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Article by Anna Takayama
SÆKZI, a recent submission to the ÉCU 2010 Dramatic Short category, is an honest story of a woman’s battle with her lack of self-confidence through the eyes of her devoted lover. Director Lars T. Moen gives interviewer Anna Takayama his views on women, beauty, ideals, and love in modern times.
Q: What is your film about?
Sækzi is a film about self-confidence, and how it shouldn’t matter what you look like. The film port...
Article by Anna Takayama
Director Dean Bajramovic gives us an enticing sneak peak into his recent ÉCU 2010 Non-European Dramatic Feature submission, GANGSTER EXCHANGE, a quirky and dynamic (and somewhat autobiographical) gangster comedy about a Japanese Yakuza member smuggling heroin…in a toilet. Anna Takayama get’s the gritty details.
Q: What is your film about?
The film is an action comedy about a couple of gangsters, one Japanese, one Amer...
Article by Kaly Halkawt
NYU film student, Gabrielle Demeestere, who recently submitted her short The Last Cigarette to ÉCU 2010’s Non-European Dramatic Short category discusses the humorous side of smoking.
Q: Tell me briefly about your film?
The Last Cigarette is a short comedy I directed in my first year of graduate school at NYU film school. It tells the story of Lise, a French tourist, who finds herself alienated by her smoking habit in...
Article by Anna Takayama
Four Roses, a recent submission to the ÉCU 2010 European Dramatic Feature category, explores themes of isolation, love, and being. Director Kris De Meester talks to Anna Takayama about the charm of police sirens, the color of black and white, and flying hippos in France.
Q: What is your film about?
Four Roses is about everything and nothing, the unbearable lightness of being and the eternal sense of every passing minute. As Henry David Thoreau once w...
By Sophie Nellis
The view of Paris from Parc de Belleville
Next stop on our tour of Paris is the area of Belleville. Straddling the 19th and 20th arrondissements, Belleville is located between Rue de Belleville, Rue des Pyrénées, Rue de Ménilmontant and Boulevard de Belleville. It is situated on and around a hill and if you make it to the Parc de Belleville there are some amazing views of the city’s skyline.
Belleville began its life as a working cla...
By Sophie Nellis
Belmondo and Seberg
The French New Wave – known as la nouvelle vague– was a celebration of youth, Paris and, above all, cinema. Many people don’t know that the term nouvelle vague was first used in 1957 to describe the new generation of French youth, emancipated 18 to 30 year olds who were free-thinking and keen to throw off the legacy of the Second World War. It was only following the success of François Truffaut’s Les...
The European Independent Film Festival 2010
12th -14th March 2010
Contact Information:
The European Independent Film Festival 108 rue Damremont
75017, Paris
France
Festival President: Scott Hillier
Event Coordinator: Rhiannon Hobbins
Email: info@ecufilmfestival.com
Website : http://www.ecufilmfestival.com/
THE ECU COMMUNITY ON FEST21.COM
Call for Entries
The European Independent Film Festival - Europe's foremost festival for i...
Festival to showcase 94 films from 25 countries 13-15 March PARIS,FRANCE (18 February, 2009) – The European Independent Film Festival (ÉCU), Europe’s premiere event for independent filmmakersand their audiences, announces its Official Selection for the fourth edition ofthe festival. ÉCU will showcase 94 films from 25 countries ranging in genrefrom feature films, short films,documentaries, animation and experimental films and for the first time a category for filmsdealing with environmenta...
The Perfect Pitch is a new program to premiere at The European Independent Film Festival, taking place March 13th-15th, 2009, at La Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Francois Mitterand, in Paris. The program begins with a series of workshops - taking place on Friday, March 13th- related to preparing and executing a pitch presentation. Following the workshops each participant will have the opportunity to pitch in a practice pitch session, from which twenty individuals will be selected to pit...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The European Independent Film Festival 2009 submission deadline is January 15.
(PARIS, FRANCE) January 12, 2009.
The European Independent Film Festival (ÉCU) discovers, promotes and projects the best independent films from around the world every year at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. This year’s festival will take place on March the 13th, 14th & 15th, 2009.
