The ECFF and the European Short Film

Chair: Robin Mallick

In the context of the symposium we will host a roundtable on the European Coordination of Film Festivals' support of the short film. The ECFF has more than 230 member festivals all of whom are committed to the promotion of European cinema and many of these champion the short film.

The roundtable will look at ways to:

Strengthen the ECFF short film schemes and find new ways to support the European short film.
Two of the ECFF's most successful schemes - the Jameson Short Film Award and Europe in Shorts - are celebrating their fifth and tenth anniversaries this year. These initiatives have been instrumental in rewarding individual filmmakers and also in furthering the short as an art form. The roundtable will evaluate these models and devise possibilities for further development.

Develop the mutually beneficial relationship between the short film and the ECFF and consider ways to develop this relationship.
The ECFF has strived to acknowledge greatness in short filmmaking and increase the international circulation of the short. Short film festivals have consistently played very active roles in the ECFF.

Engage with the short film festivals of the accession countries.
This will help to develop a better balance of short film programmes for Western, Central and Eastern Europe.

Increase the visibility of the short film and develop the ECFF's actions regarding the short film.
These may include a canon of Great European Shorts, publishing DVD collections of European short films.

Robin Mallick was born in Wuppertal in 1970 of German and Indian parents. After doing his national service and a bank apprenticeship he moved on to Passau University. Here he did languages, economics and cultural studies specializing in Spain and Latin America. In this connection he gave guest performances one year long at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has been living in Dresden since 1998. Since 2000 he has been festival director at the Filmfest Dresden. In addition, since 2002 he has been General Secretary of theEuropean Coordination of Film Festivals, which comprises a network of some 235 festivals.