We are honored to present the selected talents for the Talent Academy of the Linz International Short Film Festival 2023.
IRLANDA MARTINEZ
Mexico
Irlanda Martinez is a Mexican filmmaker. Mainly a screenwriter inclined to horror, drama and comedy, with experience in producing. After she dropped film school to work in professional projects she’ve been studying on her own and taking courses from Script Camp, Script hive, a workshop with Emilio Portes (Belzebuth, 2017); “Directing Actors” from Sundance Collab and ISA 30 days challenge with Max Tim.
Lena Isabella Deisenberger
Austria
Lena Isabella Deisenberger is an Austrian filmmaker who holds a diploma in nursery school education. In 2017, while working as an assistant director on an opera production at the Musiktheater Linz, Lena felt the urge to direct her own film and fell in love with film. To gain experience in this field, she started working as a set designer on various film sets. At this time, she also began to make short films: Weinbergschnecke, Unkraut, 37 is an Attractive Number, Jules, Algorithm. The themes of her short films are sexual identity, sexual harassment, LGBTQ+ community, friendship, toxic relationships, loneliness, … In 2020 she started her studies in time-based & interactive media arts at the Linz University of the Arts. Lena is currently developing her next short film, a road movie about two sisters.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the Talent Scholarship of the City of Linz, funded by Frauen Buro Linz. @frauenburo
Armin Čulić
Slovenia
Armin Čulić is a Slovenian actor, screenwriter and director. He has been a cinephile since childhood. In 2019 he participated in two film marathons where the challenge is to create a short film in 60 hours. He and his team received 3 awards and that is when he realized he should explore film as a filmmaker. He found out that through filmmaking he can be the most expressive and creative. In 2020, he created his directorial debut blackanimal69, which premiered at the 23rd Festival of Slovenian Film. At film festivals, it won 11 international awards. In 2017 he was accepted with a short script called How to Disappear Completely and Become Funny. The film is currently making a tour around film festivals and has won 8 international awards. He got an award for Best European screenplay at the screenwriting contest in Oxford. Armin is currently developing his next short film
Nasim Nasibi
Iran
Nasim Nasibi is an Iranian filmmaker and documentary-photographer. She studied Bachelor of Photography at Tehran University and graduated from Tehran University of Arts with a Master’s degree in Dramatic Literature. She aims to create a bridge between photography and film, and shoots films as photo novels, her last film “Lady of Gold, you would be beautiful in my wilderness” was also a photo novel.
Alexander Marcel Hövel
France, Germany
Alexander Marcel Hövel is a European artist who grew up in a French household in Cologne, Germany. At 18, he left home for almost 2 years to travel around the world and discover different cultures and societies. After coming back from the Philippines during the COVID pandemic, he started studying sociology at the University of Cologne. During his studies, he also worked in the German film industry and made his first two short films, “30km/h sur l’autoroute” and “Les Yeux d’Enfants”. Aside from filmmaking and studying society, one of Alex’s great passions is painting and exploring new forms of digital art.
Ruijing Bu
China, UK
Ruijing Bu is a London-based Chinese female director and screenwriter. After she graduated from Shanghai Theatre Academy majored in directing, she studied MA Filmmaking at London Film School. She is dedicated to being an observer of everyday life and has a knack for capturing and exploring the subtle emotional moments of human beings. At the age of 21, her film ‘The Roots’ had been featured by director Jia Zhangke Arts Center and won the first prize of Academy Award at the Chinese Collegial Association of Visual Art. Her other works have also been awarded as best film and nominated in international film festivals. She is now working on her feature film project.
TALENT SHORT FILM LAB 2023
Selected projects participated in the SHORT FILM LAB and developed their next short film projects under professional guidance for a pitch session and compete for a co-production fund. As part of the 2023 Talent Program, participants gathered in a 4-days residency during CANNES film festival to take a deep insight in film industry.
After completing this 4-days course in CANNES film festival, the online courses continued, and participants in this course were prepared to pitch their project at the Linz ISFF 2023 and other film events. After completing the online courses, participants will be guests at the Linz International Short Film Festival 2023 in Austria and will compete for the co-production fund. The produced films of all talents will be screened at next editions of Linz ISFF.
We are happy to anounce that we have a new cooperation partner, Creative Europe Media Desk Croatia.
Linz ISFF Pitch-Session
Co-production Fund
With the Pitch Session, the festival offers the selected filmmakers a platform not only to gain international festival experience, but also to experience the atmosphere of a film market and to get in touch with the professional film sector. In addition, they get the chance to support the production of their next film by winning the co-production fund, powerded by Closefilm Association and the Creative Europe Media Desk Croatia.
Selected Talents 2023
