6. Contact Uluslararası Öğrenci Filmleri Festivali

21 - 25 Ekim 2019

Düzenleyen
Yaşar Üniversitesi
Üniversite Caddesi, No:35-37, Ağaçlı Yol, Bornova, İzmir PK. 35100
contact-isff @ yasar.edu.tr
contact-isff.yasar.edu.tr







Ödüller

En İyi Film Ödülü
Invisible Women / 2018 / Pablo Cruz Villalba / 00:17:00

En İyi Görüntü Ödülü
Daughter / 2019 / Daria Kashcheeva / 00:14:00

Böcek Yapım Ödülü
Memtevri (Yaylacı) (Transhumant) / 2019 / Belgesel / Fatih Ertekin / 00:22:27

Sen-Edit En İyi Senaryo Ödülü
Airship of Unknown Direction / 2018 / Alexandra Galitskova / 00:05:00

Öğrenci Jürisi Ödülü
Invisible Women / 2018 / Pablo Cruz Villalba / 00:17:00



Finalist Filmler

A Moment of Love / 2018 / Julian Rachev / 00:29:00
A Sail on the Shore / 2019 / Murat Can Yağbasan / 00:14:00
Airship of Unknown Direction / 2018 / Alexandra Galitskova / 00:05:00
Biotope / 2018 / Paul Scholten / 00:10:00
Daughter / 2019 / Daria Kashcheeva / 00:14:00
Dhacka / 2018 / Devik Rathod / 00:15:00
Eavesdropper / 2019 / Ahmet Toğaç / 00:22:00
I See in the Dark / 2019 / Lana Bregar / 00:16:00
Invisible Women / 2018 / Pablo Cruz Villalba / 00:17:00
Terror / 2018 / Yonatan Shehoah / 00:16:00
The School Bus / 2019 / Ramazan Kılıç / 00:13:00
Memtevri (Yaylacı) (Transhumant) / 2019 / Belgesel / Fatih Ertekin / 00:22:27
Wild Cab / 2019 / Elisa Gómez Alvarez, Paul Choquet, Olivia Frey, Moustapha Guèye, Yoro Mbaye, Tianze Song / 00:17:00







Program

	Monday 21	Tuesday 22	Wednesday 23	Thursday 24	Friday 25
10.30-11.30	COMPETITION Films competition A	SEMINAR Eva Steegmayer Strategies for submitting your film to festivals	MASTERCLASS Thomas Lauterbach Proximity and distance: from interview to conversation.	COMPETITION Films competition A Q&A Session	SEMINAR Gül Dönmez The shoot is over. Is it really time to take a break?
11.45-12.45	SCREENING Films selection O	SCREENING VSMU University		SCREENING Films competition B Q&A Session	SEMINAR Bora Egemen The craft of directing
14.00-15.00	COMPETITION Films competition B	COMPETITION Films competition C	SCREENING Films selection W	COMPETITION Films selection C Q&A Session	SCREENING Films selection Y Yasar University (Izmir, Turkey)
15.15-16.15		COMPETITION Films selection D		COMPETITION Films competition D Q&A Session	COMPETITION Films selection D
17.00	OPENING CEREMONY*
19.00					AWARD CEREMONY*

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

After careful consideration our programming team have nominated the following 13 finalists in the 2019 international student film competition:


Terror
Yonatan Shehoah
Maaleh School of Film and Television
Israel, 2018
16.00

Dan, 45, is a Jerusalem supermarket employee who suffers from ptsd after being caught up in a terrorist attack.
On a day in which multiple attacks hit Jerusalem once again, Dan is asked to serve at the meat counter alongside an Arab co-worker. As more and more fatalities are reported on the news, Dan tries desperately to reach his wife who was shopping in the area of one of the attacks, but without success. Dan’s fear and panic result in severe consequences for himself and for others.

Yonatan Shehoah was born and raised in Mexico City. From 2013 to 2017, he studied directing and cinematography at the Maaleh School of Film and Television in Israel, graduating in 2018. Terror is his graduation film. Shehoah was also the director of photography for five of his fellow students’ films.

I See in the Dark
Lana Bregar
Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television
Slovenia, 2019
16.00

We follow three individuals who have lost their sight. Their intimate narra¬tive takes the viewer on a journey to their world and feelings about their loss of vision.

Lana Bregar (1998) finished Secondary School for Design and Photography Ljubljana, studying Photography as her main course of studies. She ex¬pressed her enthusiasm for photogra¬phy at the time of Secondary School, but her desire to connect stories into a more unified whole has brought her to cinema. In Secondary School, she shot her first movies, with some of them being awarded at festivals. She continues her education at Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, studying Film and Television Directing.

Airship of Unknown Direction
Alexandra Galitskova
VGIK Russian State University of Cinematography
Russia, 2018
5.00

This story is about Rain, who wants to learn how to fly. Rain was walking on the ground. Suddenly he saw the serene airships in the sky. And the rain had a dream. He dreams of floating in the sky with them too. This is a story about a poet who gives himself to everyone.

Born in Moscow in 1990. Attended the Art School 548 between 2004 - 2007. Between 2009 - 2013 she worked as an artist in BUKA entertainment company. She has been a VGIK student between 2013 and 2018. She has been working as an animator at the studio SOUZMULTFILM since 2019.

The School Bus
Ramazan Kılıç
İstanbul Şehir University
Turkey, 2019
13.00

Nebahat, a teacher in her 20s, has just been appointed to a rural village school in Anatolia. She realizes that her students are struggling to arrive at school, hitchhiking tractors, using whatever means they can find. She asks the Ministry of Education for a shuttle, but without a driver, the vehicle is useless. So, she decides to be the bus driver for her students but she does not know how to drive!

Ramazan Kılıç, who was born in Ağrı in 1993, studies Cinema-Tv at İstanbul Şehir University. His first short film Penaber was awarded the first prize at the 29th Aydın Doğan Foundation Young Communicator Competition and it was awarded the second prize at Sabancı Foundation Short Film Competition. The film has many additional awards at national and international festivals. The School Bus is his fourth short film and he is currently pursuing his career as a screenwriter and director.

