JURY FAVORITE
The Address
Directed by Aram Dildar
$300
CASH PRIZE
SEATTLE AUDIENCE
(Documentary)
Nosema
Directed by Etna Özbek
$300
CASH PRIZE
SEATTLE AUDIENCE
(Fiction)
Şero
Directed by Mustafa Efelti
$300
CASH PRIZE
FIRST-TIME FILMMAKER
Ground Zero
Directed by Mehmet Göksu
$250
CASH PRIZE
STFFSHORTS 2022 PROGRAM
STFFShorts Program is a part of the STFF Festival and the selection is going to be screened in-person on December 3, at SIFF Uptown.
GRAND JURY FAVORITE
THE ADDRESS
Aram Dildar | TURKEY | 2022 | 15 min
A big surprise awaits the teacher who is appointed to his hometown, which he knows like the back of his hand; the village he was assigned is not in the maps or any records.
"I loved how this story helped tell a part of the country’s history in a fictional way. Some of the techniques to show just how vast the journey were clever. Wish the main character had a way to be more proactive in the story. The Address held my intrigue and was a really clever way of talking about significant sociopolitical issues through a narrative that felt exploratory." - STFF 2022 Grand Jury Member
ŞERO
1st Runner Up
Mustafa Efelti | TURKEY | 2021 | 12 min
The struggle of little Mehmet and the abandoned dog Şêro (lion, brave) with traditional norms in a village where it is believed that touching dogs is forbidden.
"What a sweet, pure story of the power animals can have to make lives better. Was the filmmaking techniques a little rough? Sure. But the pureness of the story transcended all of that. Many filmmakers tend to focus on all the gadgets and making pretty pictures, forgetting the most important part - to tell a compelling story that makes us care. The innocence and methods of lo-fi storytelling were compelling; the film offered a really amazing and nuanced way to talk about a complex cultural issue." - STFF 2022 Grand Jury Member
THE SHEEP
2nd Runner Up
Benhur Bolhava | TURKEY | 2022 | 20 min
One of the sheep's of Bekir (40), who makes a living by selling sacrificial sheep in the his makeshift hut stuck among the plazas in İstanbul, disappears. He has only two days to find the sheep or return the money.
"Out of all of the films, this one felt the most whole to me - a well crafted story from top to bottom. I felt completely immersed with Votive in his struggles and cared what happened to him. I love how even when everything seemed to end happily, life came back to show it’s nothing but a circle with the same battles over and over again - especially for those who live on the fringes of society. The acting was authentic and believable, even the sheep!, and I learned about a culture and part of Istanbul’s fabric I would have never known about otherwise - the true power of film. Well-made." - STFF 2022 Grand Jury Member
FIRST TIME FILMMAKER
GROUND ZERO
Mehmet Göksu | TURKEY | 2022 | 7 min
A film about emergence of reciprocal psychological abuse and emotional conflict.
ALKARISI
İlyas Soner Yıldırım | TURKEY | 2022 | 22 min
Kübra stays in the country house of her grandmother Emine with her illegitimate newborn baby. She hears of a creature named Alkarısı, which is rumored to kill newborn babies, haunts her village and finds herself in the middle of a dark folk tale.
DISTANCES
Efe Subaşı | TURKEY | 2021 | 11 min
One night, three teenagers spraying on the walls have to get into the car of a policeman, whom they thought was seeing them.
EVERYTHING UNNERVES ME
Hazal Bayar & Çağıl Saydam | TURKEY | 2022 | 8 min
An experimental take on a nervous breakdown through a woman’s unconscious. Through an episodic storytelling, our character's unconscious is presented as a TV screen. She was bored of the conventional order. Creates another madness which prevents her from getting mad.
IN THE WOODS
Ilgın Saçan | TURKEY | 2021 | 2 min
In The Woods is a recorded diary of monsters living in an urban forest. Max, one enthusiastic showrunner monster boy, takes us on a tour while his best friend P. records everything. As the team demonstrates to us how it is like to be a monster, we watch their unscripted story.
LARVA
Volkan Güney Eker | TURKEY | 2022 | 9 min
An 8-year-old girl uses her fairy tale-like inner world to seek for a solution to the injustice she is faced with.
MAYBE WE WILL GO SOMEDAY
İnan Erbil | TURKEY | 2021 | 15 min
Rıza and Sabit, who work in the funeral services of a rural municipality, set out for the burial of an unknown funeral. Rıza and Sabit encounter many setbacks along the way. They deliver the body to the orphans cemetery at the end of the day.
THE NIGHT GENERATION
Yasemin Demirci | TURKEY | 2021 | 17 min
It’s Saturday night in Istanbul and the storm suppresses the sound of music around the city. Ozge and Tarik who have had too much to drink decide to end the night and they jump into a cab. However the journey back home doesn’t go on as they expected.
STFFDOCS 2022 PROGRAM
STFFDocs is a new part of the STFFShorts program and the short documentary selection is going to be screened in-person on December 4, at SIFF Uptown.
