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MIDPOINT Shorts 2024-2025

Shorts
Now Running

Take your short-film idea and make it a reality.

Benefits Program Structure Fee & how to apply Tutors References FAQs Successful Shorts Partners Archive

Benefits

Get closer to realisation of your creative idea

A complex program dedicated to script and project development of the short films in Europe connected vitally to the film industry. The combination of in-depth script analysis and professional project development directs projects on their path in the cinema. 

For teams of writers, directors and producers 

  • it will bring your project to the next level and prepare for entering the industry world (from one-pager to treatment, from treatment to script, from the first draft to final one, from scratch to pitch)
  • chance to get a deeper understanding of the creative aspects involved in the work, as well as insights into financing, sales, festival, and distribution strategies
  • showcase at When East Meets West
  • networking & meeting new industry partners
  • front gate to The Focus WiP section of Cannes Court Métrage

Program Structure

Comprehensive project-development program for short-film projects

  • all Participants
    Online Feedback Session
    August 27 - 29, 2024  | Online

    From all applications, the reading committee will select approximately 20 projects, whose creative teams will receive a detailed online assessment from two experienced professionals (script consultant and producer) during the online feedback session.

  • ALL Participants
    Workshop 1
    September 30 - October 6, 2024  | Brno, Czech Republic / in collaboration with the ISFF BRNO16

    This workshop focuses primarily on creative development and dramaturgy. Participants also begin to work on promotional materials and production strategies with the Producer Tutor. They also meet Guest Tutors from the short-film industry through special lectures and inspiring masterclasses. The workshop is organized within the framework of ISFF BRNO16, offering short film screenings and networking opportunities.

    Lectures
    The Do’s and Dont’s of Co-Production
    Dora Nedeczky
    Wednesday, October 2, 2024, 17:00 - 18:30 CET | Brno, Czech Republic

    The puzzle pieces are finally coming together, you’re ready to spread out and look for partners for your film in development. Now what? Tallinn-based Hungarian producer Dora Nedeczky’s lecture on co-production from the filmmakers’ perspective will equip you with the essential toolkit you need for navigating the film industry and to choose the most fitting path for your film project. She’ll lend you her knowledge via practical info: finding and getting selected to the right co-production platform, positioning your film on the market and setting realistic expectations. Expect a deep dive into maintaining healthy producer-director relationships but also examining out-of-the-box, hands-on ideas and advice on how to streamline the process and benefit from it.

  • All Participants
    Online Consultations
    December 2024 | Online
  • all Participants
    Workshop 2
    January 16 - 22, 2025 | Trieste, Italy / in collaboration with When East Meets West and Trieste Film Festival

    This workshop serves as a platform to develop scripts further, while also incorporating distribution strategies and addressing presentation skills and promotional materials. The entire program concludes with a project showcase within the When East Meets West Co-Production Forum, plus one-on-one meetings with important decision-makers within the industry.

  • Follow-up Online Consultations
    Spring 2025 | Online

Fee & how to apply

OPEN CALL / POSTPONED DEADLINE
May 14 - June 24, 2024

Online Feedback Session

40 EUR
per project

Workshop 1+ 2 

800 EUR
per participant
The fee includes accommodation, board, and tuition during the residential workshops. Travel costs are NOT included.

Who can apply

  • teams of writers, directors and producers (2–3 members in one team)

  • open to projects of professional or graduation short films

  • eligible countries: open to projects from the whole world with a focus on CEE region

Application materials

To apply for the workshop, please create an account on the MIDPOINT Visitor Page and follow the instructions within the submission form.

Application process:
The multi-stage application process runs online. Applicants are asked to fill out the application form and submit all attachments in PDF format (if not stated otherwise).

The application materials consist of:

The application materials consist of:
/ basic information about the applicants and the project
/ short synopsis (approx. 1000 characters)
/ treatment (2-3 pages)
/ author´s statement (0,5–1 page)
/ producer´s statement (0,5–1 page)
/ preliminary financing plan (in Excel format)
/ production company profile (approx. 1000 characters)
/ previous work of director - link(s) to previous reference film(s) of the director (including English subtitles, ideally unlisted YouTube or Vimeo link)
/ short professional biographies of all team members in full sentences (max. 1000 characters incl. spaces per each biography)
/ photos of all team members - uploaded in .jpg, high resolution (preferably front face photos with full-face view, no sunglasses)
/ optional materials: moodboard


Please note that the most important is the creative potential of your project - NOT the development phase or amount of optional materials you submit (if any).

