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SHORTS France / Sweden

The Burden wins SFC Short of the Year at Clermont

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- The Swedish animation by Niki Lindroth Von Bahr was awarded by the Short Film Conference at an event held during the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival

The Burden wins SFC Short of the Year at Clermont
Producer Kalle Wettre (left) and director Niki Lindroth Von Bahr with their award (© Sauve qui peut le court métrage, Baptiste Chanat)

The Swedish animation The Burden (Min Börda) by Niki Lindroth Von Bahr was awarded Short of the Year for 2017 by the Short Film Conference (SFC) at an event held during the 40th edition of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival on Monday.

The SFC has been in existence since 1970 as a non-profit association for the promotion of the short film. The membership consists of a large number of short-film organisations across the world, including film festivals such as Black Nights, Oberhausen, Sao Paulo and Busan.

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Every year, the SFC organises Short of the Year, in which the members vote on their favourite short from the previous year. The nominees included the Palme d’Or winner A Gentle Night by Qiu Yang (France/China), DeKalb Elelmentary by Reed Van Dyk (USA), a current Oscar nominee and the winner of the Clermont-Ferrand International Competition in 2017, and the popular Portuguese film Flores by Jorge Jácome.

The win caps an already successful year for The Burden, which premiered at Cannes 2017 and has won awards at the likes of Toronto and Annecy. The film is a dark musical in which various animals working in a generic shopping mall deal with their existential angst.

Speaking to Cineuropa, director Lindroth Von Bahr said: “The Burden really got a fantastic reception during 2017; who would have known that depressed fish in bathrobes would be so universal? And I'm humbled to get this acknowledgement from so many of the world’s most experienced and competent short-film professionals. It's huge. Two-and-a-half years spent in a basement making tiny cereal boxes paid off!”

The award was presented to Lindroth Von Bahr at the Short Film Conference’s annual gathering held during the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, which included a talk from Jason Sondhi from Short of the Week and a focus on African short-film festivals.

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