ÇÖPOVA
Batukan Ceyran | TURKEY | 2021 | 19 min
Recycling waste imported to Turkey is known to be dumped to various living environments in Adana province. Under the guidance of people struggling against this process, we have studied the vicious adventure of recycling waste in Adana.
NOSEMA
Etna Özbek | TURKEY | 2021 | 30 min
A Chaldean Catholic couple living in the desolate mountains of South East Turkey were abducted by unknown persons on January 2020, we witness the last week they spent with their children, only three months before this tragedy.
RETURNING HOME
Dilan Engin | TURKEY | 2022 | 4 min
During the times one’s mind is wounded by forgetting, this is a movie about remembering through forgetting.
SULTANS OF MARBLE
Mehmet Buyruk | TURKEY | 2022 | 21 min
The working conditions of the working women in the marble factory who work hard to earn their living despite all the difficult and harsh conditions, as well as the health problems they experience are emphasized. Despite these difficult working conditions, they continue to fight for their families and overcome all kinds of challenges. Despite everything, the story of the women who have the vision of success is revealed in this movie.
THE LEADER OF HALAY
İbrahim Abay | TURKEY | 2021 | 10 min
The film tells the story of Xale Kemal, who was born and raised in Diyarbakır and has been making a living by attending weddings as a "halaybaşı" since he was twelve years old. Xale Kemal, who aims to carry this value to the next generations by keeping this tradition inherited from her ancestors, succeeded in becoming one of the well-known figures of the city in a short time with her unique style, and left the audience in awe, especially with her plays at weddings, in this journey that lasted for about 60 years.
STFF SHORTS
2022
PREJURY
Cansu Yegin
Ceren Demirkilinc
Didem Demirkilinc
Duygu Aktas
Ela Furat
Ezgi Yucel
Guven Kara
Irem Gokce Aydin
Osman Ibis
Ozgur Arman
Semih Energin
STFFSHORTS 2022 GRAND JURY
Lindy Boustedt
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Writer, Director, Producer
Lindy Boustedt is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. As co-owner of First Sight Productions, she’s spent the past 18 years working on everything from shorts and features to serialized production and branded content to podcasts and VR/AR media. Her narrative work has over 18M views on YouTube and has screened at festivals all over the world. In addition to her current film work, she is the president of Seattle's Women in Film Chapter and runs SHARE: Screenwriting for Healing, self-Actualization, Redemption and Empathy, a storytelling education program for incarcerated women and youth.
O
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Artist, Producer, Curator
O is a Ukrainian, US-based, interdisciplinary, social practice artist, producer and curator. Her academic background includes Law, Societies & Justice, Interdisciplinary Arts, Art History, and 8-year track at music conservatory. O’s dynamic oeuvre fuses multimedia arts, emergent technologies, education and civic engagement. Through relational aesthetics, she investigates systemic ramifications of Anthropocene, interconnects well-being of autonomous self, collective ethos and our Pale Blue Dot, and advocates creativity, critical thinking and activism as catalysts for positive change. She founded and directs TYPONEXUS — an international avant-garde creative suite operating under “Think Global, Act Local” motto. Silent Film Nouveau, Globalist, Golden Record, and Illuminata Nocturna are amidst immersive production series. Nuclear Recitals — O’s creative climate justice project — features world's fastest pianist, Lubomyr Melnyk. She is collaborating with MAP (Make Art with Purpose) and MIT. Her geopolitical, sociocultural, interdisciplinary, participatory project — Sunflower on Fire, Ukraine — is slated for presentation at Seattle Center.
Vivian Hua
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Writer, Filmmaker, Organizer
Vee Hua 華婷婷 (they/she) is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer with semi-nomadic tendencies. Much of their work unifies their metaphysical interests with their belief that art can positively transform the self and society. They are the Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary arts publicaton, REDEFINE magazine, Interim Managing Editor of the BIPOC-led media outlet, South Seattle Emerald, and Co-Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. They recently served as the Executive Director of Northwest Film Forum, where they received a Mayor's Film Award and played a key role in making the interdisciplinary community hub more welcoming for diverse audiences. Their next short film, Reckless Spirits (2022), is a metaphysical POC buddy comedy. Vee is passionate about cultural space, the environment, and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrupt oppressive structures. They are pursuing a Master's in Tribal Resource and Environmental Stewardship under the Native American Studies at the University of Minnesota.
MEET THE ARTIST
Meet Sofya, an Ukranian-American visual artist based in Seattle behind the design of this year's STFF Shorts poster!
As the STFF Team, we are honored to have her on-board this year!
Sofya Belinskaya is a Ukranian-American visual artist. Her magical realist paintings and drawings seek the line between dreams and memory. Born in Donestk, Ukraine, her practice is inspired by the architecture, movement, the passage of time, and memory through the lens of the immigrant experience. She lives and works in Seattle, WA.
Check out more of her artworks at sofyabelinskaya.com
Sofya Belinskaya
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