Editor

Under the Patronage of the Lombardy Region, the Milano Province, the Milano Municipality, the Consulate General of the Netherlands, the Lombardia Film Commission, and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia Foundation
is proud to announce that the Festival ended end with a very successful response from the audience and the authors, who have seen their works screened in a very large screening room of the Skyline Multiplex complex, on a a 20-meter (66 ft.) wide screen and with a state-of-the-art technical set-up that includes an International THX® Certified system.

After the internet contest, with 132 online competing works that received a staggering number of more than 250,000 views, and a 5-day short film and special event screening program, the Festival’s Gala Award evening, hosted by producer, director and writer Bill Bristow, with the skilled vocal Trio ‘The Blue Dolls’, formed by Erika Celesti, Federica Pallante and Viviana Dragani, has honoured the winners of the first edition of ‘I’ve Seen Films’.
The International Jury, formed by Bill Bristow, Ludovico Einaudi, Richard Gere, Rutger Hauer, Massimo Maisetti, Annie Perkins, Robert Rodriguez, Ridley Scott, Chiara Valenti Omero e Paul Verhoeven has assigned the following awards:
For the Best Short Film, 20th Century Fox H.E. Award, ‘Das Baby’, by Falco Jagau (Germany)
For the Best Fiction, Warner Home Video Award, ‘DVD’ by Ciro Altabas (Spain)
For the Best First Work, JVC Award, ‘Corações Plásticos’ by Sérgio Brás d'Almeida (Portugal)
For the Best Animation, ISCA Award, ‘Lapsus’ by Juan Pablo Zaramella (Argentina)
For the Best Actor, Metro News Award, Massimo Foschi with ‘L’Esame’ by Andrea De Sica (Italy)
For the Best Actress, Best Movie Magazine Award, Pippa Galli with ‘Das Baby’by Falco Jagau (Germany)
For the Best Documentary, MyMovies Award ‘Hero Wings Are Not Necessary to Fly’ by Angel Loza (Spain)
For the Best Experimental Short Film, CortoWeb Aaward, ‘7 ½ Frauen’ by Bidzina Kanchaveli (Germany)
For Best Film4AIDS, Oilily Award, ‘Plague Spreader’ by Francesco Calderone (Italy)
For the Special Jury Award, ‘Ableman’s Final Account’ by Christopher Trappe (Australia)

Two Special Jury mentions went to ‘The Heart of Amos Klein’ by Michal Pfeffer and Uri Kranot (Israel/France) and ‘Be in It’ (Australia) by Simon Elrahi

Six ‘I’ve Seen Films’ Special Acknowledgements went to
‘The Real Action Heroes’ by Mark Wallaard (the Netherlands)
‘Wizard of OS: The Fish Incident’ by Tom Jantol (Croatia)
‘Ringtone’ by Jeremy Boxen (Canada)
‘H5N1’ by Roberto De Feo (Italy)
‘Integration’ by Dave Michael Guller Grønvall-Pedersen (Denmark)
the Blue Dolls and Hermes Mangialardo and for their ‘Handful of Keys’ videoclip (Italy)

A Special Acknowledgement was offered to Peter Joseph for his internet sensation documentary ‘Zeitgeist’ (USA). Peter Joseph also held an extremely interesting and provocative Q&A session with the audience after the ‘Zeitgeist’ screening.


The two internet contest awards Tiscali InShort Award from the Audience and Tiscali InShort Special Award from the Jury, went respectively to ‘Black & White’ by Simone Nepote Andrè (Italy) and ‘Schemeren’ by Jenneke Boeijink (the Netherlands).
A very special award dedicated to Social Awareness was bestowed on Enzo Iacchetti for his heart touching short film ‘Pazza di te’ (‘Crazy for You’). Enzo Iacchetti attended the Ceremony and offered the audience some beautiful comments concerning Italian comedians and their difficulty in being accepted as artists committed to social themes.


The awards were personally handed out to the authors by Rutger Hauer.

The program of the festival also included some very special screenings such as ‘Blade Runner - The Final Cut’ by Ridley Scott in its brand-new and astounding digital 2K version, and for the first (and probably only) time on the big screen, special courtesy of the Blade Runner Partnership, ‘Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner’ by Charles de Lauzirika.

The ‘I’ve Seen Films’ first year edition has distinguished itself amongst other film festivals also for two other important things: the short film authors were able to watch their works in a big theater screening room, and their works have been screened in a masterfully digitalized version, which allowed a fantastic and high-quality video definition which gathered enthusiastic praises from audience and film authors alike.

‘I’ve Seen Films’ has also provided a unique platform for up-and-coming filmmakers to demonstrate their artistic capabilities and for the public to recognise their talent. All the selected works stood out for their very high artistic and professional level.

I'VE SEEN FILMS International Short Film Festival was founded in 2007 by Rutger Hauer with the goal of independently promoting, on a world-wide basis and also through the internet streaming medium, the works of filmmakers desiring powerful exposure and visibility to their films, and the results of this first edition superbly accomplished this difficult task, also thanks to the prestigious ‘I’ve Seen Films’ International Jury.
The proceeds from the sale of the theater tickets go to the fight against the AIDS disease.

The 2009 ‘I’ve Seen Films’ Call for Entry will be launched very soon from the Festival’s official website.


The Festival catalogue can be downloaded for free from this link:

www.icfilms.org/ICFilms_2008_Catalog.pdf

For further information please write to: icfilms@rutgerhauer.org
I’VE SEEN FILMS International Short Film Festival
www.icfilms.org - www.rutgerhauer.org/icfilms