The International Festival of Cinema and Technology 2002 took place October 18th-20th in Toronto at the Ontario Science Centre, screening over 60 projects in the Compaq Theatre. IFCT uses technology as a method to showcase projects with new and often cutting-edge technological advancements. The line-up of the event featured: 10 World Premieres, 4 North American Premieres, 5 Toronto Premieres and 23 Canadian Premieres. Filmmakers from Russia, Germany, The Netherlands, Canada and the U.S. were at the event to discuss their works in person. 20 countries were represented in the projects screened at the three-day event: Russia, Canada, Ireland, Croatia, Italy, UK, Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, China, Greece, Mexico, Taiwan, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Austria, Chile, India and the United States.
This year’s event made the International Festival of Cinema and Technology one of the first film festivals to be completely filmless and tapeless. IFCT 2002 screened projects via an HDD or Hard Disk Drive System. This completely digital playback system employed Hybrid VBR technology and displayed all festival content in the progressive format and used a state-of-the-art DLP projector for the screenings. On the topic of festival technology, IFCT stated “Many of today’s film festival events do not have a strong focus on the method of playback and projection. By coming up with challenging and innovative methods and by using new technologies to showcase films, the International Festival of Cinema and Technology places itself amongst the film festivals truly relevant to the 21st Century.”
Judged by 25 Toronto industry experts, the major award winners at the festival were as follows:
“Tangier- Legend of a City”, directed by Peter Goedel. This fictionalized documentary about Tangier and its legendary reputation in the ’40s and ’50s won the “IFCT Best Feature Award.” Actor Armin Mueller-Stahl (“Schindler’s List”) won the “IFCT Best Actor Award.”
“The Same”, a dramatic short directed by Mark Palansky won two awards at IFCT 2002 – the “IFCT Best Editing Award” and the “IFCT Best Cinematography Award.” Director Mark Palansky was also runner-up in the “IFCT Best Director” category. “The Same” is summarized as a “twisted fairytale about the length to which a man will go for the love of a woman” and stars Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor) and Jason Acuna (Jackass- the Movie)
The Freak was winner of the “IFCT Best Use of CGI Award” and was also an audience favorite. The animated project’s artist and director, Aristomenis Tsirbas, worked on the visual effects for James Cameron’s epic snoozefest Titanic.
“Dependable People”, directed by Laura Kightlinger won the “IFCT Best New Director Award” and was also runner-up for the “IFCT Best Comedic Short” award. Ms. Kightlinger is a head writer for the television show “Will and Grace.”
“Bardo In the Between”, a documentary from Templestone Television in India, won the “IFCT Best Documentary Award (Long Form).” IFCT 2002 was the North American Premiere screening of the film, which is part of a series titled “Beyond the White Clouds” and explores the concept of death, rebirth and karma in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.
“Inner Voices” was the winner for “IFCT Best Documentary Award (Short-Form).” IFCT 2002 was the North American Premiere screening of the film. Peter Lindbergh, usually best known for his famous fashion images, collaborated with director of photography, Darius Khondji (“Seven,” “Stealing Beauty,” Panic Room) , to expose the passion and angst of young actors working with their teacher.
For more post festival info, visit the International Festival of Cinema and Technology website.
