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Young Critics Workshop 2015

12 > 20 oktober 2015
Film Fest Gent

Young Critics 2015 (left to right: Irina Trocan, Tobias Burms, Nick Pinkerton [mentor], Bart Versteirt [mentor], Maximilien Luc Proctor, Sam De Wilde [mentor], Nana Van de Poel, Anuj Malhotra, Ruben Demasure [mentor]) © Bibi Euse

photogénie and Film Fest Gent proudly present the second Young Critics Workshop (October 12 – 20, 2015), open to aspiring film critics (aged 18-26) from Belgium and abroad, offering them the opportunity to cover the 42nd edition of this major international event (October 13 – 24), ranked among the top European film festivals by The Wall Street Journal and Variety.

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The selected participants will be invited to cover the festival by writing both short reviews and an in-depth piece. They will also take part in Q&A sessions and press conferences. The participants will be guided by film critic Nick Pinkerton (Sight & SoundReverse Shot, …) and the Photogénie team.

The reviews and articles of the participants may be published on Photogénie and on the Festival’s website.

The working language is English.

Applicants must be fluent in English, both spoken and written. The Workshop is open to writers between the ages of 18 and 26, who haven’t made criticism their (main) profession (yet).

The Young Critics Workshop offers participants:

  • accommodation and breakfast in the historic city of Ghent, October 12 – 20
  • lunch catered by the festival
  • a full accreditation for the festival
  • the chance to review films and events at the festival, under the guidance of an experienced critic

Participants will be responsible for their own travel arrangements, most evening meals and all other expenses. Participants will also be required to provide their own laptop computer.

Applications must be submitted before September 14, containing the following:

  • A motivation letter (500 words or less)
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • 3 writing samples of articles or film reviews in English (If the original texts are not in English, provide translations as a proof of your English writing skills)
  • A recent passport style photograph

The selected young critics will be informed by e-mail on September 22.

Send your applications and inquiries to:
Bart Versteirt, Sam De Wilde & Ruben Demasure
editors
editor@photogenie.be

The Young Critics

Tobias Burms

(Belgium)

I am a communications graduate and law student who has just moved to Brussels after spending a quarter of a century in the ever quiet Louvain. Cinema has always been important to me, because I am fascinated by the power of images and the ability to project ideas. I appreciate filmmakers – and people in general – who dare to be radical. Things that are chaotic, erratic or incoherent usually don’t bother me. My admiration for auteur cinema is balanced by an addiction to trash, pulp and Hollywood genre movies. I consider myself to be an eclectic person, but maybe I just have bad taste.

Anuj Malhotra

(India)

I am a New Delhi-based film critic and festival programmer. In the last five years of my work in the field, I have actively collaborated with leading filmmakers, critics, film society professionals, cultural institutions and students to institute an atmosphere of meaningful and rewarding engagement with cinema in the city. My work has been cited/published in prestigious national and international forums such as mubi.com, Film Studies for Free, Bright Lights Film Journal, Cinema Without Borders, Transit Cine, The Seventh Art and Shadowplay.

Maximilien Proctor

(United States)

Greetings, my name is Maximilien Luc Proctor. I am half-French, half-American, and spend most of my time in Germany. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Media Studies from the University of Oklahoma (my home state) and since graduation I have spread my efforts across filmmaking, film criticism, music, and prose fiction. In February I attended the Berlinale as a critic and it was remarkable. I applied for this program in an effort to keep attending festivals that excite me as much as that did, and to hone my writing into a professional and legitimate career path.

Irina Trocan

(Romania)

Irina Trocan is a Romanian film critic and short film programmer for the NexT Film Festival in Bucharest, as well as the coordinator of the online media & culture magazine Acoperişul de Sticlă. She has written in Romanian and English for several publications: Film MenuFilm ReporterClose UpFestivalistsMovie MezzanineFandor. Her essay on fragmented narration in the films of Adrian Sitaru was published in the 2015 critical anthology Film Policies: Contributions to interpreting contemporary Romanian cinema. Since 2015, she is working a PhD study of video essays to argue that they are the missing link between film criticism and filmmaking.

Nana Van de Poel

(Belgium)

As a recent graduate in journalism and theatre and film studies, I am fascinated by the exercise of trying to translate feelings caused by images on a screen to words on a page. In the past year I have found myself especially intrigued by films with unconventional or challenging narrative structures (for my thesis I took a closer look at the unreliable narrator). Proud idealism and incurable escapism would be accurate descriptors of both my writing and personality.