Sound & Image Challenge to celebrate works of former winners

The 10th Sound & Image Challenge International Festival 2019 will feature a total of 194 short films and videos at the Dom Pedro V Theater and Cinema Capitol.
The annual festival – which kicked off last night – has a selection of 112 films and eight musical videos that will be placed according to public choice as well as the scrutiny of the Jury and Grand Jury panels.
This year, the festival received a total of 3,897 submissions for short films and music videos.
“Last year, we received over 4,000, but we decided to just accept one film per director so the number has been reduced, but still, we received nearly 4,000 and it’s still [a lot],” said Lúcia Lemos, the festival director.
Lemos further added that the number of showcased films this year is larger, as it will also present the works of the winners of the past years of the festival.
The official selection of “SHORTS 2019” has 112 films consisting of 63 works of fiction, 26 animations and 23 documentaries, Lemos announced in a press conference yesterday.
These shorts are candidates for the festival’s awards in the submitted categories. The awards are designated as follows: Best Film of the Festival, Best Fiction, Best Animation, Best Documentary, Macau Cultural Identity, Best Local Entry and Audience Award.
Among the official selection in Fiction, 14 films were nominated for the following Prestigious Awards: Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Music, Best Sound Design, Best Editing and Best Visual Effects.
“It has been an interesting process. I think the quality level is really high. Some of the films really stood out from the rest and that was interesting to see,” said one of the members of the grand jury, Måns Berthas from Sweden.
“It’s interesting to see so many films from different countries [featuring] different cultures,” he added.
Echoing the same sentiments, another juror Cristiano Pereira remarked, “I could see an evolution […] and I was surprised by the quality of the films from all over the world.”
Meanwhile, the official selection of VOLUME 2019 consists of eight music videos that are nominated for the awards including Best Music Video, Best Song and Best Visual Effects.
The festival’s program includes Expanded Cinema, inviting 15 films from directors from Guinea-Bissau, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Macau.
Masterclasses in Fiction and Animation will also be held, and will be conducted by directors Lanka Bandaranayake (Sri Lanka), Måns Berthas (Sweden) and Julien Dykmans (France). LV