We’re happy to announce the second VIS Nisimazine workshop! It will take place during VIS Vienna Shorts in Vienna, Austria from June 1 to 6.
The largest short film festival in Central Europe, VIS Vienna Shorts is also Austria’s first “Academy Qualifying Festival”, meaning that VIS winners are considered for the Oscar Award for Short Film. Last year marked a great debut in this sense, as the VIS-proposed Ennémis interieurs by Sélim Azzazi was one of the five short films on the Academy’s nominations list.
In 2016, the festival celebrated its 13th edition under the motto “Fear is Not an Option”, welcoming more than 10,000 visitors and screening more than 300 short films.
Under the motto “Trust Me” Vienna Shorts, the International Festival for Short Film, Animation and Music Video, now celebrates its 14th edition and has selected more than 100 films for its four competition programmes, and many more for its special programmes. Crucially, differentiating between the competitions means that the screenings are not just a more or less random sequence of films, but form an unified whole, thanks to a clever curatorial approach.
Side programmes include such delights as slots of horror, porn, and comedy shorts, and the special guests this year, in the Spotlight section, are the Canadian experimental filmmaker Alexandre Larose, up-and-coming Greek director Jacqueline Lentzou, and Japanese avant-garde artist Makino Takashi.
In co-operation with Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier/Q21, the festival’s Artists in Residence program welcomes Scottish filmmakers, animator Ross Hogg and documentarian Duncan Cowles (who together have won the BAFTA Scotland Award for Isabella last year), French director and illustrator Céline Devaux and Belgian comic artist and illustrator Brecht Evens, the latter two working together on an exhibition titled Cozy Continent.
The festival also features a strong Industry section, regularly visited by key players (if this formulation can be used for the mostly unpretentious world of short film). But perhaps most important is the fact that VIS is a very informal gathering, and although organized in a very professional, very österreichisch-ly precise manner, a visitor feels relaxed and positive, not least thanks to the beauty of Vienna at the beginning of June.
Nisimazine VIS
In order to form the international editorial team for Nisimazine at VIS, we are currently looking for 3 writers from the Balkan area (including Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey), and 3 Austrian writers. The selected international applicants will be provided with hostel accommodation invited to attend the event in order to form an international editorial team motivated to make an innovative and fresh festival coverage. As always it will be a unique opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience in film journalism and criticism, and meet colleagues from different countries. The team will be putting out frequent online content covering different sections of the program. All of these formats allow a broad view of the different aspects of cultural journalism.
The application form can be found here.
Nisimazine Workshops
For over a decade now NISI MASA has developed a considerable experience in publishing a free daily, weekly and monthly gazette during some of the major Film Festivals in the world. The magazine is made in the frame of a film journalism workshop for young aspiring film journalists. Nisimazine film journalism workshops have taken place during many international events, including: Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, International Documentary Amsterdam Festival, Torino Film Festival (Italy), DocPoint Helsinki (Finland), Alba Intl Film Festival, Festival de Lima (Peru), Festival do Rio (Brazil), Abu Dhabi Film Festival (United Arab Emirates), Tallinn Black Nights (Estonia), San Sebastian International Film Festival (Spain), only to name a few.
Since 2006 over 200 young critics from all over the world have benefited from developing their skills in a stimulating international environment.
Content
Nisimazine VIS Vienna Shorts will be published online and spread through a network of thousands of contacts in the cinema industry. The output will be a mix of film reviews, interviews, thematic articles, news, pictures from the festival, etc. Coverage will be extended by picture galleries.
Editorial Team
The editorial team will be headed by Editor-in-Chief Vladan Petkovic. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss their articles during the daily editorial meeting and the one on one meetings.
Schedule
After the announcement of selected participants, the essential preparation period will begin. Participants will be required to begin researching, making interviews, and taking part in online meetings to brainstorm the magazine’s content, and of course writing the first articles! There will be 1 collective Skype meeting before the official beginning of the workshop. This meeting is compulsory and will be arranged at the most convenient and practical time for the group.
The preparation and workshop period is organized as follows:
May 4 – 16: Application period
May 16 – 18: Announcement of selected participants
May 18 – 31: Preparation period
June 1-6: Workshop Period
Application Guidelines
The final application deadline for candidates is the May 16, 2017 at midnight (Central European Time). All application material must be sent via email to nisimasaparis@gmail.com, with subject line “LAST NAME Application for Nisimazine VIS”. Filling in the application form is a prerequisite. Providing evidence of previous work is advised for all positions under the following format:
- One article originally written in or translated into English
- One passport-style photo is also required with each application
- Completed Application Form
If candidates do not have any previous work to share or are unable to share it, for any particular reason, a letter of motivation should be given alongside with the application, stating the reasons why he or she would like to participate. Lack of previous experience is not a factor taken into account at the moment of selection as part of Nisimazine’s mission and objectives is opening such opportunities to people with a genuine love for film.
By filling in the application form candidates confirm their availability to attend the entire duration of the workshop, and their motivation to actively take part in necessary preparation meetings and activities in advance. There will be 1 mandatory Skype chat meeting (dates to be confirmed).
Participation Rules
Participants will come to VIS Vienna Shorts from the June 1 to 6 (departure on June 7).
Accommodation will be provided to the international participants for the whole period of the workshop, as well as festival badges and materials. Personal travel and food costs will be the responsibility of each participant.
There is a participation fee of 100 EUR for international participants and 70 EUR for Austrian participants. Please note that a 50% reduction has already been applied to the fee for all international participants. The fee will have to be paid to NISI MASA before 26 of May 2017. If, for any reason, a participant is unable to attend the workshop, they must inform the organizers immediately. The participation fee will not be refunded. Participants will be asked to bring their own necessary equipment (e.g. laptop, camera, video camera). If this is not possible, please inform us in your application form so that we can make the necessary arrangements. Additional support equipment will be provided by the workshop.
For more information do not hesitate to contact us via email to nisimasaparis@gmail.com.