Headlines
Subscribe to the RSS feedProvost’s Stardust sparkles in Vienna
Stardust – the second part of Nicolas Provost’s Plot Point trilogy – won the Vienna Short Film Award at the Vienna Independent Shorts film festival (VIS), the largest short film festival of Austria and the Centrope region. The title competed in the ‘Fiction & Documentary’ international programme.
The Vienna Short Film Award, worth €4,000, is presented by the City of Vienna and was awarded by a professional international jury consisting of Ruth Jarman, Danny Krausz and Thomas Neuhauser. Some 2,000 films from 90 countries were submitted to this competition; only 29 shorts from 18 countries were officially selected.
Flemish Artists take over VIDEOEX
Disorient by Florence Aigner and Laurent Van Lancker received the Main Prize at VIDEOEX, the International Experimental Film & Video Festival in Zürich (21 – 29 May). Because We Are Visual by another helmers' duo, Olivia Rochette and Gerard-Jan Claes, was given an Honourable Mention by the Jury.
The International Jury, consisting of Maria Palacios Cruz (BE), Seppo Renvall (FIN) en Georges Salameh (GR) decided to share the Main Prize between two ‘brave’ films which ‘experiment with storytelling and with the absence of images. Both films share a sense of internal rhythm and pacing, as well as a strong correspondence between the chosen formal strategies and the subject matter that is being dealt with.’ Because We Are Visual also received praise from the jury for its ‘fragile beauty, ‘highly complex editing’ and ‘the two young filmmakers’ ambition.’
Local fests add Flemish flavour to line-ups
May promises to be a busy month for Flemish docs and shorts. Both the Docville International Documentary Festival in Leuven (29 April-7 May) and the Brussels Short Film Festival (28 April-8 May) are scheduling a strong selection of Flemish titles. With attention for Flemish productions on the rise internationally, indigenous fests are following course.
The seventh edition of documentary fest Docville is showcasing an ambitious programme, with yet to be released films, previews and one-off screenings. Among the 70 selected docs are a number of Flemish highlights such as Grande Hotel by Lotte Stoops and Waidmannsheil by Klaas Boelen, which were both selected for Hot Docs this year, as well as Peter Krüger’s creative documentary, Antwerp Central, which recently won the Grand Prix at the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA).
Strong festival tour for Nicolas Provost's Stardust
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 and Parallel Worlds in Oberhausen
Nicolas Provost's Stardust has been selected for the 57th edition of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (5-10 May). The film will screen in the Award Winners of Other Festivals section, confirming its strong fest track record. Parallel Worlds, by Harald Thys and Jos de Gruyter, is also scheduled for a market screening at Oberhausen.
After its world premiere in Venice last year, Stardust was selected for competition at both the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Fest and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it won the Tiger Award for Best Short. The film is the second part of the Plot Point trilogy in which 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 Hollywood film language.
Provost Retakes at Clermont-Ferrand
This year's 23rd Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (4-12 February 2011) pays tribute to Nicolas Provost. In addition to two of his shorts, Stardust and Storyteller, being presented in the Labo competition, the fest is also screening eight of his earlier works.

In Nicolas Provost Retakes, Clermont-Ferrand presents eight early works by this versatile filmmaker and artist. The programme contains Bataille, Exoticore, Gravity, Long Live the New Flesh, Oh Dear, Papillon d'amour, Plot Point and Suspension.
Provost takes Tiger in Rotterdam
Nicolas Provost’s Stardust has won one of the three Tiger Awards for Best Short at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The 20-minute film is the last one in which the late Dennis Hopper can be seen.

Stardust, which received its world premiere at Venice last year, is the second part of the Plot Point trilogy in which 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.
Provost double bill at Clermont Shorts Fest
Two shorts by Nicholas Provost - Storyteller and Stardust – are selected for this year’s International Short Film Festival of Clermont-Ferrand (4-12 Febr). Both titles are competing in the Fest’s Lab programme, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Clermont-Ferrand’s Lab is the right prescription for visual addicts, presenting works by artists dangerously in love with images and sounds.
Stardust is a 20-minute short and the second part of a trilogy. Provost uses a hidden camera to film everyday life – in Plot Point he took his camera to Times Square, while Stardust is set in Las Vegas. The gambling capital of the world is a great setting to let the regular life evolve into an exuberating crime story. The third part of this trilogy – still in production - is shot in Tokyo and portrays a dark journey of a fictitious serial killer.
In Storyteller the director creates a reminiscent of science fiction by using found footage of the city of Las Vegas. Visual arts and cinematography are intertwined by the manipulation of time, codes and forms.