Switching Worlds
The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce that it has selected Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron's short film Switching Worlds as one of our Top 100 International Short Films for 2011. The film is also shortlisted for consideration as Best Teen Film, Best Short Short Film and Best Quebec film.
 |
| So Cute! |
*****
The Official Final Deadline of the YoungCuts Film Festival was June 15th. While we will only announce our full selection of our Top 100 around July 15th and while there is still an opportunity for films that we haven't received yet to trickle in after the deadline, we thought that we would begin announcing some of the films that we know will be included in our Top 100.
These won't be announced in any kind of order and they should not be interpreted as any kind of ranking, just that we have all the material for this particular film and that we do consider it one of the Top 100 short films by filmmakers 25 and under that we have seen (and will see) out of more than a thousand films that we have screened from more than 30 countries.
*****
 |
| The Artist at Work |
 |
| Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron |
YoungCuts started in 2001 as the Toronto International Teen Film Festival and while we changed our name and expanded our age limits to 25 and under in 2005, we have kept a place for teen filmmakers in our Festival. It is sometimes a little bit harder to find a gem amongst the pile of Teen films, but when you do find one like Switching Worlds...
WOW!
The best teen filmmakers have absolutely no fear and accomplish the impossible because no one told them that it couldn't be done.
Take Francesca. Her story combines animation with live action with deceptive ease. Her story is told with economy and grace.
Our only minor quibble is evidence of her skill: the entire film has maybe five words of dialogue. Francesca came within an unnecessary sentence from telling her story purely visually.
And from what we can tell, most of the work was completed before she turned 19. No one tell her that she is not supposed to be this good this young.
*****
 |
| The Artist Hard at Work |
Runtime: 5 min
Completion: 2011
Country of Origin: Canada (Quebec)
Synopsis: Switching Worlds follows the story of a young man obsessed with the women depicted in mangas and animes (Japanese cartoons). He spends most of his time locked in his room making drawings of them. However, he gets more than he bargains for when one of his own sketches comes to life.
*****
 |
| It's always a little scary when your art takes a life of its own. |
Filmmaker Bio: Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron is a new filmmaker and scriptwriter. She just graduated from John Abbott College’s Creative Arts, Literature and Languages (Media Arts) program.
Interested in using her films to question the boundaries between reality and fiction, she explores the human’s understanding of his own imagination. Her latest film, Switching Worlds, follows the story of a young man obsessed with women depicted in mangas and animes (Japanese cartoons). However, he gets more than he bargains for when one of his own sketches comes to life. Recently, Abbondanza-Bergeron has worked as an assistant editor for the making of Parabola Films’ À St-Henri, le 26 août. She will be pursuing her studies in the field at Concordia University next Fall.
Filmmaker Age: 19
*****
|
| So Dangerous! |
The 2011 YoungCuts Film Festival will begin on Thursday, September 29th. Stay tuned for details on how to enjoy the amazing films that we will be presenting including Switching Worlds!
*****
As a quick follow-up, we should maybe explain how we ended up finding Switching Worlds. The Festival Director Michael Ryan was invited to lead a discussion about Best Practices for Festival Submissions during the Concordia Film Festival on the Thursday afternoon that the festival started. This lead to an invitation to take part in a panel early that Saturday morning during the festival about the future of short film. One of the other panellists was Daniel Schorr who teaches animation at CEGEP John Abbott. He invited me to attend their end-of-year screening that was taking place at Cinema du Parc that Sunday evening.
We mention this as a tip to student filmmakers and their teachers. If you are doing an end-of-year screening, invite film festivals like ours to come. If we can send someone to watch the films we will. And we will frequently tell young filmmakers on the spot what films we are interested in (and sometimes what films need more work.)
It does help to give us more than 24 hours notice though!
No comments:
Post a Comment