The Digital Voice Of Filmmakers
CICFF SEMI-FINALIST FILMMAKER PILAR PALOMERO CHOSEN FOR BERLINALE TALENTS 2017
By Victor Eustaquio Image (above) from "La Noche de Todas las Cosas" (The Night of All Things) Calcutta International Cult Film Festival semi-finalist filmmaker Pilar Palomero was selected for Berlinale Talents 2017 for her short film ‘The Night of All Things’. This work, which was in competition in November 2016 at CICFF, is a story about absences and sadness, but also about our memories, and how these are all we are. As Spanish female film director says, the film “borne from the personal need of expressing what you feel when you lose a beloved one. This loss is, surely, one of the most traumatic and painful experiences that we have to face as human beings. No one has ever prepared us for something like that, and when happens, we don’t know how to deal with those emotions: sadness, the anguish of the absence, nostalgia… And those emotions are the heart and soul of the film.” Born in Zaragoza, Pilar Palomero graduated in Hispanic Literature and in Cinematography and worked for several years as screenwriter and film teacher. In 2013 Pilar began an MFA in filmmaking at Film Factory (Sarajevo) under the leadership of Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr. Over this period she wrote and directed the short films ‘No?’ (2015), ‘The Night of All Things’ (2016) – this one produced by Inicia Films, developed under the Nisi Masa European Short Pitch and supported by the Spanish National Fund – and her graduation film ‘Zimsko Sunce’ (2017). Currently, she is developing her debut film ‘Las Niñas’ as film writer and film director.
CICFF FINALIST STUDENT FILM ‘ALL ABOUT EMILY’ AT CANNES SHORT FILM CORNER 2017
Calcutta International Cult Film Festival finalist film ‘All About Emily’ was officially selected to Cannes Short Film Corner 2017. The short student film directed by Paris-based Italian filmmaker Valentina Casadei will be screened in French Riviera at the end of May. ‘All About Emily’, which was in competition in December 2016 at CICFF becoming a finalist of the 2nd season, is about a modest housekeeper who keeps being bullied by a hysterical bourgeois for no apparent reason. Forced to endure these abuses in order to avoid being sent back to Mexico, she makes a discovery that will change everything. This seven minute work, shot on location in France, had a production budget of 2.500 euros and was completed in October 2016. The director Valentina Casadei is a film photographer, screenwriter, and student in directing. She was born in Ravenna (Italy) in 1993 and struck out for Bologna after graduating from high school. There she has studied the history of cinema. In September 2015 she has started her master's in filmmaking in Paris where she is also pursuing a career as a filmmaker independently from the university.
CICFF AWARD WINNING ‘PARIVARA’ GETS HUMANITARIAN AWARD HONORABLE MENTION IN LOS ANGELES
‘Parivara’, award winner of Calcutta International Cult Film Festival in January 2017, as Best Documentary Film, won an honorable mention at the yearly Humanitarian Award of Best Shorts Competition in Los Angeles. This annual prizes honor filmmakers who are making a difference in the world through impactful filmmaking that highlights a critical need of our time – combined with exceptional filmmaking craft – bringing awareness to issues of Ecological, Political, Social Justice, Health and Wellness, Animals, Wildlife, Conservation, Global and Spiritual importance. Film directed by Alex Kruz and Alex Lora, ‘Parivara’ is based on the true-life stories of the children at the Goldungha Orphanage for the Blind in Nepal following the 2015 earthquake. According to the film directors, “it is a universal story demonstrating the beauty and resilience of the human spirit. When we started the project we agreed any prize money or donations would go in full towards the project of building a permanent home for the children and their caretakers. The children enjoyed helping make the movie with us and we loved the idea of doing something creative with them. For us and them it was ‘playtime’, in the process we learned a lot from each other and felt our lives were a little bit more meaningful from the experience”.
Victor Eustáquio is an award-winning film producer and screenwriter and the Director of Calcutta International Cult Film Festival. A novelist; screenwriter; film producer and composer, Victor currently lives in Portugal and holds a BA in Political Science and a PhD in African Studies. As COO of HLC Studios, Victor coordinates the company’s various distribution strategies to maximize the value of HLC’s content across all current and emerging digital exhibition platforms.
