At the International Short Film Festival in Mecal, Spain (8 – 17 April) Stardust by Nicolas Provost took the Award for Best Short Film in the Obliqua section. The visual artist and filmmaker is heading for a busy spring, from April till May his short Stardust is scheduled for no less than eight international festival presentations whilst another one of his films, Storyteller, is selected for the Videonale 13 in Bonn.
After its award in Mecal, Stardust is scheduled for the Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea. At the same time the film is running in the Brussels Short Film Festival, immediately followed by the Curtocircuito International Short Film Festival in Santiago, Spain. In May the film will make a short stop in Oslo for the Norwegian Short Film Festival, before returning to Spain for the Cinema Jove IFF. The list closes with Vienna Independent Shorts and the Image Forum Festival, the latter fest tours a number of locations in Japan, starting in Tokyo.
Stardust is the second part of the Plot Point trilogy where Provost investigates the boundaries of fiction and reality by filming everyday life with a hidden camera and turning this reality into a fiction film by using cinematic and narrative codes from the Hollywood film language. While Plot Point was filmed around Times Square, this time Provost turns the glorious and ambiguous power of the Las Vegas strip into an exciting crime story using real Hollywood stars.
Storyteller, another short by Provost, is selected for the Videonale 13 in Bonn. Out of 1700 submissions only roughly 50 international artists were invited to the prestigious Festival for Contemporary Video art. The Videonale describes his film as ‘a mesmerizing visual trip through the world of the neon jungle. […], Provost continuously ‘sculpts’ a futuristic reality. Working with a relatively simple technique, the artist manages to process the images, reaching a certain level of abstraction. The viewer is hypnotized by the continuous flow of flickering images of this capital of nightlife. […] Storyteller is a silent film, which only enhances its ‘cosmic’ perception and adds to the meditative effect of the work – a fantastic kaleidoscope of beautiful images.’
Stardust was made possible with the support of a.o. The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF). Currently, he is also working on his debut feature The Invader for which he received production support from the Fund. Provost built an impressive resume for himself a.o. with a solo exhibition at the Haunch of Venison and selections at the Berlin, Venice and Sundance film fests.
Click here to read up on Provost's succesful shorts in our shorts magazine