Belfast Film Festival

It is one of those ideas that is so obvious that normally noone takes it! However, Cian Smyth did and put it into practice. To make a documentary film award, and a festival, in the name of The Maysles Brothers – and in their spirit making a focus on the observational documentary style that Albert and his late brother David have performed so well. “Primary”, “Salesman” and so on.

It takes place, the festival, in Belfast, it is the 3rd edition with a documentary award attached. I was there for the first one, where it was so easy and right to give the prize to Kim Longinotto for her “Sisters in Law”. Last year the Basque film (se previous note on this under Magnificent7) “Nomadak tx” by Raul de la Fuente won and the choice this year will be difficult when thew festival takes place from 10-19 April 2008.

The festival also presents an out-of-competition Documentary Panorama strand screening the best documentaries submitted to the festival but not necessarily meeting the observational documentary criteria of the competition. The festival will now, for the first time, also offer a Best Documentary Short award. Read the list below:

Maysles Brothers Award – Competitive Programme 2008
END OF THE RAINBOW by Robert Nugent (Australia) UK and Irish Premiere
BEYOND THE FOREST by Gerald Hauzenberger (Austria) Irish Premiere
THE ENGLISH SURGEON by Geoffrey Smith (UK) Irish Premiere
THE LAST BUS STOP by Kai Salminen and Zsuzsa Boszormenyi (Finland) UK and Irish Premiere
BILLY THE KID by Jennifer Venditti (USA) Irish Premiere
HOLD ME TIGHT LET ME GO by Kim Longinotto (UK)
COMBALIMON by Raphael Matthie (France) UK and Irish Premiere
ALL WHITE IN BARKING by Marc Isaacs (UK) Irish Premiere
CALLE SANTA FE by Carmen Castillo (France/Chile) Irish Premiere
EVERY SEVENTH PERSON by Elke Groen and Ina Ivanceanu (Austria/Luxembourg) UK and Irish Premiere
RUBYOVKA: THE ROAD TO BLISS by Irene Langemann (Germany) UK and Irish Premiere
DOES YOUR SOUL HAVE A COLD by Mike Mills (USA) Irish Premiere
THE FIRST DAY by Marcin Sauter (Poland/Russia) (Short Category) Irish Premiere
52 PER CENT by Rafal Skalski (Poland/Russia) (Short Category) UK and Irish Premiere
A SON’S SACRIFICE by Yoni Brook (USA) (Short Category) UK and Irish Premiere
CITY OF CRANES by Eva Weber (UK) (Short Category) Irish Premiere
THE TAILOR by Oscar Perez (Spain) (Short Category) UK and Irish Premiere

Documentary Panorama – Out of Competition Programme 2008
Programme as of 05/02/08 – further titles may be added.
TERROR’S ADVOCATE by Barbet Schroeder (France) Irish Premiere
A TRIP TO ASIA by Thomas Grube (Germany) UK and Irish premiere
NANKING by Bill Gutentag and Dan Sturman (USA) UK and Irish Premiere
WAR/DANCE by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix (USA) UK and Irish Premiere
WILD BLUE YONDER by Celia Maysles (USA) UK and Irish Premiere
WAVERIDERS by Joel Conroy (Northern Ireland) UK Premiere
UP THE YANGTZE by Yung Chang (Canada) UK and Irish Premiere
SALLY GROSS: THE PLEASURE OF STILLNESS by Albert Maysles and Kristen Nutile (USA) UK and Irish Premiere
IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA by Daniel Junge and Siatta Scott Johnson (USA) UK and Irish Premiere

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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