Transhumant
Fatih Ertekin
Çanakkale 18 Mart University
Turkey, 2019
22.00

The documentary film focuses on the culture of transhumance (herding in mountainous pastures) kept alive for centuries by Georgians living in Şavşat’s İmerhev region. Using Cancir plateau’s cultural and aesthetical aspects as a backdrop, the documen¬tary follows the lives of transhumant women, who live in Cancir plateau for 2 months, through the story of Heva.

He was born on July 28, 1995, in Artvin. Due to his interest in docu¬mentary film, he enrolled in Radio, Cinema and Television department at Çanakkale On Sekiz Mart University in 2013, and in 2016, he launched his first documentary film project, Clouds Behind. He continues to work on documentary films.

Dhacka
Devik Rathod
Whistling Woods International
India, 2018
15.00

Lata, a 50-year-old woman, is the string that holds her family together. Lata’s husband and her son are always at loggerheads with each other, while her daughter is completely detached from everyone. The family is on their way to attend a wedding. Due to their internal clashes, they lose their way, forcing Lata to take control. After her failed attempts to drive the car herself, she makes her daughter drive while enjoying this newfound power. Losing the way even further, their fight escalates.

Hailing from Gujarat, Devik Rathod studied Civil Engineering. However, the world of cinema had always fascinated him from a young age. Determined to learn filmmaking, he let the internet become his teacher and made several short films, sketches, and advertisements with the members of a film club co-founded by him in college. Having his loyalties set straight, he pursued a Diploma course in Filmmaking at Whistling Woods International which gave him his desired platform. Devik is currently working as a freelance writer-director and aspires to work on a feature film in the near future.

A Sail on the Shore
Murat Can Yağbasan
Dokuz Eylül University
Turkey, 2019
14.00

It’s the 15th century. Fights for the throne have been going on for years, weakening the Ottoman Empire and abandoning its people to their fate. Students of Sheikh Bedreddin, Börklüce Mustafa and Torlak Kemal rebel so that they can build a new order that would eradi¬cate poverty in their region. To quell the resistance, the Sultan sends his son Murat to the region.

Born in 1995 in İzmir, he studied graphic design in high-school. During that time, he published a humor mag¬azine with his friends. While creating comic strips, he got interested in Animation design. He enrolled in Do¬kuz Eylül University’s Animation Film Design and Directing department. He produced graphic novel projects and he still continues to do so.

Invisible Women
Pablo Cruz Villalba
Escuela Superior de Cine
Mexico, 2018
17.00

Hipolita works in Samuel’s house. Her growing class-consciousness and the invasion of her privacy lead Hipolita to take control of her work and her life.

Pablo Cruz Villalba (Mexico City, 1992) studied Philosophy at UNAM and Cinematography at ESCINE. He produced and directed Invisible Women. The short film premiered at the 16th International Morelia Film Festival, it won at the 5th Campeche Film Festival and was presented at more than fifteen national and international festivals.

Biotope
Paul Scholten
University of Television and Film Munich
Germany, 2018
10.00

Life in Neuperlach, a Munich suburb, is quaint. It is a safe neighborhood, where people know and always greet each other. Everybody has his own backyard; single car garages are lining the narrow footpaths and everything is groomed. But for some time now that peace¬fulness has been a troubled one be¬cause refugees are supposed to move in next door. As some of the residents are afraid of the noise they are sure the foreigners are going to make, they are putting up a noise protection wall. Biotope shows the life of the locals and gets to the bottom of the reason for building that wall.

Paul Scholten was born in 1996 in south Germany. He started film¬making when he was 17 years old. His films were screened at various international festivals. Since 2017, he has been studying at the University for Film and Television Munich in the field of documentary film.

A Moment of Love
Julian Rachev
National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts
Bulgaria, 2018
29.00

Magda and Kalin are deeply in love, but their time together is too short. This relationship creates conflicts at home between Magda and her hus¬band, Ivailo. They love their son Joan very much. Magda is under excessive pressure and she has to make a decision. The pain is inevitable.

Born on July 15, 1984, in Ruse, Bulgar¬ia, Julian Rachev is a director, writer, editor, and actor. He studied acting in theatre college Luben Grois 2005 - 2008. He has more than 20 roles as an actor in television and cinema. In 2018 he graduated from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts, NATFA. He has around 40 shows as a director on the most-watched tv show on Saturday night in Bulgaria - The Show Of The Channel. He was the director of 25 fiction and documen¬tary short films and 10 music videos. Editor of more than 50 documentary short films. Creator of over 100 videos and commercials.

Eavesdropper
Ahmet Toğaç
Okan University
Turkey, 2019
22.00

Working at the old switchboard of a company about to move to a big cen¬tral hub and waiting for his transfer, Selamet spends his days listening to the phone calls of strangers. With no activity in his life aside from solving Sudoku puzzles, Selamet discovers that he feels a growing intimacy towards a stranger on the phone and attempts to imitate the life of that stranger.

Ahmet Toğaç was born in Erzurum in 1995. He graduated from İstanbul Okan University Cinema and Televi¬sion Department in 2019. He wrote for Film Arası Magazine and various web sites such as Sinema Mynet. He currently writes for the 82Ekran web magazine, as one of the founders, and he works for the Center for Turkish Cinema Studies. His first film Eavesdropper (Kulak Misafiri) is his graduation project.

Daughter
Daria Kashcheeva
FAMU
Czech Republic
14.00

In a hospital room, the Daughter recalls a childhood moment when as a little girl she tried to share her experience with her Father about an injured bird. A moment of misun¬derstanding and a lost embrace has stretched into many years all the way to this hospital room.

