David McConnell
The 18th edition of ShorTS – International Film Festival will take place from 1st-8th July 2017 in Trieste, Italy. Details can be found online at www.maremetraggio.com.
On top of this there are workshops and one-off features to organise, the Esterno/Giorno project revolving around introducing the public to locations in Trieste that have been shown on film, and a yearly international collaboration with a short film festival from another country (with the 2016 edition focussing on Hungarian shorts thanks to BuSho – the Budapest short film festival). All of this work then comes together during the festival, where the public are finally able to enjoy the fruits of our labours in what is an exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable week or so of cinema. Quite clearly, then, a festival does not just ‘happen’.
As ever, though, the festival is always looking forward. The festival’s president, Chiara Valenti Omero, typifies this attitude. In a message to this article’s author, she reiterated that the festival’s main focus is on promoting ‘the young, promising filmmakers and auteurs of both Italian and international cinema, with innovative filmmaking once again greatly encouraged’. Chiara was also very excited to announce that, this year, the festival’s international collaboration will be with Bristol-based Encounters Film Festival, which will see a whole evening in Trieste dedicated to British short-form cinema, before Encounters will in turn host an evening dedicated to Italian works. All in all, then, it looks as if the 2017 edition of ShorTS – International Film Festival is shaping up to be the biggest and best edition yet.