27/02/2015 - Christopher Newman, the Oscar winner for Best Sound in the films The Exorcist, Amadeus and The English Patient will hold a master class at the upcoming Visegrad Film Forum

Sound mixer Christopher Newman

The 4^th edition of the Visegrad Film Forum, a networking and educational platform for emerging professionals (from 11 March to 14 March in Bratislava, Slovakia), will welcome triple Oscar winning sound mixer Christopher Newman, who will share his substantial experiences from The Exorcist, Amadeus, The Silence of the Lambs and even The Godfather during his master class in Bratislava and will personally introduce the latter one as the opening film of the event. The Visegrad Film Forum was created in order to establish a space for going beyond the borders of the European audiovisual territory. One of the main goals is to educate on specific filmmaking issues and supporting young filmmakers “allowing them to introduce their work and find partners for their international co-productions.”

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Ondrej Starinský, PR manager of Visegrad Film Forum, told Cineuropa “This year, we emphasise the creative side of the film industry; the creative talents rather than producers or film fund executives”. Seven guests will share the microphone. Besides Newman flying from Hollywood, Denmark’s Mads Brügger, the mastermind behind guerrilla documentary The Ambassador, journalist and filmmaker is going to talk more about role-playing documentaries, a style he knows best. Brügger is also the man behind the satirical docu-series Danes for Bush and he achieved Best Foreign Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival for The Red Chapel. The hosting country is represented by Amsterdam-based, independent Slovak film curator, Ludmila Cviková, who worked as a film programmer for the International Film Festival Rotterdam for 15 years, held the position of advisor for Karlovy Vary, Sarajevo, Locarno and Yerevan and is going to shed light on the inner workings of film festivals.

Eight European film schools such as the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, the Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the Academy of Dramatic Arts Zagreb, the University of Theatre and Film Budapest, the Polish National Film School, the Television and Theatre School Lodz and the Film and Television Faculty and Academy of Performing Arts of Bratislava will be the partners of the event. These will screen student films finished with their funding and will complete the line-up with a selection of animated films picked from the International Animation Festival Fest Anča. Participants will have the chance to discuss hot topics related to the film industry in an informal atmosphere. Last year, the organisers prepared “creative morning”, a brunch and seminar with Academy Award nominated cinematographer Christian Berger. Visegrad Film Forum's long-term mission is to encourage creativity and foment co-production for the region's filmmakers.