Daria Kashcheeva studies animated film at FAMU in Prague. Her student films featured at many international festivals. Daria’s original To Accept won the Nespresso Talents 2017 film competition in Cannes. In Daughter, her Bachelor’s puppet animation, Daria experiments with camera motion and explores the topic of a father-daughter relationship. The project was pitched within the CEE Animation Forum 2018. The film has a premiere at Annecy Animation Film Festival and got Cristal for the Best Student film and Young Jury award in the Student film section. Daughter has been nominated for the Student Academy Award in the category Animation (International Film Schools).

Wild Cab
Elisa Gómez Alvarez, Paul Choquet, Olivia Frey, Moustapha Guèye, Yoro Mbaye, Tianze Song
Ecole Cantonale D’Art de Lausanne
Switzerland, 2019
17.00

Dakar, district of Pikine. Yadou is a clandestine cab driver. Diégui is a schoolgirl. Today, she is late for class. She negotiates a fee for a ride and hops on Yadou’s taxi. It might have been the wrong choice: the wild cab is slow as molasses. Rolling through the city, Yadou and Diégui bond while facing the urban transformation of Pikine. This encounter will stay on Yadou’s mind for the rest of the day.

Coming from various geographies and backgrounds, Elisa Gómez Alvarez, Paul Choquet, Olivia Frey, Moustapha Guèye, Yoro Mbaye, and Tianze Song all met in École cantonale d’art de Lausanne and produced their first short film together, Wild Cab.








Guest School

Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
(Ludwigsburg, Germany)

FaBaden-Württemberg

Since it was founded in 1991, the Filmakad¬emie Baden-Württemberg has become one of the world’s leading film academies. The project-oriented “learning by doing” concept has greatly contributed to this. The students are taught and mentored by highly-qualified experts from the film and media industries. The overriding objective of the program is to prepare the 480 students of the academy in the best possible way for a successful career in the film and media industries.

About 250 films of all genres and formats are produced every year by teams of students enrolled in the subject areas advertising film, animation, cinematography, documentary film, editing, fiction film, film music, sound design, interactive media, motion design, production, production design, screenwriting, and TV journalism.

Since 2002 the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg has also been home to the Animation Institute which has since become one of the world’s leading institutions in the fields of animation, VFX and interactive media.

The Filmakademie’s appeal is further enhanced by the postgraduate program Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris and the neighboring partner school Academy of Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg, resulting in several interdisciplinary collaborations.











Blind Audition Andreas Kessler Germany 2017 18’









Dear guests and participants,
I sincerely welcome you to our 6th Contact International Student Film Festival. Yaşar University is proud of hosting you all in Izmir for this wonderful international art event. This Festival is designed and organized by our University’s Faculty of Communication.
The main objective of the Festival is to create a challenging international art atmosphere for our students. Internationalization is one of the main strategic pillars of our university’s philosophy. I am sure that Contact will to contribute to this strategy. Contact has already become a six-year matured festival with ever growing participation. We are proud of organizing it this year again. This year, we have 2943 applicants from all over the world and 13 films are selected for the Final competition from the participants of Russian Federation, Germany, Czech Republic, India, Slovenia, Mexico, Israel, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Turkey. Festivals are very important artistic events in the career of film and television students. I am sure our Contact International Student Film Festival will provide a creative and artistic opportunity for all of you, the prominent directors and filmmakers of the future.
I congratulate the finalists for their successful participation to the 6th Contact International Student Film Festival, and wish them further chievements through their career.
I hope that the participants from all over the world will enjoy a wonderful company with our students.
This year, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg from Germany is our Festival’s guest. We believe, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg as one of the best European film schools, will significantly contribute to our Festival. On behalf of Yaşar University, I thank them very much and wish to advance our academic relations to a higher level.
Festival’s Jury Members are also another source of pride for us; all being highly acclaimed on international cinema circles; I am pleased to express my thanks to them.
This year’s Festival was possible with the support of many generous contributors.
Goethe Institute in İzmir supported us in many respects. Lastly, the devoted and hardworking organizers of the Festival merit special credits; especially the Festival Director, I thank and congratulate all members of the organizing committee. I wish you a very joyful festival.

Prof. Cemali Dinçer, Ph.D.
Rector, Yaşar University



In the last six years, Contact International Student Film Festival has established itself as an exciting, vital cinema event with its one of a kind approach in Turkey to celebrating and promoting the works of film students.
Our goal has always been creating a festival where students and teachers of cinema and media from different cultures can come together and speak the same language - the language of film. So, through that language, they can learn from each other, and in doing so, improve each other. In that respect, I believe we have met our goals. Thanks to each of our guest schools who come here and visit a country maybe they have never been in before, in order to meet with other students and teachers, all of us were able to create a unique, impactful identity for our festival.
Now we look forward to widening our horizons with even more diverse participation from all across the world. We are confident that Yaşar University management will continue to encourage us to do even better. We also know that institutions and organizations who support and believe in us will be by our side as we move forward confidently. For that, we are forever thankful to everyone who made this festival possible.
I believe in cinema. I believe that it has an important role to play in making this world a place worth living in, that it has many different lessons to teach all of us so that we can hope to become better people. To that end, we wish to go on sharing these stories with everyone with the help of this festival, making sure that young directors can participate and have their say in what kind of a world we are going to be living in.
I wish you a festival week with many meaningful, surprising and enjoyable encounters.

Prof. Nazlı Bayram, Ph.D.
Festival Director


MONDAY 21st OCTOBER
10.30|11.30 films competition A
11.45|12.45 films selection O
14.00|15.00 films competition B
17.00 opening ceremony
opening film Blind Audition, Andreas Kessler, Germany, 2017, 18’

TUESDAY 22nd OCTOBER
10.30|11.30 strategies for submitting your film to festivals, seminar, Eva Steegmayer Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
11.45|12.45 VŠMU University school screening films selection V
14.00|15.00 films competition C
15.15|16.15 films competition D

WEDNESDAY 23rd OCTOBER
guest school Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg, Germany
10.30|12.45 proximity and distance: from interview to conversation, masterclass, Thomas Lauterbach
14.00|16.15 films selection W

THURSDAY 24TH OCTOBER
competition films and Q&A with the filmmakers
10.30|11.30 films competition A
11.45|12.45 films competition B
14.00|15.00 films competition C
15.15|16.15 films competition D

FRIDAY 25TH OCTOBER
10.30|11.30 the shoot is over.
Is it really time to take a break?
seminar, Gül Dönmez
11.45|12.45 the Craft of Directing seminar, Bora Egemen
14.00|15.00 Yaşar University school screening films selection Y
19.00 award ceremony

Ceremonies will take place in the Yaşar University Conference Hall, Yaşar University Campus, Bornova.
Screenings and seminars will take place in the Mini-Movie Theater (Cep Sineması), F Block, Yaşar University Campus, Bornova.




