Author: admin_bushofest

The 21st BuSho (Budapest Short) Film Festival is nearing its submission deadline! Filmmakers looking to showcase their work have until 1 March 2025, 12:00 GMT+1 to submit their short films. If you haven’t submitted yet, don’t panic—head over to our FilmFreeway page and submit before it’s too late!

All info for the submission can be found HERE.

After submissions close, stay tuned—the official selection will be announced on 1 May 2025!
Don’t miss the opportunity to see if your film makes the cut and gets screened at the 21st BuSho!

Submit now and be part of the BuSho 2025 experience!

With the winter break following the closure of the 20th festival, entries for the BuSho festival have been open again since 1 December and we are pleased to report that it is business as usual. And after the “guilt-ridden dieting resolutions” following the holidays, we are back in full swing and fortunately the results are visible.

The Polish ZOOM Festival announced that 2 animation films and 2 fiction films were selected for competition out of the Hungarian Bestof package of BuSho. And recently, the news came from Tampere that BuSho free waiver holder Luca Tóth’s ‘Vegan Mayo’ will compete at their festival in March.

At the end of February, the usual film school presentation takes place in Sofia organised by the Liszt Institute. The BuSho presentation in the Moscow Film School is in preparation and in Ekaterinburg has already taken place.

From 1-5 December 2024, Ekaterinburg hosted the 21st KinoProba Festival, the city’s only international film event, which screened the Hungarian competition films of the BuSho (Budapest Short) Film Festival on 4 December at the sold-out Dom Kino cinema.

And of course, what is certain to follow, as local subtitles are slowly being prepared for them, are Turkish and then Chinese screenings in several cities and locations in collaboration with local filmmakers.

As for the domestic organisation, one of the most important dates of the year is coming up, the 21st BuSho deadline for entries: 1 March 2025, 12:00 CET!

Organised by the BuSho International Short Film Festival, the audience award screening of the Dutch short film selection of Shortcutz Amsterdam returns to Hungary. The screenings will take place in two Hungarian cities this year. Every year Shortcutz Amsterdam provides an opportunity for emerging Dutch filmmaking talent to showcase their work, interact with national and international audiences and meet renowned film industry professionals. In collaboration with international partners, audiences worldwide are invited to vote for their favourite Dutch short film of the year in a public vote. This special Audience Award will showcase the six Dutch short films nominated for Best Short Film of the Year in an annual global tour. 

The short films were once again selected by the excellent Shortcutz Amsterdam jury, which included international experts such as Jan Harlan, producer (“The Shining”), Christopher Mack, of Netflix International Originals, actress Elise Schaap (“Ferry”), director Roel Reiné (“Marvel’s Inhumans”), actress Willeke van Ammelrooy (“Antonia’s Line”), director Eddy Terstall (“Simon”) and many others. More information on all the judges can be found HERE.

Film selection:

LET ME IN by Aramis Garcia Gonzalez | Live-Action | 10’00’’

BEHIND THE REFLECTION by Jelle Tigchelaar | Documentary | 16’39’’

THE WEATHER IS NICE by Leonardo Cariglino | Live-Action | 19’00’’

LUNATIC by Robin Noorda | Experimental | 16’00’’

MAGMA by Luca Meisters | Live-Action | 14’56’’

TIDE by Roxanne Stam | Live-Action | 20’00’’

More info about the films HERE.

Screenings and voting locations:

Amsterdam – Belgrade – Berlin – Budapest – Bueu – Cork – Debrecen – Den Helder – Edinburgh – Guimarães – Johannesburg – Leeuwarden – Lisboa – London – Luanda – Lustenau – Montevideo – Paramaribo – Paris – Pescara – Poznan – Rio de Janeiro – Rotterdam – Santa Catarina – Utrecht – Vlissingen.

So until 17 January, cinema fans can attend one of the screenings worldwide, from Berlin and London to Athens and Maputo, in 26 locations this year. Once again, screenings will be held almost in parallel in 2 domestic locations, which debuted last year. On 15 January at 18:00 at the University of Debrecen and at 19:00 in Budapest at the Cirkogejzír cinema, the selection will be screened for over an hour and a half. 

The results of the audience award and the category awards will be presented at the 12th Shortcutz Amsterdam Awards Ceremony on 19 January 2025 at 20:00 CET at the Eye Filmmuseum. 