Tutors

Inspirational professional with a passion for sharing

Build on the solid foundations of traditional script analysis, MIDPOINT Shorts brings experts from the short-film industry to the service of your stories.

 

Head of Studies & Group Leader

Pavel Marek is a globetrotter – born in India, early childhood in the USA, now a writer and director of Czech features, shorts and docs, and professor of directing at FAMU Prague.

As Head of Studies, Pavel oversees the methodology of the program, ensures participants' needs are met, and guarantees the practical value and industry impact of the training you receive.

As Group Leader, Pavel also oversees the development of all projects from the beginning of the program through graduation.

Pavel Marek
Czech Republic  
Pavel Marek is a graduate of the Faculty of Computer Engineering, Technical University and the Directing Department at FAMU. He received a scholarship at the NFTS in the UK. During the communist era ...
Complete bio

Group Leader

Gabriele Brunnenmeyer
Germany  
GABRIELE BRUNNENMEYER is a script mentor, pitching coach, and project consultant. She ran the MEDIA Antenna ...
Complete bio

Producer Tutor

The Producer Tutor makes sure each project develops effective promotional materials and realistic budgets and schedules.

Dora Nedeczky
Estonia  
Dora is a Hungarian producer and strategist, with a background in aesthetics and film theory/history. She's lived in ...
Complete bio

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References

A motivational experience that elevates your project

We have managed to achieve almost final version of the script in three months. All the workshops were very wisely chosen and inspiring.
Elvira Dulskaia
Writer, Director, Shorts 2020–2021 Alumna
MIDPOINT Shorts met and exceeded my expectations with great organization, thorough and dedicated involvement in our project on all the important levels, from the concept and story development all the way to the promotion, marketing and sales, enriching it and teaching us along the way.
Nikola Kupresanin
Writer, Shorts 2020–2021 Alumnus
MIDPOINT Shorts program is an amazing opportunity to take your project to the next level with skillful industry professionals.
Emilios Avraam
Writer, Director, Shorts 2020–2021 Alumnus
MIDPOINT gave us great support from the development stage to the final edit. Apart from that, it was a very pleasant personal experience.
Damian Vondrasek
Writer, Director, Shorts 2021-2022 Alumnus
I believe that this program is a giant leap forward for anyone who is serious about his short film.
Patrik Svehelka
Producer, Shorts 2021-2022 Alumnus

FAQs

You may ask...

Successful Shorts

Selection of our successful alumni

Ice Break

Sixteen-year-old Alex is the only girl on a boys’ ice hockey team coached by her father Michal. She is a tough player who feels little affinity for the world of women. But this all begins to change when she falls in love with one of her teammates and yearns to be seen more like a girl.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Rozalie Brozkova, Elvira Dulskaia
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts
Genre: Drama

Rites

A twelve-year-old Michal was born with a cleft lip.
He feels inadequate because of his deformed face.
His only friend Ondra convinces him to join a street gang to finally break free from a position of an outsider.
Two friends have one afternoon to show they have what it takes to pass the admission to the gang. Michal desperately wants to prove he is good enough, but the tempting adventure suddenly turns into an initiation ritual into adulthood. 

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Damian Vondrasek
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts
Genre: Drama

Magic Moments

Parents struggle to earn money, so sisters basically take care of each other alone.

-Why do we walk on the grass?

-So that we step into dogshit and are lucky.

Thanks to the bond they have, they might have already won over life´s shit.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Martina Buchelova, Erika Paulinska
Developed at: MIDPOINT Intensive Early Melons 2013

Atlantis, 2003

2003, four years before Slovakia entered the Schengen Area. Martin and Denisija, a young couple from Ukraine, are trying to get illegaly to Germany through Slovakia, like many people before them. The border between Slovakia and Ukraine will be in a couple of years one of the most secured borders in Europe, but in 2003 it is still open for smugglers and for people hoping to find a new life in Western Europe. Martin and Denisija both dream about getting to Germany, a place they’ve never been to, both ready to sacrifice everything they have to reach this destination.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Michal Blasko, Jakub Brychta
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts 2015

Inversion

A film about the complicated friendship of three adolescent girls, two swimming pools, and one malicious act of revenge.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Lucia Kajankova
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts Dresden 2017

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