Filmmakers /

Behind the ‘long and exhausting’ process to making Jennifer Drake’s GOD IS GREY

Date: 17-01-2025

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Ghanaian filmmaker Jennifer Drake moved to Munich for film school where she worked as a producer before directing her first short GOD IS GREY. The short, which explores the taboos around sexuality in her home and adopted countries, had its...


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Szymon Ruczynski on his ‘deliberately imperfect’ and deeply powerful animation

Date: 14-01-2025

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Szymon Ruczyński’s animated film THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THE FOREST has seen its share of festival success around the world, and made the T-Port Lighthouse Selections in 2023. But as the film has travelled, the humanitarian crisis it depicts continues...


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It started with a CAPTCHA – Victoria Warmerdam on the highs and lows of making her OSCAR® shortlisted short

Date: 06-01-2025

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Victoria Warmerdam’s short comedy-drama I’M NOT A ROBOT has gained accolades and awards across the festival circuit from Sitges to Cannes. But perhaps the pinnacle is yet to come, as the Dutch film has been shortlisted for the ACADEMY AWARD®...


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The simple, complicated ideas of Michal Toczek

Date: 17-12-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Michal Toczek has been busy – four of his films currently appear on T-Port, each with intersecting themes and ideas, and two featuring the same well known Polish comic actor – Sebastian Stankiewicz – in dramatic roles.  In this...


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Ieva Šakalytė on the joys of pitching and letting go

Date: 05-12-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Baltic Pitching Forum alumna Ieva Šakalytė (she/her) was gracious enough to share two of her short films BECOMING ANIMAL (2018) and SPA (2024) with us, so we caught up with the Lithuanian filmmaker to chat about  the production process, the...


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From a Lighthouse Selection to an awards run, catch up with Gleb Osatinski

Date: 18-11-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Gleb Osatinski has been busy since his film OUTSIDERS made the cut for the 2021 T-Port Lighthouse Selections. In this catch up interview, we chat to the Ukrainian-born filmmaker about his current awards run after a lengthy pre production...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Hoda Taheri on confidence, communication, and the future

Date: 15-08-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Hoda Taheri, born in Tehran, Iran in 1992, is an Iranian Refugee Artist and Filmmaker based in Berlin, Germany. In 2016, she received her bachelor’s degree in visual communication from Limkokwing University in Malaysia. Her short film MOTHER PRAYS ALL...


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Chadi Bennani on identity, exploration through film, and a delicate approach to working with his subjects

Date: 09-08-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

  Chadi Bennani is a filmmaker from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In this interview the documentarian talks about his cinematic origins, the close and trusting relationship he builds with his subjects and crew, as well as how he uses film to...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Boris Hadzija on making sense from the ‘cacophony of voices’

Date: 06-08-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Boris Hadzija’s Lighthouse-selected short YUGOTRANSPORT: WE ARE ALL ON THE SAME BUS draws on the experiences of those around him, having been born in the former Yugoslavia. We talked to the director about what it took to work with non-actors,...


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Giving voice (and rebellion) to the caregivers: EFP’s Future Frames’ Anna Maria Joakimsdottir-Hutri, director of WHO STANDS UP FOR ALVAR?

Date: 18-07-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

  Every year, European Film Promotion (EFP) select ten outstanding young directors and screen their films at the Karlovy-Vary Film Festival, following which we are lucky enough to host the films here on T-Port for our Professional Subscribers.  Anna Maria...


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Familial love amid medical trauma, an interview with EFP’s Future Frames’ Marthe Peters

Date: 18-07-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Every year, European Film Promotion (EFP) select ten outstanding young directors and screen their films at the Karlovy-Vary Film Festival, following which we are lucky enough to host the films here on T-Port for our Professional Subscribers.  We were lucky...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Ido Weisman on seizing the moment and going against the grain

Date: 12-07-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Ido Weisman honed his craft in the world of reality TV, which he credits with helping him discover his role as a documentarian. His documentary short REQUIEM FOR A WHALE is a perfect example of when a filmmaker should...


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T-Port State of the Industry Interviews: Pride Month Special

Date: 20-06-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

June’s Pride Month calls us to recognise the voices and stories of the lesbian, gay,bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) members of our communities alongside the struggle for equality and acceptance within our wider societies. Year-round we are truly...


