Winter is the season for Xorts

Following the huge success of the second edition of the Malta International TV Short Film Festival, TVM is currently broadcasting Xorts, a programme running over the next few weeks featuring a selection of the best short films that have participated in the first two editions of the festival.

Xorts is being screened every Wednesday at 10.30 p.m., starting last week. Around 40 films will be screened throughout the series. Xorts is presented by Valerie Vella, produced by Tony Parnis and Joyce Grech and directed by Godfrey Smith.

During the first episode last week, the programme screened The Lie (from Germany), Rascal’s Street (Spain), Il-Bambin tal-Isptar (Malta), Joymeal (Netherlands) and Behind the Mask (US).

The second programme, which airs this Wednesday, includes .303, written and directed by talented Maltese filmmaker David Serge and produced by Matthew Pullicino.

This is a short but harrowing look at the horrors of war and how the smallest of errors can have tragic consequences as two British paratroopers land in Nazi-occupied Sicily (beautifully filmed in and around Victoria Gate in Valletta) in 1943. The film won Best Picture at the 2009 festival.

The Moffels – Lucy at the Dentist is a German animated tale directed by Sabrina Wanie. It is a delightfully charming tale of a young girl, Lucy, who seeks advice and comfort from her magical friends, the so-called Moffels, when she has to go to the dentist to remove a loose tooth.

The Spanish entry, Thunderbolt and the Mermaid, directed by Diego Sanchidrian Rubio, is a fantastical tale of a man and his encounter with a mermaid, which launches his successful career as a swimmer.

Italian Andrea Lodovichetti’s Fragile charts the fragile relationship of a man and his daughter over a number of years; two people brought together by their love of music and the piano. Fragile features no dialogue and the passage of time is marked by the rhythmic beat of the metronome. The film won the Best Cinematography award at the 2010 festival.

The two-minute animated short Sheepville by Joseph Caruana takes a biting satirical look at elections and how voters elect the politicians they deserve.

The short film is a fascinating medium; a challenging art form in which director, scriptwriter and actor must relate and convey a story in a very short time, as can be seen by the above films whose length varies from two to 10 minutes.

It is a branch of cinema well-respected the world over, with numerous festivals taking place around the globe and, of course, a category reserved for it at the Academy Awards, which is unfortunately often overshadowed by the mainstream awards.

The annual Malta International TV Short Film Festival and the programme Xorts offer a wonderful opportunity for audiences to watch some perfect examples of short films, while giving a chance to Maltese and foreign filmmakers to showcase their efforts.

These are the films which will be screened in the forthcoming Xorts programmes on TVM

Programme 2 (this Wednesday)
.303; The Moffels; Thunderbolt and the Mermaid; Fragile; Sheepville

Programme 3 (January 19)
Security; Specere; Because there are Things you Never Forget; Democracy is Scatocracy

Programme 4 (January 26)
Paseo; I am a Green Box; My Shortest Film; The Final Act

Programme 5 (February 2)
Brucie; Stop; Lucrezia;
Imprisoned

Programme 6 (February 9)
In the End; Connecting People; The Cloudmaker; Lucky Day

Programme 7 (February 16)
Patience; Ballpark; A Better Life; Triq to Bangkok

Programme 8 (February 23)
6am; Reminisce; Pleasant Company; Ten to Two

Programme 9 (March 2)
The Woollen Hat; From Black to White; Life Cycle; The Palace of the Moon

Programme 10 (March 9)
Dear Child Jesus; Parking; Simplest Things