We would like to thank the Embassy of the Netherlands and the Dutch-Flemish Centre Debrecen for their cooperation. Shortcutz Amsterdam and the BuSho festival welcome all people to vote for the Dutch Short Film of the Year. Let’s discover together the gems of Dutch short films! 

Admission is free but registration is required, please email bdp@minbuza.nl to register. The films will be screened in their original language with English subtitles, and will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/WhaH-WejDxk 

Shortcutz 2025 Budapest screening 

is on Wednesday, January 15 at 19:00
Venue is Cirkogejzír Cinema, 1055 Budapest, Balassi B. u. 15-17.

Host Embassy of the Netherlands in cooperation with BuSho Film Festival’s organizer Gombolyag Alapítvány

In Debrecen Shortcutz will be screened 

on Wednesday, January 15, 6 pm.
Venue: University of Debrecen, Main Building (Egyetem tér 1, 4032 Debrecen).
In cooperation with the Faculty of Arts, Institute for German Studies, Dutch Department and the Debrecen Dutch-Flemish Center

Everything went on for the twentieth time as it has every year before, so it started and ended, the sun rose in the east, set in the west, and then after the noisy success, suddenly there was silence.

We started the processing, the accounting, the closing, the sending of the fees. Because, after all, every year there are some lucky ones who receive it in person and at least as many to whom we send it by post or by courier. This time we have been able to send several prizes to the Liszt Institutes in Paris and Rome, and we thank you for your contribution. Then, interestingly, the Norwegian artist from outside the EU and the war-torn Russian studio quickly got back to us that the parcel had arrived, and from almost neighbouring Prague we received a ‘sad but true’ response:

“Recipient not available at the address.”

The truth is:

“Unfortunately, they didn’t give me a notice to pick up my package. So I didn’t know it is actually there. Now they have it at the depot to be sent back to you. It’s completely absurd.”

Then we realise that we are not even done with this year’s organisation, but November has come and we have to start preparing for the next one, because from 1 December the new registration period will open and our call will be reactivated.

Check out the short event video made by the Latvian students or browse this year’s archive and after the feedback you will surely feel like it, but we also encourage you:

Come and submit your films, everyone is welcome to the 21st BuSho Short Film Festival 2025!

On the evening of 7 September, the 20th BuSho International Short Film Festival awards were presented in the Verdi Hall of the Italian Cultural Institute.

This year, 48 short films out of around 1000 entries were included in the competition programme and were screened at the Pushkin Cinema and the P’art Cinema in Szentendre.

After the 13-member pre-jury, the festival again had two separate juries, the International Jury and the Student Jury. The members of the student jury were: Ádám Stampf (METU), Tibor Kapás (ELTE), Karim Hema (SZFE) and Lazin Damján (MOME).

Zsuzsanna Bak, Prima Prize-winning writer, director, dramaturg and university lecturer, has again been invited to join the international jury. Another lady was Alexa Rodrigues, a former Portuguese actress who has moved to the Netherlands to direct the Shortcutz Amsterdam Festival. Paul Bruce from Edinburgh, Scotland, is the founding director of the local short film festival has also been part of the jury. Last but not least, the last member of the 20th BuSho festival jury, Wolfgang Leis. In the evenings, they were the ones to talk to during the public jury consultations and of course they decided on the 3 main prizes, 6 category prizes and the special prize of 500.000 HUF, which was awarded three times this year!

First, the members of the Student Jury were called to the stage to announce their decision with a short evaluation.

“The film proves how two very different human beings can inspire each other.” The Student Jury’s Best Fiction Award went to the Swiss duo Paul Jousselin and Maria-Lola Terver for their film “The Mysterious Adventures of Claude Conseil”.

The Student Jury’s Best Animated Selection is the French film “A Kind of Testament” by Stephen Vuillemin:

“The most innovative cinematic language. We have never seen such a film.”

“Energy has been used the most appropriate way…” according to the students in “3MWh” by Marie-Magdalena Kochová from the Czech Republic, which won the Best Experimental Film award.

Finally, a special prize was awarded for “The most grown-up children’s film.” and the Australian

Pernell Marsden’s “The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste”.

Next came the International Jury Awards, first listing the winners who unfortunately could not attend the ceremony. The best comedy was the interesting Norwegian film “Superdupermegagigasingle” by Håkon Anton Olavsen. The best screenplay is “The Mysterious Adventures of Claude Conseil” by the Swiss duo, which was also awarded by the students, so this film was the first double winner. Best Actor was Riccardo De Filippis in “Gasoline” by the Italian Daniel Daquino. Two Dutch films were also honoured, and jury member Alexa Rodrigues was asked to accept the awards. Best experimental film was awarded to Ruwan Suresh Heggelman’s “Gnomes”. This year’s special jury prize went to Isis Cabolet’s short film “Jammed”.