FILM SELECTIONS IN COMPETITION
Terror / Yonatan Shehoah / Israel / 2018 / 00:16:00
I See in the Dark / Lana Bregar / Slovenia / 2019 / 00:16:00
Airship of Unknown Direction / Alexandra Galitskova / Russia / 2018 / 00:05:00
The School Bus / Ramazan Kılıç / Turkey / 2019 / 00:13:00
Transhumant / Fatih Ertekin / Turkey / 2019 / 00:22:00
Dhachka / Devik Rathod / India / 2018 / 00:15:00
A Sail on the Shore / Murat Can Yağbasan / Turkey / 2019 / 00:14:00
Invisible Women / Pablo Cruz Villalba / Mexico / 2018 / 00:17:00
Biotope / Paul Scholten / Germany / 2018 / 00:10:00
A Moment of Love / Julian Rachev / Bulgaria / 2018 / 00:29:00
Eavesdropper / Ahmet Toğaç / Turkey / 2019 / 00:22:00
Daughter / Daria Kashcheeva / Czech Republic / 2019 / 00:14:00
Wild Cab / Elisa Gómez Alvarez / Paul Choquet, Olivia Frey, Moustapha Guèye, Yoro Mbaye, Tianze Song / Switzerland / 2019 / 00:17:00
Chaos / Samuel Auer / Germany / 2019 / 00:05:00
Good Intentions / Anna Mantzaris / 00:UK / 2018 / 00:05:00
Birthday / Atefeh Khademolreza / Canada / 2019 / 00:25:00
Fuse / Shadi Adib / Germany / 2018 / 00:07:00

FILMAKADEMIE BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG
Follower / Jonathan Behr / 2018 / 00:10:00
The Captain / Steve Bache / 2019 / 00:14:00
Am Cu Ce-Pride / Hannah Weissenborn / 2019 / 00:20:00
As Bright as Night / Julius Schmitt / 2019 / 00:14:00
Nö! / Christian Kaufmann / 2018 / 00:06:00

VŠMU ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS IN BRATISLAVA FACULTY OF FILM AND TELEVISION
Poetika Anima / Kriss Sagan / 2018 / 00:05:00
Pura Vida / Martin Gonda / 2018 / 00:30:00
Neptune / Tereza Dodoková / 2019 / 00:04:00
The Gleam of Delicate Irony / Kristián Grupač / 2019 / 00:07:00
Man in the Attic / Matúš Ďuraňa / 2018 / 00:08:00

YAŞAR UNIVERSITY
Double Shift / Ataberk Kırçuvaloğlu / 2019 / 00:16:00
Gods of Turkic Mythology / Bartu İmamtorunu / 2019 / 00:07:00
Outsider / Gülce Candaş / 2019 / 00:17:00
Yusuf the Great / Atakan Çalışkan / 2019 / 00:06:00

— Intermission —
The Purified / Yiğit Erkol / 2019 / 00:20:00
Waiting for the Stars / Irmak Emeklioğlu / / 2017 / 00:04:00
Dolos / Doğaç Su Gündoğ / 2019 / 00:23:00




GUEST SCHOOL

FILMAKADEMIE BADENWÜRTTEMBERG
Since it was founded in 1991, the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg has become one of the world’s leading film academies. The project-oriented “learning by doing” concept has greatly contributed to this. The students are taught and mentored by highly-qualified experts from the film and media industries. The overriding objective of the program is to prepare the 480 students of the academy in the best possible way for a successful career in the film and media industries.
About 250 films of all genres and formats are produced every year by teams of students enrolled in the subject areas advertising film, animation, cinematography, documentary film, editing, fiction film, film music, sound design, interactive media, motion design, production, production design, screenwriting, and TV journalism.
Since 2002 the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg has also been home to the Animation Institute which has since become one of the world’s leading institutions in the fields of animation, VFX and interactive media.
The Filmakademie’s appeal is further enhanced by the postgraduate program Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris and the neighboring partner school Academy of Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg, resulting in several interdisciplinary collaborations.


Monday 21st October

17.00
opening film
Blind Audition / Andreas Kessler / 2017 / 18’
Tuesday 22nd October

10.30-11.30
seminar
Eva Steegmayer
Strategies for submitting
your film to festivals
Wednesday, 23rd October

10.30-11.30
masterclass
Thomas Lauterbach
Proximity and distance - From interview to conversation
Wednesday, 23rd October

14.00 - 16.15
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Film Screening
Follower / Jonathan Behr / 2018 / 10’
The Captain / Steve Bache / 2019 / 14’
Am Cu Ce - Pride / Hannah Weissenborn / 2019 / 20’
As Bright as Night / Julius Schmitt / 2019 / 14’
Nö! / Christian Kaufmann / 2018 / 6’



PRE-SELECTION JURY

Nazlı Bayram
PROFESSOR AT YAŞAR UNIVERSITY
Nazlı Bayram studied Cinema and Television at Anadolu University. Her short documentary, titled Moment, was screened at film festivals in usa, Germany, Portugal, Turkey and was nominated for the best documentary by siyad and best film by Exground Film Festival. She is also one of the directors and the producer of the documentary film İnsan Kent (City of People). She is the head of the Radio, Television and Cinema Department at Yaşar University. She is teaching screenwriting and directing.

