08-04-2014

FESTIVALS: The Swing of the Coffin Maker Wins at NexT IFF

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    The Swing of the Coffin Maker by Elmar Imanov The Swing of the Coffin Maker by Elmar Imanov http://www.nextfilmfestival.ro/

    BUCHAREST: The 8th edition of NexT International Film Festival, dedicated to short and medium films, gave its NexT Trophy to The Swing of the Coffin Maker (Azerbaijan/Germany) by Elmar Imanov.

    The Cristian Nemescu Best Directing Award went to Rubin Stein for Tin & Tina (Spain). The Andrei Toncu Best Soundtrack Award went to Eduardo Williams, the sound designer and director of The Sound of Stars Dazes Me (Argentina), and Igor Cobileanski's The Flavors Collection/Colecţia de arome (Republic of Moldova/Romania) was awarded Best Romanian Short Film.

    Alfonso González Aguilar's Excursion received a Special Mention for the National Competition, while a second Special Mention went to the Swedish film Undress Me by Victor Lindgren. The project 4 and 1/2 Senses by Raluca Răcean-Gorgos and Ion Aramă won the first edition of The Pitch competition organised by the channel Shorts TV and Romtelecom. The winners received 5,000EUR for the production of their film.

    Beside regular sections, the festival which ran 3-7 April 2014 welcomed some new events. Along with Pitch, NexT IFF saw the first edition of the NexT Short Film Market, organised together with the Romanian Cultural Institute. Best Live Pitch went to Eui Jeong Hong for Say My Name. More than 1,000 films applied for the selection. The jury was composed of Peter Webber, Karel Och, Martina Bleis, Julia Sinkevych, Alfonso González Aguilar, Vava Ştefănescu and Vlaicu Golcea. The Pitch jury was composed of Ciprian State, Cătălin Cristuţiu, Ileana Cecanu, Ada Solomon and Adrian Sitaru.

    NexT Film Festival was founded in memory of the director Cristian Nemescu and sound designer Andrei Toncu who were prematurely killed in a car crash in 2006. The festival aims to help young filmmakers to make the transition from short and medium films to feature films. NexT IFF is the creation of Societatea Culturală NexT initiated by producer Ada Solomon.