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2023 Claims Conference Contest winner Dara Bratt on fast filming and commemorative tattoos

Date: 19-06-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

  Dara Bratt is a Canadian filmmaker based in New York City, who was recently announced as the winner of the 2023 Claims Conference Filmmaker Contest. We caught up with her to find out about her upcoming project on Holocaust...


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Pride Month: Katie Bignell’s top LGBTQIA Film Festivals

Date: 12-06-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

The film festival circuit hasn’t always been a welcoming place for diverse voices. And, while we mustn’t forget that the fight for rights and recognition of LGBTQIA+ people is an ongoing battle, nowadays there is a thriving festival circuit which...


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2022 Claims Conference Grant Winner Robert Moniot on the magic of last-minute inspiration

Date: 11-06-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Robert Moniot was in the process of relocating with his family to a new country when he grasped the opportunity to pitch his film, THE ICE CREAM MAN, to the Claims Conference. We caught up with the filmmaker to find...


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2021 Claims Conference Grant winner Sabina Vajrača on trusting the universe and stirring deep conversations

Date: 04-06-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Sabina Vajrača’s winning pitch for the 2021 Claims Conference Grant became her highly acclaimed short film SEVAP/MITZVAH. We caught up with the filmmaker to find out more about what the process of making such a personal film was like.  We...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Found footage from a distant place in Eugenia Bakurin’s ‘Long Time No Techno’

Date: 31-05-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Eugenia Bakurin is a filmmaker and media artist, who was born in the Soviet Union and has lived in Germany for over 20-years.  T-Port’s Jess Sweetman caught up with the filmmaker to talk about her Lighthouse Selected found footage film...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The (VIDEO) Interviews – Yi Xiong and the fortune telling turtles

Date: 01-05-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Yi Xiong’s A TORTOISE’S YEAR OF FATE is a 20-minute portrait of a young man trying to find belonging, set among the machinery of a Chinese factory. It’s universal theme and gorgeous cinematography caught the eye of guest curator Laurence...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – The ‘Strange and Exciting’ Life of Alex Lawther

Date: 10-04-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Alex Lawther has been making his name as an actor for quite some time, but his directorial debut, the short film FOR PEOPLE IN TROUBLE, which he also wrote, has already been making a splash on the festival circuit in...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Janina Lutter on standing up through (and beyond) film

Date: 26-03-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Janina Lutter is the director of the Lighthouse Selected film THE SCHOOL IS ON FIRE AND WE KNOW WHY, which appears on T-Port courtesy of our partners at Hessische Film und Medienakademie (hFMA). In this interview, the sparky Lutter shares...


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This International Women’s Day – Emerging Female Filmmakers Share Their Views on the Current State of the Film Industry

Date: 07-03-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

By Jess Sweetman – T-Port Marketing  March 8th is International Women’s Day (IWD), a global holiday celebrated annually to commemorate women’s cultural, political, and social achievements. It is also a focal point in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Camille Tricaud – Portrait of a film lover creating for a better future

Date: 21-02-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

French director and producer Camille Tricaud is hard at work as a founder of the independent production company Benedetta Films. In this inspiring interview we caught up with her to delve into how she used sound in her Lighthouse Selected-film...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Poetry of the pragmatic with Maximilian Bungarten

Date: 19-01-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Maximilian Bungarten is the director of 2023 Lighthouse Selection THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, a short he shot on film in his home-city of Cologne, Germany. The film, which he independently uploaded to T-Port along with another Lighthouse Selection from his...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Follow and the miracles will come – a chat with Anat Eisenberg

Date: 12-01-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Anat Eisenberg, director of the Lighthouse-Selected short NOVY GOD, made her film shortly after becoming a mother, especially poignant as the film’s narrative was inspired by the complicated relationship between Eisenberg’s grandmother and the younger woman who cared for her. ...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Dascha Petuchow on immigrant identities, ‘family ties, and their underlying humanity’

Date: 04-01-2024

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Dascha Petuchow was in lockdown when she wrote the script for her 29-minute drama CHEWING GUM. The short, which was inspired by revisiting her own experiences of growing up as the daughter of an immigrant in Germany, was included...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – A breath of fresh air with Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter

Date: 22-12-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

This week, we’re focussing on Gunnnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter’s 5-minute short FÁR, which tells the story of a woman’s dilemma when a bird hits the window of the cafe she is in. The film’s icy aesthetic was inspired by the German-Icelandic...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Filmmaker Stanley Xu on a childhood memory laid to rest

Date: 14-12-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Singaporean filmmaker Stanley Xu was inspired to make his short A DAY, THAT YEAR, while working through the impact of a chilling childhood memory. The film made it into the 2023 T-Port Lighthouse Selections, picked by curator Laurence Boyce. We...