Ürün Yıldıran Önk
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT YAŞAR UNIVERSITY
Ürün Yıldıran Önk graduated from Gazi University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio-Television and Cinema in 2002. She completed her MA (2004) and PhD (2011) degrees at Dokuz Eylül University, Fine Arts Institute, Department of Cinema-TV.
Her recent research focus on television studies. She has been working as full-time Assist. Prof. Dr. at Yaşar University, Faculty of Communication, Radio, Television and Cinema Department since 2007 where she lectures several media, television and cinema courses for undergraduate, masters and doctorate programs. She is also an advisor for Production Project I and II courses in which the students design and produce their graduation films.

Çağrı İnceoğlu
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT YAŞAR UNIVERSITY
Çağrı İnceoğlu graduated from Anadolu University, Department of Cinema and Television. He holds master’s degrees in Social and Political Thought from The University of Warwick (2005) and Arts Management from Yeditepe University (2001). His doctoral research is about Modernization and Turkish Cinema. His main research interest is film studies and he has been teaching media, communication, and film studies to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Markus Berger
INSTRUCTOR AT DOKUZ EYLÜL UNIVERSITY
Markus Berger works as a full-time instructor at Dokuz Eylül University Fine Arts Faculty in İzmir, teaching 2D, 3D, digital and analog animation. Born and raised in Austria, he studied Media Technology and Media Design and Digital Arts at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg. His graduation film, a short animated documentary, Replay: Kindheit in der Sandkiste, was screened at several festivals and won an audience award at the asifa One Day Animation Festival Vienna in 2014.

Burcu Dabak
LECTURER AT YAŞAR UNIVERSITY
Burcu Dabak completed her BA in Radio, Television, Cinema at Ege University and her ma in Film and Drama at Kadir Has University. She then completed the foundation program of the SOAS School of Oriental and African Studies University of London with her Queer Turkish Cinema thesis. She won the Pam Cook Scholarship in 2014, and got her PhD at the University of East Anglia in 2018. She was the assistant director to prominent directors, films with high box office numbers, popular and long-running television series and advertisements. She is also a director with award-winning short films and documentaries.


INTERNATIONAL STUDENT JURY

Steve Bache, Jonathan Behr, Gülce Candaş, Yiğit Erkol, Christian Kaufmann, Eren Özsaran, Julius Schmitt, Hannah Weissenborn.

JURY

Eva Steegmayer
Grew up in Stuttgart. After studying German language and literature, psychology and sports education she worked as a public affairs assistant and translator. In 1994, she found a way to combine her love for cinema with a job and started working for the newly founded Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg at Ludwigsburg. Since 1997, she is in charge of festival coordination and distribution. She represents the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in the federal short film association AG Kurzfilm, where she is also a board member.

Thomas Lauterbach
Thomas Lauterbach was born in 1976 at Wetzlar. His documentaries Hochburg der Sünden (Stronghold of Sin) and Das kalte Eisen (The Cold Iron) received several national and international awards. The TV documentary series Europas Muslime (Europe’s Muslims), Unser Deutschland: Zwei Syrer auf Winterreise (Our Germany: Two Syrians on a Winter’s Journey), and Kunst der Provokation (The Art of Provocation) caused lasting debates. He also develops communication concepts for exhibitions and museums such as the Stasi Memorial Hohenschönhausen, the world heritage coal mine Zeche Zollverein or the Makkah Clock astronomy exhibition at Mekka. Besides teaching documentary film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg he also has teaching assignments at Hamburg Media School and Hochschule Darmstadt.

Bora Egemen
Bora Egemen is a filmmaker based in Istanbul. He graduated from Anatolian University Film School. After his graduation, he attended international training programs for 3D animation and 2D compositing. He directed nearly 300 TV commercials for national and international brands. Bora also directed a documentary film named Smell which was screened in national festivals and written a feature film script named 12 Moods of Love which gained support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture for the writing process. In 2018, Bora directed a feature film named My Son. He has been lecturing on Directing, and Visual Story Telling courses in film schools since 2006.

Şebnem Vitrinel
Şebnem Vitrinel entered the cinema and TV sector in 2003 as a TV series writer. In 2011, she won the Best Script Award at Izmir Film Festival with What Remains, as producer and the co-author. She worked at Eflatun Film for four years and during that time, apart from being a copywriter and script editor, she worked as the executive producer of Thou Gild’st the Even by Onur Ünlü. In 2014, the film they wrote with Murat Düzgünoğlu, Why Can’t I Be Tarkovsky? won the best script award in Frankfurt Film Festival. The same year, she was also the executive producer of But Müzeyyen, This is the Deepest Desire. In June 2019, she became a partner in a cinema-based training center and artist residence initiative under the name of Katadrom Art Colony in Eskişehir. She is currently working on their third feature film script with her sister, director Çiğdem Vitrinel.

Gül Dönmez
Gül Dönmez was born in Ankara. She graduated from Bilkent University’s Faculty of Art, Design, and Architecture, Communication and Design department in 2003. During the following 16 years, she worked in different fields of communication and film making businesses. She continues her adventure as a Post Production Producer in Böcek Yapım since 2011.

FILMS IN COMPETITION

MAALEH SCHOOL OF FILM AND TELEVISION
Terror / Yonatan Shehoah / 16’ / Israel / 2018
Dan, is a Jerusalem supermarket employee who suffers from ptsd after being caught up in a terrorist attack. On a day in which multiple attacks hit Jerusalem once again, Dan is asked to serve at the meat counter alongside an Arab co-worker. As more and more fatalities are reported on the news, Dan tries desperately to reach his wife who was shopping in the area of one of the attacks, but without success. Dan’s fear and panic result in severe consequences for himself and for others. Yonatan Shehoah was born and raised in Mexico City. From 2013 to 2017, he studied directing and cinematography at the Maaleh School of Film and Television in Israel, graduating in 2018. Terror is his graduation film. Shehoah was also the director of photography for five of his fellow students’ films.

