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The Danish Film Academy is now revealing the 10 shortlisted short films that are a part of the process of being nominated for the Robert Prize 2020 for the Short Film of the Year: Fiction / Animation.

This is the fifth time the Film Academy is collaborating with OFF – Odense International Film Festival to raise the highest possible awareness of the fabulous foundation of Danish film found in the production of short films in Denmark. The Film Academy Robert 2020 will kickstart by the announcement of the 10 shortlisted film.

From August 6, Film Academy members can vote among the 10 shortlisted Danish short films. All the films will also appear in the cinema during OFF. The five nominees will be revealed at OFF’s festive award ceremony on Saturday, August 31st.

“There are 10 exciting and versatile films that represent the best in this year’s productions, and we could not wish for a more competent partner to help find the ten shortlisted films,” says the President of the Danish Film Academy, Jacob Neiiendam, about OFF, and continues, “we are excited that the audience at the festival will have the opportunity to see the films on the big canvas, they deserve it.”

Who is going to win the ROBERT PRIZE for Short Film of the Year: Fiction / Animation

will only be revealed at the ROBERT award ceremony in January 2020.

Press Contact:

Danish Film Academy, Per Damgaard Hansen, Per@masterplanpictures.com, 40562903

Danish Film Academy, Mette Bubandt Aagaard, metbub@hotmail.com, 25380350

Odense International Film Festival, Birgitte Weinberger, bsw@odense.dk, 65512837

www.filmakademiet.dk // #robertprisen

HERE IS THE LIST OF THE 10 SHORTLISTED FILMS

Shortlist In the category Short Film of the Year: Fiction/Animation:

• Bølger / Producers: Ann-Sofie Grøndal & Thomas Elley, Instruktør: Thomas Elley
• Draget / Hyæne Film, Producers: Robin Hounisen & Anna Cold Winge Leisner, Instruktør: Christian Bengtson
• Hvis der var krig i Norden / Regner Grasten Film Production A/S, Producer: Regner Grasten, Instruktør: Puk Grasten
• Ikki illa meint / Meta Film, Producer: Johannes Rothaus Nørregaard, Instruktør: Andrias Høgenni
• Knæler / Fifty Fifty Entertainment & Den danske scenekunstskole, Producer: Alma Dyekjær Giese, Instruktør: Roberta Reichhardt
• Mellem sten og et hårdt sted / Mellow, Producers: Christopher Jermiin Anker & Martin Rasmussen, Instruktør: Mads Koudal
• Mount Everest / Bacon & Raptus, Producer: Laura Valentiner-Bohse, Instruktør: Rasmus Nyholm Schmidt
• Savnet / Hyæne Film, Producer: Daniel Mühlendorph & Robin Hounisen, Instruktør: Mads Reuther
• Tre brødre / Jalabert Production, Producers: Anders Niels Berg & Christian Norlyk, Instruktør: Lasse Ulvedal Tolbøll
• Under Bølgerne, Over Skyerne / Den danske filmskole, Producer: Pernille Tornøe, Instruktør: Katrine Brocks

For the 10th year in a row, OFF – Odense International Film Festival presents the competition Pitch Me Baby in collaboration with Danish Film Directors and Danish Dramatics.

By the registration deadline of August 1, OFF had received 94 short film ideas; now our selection jury (screenwriter Jenny Lund Madsen, director Rasmus Kloster Bro and festival manager Birgitte Weinberger) has looked at all the ideas. Only 8 of the 94 submitted pitches have been qualified – Find out right here who are selected to compete (live!) on stage on Thursday, August 29, when we host the Pitch Me Baby competition during the festival:

Jesper Vestergaard Larsen: “Dræberklovnen Kevin” (fiction)
Jeanett Brahe: “En rigtig kvinde” (animation)
Darshika Karunahara: “First Night” (fiction)
Andreas Roland Jensen: “Knubs, kast og kærlighed” (documentary)
Christian Einshøj: “No Family Photo” (documentary)
Carina Kamper: “Saunaklubben” (fiction)
Kristian Halken: “Thor” (fiction)
Julie Baltzer: “Women in War – Svetlana” (animation)

Big congratulations to the participants – and thank you to everyone who sent us ideas this year!

Pitch Me Baby is a live show of compelling pitches; the competition is a part of OFF19, where the best pre-submitted short film ideas are allowed to compete directly on stage in front of a competent jury and a large audience. This year, actor and director Christian Tafdrup, actor and director Lotte Andersen, producer Kim Magnusson, screenwriter Adam August and animator Sara Koppel will be the jury.

In five minutes the pitchers must present their vision and convince the jury that their idea deserves to come a major step closer to realization: the two best short film ideas are awarded with work grants for a total of 50,000 DKK.

Experienced filmmakers, primarily directors and screenwriters, but also brand new and untested talents can submit suggestions, and all contributions are more than welcome. On average, OFF receives about 100 short film ideas across all genres.

Each year, OFF enters a creative collaboration with one or more artists, filmmakers or industry experts; a collaboration that helps form the artistic direction for this year’s festival. In 2019, the title as artistic profile, actor and director belongs to Marijana Jankovic.

