European Network for Film Discourse (The END)

Film criticism workshop

The participants of the third edition of the workshop are Emily Jisoo Bowles, Jose Emilio Gonzalez Calvillo, Hava Masaeva, Elena Del Olmo, Hana Kreševič and Alex Petrescu.

A selection of the resulting workshop texts will be published on the Talking Shorts platform. The END also endows a new film prize worth 1,000 euros in collaboration with Talking Shorts.

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A new and critical look at European short film: six international short film festivals have joined forces to form the European Network for Film Discourse (The END) and encourage criticism and comprehensive study of European film. Officially established in March 2023, the new alliance, which is closely linked to the successful online magazine Talking Shorts, will receive EU funding for the next two years via the “Creative Europe – MEDIA” programme.

The network consists of Filmfest Dresden, Vienna Shorts, Lago Film Fest, Kortfilmfestival Leuven, Vilnius International Short Film Festival, Curtas Vila do Conde, Bucharest Short Film Festival, and FeKK Ljubljana Short Film Festival. Its main purpose is to promote critical film discourse by and for a younger generation and to familiarise new audiences with a flourishing European film landscape, including cooperative workshops, mentoring programmes, and various community activities.

There is good reason why the network has given itself the tongue-in-cheek acronym “The END”. “Both European cinema and film criticism like to be declared dead,” says network coordinator Anne Gaschütz from Dresden with a smile, adding that the new platform actively aims to counter this. “When ‘The End’ appears in classic cinema, it also usually marks the beginning of the discussion about the film. We thought that was a nice analogy.”

The participants of the film criticism workshop will hone their writing skills under the guidance of several film professionals. Principal among them is Leonardo Goi Moro, a journalist and film critic. He is a staff writer and columnist at MUBI and also contributes to a handful of other outlets, including The Film Stage, Senses of Cinema, Reverse Shot, and Film Comment. Parallel to his writings and festival globetrotting, he runs the Berlinale Talents Press, a platform for emerging critics. Video essayist Jessica McGoff and film curator Luis Azevedo will also participate as mentors at the workshop.