Short Film Conference Statutes

The Shortfilmconference is an informal body, concerned with professional short fiction and animation films as well as with documentaries.

The Shortfilmconference defines short films as all types of films at the maximum length of 60 minutes.

The Aims of the Shortfilmconference

  • To promote the exhibition of short films through all different media.
  • To foster the role of film festivals and monitor their activities as to distribution of short films.
  • To encourage co-operation between festivals.
  • To lend active support to film festivals which implement the aims of the ISFC.
  • To further the exchange of views and information between festivals, governmental and non-governmental organizations, film agencies and film schools in order to stimulate and facilitate action for financing, production and distribution of short films.
  • To publish regular information concerning the matters above.o make recommendations for film festivals, governmental and non- government organizations, agencies and film schools based on the current and constantly changing media-situation.
  • To propose standards and guidelines for matters concerning circulation, evaluation and registration of short films.

The Members of the Shortfilmconference

  • Delegates and representatives of governmental or national film boards concerned with production, distribution or promotion of short films.
  • Delegates and representatives of regional, national or international film organizations, associations, film schools or agencies concerned with production, distribution or promotion of short films.
  • Organizers of international short film festivals or feature film festivals presenting short films.
  • Individuals concerned with production, distribution or promotion of short films.
  • Only members who have paid their annual membership fee have the right to vote at the General Assembly meetings.

 

See also: General Assembly Meetings :: Budget and Accounts

 

 

Membership Procedure

  • Current members (and by current members, we mean members who are currently already mentioned at the shortfilmconferce.com/members website) will be asked within the next 2-3 months to pay a membership fee of 40 euro.
    • SFC will provide a simple online payment system, like Paypal, to avoid heavy international banking fees
  • We propose that the first year of this new membership fee, the membership will last longer than the usual one year, more specifically till December 31st
  • Aspiring members have to follow this procedure:
    • Agree with the code of ethics and fill in the membership form at: shortfilmconference.com/join-us/
    • A subcommittee consisting of Julien Westerman (Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France), Mick Hannigan (IndieCork, Ireland) and Frank Moens (Leuven Short Film Festival, Belgium) will review the application and vote for the festival (or organisation) to be accepted or not.
    • If the majority of the subcommittee accepts the organisation to be compliant with the code of ethics, the organisation is invited to pay the membership fee of 40 euro).
    • Once paid, the organisation is an official member of the Short Film Conference, the organisation will be mentioned in the “Members List” at shortfilmconference.com and will have its own private page of the website.
    • The organisation is asked to include the logo (made by experts like GraphicSprings) of the Short Film Conference in their external communication (website, catalogue, …) and –where possible- even provide the Short Film Conference with an ad in their catalogue

Minutes Short Film Conference General Assemblee 2 February 2015

1. Subcommittees

  • The day was started by the gathering of two subcommittees discussing an updated ‘code of ethics’ and a procedure for accepting new members / whether or not to ask a membership fee.
    • Attendees subcommittee “code of ethics” :
      • Tim Redford (Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France)
      • Mick Hannigan (IndieCork, Ireland)
      • Alexandra Gramatke (Kurz Film Agentur Hamburg, Germany)
      • Frank Moens (Leuven Short Film Festival, Belgium)
    • Attendees subcommittee “membership procedure / fee”
      • Julien Westermann (Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France)
    • Mick Hannigan (IndieCork, Ireland)
    • Sven Schwarz (Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Germany)
    • Frank Moens (Leuven Short Film Festival, Belgium)
  • Both committees were successful as they agreed on both a new code of ethics and a (new) membership requirement / fee respectively.

2. Workshops

  • Unlike previous years, the general assemble was preceded by two specialized ‘workshops’.
  • The first workshop “Digital file formats and compression for aspiring nerds” was an introductory glance at the theoretical basis of sound, image and video compression. About 70 members attended the workshop. Lecture was given by Frank Moens (Leuven Short Film Festival):
  • The second workshop “Creative sparks Sessions – Festival marketing” featured short lectures by Miguel Valverde of Indie Lisboa (Social media & marketing) and Laurent Crouzeix (Community targeting). About 80 members attended this workshop.

3. General assembly

  • After a short explanation concerning the “new vision” of what the task can / should be of the new Short Film Conference, the general assemble was asked to vote for three changes in regards of the structure of the organisation of SFC.
  • First Vote: Official name change for the organisation to “Short Film Conference” and its URL shortfilmconference.com. 98% YES – 2% ABSTAIN – 0% NO
    • è From now on our organisation will be referred to as “Short Film Conference”
  • Second vote: Acceptance of the new code of ethics – 95% YES – 5% ABSTAIN – 0% NO
    • è The old code of ethics has been replace by the new code of ethics effective immediately
    • See annex 1 : Code of Ethics
  • Third vote:   Proposal regarding membership criteria & membership fees – 95% YES – 5% ABSTAIN – 0% NO
    • Proposal is accepted and will be applied for all aspiring and existing members
    • See annex 2 : Membership procedure
  • Due to time constraints we did not have time to do the ‘traditional’ name call of every member present. There wasn’t even time for a suggested ‘faster option’ of only asking new members (for whom this assembly was their first) to present themselves. We think that, now finally most of the lingering administrative hassle is behind us, we will have more time next year.
  • After the general assembly, a complementary drink was offered by the Clermont-Ferrand festival, after which we had dinner at the nearby Hotel Kyriad Prestige.

4. Remarks & suggestions for next year

  • To be tackle more, in-depth and practical issues, we would need to have an auditorium simular to Salle Grippel for the entire day. Hopefully the Clermont-Ferrand festival can help us out.
  • Quite a few members suggested not eating in an hotel anymore, but in an actual restaurant. The low ceilings, quite distant servers and sterile atmosphere were not considered to be ideal.

 

This assemblee has 2 annexes attached: