Shooting Europe 2 – that were 4 days, 41 films from 18 European countries, 40 international participants and more than 150 people in the audience, 8 hours of workshops, 15 hours of films in three categories Cultural Differences, Human Rights and My Europe, 1 big gala and 3 winners, choosen by five jury members Natalie Gravenor, Josef K. Jünger, Thomas Kühnl, Florian Lampersberger and Thomas Schaurer. And the Citizens of Europe were part of it. As a co-organiser and partner of the two main organisational bodies AEGEE Europe and AEGEE Karlsruhe, Citizens were involved in the organization of the whole festival but especially we were responsible for the My Europe Film Contest and the program of the My Europe-Day, the last but not least day of this year´s Shooting Europe Short Film Festival.
Saturday, May 27th, was dedicated to visions of My Europe, introduced by a workshop dealing with the topic of European identity and the different view Europeans have towards each other and towards Europe. The workshop covered five different questions: How do Europeans perceive each other and Europe? What are the common fundaments European identity can be based on? To which institutions can we be loyal to? Can European symbols help to create common identity? What are the visions for Europe, European integration and European identity? Then, after European thought followed European action. The film session was opened by the feature film documentary „Reality Shock“ by Stanislaw Mucha. It took us to a half-serious-half-absurd travel to Europe’s borders and into the concept of Europe. Subsequently the 13 short films in competition showed us 13 different approaches and perspectives on Europe. 6 of the involved directors honored the festival with their presence. Beeing an huge success for the organizers this also contributed to festival flair and professional atmosphere.
Supporting young filmmakers around the age of twenty or younger was the aim of our contest „My Europe“ junior. With „My Europe“, „Eyes and mouths“ „Bunkerburgen – alte Grenzen im neuen Europa“ and „The Euro – how much do we care?“ four of these works were selected to be shown in Karlsruhe and had the chance to compete in the My Europe category for the main prices.
In the evening the winners were presented at the gala. The tension was growing, the glamour became more and more visible… jazz notes opened the much-awaited gala! The choice of the winners was not easy, due to the high standard of all films… but surprisingly the jury and the audience awards coincided almost completely.
And here are the winners of the My Europe Competition: First price of the Jury – „The Karl“:„Echo“ by Goran Kapetanovic Special mention of the jury: „The Abandonment“ by Guillermo Fernández Audience award: „Facade Europe“ by Rens VanMeegen and Elisabeth VanOverloop and „Echo“ by Goran Kapetanovic If you want to more about the festival, the winners of the other categories see www.shooting-europe.de