International Short Film

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The winner of the Golden Chair for Best International Short Film is awarded NOK 50.000,- presented by The Short Film Festival. The winning film qualifies to be considered for a nomination for Best Short Film, Live Action or Animated, as long as it meets the requirements set by The Academy® for all nominated films.

Nathalie Álvarez Mesén is a screenwriter and director with roots in both Costa Rica and Sweden. She began her career in physical theater and obtained her bachelor’s degree in mime acting from Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. Nathalie subsequently attended the Alma Screenwriting Program and earned an MFA in directing and screenwriting from Columbia University in New York. Nathalie’s short films have been showcased at film festivals worldwide. In 2016 her short Filip won «Best Film Under 15 Minutes» at the Palm Springs ShortFest, while Asunder was featured at the Telluride Film Festival. Her feature film debut, Clara Sola (2021), premiered at Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight and became a five-time recipient of Sweden’s national film award Guldbaggen, for Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, and Sound.

Photo: Lina Tegman

Sonja Baksa is a Short Cuts Programming Associate at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Programmer & Program Lead at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

She holds an MSc in Film, Exhibition and Curation from The University of Edinburgh, and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Zagreb.

Actively engaged in different aspects of cultural programming, she has worked internationally with artists and cultural organizations across Croatia, France, UK, and Canada. Her niche interest in art, space and the occult in cinema has extended into academic research, curatorial projects, and written pieces for various art publications.

Michael Fukushima has in his 36-year career been an animator, filmmaker, producer, and head of the National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Studio. He is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (A.M.P.A.S.®) and has over 200 films (and some nice awards) under his belt.

He has produced three Oscar®-nominated animation shorts (most recently, Affairs of the Art by Joanna Quinn and Les Mills), and executive-produced a fourth. Now, mostly retired, Fukushima skis, cycles, and cherry-picks projects that interest him and “spark joy.”

Nastaran Tajeri-Foumani (no pronouns) is a German-Iranian non-binary curator, activist, musician and lecturer*researcher. Nastarans focus is on intersectional*queer*feminism, social justice, anti-discriminatory practice and queer topics in film and art.

Since 2011 Nastaran has moderated for Berlin International Film Festival-Berlinale and curated, selected and reflected for the XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin in various positions in the past 10 years. In the past 14 years Nastaran has moderated political panels and film talks all over Europe.

Nastaran is right now founding a queer-feminist film distribution company that has a strong focus on films from marginalized perspectives. Furthermore Nastaran is founding an institute for anti-discriminatory consultation for film production.

Andrea Voges is an Arts and Cultural Manager based in Durban, South Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and is a Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy alumnus. Over the last sixteen years, she has worked for the Durban International Film Festival, Joburg Film Festival and Red Sea International Film Festival, to name a few.

From 2014 to 2016, she served as a Project Coordinator for the South African-United Kingdom Seasons – an intergovernmental initiative to promote arts and culture between these two nations. In 2020 she was a Project Manager for the Presidential Employment Stimulus Package that sought to support artists during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, she joined the Realness Institute and Urucu Media as the Programmes Manager and Sales & Distribution Manager respectively.

In 2022, Andrea joined the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra’s project management team, and coordinated festival distribution for STEPS, a South African documentary production company. Andrea is currently the Festival Manager and Head of Programming at the Durban International Film Festival.