The spring performance in Bucharest was just an overture and warm-up for what followed this fall in Sofia, and European producers also showed interest in collaboration.
Sjećate li se kad smo u travnju pisali o tome kako su studenti Sveučilišta VERN’ na međunarodnom festivalu dokumentarnih filmova i filmova o ljudskim pravima „One World Romania“ u Bukureštu predstavili Podcast BEAT’ i kako su se tada nominirali u izbor za najbolje europske podcaste koji će se održati ove jeseni u Sofiji?
This is what this report is about!
Well, guess what, not only did they present a podcast in Sofia and were the only podcast from Croatia, but they were also chosen as one of the TOP5 best projects of the festival.
And now more details.
The Balkan Watchers Festival, which is also a European competition for documentaries and podcasts, was held in the Bulgarian capital from September 29 to October 5, and brought together the authors of the best projects from the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
VERN’ova delegacija putovala je u nešto izmijenjenom sastavu pa se studentici Novinarstva, Beatti Ugrin, koja je i idejna začetnica, ovoga puta pridružila Lana Kostelac, studentica diplomskog studija Upravljanja poslovnim komunikacijama, a s njima je u pratnji bio mentor i profesor Robert Zuber.
As this festival is also a competition, such a fusion brings together a large number of experts and renowned names from the film sector, investigative journalism, podcast production, broadcasting and related fields. The six-day festival was an opportunity for our students to attend numerous workshops with globally recognized producers, directors and journalists who collaborate with giants such as the BBC and The Whickers Foundation, many of whom were already interested in some form of collaboration at that stage.
The culmination came at the presentation of the Podcast BEAT', which our Beatta and Lana held in front of the expert jury, which included: Ondřej Kamenický , director of the One World International Human Rights Film Festival; Margje de Koning , artistic director of the Movies that Matter Festival; Venelin Petkov , journalist and former director of news and sports at BTV Media Group; Velislava Popova , chief editor of Dnevnik.bg portal; Curtis Gallant , production consultant at The Whickers Foundation; Yordan Zhechev , creative director and podcast producer, and Denis Karam , producer and founder of the production company ProudCloud Productions.
In the competition of around 50 finalists - out of +100 registered projects from all over Europe - the management chose Podcast BEAT' in the TOP5 best projects of the festival .
Many festival participants did not hide their enthusiasm for this outcome, and for example, one of the BBC producers expressed interest in future cooperation and the possibility of expanding the project beyond national borders. In addition to production improvements and advice on the set design, even such renowned experts indicated that BEAT' has an energy that could be attractive to big names from the media and showbiz.
Čestitamo VERN’ovim studenticama i njihovom mentoru na ovom fantastičnom uspjehu i želimo im ga još više u novoj sezoni, koja uskoro kreće sa snimanjem — jednako kao i s novim ponudama za suradnju kojih sigurno neće nedostajati nakon ovog priznanja.