The winners who were able to receive their prizes in person were Laurent Poulain for Best Cinematography for the Spanish film “The Companions”, directed by José María Flores.

A special prize followed, a weekly Sziget Festival ticket for a 3-member mini crew with a filming permit for the 2025 edition, awarded to German director Eva Matz for her film “I Don’t Want to Have to Be Loud”.

Before the presentation of the special prize, which would be awarded in the framework of a revitalised cooperation, a message from Dr András Koltay, President of the NMHH, was read out, in which he said: “…All the films screened at the 20th anniversary festival are value-creating works in this respect and contribute to the development of a culture of informed consumer decision-making in the field of cinema. The NMHH is pleased to participate in the awarding of the best films…” The special prize of 500,000 HUF was awarded to the Hungarian film “The Other Side of the Street”, which was chosen as the best film on the subject of child protection and was received by one of the main actors, Zsolt Nagy, in the absence of the director Kálmán Nagy.

Before the announcement of the main prizes, Zsuzsanna Bak took the stage on behalf of the international jury to summarise the events of the past week, thank the organisers and announce the main prizes.

The special prize of the BuSho Festival was awarded to the best Hungarian short film of the competition with a prize of 500,000 HUF, which was also chosen as the best animated film: „a highly stylised and creative 2D animation that is both charming, very original, and combines folkloric elements with a strong colour palette and a powerful ecological mention.” Julia Tudisco’s film “Children of the Bird”.

“A dryily humorous road movie with excellent cinematography that explores familial conflict and celebrates cultural connections.” The Bronze BuSho Award went to “Road tot he Sky” by Russian/Uzbeg Ivan Sosnin.

The Silver BuSho Award was given to a film that was “Expressive cinematography with confident and mature direction, both touching and evocative, and an original and well-executed concept”. The Spanish “Not By Myself”, directed by Doriam Alonso.

“A thoroughly engaging film with strong storyline development, dialogue and impressive performances”. The BuSho Festival’s 500,000 HUF prize for Best International Film and the Gold BuSho went to: “My Night at Flore’s” by French director Louis Douillez.

Before the screening of the winners, everyone was invited on stage for a group photo and thanked the sponsors of the 20th edition of the event, namely the National Film Institute, the National Media and Communications 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. 2.8 Rental, Sárospatak Ceramics Manufactory, Sziget Kft., Magyarhang as media sponsor, and BME Kármán Studio provided the event technology. See you in 2025 at the 21st BuSho International Short Film Festival!

20. BUSHO PRIZES 2024

STUDENT JURY PRIZES:

Best Fiction: The Mysterious Adventures of Claude Conseil – Paul Jousselin & Maria-Lola Terver (Switzerland)

Best Animation: A Kind of Testament – Stephen Vuillemin

Best Experimental: 3MWh – Marie-Magdalena Kochová (Czech Republic)

Special Mention: The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie & Celeste – Pernell Marsden (Australia)

INTERNATIONAL JURY PRIZES:

Best Experimental: Gnomes Ruwan Suresh Heggelman

Best Cinematography: Laurent Poulain in the short The Companions – José María Flores (Spain)

Best Screenplay: The Mysterious Adventures of Claude Conseil –

Paul Jousselin & Maria-Lola Terver (Switzerland)

Best Comedy: Superdupermegagigasingle – Håkon Anton Olavsen (Norway)

Best Performance: Riccardo De Filippis in the short Gasoline – Daniel Daquino (Italy)

Special Prize of Sziget: I Don’t Want to Have to Be Loud – Eva Matz (Germany)

Special Mention: Jammed – Isis Cabolet

MAIN PRIZES:

NMHH Special Prize (500.000 HUF): The Other End of the Street – Nagy Kálmán (Hungary)

Best Animation & Best Hungarian Film (500.000 HUF): Children of the Bird – Tudisco Júlia (Hungary)

Bronze BuSho: Road to the Sky – Ivan Sosnin (Russia/Uzbekistan)

Silver BuSho: Not by Myself – Doriam Alonso (Spain)

Gold BuSho & Best International Film (500.000 HUF): My Night at Flore’s – Louis Douillez (France)