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T-Port Lighthouse Selections 2023: The Interviews – Documentarian Zohar Orian Cohen on her ‘need of justice and aspiration for truth’

Date: 07-12-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Israeli documentarian Zohar Orian Cohen describes herself as someone who seeks truth and justice, and it was in this spirit she turned the camera upon herself for her student film, created through the School of Audio and Visual Arts, Sapir...


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Script Pool Tallinn winner Léon Yersin on his intriguing feature film pitch, his short MISCELLANEOUS, and dreams of space operas

Date: 05-12-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

The 2023 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival finished recently, where the SCRIPT POOL AWARD of €5000 was awarded to the T-Port talent/filmmaker, Léon Yersin, who pitched the feature film “What Remains” at the PÖFF Script Pool. Yersin was selected to...


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Filmmaker Shira Yermiyahu on her collaborative filmmaking process and finding inspiration

Date: 27-11-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

FAIRY TALE by director Shira Yermiyahu, is a short film about 3 teenage girls on summer vacation, who are searching for adventure to relieve the boredom of a typical night in Yavne: A desperate quest for vodka ends in a...


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From sickness to joy – Arvin Kananian on directing his ‘playful and elegant’ send-up of the perfectly polished

Date: 16-10-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

“Simon and Siván are the perfect artsy couple. Everything in their lives is curated, from the way they have sex to their choice of therapist. One night, during another soulless art exhibition, the shiny surface of their relationship starts to...


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Locarno Pardi di domani winners – The Interviews: Eric K. Boulianne on the importance of storytelling and the resilience of love

Date: 09-10-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Eric K. Boulianne switched from screenwriting to writing and directing for his short film FAIRE UN ENFANT (MAKING BABIES), and earned the Pardi di domani Best Direction Award BONALUMI Engineering. We chatted to the director about what it felt like...


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Locarno Pardi di domani winners – The Interviews: Lea Bloch on speaking her truth

Date: 02-10-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Lea Bloch’s film LAST NIGHT is a tense drama based around a group of friends unravelling the non-consensual sex that occurred between two of them the previous night. The film won the Pardino d’oro Swiss Life award for the...


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Locarno Pardi di domani winners – The Interviews: Amirhossein Shojaei on natural light, ambient sound, and distributing Iranian shorts

Date: 25-09-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

This year’s Locarno Film Festival may be over but here at T-Port we have their catalogue of selected shorts and winners here for professional subscribers to enjoy. Among them is THE GUARD, a film by Iranian filmmaker Amirhossein Shojaei, winner...


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Writing from a fascination with the unseen stories that surround us: An interview with filmmaker Can Baran

Date: 21-09-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Can Baran has just graduated from Turkey’s Bilkent University school of Communications and Design and his graduation film TENEMENT has made it to the National Student Films final at the Adana Golden Boll International Film Festival. In this interview...


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Documentary as a means of self-exploration and healing: an interview with Ehud Mordehay, director of UnNamed

Date: 17-08-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

“On August 1, 2009, a perpetrator forcefully entered the meeting place for LGBTQ+ youth known as ‘Barnoar’ in the heart of Tel Aviv, unleashing a hail of gunfire indiscriminately. In an instant, that fateful bullet pierced my body, forever altering...


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Director Dawid Bodzak on acceptance to Cannes, lighting a neo-Giallo, and improvised film music on set

Date: 26-07-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Dawid Bodzak has recently graduated from the Polish National Film School in Lodz and he has more reasons to celebrate as his film KROKODYL was selected for the 2023 Cannes Court Metrage. We caught up with the filmmaker to...


