Archive/ 2013

54th Brno16

16.–19. 10. 2013

Introduction
This year is Brno Sixteen's 54th year – a respectable number indeed. It is our oldest ongoing festival focusing on short film, built on rich tradition and experience. If we pictured the festival as a 54 years old person, we would probably expect this person to be mature and reliable, as one is way past midlife crisis and far away from teenage perplexities at that age. In academic environment this person would be slowly but surely reaching the pedestal of the vestry. And indeed, thanks to its tradition, Brno Sixteen does have a good name, especially abroad, and every year it is getting harder to select the best ones out of all the films that are sent to us from all over the world.
And then there is the name itself: Brno Sixteen. A name like that could mean anything. Holding onto the comparison with a person, the number sixteen evokes youth. The beauty of Czech language makes me want to imagine Brno Sixteen as a young girl who likes to experiment, who does not like the old-fashioned approaches, likes to take the road less traveled, and tends to kick into pedestals. Our team is closer to that sixteen year old, as far as age is concerned, as we are constantly looking for new paths, new solutions, and new points of view.
We are putting our money on more experimental form of this year's visual identity and marketing. Fraphic sutdio DIP based the strategy on one pitoval question: What is most important in life? It is a huge question so it can seem a little banal. That is what gives it a real playful potential though.
That is why I asked myself a similar question: What is most important for our festival? How do we sustain the respectable tradition but at the same time keep up with the modern age and keep asking questions and doubting ourselves and looking for new ways? I can only agree with all the celebrities we asked this question in our campaign, Jiří Vyorálek is the person I agree with the most; it was he who said that it is crucial to always ask questions, to look for new ways to experiment, and not to give up. Which is why I hope our audience will enjoy this journey of searching and discovering, just like our preparition team did, and that they will leave the festival with many unexpected and pleasant experiences.
Miroslav Maixner, festival director