Tainan 39 Hour Film Contest — 2015
The fourth annual Tainan 39 Hour Film Contestival has come and gone. In four short years this Tainan festival has become one of Taiwan’s major film happenings, this year the indomitable Lynne and Till added a lectures from filmmakers, film instructors and researchers, such as DAAD Director Dr. Stefanie Eschenlohr and Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards Founder Jimmy Kam Chuen Choi, who discussed ‘The Art of Short Films’. As always, Heinz Hermanns, founder of Berlin International Short Film Festival, was an honored guest and judged the films.
I have shot the team portraits and covered the event (and wrote about it) for the past three years and it gets better every year.
Till and Lynne pose with Tainan Cultural Affairs Director Yeh Tse-shan who hosts and supports the Contestival.
Teams come from all over the island and world to participate in the festival where 39 teams must complete a short film from start to finish in 39 hours.
Energy levels are pretty high on the first night before shooting begins. Each team will draw a location where they need to shoot and are told the prop (this year’s was a pineapple) that all teams must include in their five minute films.
While the teams are out shooting there are screenings, this year there were films for kids and Hong Kong short films.
I also took some behind the scenes photos of the teams filming.
This crew, Hotchpotch, won last year with the short Flush Down. Watch it here: http://www.tainan39.com/awf2014.html
Editing and rendering the footage on set
The final submission had to be handed in at Wu Garden at 12 noon on Sunday
Some teams had lots of time to spare
An army of volunteers from local colleges help the contestival run smoothly
A bit of Tainan charm in front of the Wu Gardens and Meeting Hall where films were being submitted
A team waiting for the screening of the 2015 films
A minute past deadline renders 39 hours of hard work useless. Late teams are still eligible for the “Special Jury Prize” and the “Audience Choice Award”, but can’t win the Grand Prize of a screening at the 30th Interfilm – Berlin International Short Film Festival, one Commendation and Cash award of TWD 30,000 and 2 Flight Tickets from Taiwan to Berlin
While the teams watch their films a panel of international judges decides the winner
Till and Heinz at the awards ceremony
Jared and Jon film the Tainan mayor and cultural director for the 2016 commercial.
Duke, one of the founders of the Tainan 39 Hour Film Contestival, filming the awards ceremony.
Panasonic spokesperson gives away prizes
The winners of the 2015 Tainan 39 Film Contestival. A list of winners and their films can be found here: http://www.tainan39.com/finalists.html
and previous years’ winners and films here: http://www.tainan39.com/awards.html#films-b