Approximately one hundred films will be selected to compete in thirteen categories incl...
Welcome to The European Independent Film Festival’s October 2008
newsletter. Faithfully edited by the indefatigable Rhiannon Hobbins, we
hope this newsletter will give you a thorough and concise update on the
hottest independent film festival in Europe, as well as some relevant
(and hopefully interesting!) news about the Indie film industry from
around the World.
...
For the longest while I have
been struck by the fact that with so many great indie films being made
all over the World but they seem to be nearly impossible to see when I
WANT! Coupled with the never-ending requests ‘where can I see this film
again?’ that happen after films screen at ÉCU, it seems to be only
logical to have a place where audiences and independent filmmakers
connect.
Now there are a lot of avenues for this to happen, and we have
all been bombarded with reque...
The pilot programme for EUROINDIE TV – a mixture of Entertainment
Tonight and the BBC’s Talking Movies – has been finished and got good
responses at Cannes during MIP. It will start airing on The European
Independent Film Channel on JOOST early 2009. The show features
interviews with filmmakers, excerpts from great Indie films, indie
musicians who’ll be great on film soundtracks, latest news and of
course all of the juicy gossip that we hate – but love listening to...
...
We have been working hard on
building partnerships with other film festivals around Europe and
beyond. My goal in developing these partnerships is three-fold.
First is to scout for the best indie films and try to get them into ÉCU thus getting more exposure for the films.
Second is to show a selection of our award winning films under the banner of ‘Europe’s Best Independent Films’.
Third is to give our partner festivals any publicity that we...
Our two new categories are going well. Ecology Now! and Made on Mobile Telephones
are very topical and exciting. In our crazy world of today it is hard
to forget that there is nothing more important to our survival then
good old Mother Earth, and if there is any way that we can bring that
fact to the attention of even just one person through the projection of
films dealing with the environment then let’s do it! Video cameras in
mobile phones making films? My purist friends hold their hea...
After the huge success of the workshops at ÉCU 2008 we have decided to
introduce a new event called ‘Prepare your Pitch’ where you will be
involved in a workshop to prepare your pitch and then actually perform
your pitch to a panel of producers who are looking for new projects.
This is a limited space workshop and I’m afraid that while all of our
other workshops are free, there is a fee involved. The line-up of
producers sitting on the panel will be released on our website closer
t...
We have already had several film schools / universities and art
colleges from around Europe contact us to say that they are on their
way over to Paris for ÉCU 2009 in March. If you are planning the same
PLEASE let us know so that we can help sort out the trip and to
pre-book places in workshops (which always seem very popular and fill
up quickly!)
...
Going to make a film with a heart in the middle
By Anna Pook
With
the European Independent Film Festival on the horizon, my thoughts turn
to 2008’s indie big-hitters and what it takes to win those coveted
festival prizes.
What connects this year’s winners such as James Marsh’s documentary Man on Wire,
which charts Philippe Petit’s death-defying tightrope walk between the
twin towers in 1974 (Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at...
ÉCU 2009 Events ÉCU 2009 will feature an exciting array of workshops hosted by dozens of industry experts. The workshops will cover a variety of topics relating to cinema including writing, directing, acting, editing and distribution. And they will be free and open to ALL festival attendees including members of the public. These events offer the unique opportunity to learn from the best in the business. The workshops were a huge success in 2008, and will be even bigger and better in 2009!Dire...
The European Independent Film Festival 13th – 15th March, 2009Paris, France Filmmakers are invited to submit their projects to ÉCU 2009! The European Independent Film Festival (ÉCU) discovers, promotes and projects the BEST independent films from around the world every year in Paris, France. The festival is fast becoming known as Europe’s version of the Sundance Film Festival. Approximately one hundred films will be selected to compete in thirteen categories in...
By Rhiannon HobbinsSo after years of dreaming about being a filmmaker you decided to finally go for it. You begged, borrowed and maxed out your credit cards. The house had to be remortgaged and you even had to bail on the Christmas skiing holiday. You’ve seriously never been so bloody broke.But you’ve got no regrets, you’ve made your film and the rest will be easy. But the fact is that it can be just as difficult to land a distribution deal. And after all the sacrifices and hard work, ther...
