BEAST IFF

Official Competition

Every year, exciting new short and medium-length films compete for the  awards of Best Fiction, Best Documentary and Best Experimental. The Official Competition presents works of emerging filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe, a pillar to the festival offer. With each edition, this competitive programme enriches BEAST IFF and its community, introducing new works, new faces through a diverse selection of style and form. From impressive visuals to candid portraits, the Official Competition gives perspective on The New East while being at the core of our festival.

Jury & Awards 2021

This year, BEAST IFF will be awarding three main prizes with a Jury Mention Award for each category.

EAST WAVE Award – for Best Fiction Film
EAST DOC Award – for Best Documentary Film
experimentalEAST Award – for Best Experimental Film

Jury Team 2021

ELSA CERQUEIRA

Elsa Cerqueira is a teacher of Philosophy, with a master degree in Philosophy of Education, post-graduate in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy and researcher at the Child and Teenager Interdisciplinary Nucleus (NICA) at the University of Azores. Author and promoter of the project “Philosophy with Cinema for Children”, coordinator of the National Cinema Plan at the Amarante Highschool and she is Vice-President of the Amarante Cineclub. She is frequently a guest speaker and jury at film festivals and educational congresses. Until now, she has collaborated with several cinema related events such as Festival Internacional de Cinema Ambiental da Serra da Estrela, Encontros de Cinema de Viana, Festival Internacional de Cinema de Animação, Cinanima, among others. She completed in Cannes the workshop “A Cannes, faites votre cinéma dans la classe”, under the scope of Erasmus+ programme. She is the curator of the collective exhibit “De tela a tela, Cineviagens”, inspired in 44 animation films, and creator of several blogs.

RITA CAPUCHO

Rita Capucho is co-director of the Porto Femme International Film Festival, programmer of the Femme Sessions and Shortcutz Aveiro. She works as a producer and programmer in several cultural organizations. She has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Art Studies from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra. She is a member of the Poetic Group of Aveiro, organizes the Poetry Slam Aveiro, as well as other events related to poetry.

IRINA TROCAN

Irina Trocan teaches at the National University of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest and coordinates the online film magazine Acoperișul de Sticlă (“the Glass Roof”). Irina edited an anthology of documentary theory, The reality of fiction, the fiction of the real (Hecate Press, 2018, together with Andra Petrescu) and Romanian Cinema Inside Out — Insights on Film Culture, Industry and Politics 1912-2019 (Romanian Cultural Institute Press, 2019). Her latest volume is Audiovisual opposition: critical thinking in video essays and essay cinema (Idea Design & Print, 2020). She programmed short films for the NexT International Film Festival (2011-2016) and her writing was published in journals and film magazines such as Close Up, Cineaste, Sight & Sound, Photogénie, IndieWire, Dilema Veche. Her research interests include videographic criticism, digital media, the essay film, film festivals, racial representation, historical representation in non-classical cinema.

PEDRO FERREIRA

Pedro Daniel Ferreira is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto. He has an interest in the possibilities opened by art and cinema in promoting personal and community change. Besides this, he is a member of associação milímetro and of SOS Racismo where he integrates the group organizing MICAR – Mostra Internacional de Cinema Anti-Racista.

ANTON YAREMCHUK

Anton Yaremchuk is a Ukrainian cinematographer and filmmaker. In 2017, he graduated from the Theatre, Film and TV University in Kyiv with a Bachelor’s degree in Cinematography. His short film “Punti di Vista” about students during the Maidan Revolution won the Generation Reporter 2015 award in Italy. Anton is responsible for the cinematography in the war zone of the documentary “Bullet Catcher” (directed by Ruslan Batytskyi and Lesya Kalynska). The film was selected, among others, for the IDFA Academy Summer School 2018. His film “The Pit” has been screened in the official programme of IDFA, Camerimage, Docudays and BEAST IFF 2017 – winning the Best Documentary Film Award, among others. He shot the political documentary Looking for Europe (directed by Kristof Gerega), which premiered at the Cottbus Film Festival in 2019. Since 2018 he has worked regularly as a tutor, undertaking numerous workshops for students of audiovisual faculties in Mykolaiv, Kherson, Tunis, Amman and Casablanca. Anton is a member of the UGC and IMAGO. Since 2019 he is pursuing a Master’s degree in Cinematography at the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg in Germany.

East Doc

Competition for Short & Medium-Length Documentary

Through the EAST DOC Competition for Short & Medium-Length Documentary, selected works stand as clear windows towards real stories and the tumultuous New East. The official selection presents compelling stories through carefully crafted titles with an exciting range of creativity and dedication in examining the subject. The EAST DOC program includes 4 titles inviting the viewer to discover through the eyes of young emerging filmmakers from the region.

East Wave

Competition for Short & Medium-Length Film

Twelve titles are selected for the EAST WAVE Competition for Short & Medium-Length Film, representing the new generation of young talents and exhibiting enthralling narratives, an ode to creative approach in storytelling. Through powerful, sometimes provocative, gazes, the selected works tackle topics and situations through a wide scope of types of the fiction genre. The program brings forth a special selection of recent films made in the Central & Eastern Europe context, with a highly curated line-up, aimed towards supporting young promising directors.

Experimentaleast

Competition for Short Experimental Film

The Competition for Short Experimental Film serves as a platform for works and filmmakers that are focused on narrative, conceptual and technical and experimentation. The program presents the liberty of play in terms of aesthetics, technical limits, and semiotic boundaries while breaking the popular standard discourse. With 10 selected CEE titles, The experimentalEAST reflects on the freedom of responding to the need of exploring cinematic horizons and finding genuine ways to create audiovisual art.