crowdfunded on Indiegogo with contributions coming from more than 700 contributors in 28 countries.

Ann Marie is also known for the award-winning graphic novels she has written (and that accompany a number of her films), her graduate film advisor work at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, her role as Artist in residence at the University of British Columbia, and for co-founding Global Mechanic, an animation/film/design production house in Vancouver, Canada.

Filminute fans will be especially thrilled to discover that Ann Marie is “a big fan of the very short form.” Of the more than 30 films she’s directed, many fall into this category, and, like her other films, feature a delightful mix of dialogue, animation and whimsy all around the themes of family, history and memory.

Here we have chosen three that we think you will particularly like, including two from her early days featuring her iconic avatar and muse, Stick Girl:

 ‘So Far So…’ (1992) Stick girl’s origin story.

 ‘I Love My Work’ (1994) Stick girl wants to get to work but life keeps getting in the way.

‘I Won‘ (2010) Animated version of a disturbing childhood story

 TBD (to be chosen by Ann Marie (another short)     

Rarely have we had the pleasure of welcoming a juror so at home in both feature length and ultra short films, or with such a diverse and interesting background as Ann Marie Fleming. Welcome Ann Marie!

magazine where he’s covered the film sector in Central and Eastern Europe for the past 20 years.
Born in Arizona, Will began his career working in the early 90’s as a California crime reporter before relocating to the Czech Republic in 1994. He has thrived there ever since as not only a film chronicler but also as an arts, travel and business writer for a number of publications including Time Out, National Geographic, Louis Vuitton, and the Sunday Times.

Will also teaches screenwriting at Prague Film School, is a journalism and media production lecturer in the CEE, as well as an actor and documentarian with two new feature documentary projects in development. “The brilliant thing about picking up a camera and heading out is that whatever you think you know about your subjects you will discover immediately that you know almost nothing. Keeping yourself open to that is where the true gold lies.” Will Tizard IMDB.

Since first meeting Will at the Transylvanian Film Festival in 2009, we have enjoyed both the enthusiastic support and encouragement he’s shown for Filminute, as well as his many contributions to the world of independent film and culture in CEE. We eagerly look forward to his take on this year’s collection. Great to finally have you on the jury, Will!

As a FIPRESCI member and juror, Rwita has served on the jury at leading festivals worldwide including Cannes, Pusan, Cairo and Ukraine. Rwita’s jurying experience also extends to short film festivals including the South Asian Short and Documentary Film Festival (2020).

In addition to jury work, Rwita edits the international film journal Filmbuff and regularly contributes to various national and international journals. She is also a professor of Political Science at the University of Calcutta where she is writing her PhD on Bengali Cinema and Calcutta City (1947 – 1977).

This is our 14th year of collaboration between Filminute and FIPRESCI. Thank you FIPRESCI for all the amazing work you do for the promotion and development of film culture. Great to have you, Rwita!

 

technology innovations and teams in over a dozen countries.

Sabaa is also the co-founder of Wealthie Works Daily, a media + fintech venture that will soon initiate the opening of investment accounts for kids. Wealthie’s patent-pending media and distribution technology was directly inspired by the short format content marketing success of Filminute. 

the past decade, has built a worldwide community of indie filmmakers and creative producers with whom he is now joining forces with to expand the initiative’s reach and support of both independent film and independent filmmakers.

“We’ve seen and experienced how the pandemic has impacted the film industry and filmmakers worldwide. While the initial impact was devastating for many — creatively and financially — we now see strong signs of recovery. As well, there’s also been an acceleration into a more democratized, digital-friendly future. The films in this year’s collection feel like proof of that change and what’s possible.”