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Representation, karaoke, and recreating the past during a pandemic: A conversation with director Mimi Vlaovic

Date: 14-07-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Serbian-born, London-based director Mimi Vlaovic – whose film is on T-Port courtesy of our partners at Festival Formula, has seen festival success with her graduation short film YOUR GUARDIAN, including landing a nomination for the Young Director’s Award at Cannes....


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Filmmaker Yarden Malka Bonet on how her documentary helped address and heal family wounds

Date: 13-07-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

For her documentary THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ALAIN, director Yarden Malka Bonet took on the deeply personal subject of her grandfather, a man who returned to the family after a long absence spent in religious service in Germany. In this...


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From loss to creation: Exploring A PLACE THAT DOESN’T EXIST with Tehilla Ruddell

Date: 05-07-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

29-year-old Tehilla Ruddell just graduated from Minshar School of Art in Tel Aviv. In her short film “A PLACE THAT DOESN’T EXIST” she explores her own story, having left the orthodox Jewish world at the age of 16. We caught...


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‘A thousand different lives at the same time’: An interview with EFP Future Frames Filmmaker Joris Tobé

Date: 23-06-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Joris Tobé’s graduation film FRANTIC ATTEMPTS appears at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this week courtesy of our partners at EFP Future Frames, and it was awarded the Circle of Film Critics Award for best graduation film at the Dutch...


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The magical light of Spain: An interview with Christian Avilés, director of DAYDREAMING SO VIVIDLY ABOUT OUR SPANISH HOLIDAYS

Date: 21-06-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

This week, several upcoming European filmmakers will be sharing their work at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival as part of the European Film Promotion’s (EFP) Future Frames Programme. One of whom is the Spanish director Christian Avilés, whose graduation...


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The life cycle of cicadas spun into “a love letter to death and to my family”: Animator Fernanda Caicedo on using art to ponder the big questions

Date: 15-06-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Stop-motion animator Fernanda Caicedo learned about her Grandmother’s death when she was far away from her Ecuadorian family, while studying in Germany. The grief and distance spurred her to explore her own fear of death through her art. The result...


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Filmmaking without regret: An interview with BORDER CONVERSATIONS documentarian Jonathan Brunner

Date: 31-05-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

26-year-old Jonathan Brunner is no stranger to T-Port, having taken part in our 2023 Clermont Talents Connexion pitching contest.  We caught up with the filmmaker, whose work appears on T-Port through our partners at Filmakademie Baden Württenberg, to find out...


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A film made with friends, for friends: Lili Zahavi’s ME MYSELF ANDI

Date: 12-04-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Lili Zahavi made her documentary ME MYSELF ANDI about her best friend Andi, whose struggles in academia, hindered by her own lack of self-confidence, may strike a familiar chord. The film made it into the 2022 Festival Max Ophüls...


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The girl can pack a punch: director Lina Drevs on scrappy sisters and filming during COVID

Date: 07-04-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Lina Drevs based the theme of her Lighthouse Selected film SIS – BEST SISTER on her relationship with her own sisters. In our Spotlight Interview this week she opens up about filming during COVID and how she wants to...


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Puppetry that brings happiness : Jonatan Schwenk on the origins of his “delicious looking” creatures – Lighthouse Selections 2022

Date: 30-03-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Filmmaker Jonatan Schwenk switched from stop-motion animation to puppetry for his short film ZOON, which made the cut of or 2022 Lighthouse Selections, as well as the 2022 Next Generation Short Tiger and the official selection of the Sundance Film...


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Exploring ‘Addiction, mental health, and the creative process’ with award-winning animator Joseph Pierce – Lighthouse Selections 2022

Date: 24-03-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

Animator Joseph Pierce’s film SCALE has already made waves on the festival circuit after premiering at La Semaine de la Critique of Festival de Cannes when it was chosen by our guest curator Olha Raiter as part of our Lighthouse...


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Polish filmmaker Jan Bujnowksi on his film THE DEVIL, recreating the 90s and the challenges of shooting on film

Date: 22-03-2023

Posted by: Jess Sweetman

PhD student at the Polish National Film School in Łódź, Jan Bujnowski set himself the challenge of shooting his last film THE DEVIL on film while recreating the past. We caught up with the 29-year-old to find out more. Tell...


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