ACADEMY FOR THEATRE, RADIO, FILM AND TELEVISION
I See in the Dark / Lana Bregar / 16’ / Slovenia 2019
We follow three individuals who have
lost their sight. Their intimate narrative takes the viewer on a journey to
their world and feelings about their
loss of vision.
Lana Bregar (1998) finished Secondary
School for Design and Photography
Ljubljana, studying Photography as
her main course of studies. She expressed her enthusiasm for photography at the time of Secondary School,
but her desire to connect stories into
a more unified whole has brought her
to cinema. In Secondary School, she
shot her first movies, with some of
them being awarded at festivals. She
continues her education at Academy
for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television,
studying Film and Television Directing.
This story is about Rain, who wants to
learn how to fly. Rain was walking on
the ground.
Suddenly he saw the serene airships
in the sky. And the rain had a dream.
He dreams of floating in the sky with
them too. This is a story about a poet
who gives himself to everyone.
Born in Moscow in 1990. Attended the
Art School 548 between 2004 - 2007.
Between 2009 - 2013 she worked
as an artist in BUKA entertainment
company. She has been a VGIK student
between 2013 and 2018. She has been
working as an animator at the studio
SOUZMULTFILM since 2019.

VGIK RUSSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY OF CINEMATOGRAPHY
Airship of Unknown Direction / Alexandra Galitskova / 5’ / Russia 2018
Nebahat, a teacher in her 20s, has
just been appointed to a rural village
school in Anatolia. She realizes that
her students are struggling to arrive
at school, hitchhiking tractors, using
whatever means they can find.
She asks the Ministry of Education
for a shuttle, but without a driver, the
vehicle is useless. So, she decides to
be the bus driver for her students but
she does not know how to drive!
Ramazan Kılıç, who was born in Ağrı
in 1993, studies Cinema-Tv at İstanbul
Şehir University. His first short film
Penaber was awarded the first prize
at the 29th Aydın Doğan Foundation
Young Communicator Competition
and it was awarded the second prize
at Sabancı Foundation Short Film
Competition. The film has many
additional awards at national and
international festivals. The School
Bus is his fourth short film and he
is currently pursuing his career as a
screenwriter and director.

İSTANBUL ŞEHIR UNIVERSITY
The School Bus / Ramazan Kılıç / 13’ / Turkey / 2019
The documentary film focuses on the
culture of transhumance (herding
in mountainous pastures) kept alive
for centuries by Georgians living in
Şavşat’s İmerhev region. Using Cancir
plateau’s cultural and aesthetical
aspects as a backdrop, the documentary follows the lives of transhumant
women, who live in Cancir plateau for
2 months, through the story of Heva.
He was born on July 28, 1995, in
Artvin. Due to his interest in documentary film, he enrolled in Radio,
Cinema and Television department at
Çanakkale On Sekiz Mart University
in 2013, and in 2016, he launched
his first documentary film project,
Clouds Behind. He continues to work
on documentary films.

ÇANAKKALE 18 MART UNIVERSITY
Transhumant / Fatih Ertekin / Turkey / 2019
Lata, a 50-year-old woman, is
the string that holds her family
together. Lata’s husband and her
son are always at loggerheads with
each other, while her daughter is
completely detached from everyone.
The family is on their way to attend
a wedding. Due to their internal
clashes, they lose their way, forcing
Lata to take control. After her failed
attempts to drive the car herself,
she makes her daughter drive while
enjoying this newfound power.
Losing the way even further, their
fight escalates.
Hailing from Gujarat, Devik Rathod
studied Civil Engineering. However,
the world of cinema had always
fascinated him from a young age.
Determined to learn filmmaking,
he let the internet become his
teacher and made several short films,
sketches, and advertisements with the
members of a film club co-founded
by him in college. Having his loyalties
set straight, he pursued a Diploma
course in Filmmaking at Whistling
Woods International which gave him
his desired platform. Devik is currently
working as a freelance writer-director
and aspires to work on a feature film
in the near future.

WHISTLING WOODS INTERNATIONAL
Dhachka / Devik Rathod / 15’ / India / 2018
It’s the 15th century. Fights for
the throne have been going on
for years, weakening the Ottoman
Empire and abandoning its people
to their fate. Students of Sheikh
Bedreddin, Börklüce Mustafa and
Torlak Kemal rebel so that they can
build a new order that would eradicate poverty in their region. To quell
the resistance, the Sultan sends his
son Murat to the region.
Born in 1995 in İzmir, he studied
graphic design in high-school. During
that time, he published a humor magazine with his friends. While creating
comic strips, he got interested in
Animation design. He enrolled in Dokuz Eylül University’s Animation Film
Design and Directing department. He
produced graphic novel projects and
he still continues to do so.

DOKUZ EYLÜL UNIVERSITY
A Sail on the Shore / Murat Can Yağbasan / 14’ / Turkey / 2019
Hipolita works in Samuel’s house.
Her growing class-consciousness
and the invasion of her privacy lead
Hipolita to take control of her work
and her life.
Pablo Cruz Villalba (Mexico City,
1992) studied Philosophy at UNAM
and Cinematography at ESCINE. He
produced and directed Invisible
Women. The short film premiered at
the 16th International Morelia Film
Festival, it won at the 5th Campeche
Film Festival and was presented
at more than fifteen national and
international festivals.

ESCUELA SUPERIOR DE CINE
Invisible Women / Pablo Cruz Villalba / 17’ / Mexico / 2018
Life in Neuperlach, a Munich suburb,
is quaint. It is a safe neighborhood,
where people know and always greet
each other. Everybody has his own
backyard; single car garages are lining
the narrow footpaths and everything
is groomed.
But for some time now that peacefulness has been a troubled one because refugees are supposed to move
in next door. As some of the residents
are afraid of the noise they are sure
the foreigners are going to make, they
are putting up a noise protection wall.
Biotope shows the life of the locals
and gets to the bottom of the reason
for building that wall.
Paul Scholten was born in 1996 in
south Germany. He started filmmaking when he was 17 years old.
His films were screened at various
international festivals. Since 2017, he
has been studying at the University
for Film and Television Munich in the
field of documentary film.