By Anita FalusiIn my quest, to collect more information about the situation of Hungarian Cinema today, I came across a talented independent filmmaker, Madarász István. He was brought to my attention because even though he never went to film school his movies win award after award from the U.S. throughout Hungary to Spain. Recently, he even got a grant for pitching a new project to a 15 producer panel at the Central European Pitch Forum. I decided to ask him; what is the secret to be a successf...
War zone filmmaking: Going into battleBy Kellie SouthanSo you’re an independent filmmaker and you’ve got it pretty tough. Filmmaking is an expensive business, and you have to tell your story with a limited budget. Worse, you’ve got to fight tooth and nail to find the revenue in the first place. If you work long and hard enough, you might finish your project on schedule and then it’s up to you to promote it, get it seen, take it to festivals, find a distributor and garner support. Not exa...
By Ben Cookson Romanian filmmaking attracted world attention in 2007 when two films were honored at the Cannes Film Festival. Cristian Mingui’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a harrowing portrayal of illegal abortion, was awarded the prestigious Palme D’Or, and California Dreamin’, a tale about American soldiers during the Kosovo conflict, won Un Certain Regard for its director Cristian Nemescu.Tragically, Nemescu won the award posthumously, as the young director was killed in a car acciden...
By Anita Falusi My father called me a few months ago to tell me “the big news,” the new Hungarian Studios are looking for talented and skilled film professionals. This is my time to leave the western world behind and finally go back home. Ten years ago, when I left Budapest, the only way someone could work in the film industry if they received their diploma from the College for Cinematic and Theater Arts or they had relatives in the field. The College accepted 16 people every three years fo...
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About ÉCU-The European Independent Film Festival
 Hillier Scott
(ECU)
Scott Hillier, Founder and President of ÉCU - The European Independent Film Festival
Scott Hillier is a director, cinematographer, and screenwriter, based in Paris, France. In the last 20 years, Hillier has gained international recognition from his strong and incredible cinematography, editing, writing, producing and directing portfolio in both the television and film industries.
Scott began his career in the television industry in Australia. In 1988, he moved to London getting a job with the BBC who then set him to Baghdad. This opportunity led him to 10 years of traveling around world for the BBC, mainly in war zones like Somalia, Bosnia, Tchetcheynia, Kashmir, and Lebanon. After a near fatal encounter with a Russian bomber in Tchechnyia, Hillier gave up his war coverage and began in a new direction.
He moved to New York City in 1998. He directed and photographed eight one-hour documentaries for National Geographic and The Discovery Channel. Based on his war knowledge and experience, Hillier wrote and directed a short film titled, “Behind the Eyes of War!" The film was awarded “Best Short Dramatic Film” at the New York Independent Film and TV Festival in 1999. From that he served as Supervising Producer and Director for the critically acclaimed CBS 42 part reality series, "The Bravest” in 2002 and wrote and directed a stage play called, "Deadman’s Mai l," which ran at Le Théâtre du Moulin de la Galette in Paris during the summer of 2004. He then became the Director of Photography on a documentary titled, “Twin Towers." This was yet another life changing experience for Hillier. The riveting documentary won an Academy Award for "Best Documentary Short Subject" in 2003. In 2004, Hillier changed continents again, spending three months in Ethiopia. He produced “Worlds Apart,” a pilot for ABC America / True Entertainment / Endemol. As you can see, Hillier was and is always in constant movement and enjoys working in a number of diverse creative areas including documentaries, music videos, commercials, feature and short films.
Scott studied film at New York University and The London Film and Television School. He also studied literary non-fiction writing at Columbia University. Hillier's regular clients include the BBC, Microsoft, ABC, PBS and National Geographic. Between filming assignments, he used to teach film, a Masters Degree course in Screenwriting at the Eicar International Film School in Paris, France and journalism at the Formation des Journalistes Français in Paris, France.
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