This Friday: See 7 Award Winning Short Films at The New York Japan CineFest

'Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins.' (Dolphin Dance Project)

Whether you're seeking inspiration for work in one of our filmmaking classes or just looking for a great way to kick off your weekend, Friday's New York Japan CineFest program at the Asia Society is an excellence opportunity to catch seven acclaimed short films, and maybe even meet their directors, who will also be in attendance.

One of the program's most decorated films is Justin Ambrosino's The 8th Samurai, which imagines the fate of an additional actor cut from Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. The "wildly humorous" tribute even toured with Kurosawa's films for his 100th anniversary back in 2010. Equally acclaimed is Ken Ochiai's Frog in the Well, which follows a man's "meditative and transformative" trek across Japan to scatter his mother's ashes.

Kosuke Furukawa's Uguisu portrays a waitress who "comes across two mysterious customers" while working at a Brooklyn diner, which you might recognize as Williamsburg's Cafe de la Esquina (previously home to the Wythe Diner). We're also quite intrigued by Chisa Hidaka's Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins, in which "a human dancer and wild Spinner dolphins forge a tender relationship through the language of dance."

Rounding out the lineup are Yasu Suzuki's Radius Squared Times Heart, which snagged Best Comedic Short Film at the Manhattan Film Festival, Haruhito Naka's Into The New World, in which a woman's search for her missing boyfriend leads her into an "unexpectedly hallucinatory world," and Yoriko Murakami's Corazon en Fuego / Heart on Fire, a stop-motion animation about a lonely woman who is "visited by an unexpected guest who will change her life forever."

Sounds like there's something for everyone! Watch the New York Japan CineFest trailer below and grab your tickets for Friday's program here.

-- John Ruscher

Call for Entries: Local Filmmakers, The Northside DIY Film Festival Deadline Draws Near

Summer is just around the corner, and we're especially excited for The L Magazine's fourth annual Northside Festival, an extravaganza of music, film art and food that's happening June 14-21 at venues across Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

Part of that excitement is due to the fact that 3rd Ward's own Assistant Director, Minden Koopmans, will be serving as a judge in the Northside DIY Film Festival.

All of you local filmmakers still have time to submit your cinematic masterpiece to the festival. The deadline is April 15, and you can peruse the guidelines and other details in our previous post.

This year's winning feature will snag a $500 prize, while the winning short gets $250. A screening of both winning films will take place at Williamsburg's Nitehawk Cinema, followed by an awesome party for the filmmakers and their crew. The winners will also get credit redeemable at NYC's DCTV media arts center.

For an idea of what your competition could be like, here's the trailer for last year's winning feature film, Echotone:

-- John Ruscher

The 2nd Annual Greenpoint Film Festival Wants Your Visionary Films

 

Hey filmmakers—while you're readying your submissions for June's Northside DIY Film Fest, why not aim for even more North Brooklyn domination by entering the Greenpoint Film Festival?!

The inaugural Greenpoint Film Festival, produced by Brooklyn arts organization Woven Spaces, went down over four days back in October, presenting local talent alongside film titans like David Lynch and Jonas Mekas, who premiered his documentary about the East Village's now-defunct Mars Bar. The festival will return this fall, and the deadline for submissions is April 3—or May 3 if you don't mind a slightly higher entry free.

Before you submit your film, note the festival's requirements:

The film must have been completed between May 2010 and May 2012.

Works in any language other than English must have English subtitles at the time of submission.

Short films and student works must be under 50 minutes. Features must be 50 minutes or longer.

Films must be available for exhibition in 16mm film, BluRay or DVD.

All filmmakers must have obtained any necessary clearances to exhibit the film at the time of submission.

Full details are available on the submissions guide page. We'll leave you with some wise words from Mekas, from his 1979 film Paradise Not Yet Lost: "Be idealistic, don't be practical. Seek the insignificant small but essential qualities, essential to life."

-- John Ruscher

Call For Entries // Cinephiles: The Northside DIY Film Fest Beckons You

Following the success of last Summer's Northside Festival, L Magazine will once again be hosting their celebration of food, art, music and film--all going down June 14-21. Though today we're highlighting one specific elment of it: this year's Northside DIY Film Fest, a full-blown competition for the city's aspiring cinephiles and auteurs. This year, the feature and short film winners will receive a cash prize and a screening at Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg. They'll also win a credit at DCTV that can be redeemed for anything from equipment rentals to post-production facilities.

Of course, this is all great. But why are we especially excited this year? Because 3rd Ward's own Assistant Director, Minden Koopmans will be one of the competition's judges! We're mighty proud.

The deadline to submit is April 15th via standard mail or--praise to the gods--through Vimeo (anyone who's been making the submittal rounds knows what we mean). So get shooting, get editing and hit the jump now for all of the fest's guidelines:

Features must be longer than 50 minutes, but no more than 130. Budget must be $100,000 or less.

Shorts must be under 30 minutes and have a budget of $20,000 or less.

All films must be made after January 1, 2009.

We will only accept completed submissions.

We will accept submissions with distribution agreements.

For fees and a few more specifics, visit the fest's submissions page.

-- Perrin Drumm