UNIVERSITY OF TELEVISION AND FILM MUNICH
Biotope / Paul Scholten / 10’ / Germany / 2018
Magda and Kalin are deeply in love,
but their time together is too short.
This relationship creates conflicts at
home between Magda and her husband, Ivailo. They love their son Joan
very much. Magda is under excessive
pressure and she has to make a
decision. The pain is inevitable.
Born on July 15, 1984, in Ruse, Bulgaria, Julian Rachev is a director, writer,
editor, and actor. He studied acting
in theatre college Luben Grois 2005
- 2008. He has more than 20 roles as
an actor in television and cinema. In
2018 he graduated from the National
Academy of Theatre and Film Arts,
NATFA. He has around 40 shows as
a director on the most-watched tv
show on Saturday night in Bulgaria -
The Show Of The Channel. He was the
director of 25 fiction and documentary short films and 10 music videos.
Editor of more than 50 documentary
short films. Creator of over 100 videos
and commercials.

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF THEATRE AND FILM ARTS
A Moment of Love / Julian Rachev / 29’ / Bulgaria / 2018
Working at the old switchboard of a
company about to move to a big central hub and waiting for his transfer,
Selamet spends his days listening to
the phone calls of strangers.
With no activity in his life aside from
solving Sudoku puzzles, Selamet
discovers that he feels a growing
intimacy towards a stranger on the
phone and attempts to imitate the
life of that stranger.
Ahmet Toğaç was born in Erzurum
in 1995. He graduated from İstanbul
Okan University Cinema and Television Department in 2019. He wrote
for Film Arası Magazine and various
web sites such as Sinema Mynet.
He currently writes for the 82Ekran
web magazine, as one of the founders,
and he works for the Center for
Turkish Cinema Studies. His first film
Eavesdropper (Kulak Misafiri) is his
graduation project.

OKAN UNIVERSITY
Eavesdropper / Ahmet Toğaç / 22’ / Turkey / 2019
In a hospital room, the Daughter
recalls a childhood moment when
as a little girl she tried to share her
experience with her Father about an
injured bird. A moment of misunderstanding and a lost embrace has
stretched into many years all the way
to this hospital room.
Daria Kashcheeva studies animated
film at FAMU in Prague. Her student
films featured at many international
festivals. Daria’s original To Accept
won the Nespresso Talents 2017 film
competition in Cannes. In Daughter,
her Bachelor’s puppet animation,
Daria experiments with camera
motion and explores the topic of a
father-daughter relationship.
The project was pitched within the
CEE Animation Forum 2018. The film
has a premiere at Annecy Animation
Film Festival and got Cristal for the
Best Student film and Young Jury
award in the Student film section.
Daughter has been nominated for
the Student Academy Award in the
category Animation (International
Film Schools).

FAMU
Daughter / Daria Kashcheeva / 14’ / Czech Republic / 2019
Dakar, district of Pikine. Yadou is
a clandestine cab driver. Diégui is
a schoolgirl. Today, she is late for
class. She negotiates a fee for a ride
and hops on Yadou’s taxi.
It might have been the wrong
choice: the wild cab is slow as
molasses. Rolling through the city,
Yadou and Diégui bond while facing
the urban transformation of Pikine.
This encounter will stay on Yadou’s
mind for the rest of the day.
Coming from various geographies and
backgrounds, Elisa Gómez Alvarez,
Paul Choquet, Olivia Frey, Moustapha
Guèye, Yoro Mbaye, and Tianze Song
all met in École cantonale d’art de
Lausanne and produced their first
short film together, Wild Cab.

ÈCOLE CANTONALE D’ART DE LAUSANNE
Wild Cab / Elisa Gómez Alvarez, Paul Choquet, Olivia Frey, Moustapha Guèye, Yoro Mbaye, Tianze Song / 17’ / Switzerland / 2019



AWARDS
The international jury of the 6th
edition of Contact International
Student Film Festival will award
the following prizes:
Grand Prix for the Best Short Film
WITH NO TIE EXCEPTIONS
The winner will receive a cash
prize of 1000€, kindly offered by
Yaşar University Rectorate.
Böcek Yapım Award
The winner will receive post-production support worth 750€ for
their next film, available to be
used within one year after claiming
the prize.
SenEDIT Award for the Best Story
The winner will receive a cash
prize of 500€ and a SenEDIT software package complimentary unlimited access, kindly offered by our
main sponsor SenEDIT.
Best Cinematography
The winner will receive a cash
prize of 300€, kindly offered by
Yaşar University Rectorate.
Student Jury Award
The international student jury will
award the Student Jury Award.


OUT OF COMPETITION

Chaos is a one-shot fairytale about
the devil. What are one jogger, one
hobo and two pigs doing in a forest?
Chaos is a story about greed and
time. It’s a deconstruction of known
genres and forms.
Born in 1986 in Hamburg, Germany,
Auer finished high-school at
Heilwyg-Gymnasium Hamburg
and his undergraduate degree in
Communications and History at the
University Erfurt. Since 2012, he has
been studying directing at German
Film and Television Academy Berlin.

BERLIN FILM ACADEMY
Chaos / Samuel Auer / 5’ / Germany / 2019
After a young woman is responsible for a hit and run, strange and
spooky things start to happen...
A small thriller about people that
are not always the best at making
decisions.
Anna Mantzaris is a Swedish
stop-motion director and animator
based in London. She has worked on
commercials and feature films, most
recently on Wes Anderson’s critically
acclaimed Isle of Dogs.
Anna’s first-year film Enough is
currently being screened at festivals
worldwide and received a Vimeo Staff
Pick Premiere. Her second-year film
Good Intentions will premiere at the
BFI London Film Festival.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART
Good Intentions / Anna Mantzaris / 5’ / United Kingdom / 2018
The film is about three new immigrants who came to Toronto
(a Serbian divorcee, a Syrian
boy, and an Afghani dishwasher),
connected only through a series of
soft-wipe split-screens.
At first, they appear to form a
single family as they prepare for a
birthday celebration. As the story
unfolds, we realize that the only
thing connecting them together is
the thread of loneliness.
Atefeh Khademolreza, born in Iran, is
a graduate of The University of York,
with an MFA Degree in Film Production. The subjects of her work are concerned with migrating populations,
both cultural and political experience
of disorientation expressed through
poetic and experimental productions.
During her career, she had many
achievements, including directing
10 short films that were screened in
some prestigious film festivals such
as Berlinale Talents.

