European Film Awards: Discovery Award

Davids versus Goliaths
By Alin Tasciyan

The great Orson Welles once sang a song... The final verses of the lyrics go as follows: "I know what it is to be young / but you, you don't know what it is to be old / So my friend... Let's make music together / I'll play the old while you sing me the new"...

The coevals of Orson Welles do play the old tunes in the most skillful way and they even sing the new songs with the energy of youth. I wonder if they know what it is to be old! From Oliveira to Godard they are young at heart! They still create very exciting works and their quest for new cinematic languages continues whereas the young European filmmakers are forced to age as fast as possible. They hardly ever have the chance to know what it is to be young. They are expected to prove themselves with films that will first satisfy the distributors and the sales agents and then, with enough publicity, the audience will follow.

It is evident that the young European filmmakers need to be encouraged and subsidized, they need to be supported in every way possible in order to maintain the great tradition of European cinema and carry it into the future in the same way the old (ever young!) masters did. They need to be convinced that they are not enslaved to conventional filmmaking, especially in the digital era. This is partly the critics' duty to remind the film industry that mediocrity is not a cure, it's a plague. How long can they push mediocre films into major festivals and save the day with limited world sales?

The last current which influenced the European cinema was Dogma... the Danish cinema benefited from that. Currently a few Turks and Romanians are at the top of the attention list (not the market!) and the Greeks have finally shown their teeth. How long or how far can they go until the Honey loses its taste, until 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days run out and the Dogtooth decays? Critics should search every corner for underestimated innovative films and try to argue their fresh approaches as much as possible so that they can motivate the young ones. The Discovery Award (FIPRESCI Prize, part of the EFA - European Film Academy Awards) plays an important role for the future of European cinema.

The new generation of European cinema faces this great difficulty that their masters did not know. The conception of cinema has changed. It is no longer regarded as the seventh art. The public is spoiled by Hollywood extravaganzas. Their conception of cinema is distorted because they can record and watch everything on their cellular phone!

We know that a film is not any chain of rough images that is recorded, edited and processed with visual effects. Although cinema has always been a form of entertainment the filmmakers always went off limits, kept their amateur souls and fought with the system. If they were satisfied with handsome productions cinema would never have experienced the Italian Neo Realism or the French New Wave or the English Free Cinema.

In the present time there is almost only entertainment left, be it for the masses or for the intellectuals. The masses rush into the multiplexes for blockbusters and the intellectuals attend the festivals for political antagonism and exotic flavors of cinema. The arthouses disappear one by one and the young audiences consume the 'films' they downloaded. They are not able to appreciate the high quality of the cinematography or the sound design since they watch bootleg DVDs on their computers with false subtitles. The masses lost their taste for genuine filmmaking long ago... A few amazing animations per year will not turn anyone into cinephiles. Only films that catch the zeitgeist can convert the blood thirsty young audiences who spend sleepless nights watching one horror film after the other and admire the graphic violence above all!

Where are the Truffauts, Fassbinders, Fellinis, Bergmans, Kieslowskis, Fábris, Richardsons of our time who can revolt and set models? Despite the existence of many funds and thorough selections young filmmakers are seldom given chances to realize the projects they would dedicate themselves to. They are hardly ever motivated into making exciting, striking films with strong visuals and content. Their productivity is diminished by the rules of the market. Their creativity and imagination is restricted by economical boundaries. They are either imprisoned into the commercial cinema or enslaved by the film festivals. Any film that is unconventional, experimental or argumentative is shelved by the distributors. They can only find a place at the sidebar of a film festival. If their films are poetic, touching, politically engaged and minimalist oeuvres they are heartily accepted. The spectrum is very narrow, as if young directors are not allowed to make innovative films or create original styles. By contrast, even though a master makes a scandalous film he is defended and appreciated. If a young director makes an audacious film he risks being doomed forever!

In many cases it takes ages for a young director before he can realize his first feature project. Shorts and documentaries, no matter how striking they are, seldom reach the film professionals or wider public. When a debutant director is finally recognized as an emerging young talent he is already in his forties.

Under these unfavorable circumstances critics look for personal styles among the debuts. We seek to find the individual behind the camera, the artist behind the scenes, the sparkle of his talent. And we almost always find a few of them. They almost always prove us right. Their efforts should always be rewarded so that they can continue to be Davids versus Goliaths.

Alin Tasciyan
© FIPRESCI 2010

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