For the theme ‘courage’, Marijana Jankovic draws the line for a personal program with cultural roots and love for diversity as central head points.

The motivation for accepting the collaboration with OFF is particularly evident in her love for diversity, Marijana herself says:

I sincerely want my role as artistic profile to inspire others with the same background as me to dream big and use their voice. This is what the world needs. People come in all shapes and colors, nothing is right or wrong, no skin color is right or wrong, no story is useless, if it comes from the right place.

You can meet Marijana as she explores the theme ‘courage’ during the festival in a series of talks with internationally acclaimed filmmakers:

1. About FARNESS – with the award-winning war correspondent, documentary director and author NAGIEB KHAJA. And about the driving force of his work at the world’s hotspots. MONDAY 26/8 KL. 13.00 IN THEATER MOMENTUM BIO
2. About WOMEN WITHOUT FILTER – with satirists and actors DITTE HANSEN and LOUISE MIERITZ about being “Ditte & Louise” on the big screen and in reality. TUESDAY 27/8 CONVERSATION CL. 19.00 & FILM KL. 9 PM AT THE MAGAZINE
3. About UNCURRENCY – with one of Denmark’s film queens, super producers and Lars von Trier’s long-standing partner at Zentropa VIBEKE WINDELØV about having an all-is-possible-attitude to life and the industry. WEDNESDAY 26/8 KL. 16.00 I THEATER95B
4. About THE TOUGHEST STORIES – with documentary director ANDREAS KOEFOED about the need to portray the weak and vulnerable fates of society as he himself has done with refugee children on film. THURSDAY 29/8 CALL AND MOVIE CL. 18.30 IN THEATER MOMENTUM SAL
5. About THE ARTIST’S RESPONSIBILITY – with Irish VINCENT LAMBE, Romanian ADRIAN SILISTEANU and Danish ANDERS WALTER; three award-winning short film directors on the artist’s commitment to using his voice in the world. FRIDAY 30/8 KL. 4.30pm THEATER MOMENTUM SAL
6. About FACING REALITY – with the leader of the Danish Film School’s documentary line for more than 25 years ARNE BRO on how to use yourself and your own memories in the stories you tell on film. SATURDAY CL. 2 PM IN THEATER MOMENTUM SAL

We are so proud to present the full programme for OFF19. A week full of short film, talks, open air cinema, debates and concerts; week 35 will be an injection of film, great atmosphere and love!

Check out the programme and book your tickets now <3

Drumroll, please!

The wait is over; we proudly present the official selection of OFF – Odense International Film Festival 2019. Selected for this year’s competition, among 3.264 submissions, are 121 wild, provocative, ravishing, wistful and sharp short films, submitted from almost every corner of the world – from South Africa to Switzerland, from Canada to Columbia. A total number of 39 countries are represented in the competition programme this year, and we’re looking forward to welcoming each and every one of them at our festival in August 2019.

For the complete list of selected short films 2019 click here: Official Selection OFF19

Tuesday morning marked the deadline for submitting a short film for this year’s festival in Odense. And with exactly 3.264 short films submitted for OFF19, the festival has a new record on its hands. Between 2018 and 2019 the number of submissions has increased by almost 25 %, a fact that certainly calls for celebration! Festival director Birgitte Weinberger believes the cause for the boost in submitted films lies partly in the festival’s most recent succes story:

Last year, the Irish short film Detainment won our Academy Award-qualifying HCA Award, the Grand Prix of our Main Competition, and went straight to the selection jury of the Academy . And, as you may know, Detainment ended up being nominated for an Academy Award. I guess a lot of filmmakers, national and international, has been inspired by the succes of Detainment and has decided to submit their films for our festival this year.

A hard-working jury

To watch and analyze the submitted short films is a hard-working jury. The jury comprises animator Sara Koppel, writer Christian Gamst Miller-Harris and festival director Birgitte Weinberger. Over the course of the next weeks the jury will select about a 100 films for the OFF19 competition programme. Come may, the selected filmmakers will be notified and the official competition programme will be announced.

Have you submitted your short film for this year’s OFF – Odense International Film Festival? If not, it’s time to get a move on! Submission deadline is only a week from now; on April 1, we’re closing the window for film makers to enter their work into our selection process.

If you, and your short film, want a chance of being part of the official competition programme at OFF19, you’ll find relevant information and further details HERE

Submission for this year’s competition opened almost three months ago, and within this brief period of time the number of submitted short films have literally gone through the roof. And it’s not over yet, although deadline for submitting a short film for OFF19 is fast approaching: April 1 is coming up!

As of yet, films from all over the world have made their way to our office, and we welcome each and every one of them, eyes open and arms wide. To pree-screen all submitted films is a diligent pree-jury, putting in more than 30 hours of watchwork each – some jury members even 80 hours – to make sure that all submitted film are being carefully evaluated and (some) eventually selected.

Following April 1, our special selection jury will continue the efforts of our pree-screening team – stay tuned for news on the selection process and the official announcement of films in competition at OFF19.