YORK UNIVERSITY
Birthday / Atefeh Khademolreza / 25’ / Canada 2019
A mousetrap snaps shut, a market
place awakens. A group of men heatedly discuss how to kill the animal in
the little box.
One after the other, they try to trump
each other’s sadistic fantasies, and
even a stranger’s suggestion to let the
creature loose turns out to be a sick
manipulation. But as the macabre
game unfolds and spirals out of control, both victim and tormentor suffer
the same fate.
Shadi Adib finished with a master’s
degree in animation at the University
of Tehran and attended Filmakademie
Baden-Württemberg. Her graduation
film Fuse is currently running for
competition in renowned festivals
around the world. After her work on
The Amazing World of Gumball, she’s
currently working with Studio SOI.
Her latest short film from 2019 is a
commissioned work called Ode.

FILMAKADEMIE BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG
Fuse / Shadi Adib / 7’ / Germany / 2018



SEMINARS

Tuesday 22nd October
10.30-11.30
Strategies for submitting your film to festivals
Eva Steegmayer

Wednesday, 23rd October
10.30-12.45
Proximity and distance - From interview to conversation
masterclass Thomas Lauterbach

Friday 25th October
10.30-11.30
The shoot is over. Is it really time to take a break?
Gül Dönmez

Friday 25th October
11.45-12.45
The Craft of Directing
Bora Egemen

FILM SCHOOL SHOWCASE

VŠMU Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava Faculty of Film and Television The Faculty of Film and Television has been founded in 1990 as the youngest of the three faculties of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. With more than 150 films produced every year, ranging from short exercises to medium-length films, it is the most important film school in Slovakia. Housed in a modern new building, the faculty offers ten academic specializations: scriptwriting, fiction film directing, documentary film directing, editing, cinematography and photography, animation, sound design, production and management, audiovisual studies and last but not least, visual effects. The facilities of the faculty include a film studio, editing rooms and a sound studio. The fundamental objective of our school is the education and training of high quality professionals in artistic production of film and multimedia. We encourage experimentation and research in artistic creation and help our students to adapt to the professional needs of contemporary audiovisual and multimedia arts.

Tuesday 22nd October
11.45 - 12.45
VŠMU Academy of Performing
Arts in Bratislava - Faculty of Film and Television

Film Screening
Poetika Anima / Kriss Sagan 2018, 5’
Pura Vida / Martin Gonda 2018, 30’
Neptune / Tereza Dodoková 2019, 4’
The Gleam of Delicate Irony / Kristián Grupač 2019, 7’
Man in the Attic / Matúš Ďuraňa 2018, 8’


YAŞAR UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Communication

RADIO, TELEVISION & CINEMA DEPARTMENT
The aim of the department is to raise individuals that will participate in mass communication processes. Apart from the academic
projects it leads, the department also adopts
the principle of continuous production.
Students learn by practice; they have their
education in an environment based upon exercise. They take part in their instructors’
films. They take advantage of the photography,
television and radio studios, camera equipment and editing units.
The department offers students different
options in the Erasmus exchange program for
them to embrace the world and introduce them
to internationally acknowledged and experienced field experts with workshops and seminars to benefit from their experiences.

VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN DEPARTMENT
The aim of the department is to bring up
graduates who can combine theoretical knowledge and practical skills to design diverse,
distinctive and aesthetical artifacts.
Our graduates have the possibility to work as
designers in advertising, media, communications and digital industries. Various fields
are explored during the study such as desktop
publishing and corporate identity, infographics and data visualization, video and film
production, animation and 3D modeling, web,
ui and ux design, interaction design and interactive installations.


Friday 25th October
14.00 - 15.00
Yaşar University Film Screening

The Purified / Yiğit Erkol 2019, 19’
department of radio, television and cinema

Outsider / Gülce Candaş 2019, 17’
department of radio, television and cinema

Gods of Turkic Mythology / Bartu İmamtorunu 2019, 7’
department of visual communication design

Yusuf the Great / Atakan Çalışkan 2019, 5’
department of visual communication design

Waiting for the Stars / Irmak Emeklioğlu 2017, 3’
department of visual communication design Faculty of Fine Arts

FILM DESIGN DEPARTMENT
Department of film design focuses on fiction cinema. The courses are mostly based on application, supported with theoretical lectures. The main aim of the Film design department is to provide education in five basic areas: scenario, production, filmmaking, cinematography and editing. The students are educated as future artists of cinema.

Friday 25th October

14.00 - 15.00
Yaşar University
Film Screening
Double Shift / Ataberk Kırçuvaloğlu / 2019 / 16’
Dolos / Doğaç Su Gündoğ / 2019 / 23’


TEAM
festival director
Nazlı Bayram

festival coordinator
Ürün Yıldıran Önk

pr & ceremony coordinator
Ebru Gökaliler

video & photography coordinator
Dilek Kaya

visual identity & design coordinator
Daniele Savasta

editor
Baran Akkuş

web management
Mert Seven

catalogue design junior
Çakıl Ece Çakmakcı

teaser
Güven Zararsız

special photography
Güven Selçuk

social media
Simge Saner

ceremony presentation
Turgut Onarır
Kutay Altunkaynak

technical advisor
Cenk Sönmez

screening and technical coordinator
Burcu Dabak

hospitality, events, production
Öykü Yenen