One Week Till Lift-Off
“Naturally, we don’t want to ride the waves of nostalgia, but let’s mention a few milestones from the past two decades that we cannot pass by without a word.
It all started when Kultiplex – formerly Blue Box cinema in Kinizsi Street – was the base of Tilos Radio, where Simon was the all-rounder and Laca, and we took the plunge into the unknown. We did 2 sold-out concerts for Erik Sumo in one night, because we projected it live in the courtyard, which was a full house inside, but there was also a Napra concert and Satöbbi.
Then the monument building was demolished for some reason, we went to Almássy Square, which was closed after a staging and that’s how we ended up in the Vörösmarty cinema (DocuArt, Kinizsi Koli, Africafé Culture Disco), where we spent 6 great years and it was only closed after that. Finally, just 10 years ago, we arrived at the Puskin Cinema, where the migrant caravan from Keleti Railway Station arrived the following year, so this time it’s a double anniversary. We started with VHS tapes in cardboxes and then we moved on through a myriad of formats to the cloud without physical media, but let’s cut to the chase.”
The 20th BuSho Film Festival will kick off on 3 September at 19:00 in the Verdi Hall of the Italian Cultural Institute with the opening ceremony, officially opened by last year’s international jury member Balázs Szövényi-Lux, film director. After the short ceremony, the Louisiana Double band and György Ferenczi will perform, while the 2023 BuSho award-winning films will be screened in the Fellini Hall.
After the opening ceremony, the competition programme will start in the early afternoon of the next day in the „Amarcord Hall” of the Puskin Cinema, the repetition screeninings of the competition programme will be screened in the evening in the „Körhinta Hall” at Puskin Cinema. The P’art Cinema in Szentendre will be the venue for the rural screenings.
The Italian Cultural Institute will host a programme of side-screenings each evening, with a selection of Portuguese, Italian and Canadian short films, and on Saturday, a workshop screening and the Panorama screenings will take place before the evening awards ceremony.
In the middle of the festival, on Thursday early afternoon, the NMHH Media Awareness Conference will take place here, where admission is free but registration is required. Also on Thursday evening at 22:00, the Danish rock band Raised to Rock will play a concert at the „Három Holló Café”: pop and disco hits in a hard-hitting cover.
By the spring deadline, nearly a thousand short films from all over the world were once again submitted, selected by this year’s expanded jury, coordinated by Levente Galambos, and the others: Anna Dóra Laky, Pál Laska, Bertalan Balla, Dávid Korom, Lilla Gulyás, Tímea Tánczos, Zoltán Debreczeni, Ádám Varga, Beatrix Tordai, Ádám Ladányi, Benedek Matyovszki, Réka Ratter, Zoltán Gergely. After a long deliberation process, 48 short films from 19 countries were finally selected for the competition, which will be shown in 9 blocks, with 31 fiction, 10 animation and 7 experimental films per category.
This time, the Student Jury was composed of 4 higher education institutions and included Ádám Stampf (METU), Tibor Kapás (ELTE), Karim Hema (SZFE) and Lazin Damján (MOME).
Zsuzsanna Bak, Prima Prize-winning writer, director and dramaturg, university lecturer, has again accepted the invitation to join the international jury. The other jury member is Alexa Rodrigues, a former Portuguese actress who moved to the Netherlands some time ago to run the Shortcutz Amsterdam festival. Paul Bruce from Scotland is a second time jury member, but for the first time in person, as he was unable to make it from Edinburgh where he is the founding director of the local short film festival, due to COVID restrictions the last time. Last but not least, Wolfgang Leis, who will be judging the 20th BuSho festival, will be available in the evenings for the public jury consultations, to which all Hungarian filmmakers in the competition have been invited. They will decide on the 3 main prizes, the 6 category prizes and the special prize of 500.000 HUF, which will be awarded three times this year!
We’d like to offer viewers a sneak preview of the international competition programme. „Crack of Dawn”, nominated for an Oscar in the Best Student Film category in 2023, is presented by director Anna Llargués: “a film about a house falling apart, the fate of the people who live in it, the idea of isolation and the driving force of curiosity.”
The Italian Daniel Daquino will personally accompany his award-winning short film „Benzina / Gasoline” to Budapest with his co-creators. The Icelandic short „Fár”, winner of a special prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, is by Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter. French fiction film Marie-Lola Terver’s „The Mysterious Adventures of Claude Conseil”, which was screened in Budapest in a festival collaboration in January, and then Dutch director Ruwan Heggelman’s experimental dwarfs made a big impression on our pre-screening. The Berlinale’s short film programme included the French/Turkish „Bye Bye Turtle”, directed by Selin Oksuzoglu, which Cineuropa described as “a wonderful story about the fateful meeting of a young girl and a young woman.”
In keeping with the tradition of Hungarian animation, the young people once again came with excellent works, such as the KAFF award-winning film by Anita Kühnel-Szabó: „Apád / Your Dad” or the animation of returning competitor Luca Tóth: „Vegan Mayo”. A glimpse into the life of a struggling family in Hunor Demeter’s short film „Frosting”. And a previous BuSho winner, Péter Karácsony, also submitted his new film „A kis hatalmasok / The Low and Mighty”, which is winning festivals around the world. Kálmán Nagy started out as an amateur short filmmaker and last year won the FIRST STEPS AWARD Best Short Film at the Berlin FIRST STEPS AWARD, which focuses specifically on the next generation of filmmakers with his film „Az utca másik vége / The Other End of the Street”. Finally, we would like to mention a Czech experimental film directed by Marie-Magdalena Kochová, „3MWh”, and a Finnish animation „Bright White Light” by Henna Valkky, Erik Lehtola.
At BuSho Festival, all films are shown in their original language with English subtitles and purchasing tickets is only necessary for the competition screenings on site or in advance online, the other programs are free.
All are welcome to attend the opening ceremony on Tuesday 3 September at 19:00, the awards ceremony on the evening of 7 September at the same venue, Italian Cultural Institute, Verdi Hall.
The organisers would like to thank the supporters for making the event possible for the 20th time: National Film Institute, the National Media and Infocommunications Authority, the Hungarian Academy of Arts, the National Cooperation Fund, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Embassy of the Netherlands, the Camoes Portuguese Institute, the Embassy of Spain and Sziget Kft, media sponsor is Magyar Hang. Equipment support is provided by 2.8 Rental.
All programs and the timetable are available HERE.