CineMart’s and CPH:DOX’ Art:Film connects visual arts and cinema

42nd International Film Festival Rotterdam
23 January – 3 February 2013

PRESS RELEASE 15 January 2013

CineMart’s and CPH:DOX’ Art:Film connects visual arts and cinema

During the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam, CineMart and CPH:DOX take their Art:Film initiative - that connects visual art and cinema - a big step further. Art:Film-projects by artists Willie Doherty (UK/Ireland), Sergio Caballero (Spain), Fiona Tan (Netherlands), Rosa Barba (UK) and Pierre Bismuth (USA/France) will be presented at CineMart, discussed during a special meeting with visual arts experts and carried on over the ongoing year to other festivals, markets and workshops.

Art:Film is an initiative of the IFFR’s CineMart and CPH:DOX to further enhance, platform and nurture highly artistic cinema and visual arts. It reacts on the specific needs of radical art house cinema to expand in new fields of financing, production and distribution as well as on the growing number of films by directors coming from the field of visual arts, which are successfully shown on festivals and theaters worldwide.

The idea behind Art:Film is to connect people from the world of visual art and cinema, to exchange knowledge and contacts, and to support filmmakers and artists working on feature projects in between the two fields. Art:Film will carry on the five selected projects over the ongoing year to follow up on their finance and development through organized workshops and case studies.

The special CineMart 2013 session bringing together the five projects’ representatives with experts coming from the fields of visual arts and film acts as a starting point to identify needs and topics between the art and the film industry. By ensuring constant updates and exchanges throughout the year as well as cooperate with other fairs, festivals and markets that may be fruitful for the projects. Art:Film aims to have a real and concrete hands-on learning effect for all partners involved and directly facilitate the financing, marketing, distribution and exhibition of these selected art film projects.

The five Art:Film projects presented at CineMart 2013 are:

Amnesia, by Willie Doherty, production company: Raw Nerve Productions Ltd (UK/Ireland)
Willie Doherty, an artist working mainly in photography and video, has twice been a Turner Prize nominee. His works have been exhibited at the biennials of Venice, Sao Paolo and Vienna as well as during the last year’s Documenta. His short film Secretion has been selected for IFFR’s Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films 2013.

La Distancia, by Sergio Caballero, production company: Advanced Music S.L., Europamerica Asesores (Spain)
Sergio Caballero has worked in the fields of electronic composition, visual art and conceptual art. He is co-director of the famous SONAR Festival in Barcelona for Advanced Music and Multimedia Art. His first feature length film Finisterrae was awarded with a Hivos Tiger Award at IFFR 2011.

Future Histories, by Fiona Tan, production company: Family Affair Films (The Netherlands)
Fiona Tan works in the fields of audiovisual installations, film and photography. Her works have been shown around the world in solo as well as in group exhibitions at, among others Dokumenta 11, the biennials of Venice, Shanghai, Berlin, Istanbul and Sydney.

Subconscious Society, by Rosa Barba, production company: Cornerhouse Artist Film (UK)
A Berlin-based visual artist, Rosa Barba is known for using the medium of celluloid and its materiality to create cinematic film installations, sculptures and publications. She exhibits in galleries and museums internationally. In 2010 she won the Nam June Paik Award for an installation previously exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

Where is Rocky II?, by Pierre Bismuth, production company: The Ink Connection (USA/France)
With his drawings, collages, videos and installation, Pierre Bismuth often aims at a deconstruction of our ‘normal’ ways of perception by altering ready-made materials. His works were exhibited at galleries in, among others, Vienna, New York, Paris and London. In 2005 he won the Academy Award for best screenplay along with Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman for the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Art:Film contact persons / further information:

Marit van den Elshout, Head of Industry & CineMart, International Film Festival Rotterdam
Jacobine van der Vloed, Manager CineMart, International Film Festival Rotterdam
Tobias Pausinger, Advisor & Consultant CineMart, International Film Festival Rotterdam
[email protected]
Tine Fischer, Festival Director, CPH:DOX, [email protected]

(End of press release)

Note to the Editor:

Press information IFFR:
IFFR Press Office, Bert-Jan Zoet / Nancy van Oorschot, [email protected], +31 10 8909090