13/11/2013 - The 17th International Short Film Festival Winterthur (November 5-10) featured a strong industry section, with Producers' Day highlighting the relations between short film, art and distribution and exhibition channels

200 representatives of the Swiss and international film industry gathered for the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur's Producers' Day on November 8 during the International Short Film Festival Winterthur. Producers, filmmakers, distributors, festival programmers, curators and new media experts took part in panels, workshops and seminars, as well as one-on-one market meetings.

The day started with Karin Vollrath from Swiss Federal Office of Culture (BAK), Nicole Hess from Migros Culture Percentage, Sven Wälti from the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and Daniel Waser from Zurich Film Foundation offering information on short film funding and promotion for 2013 and their strategies for 2014.

After that, attending filmmakers had the chance to sit down for 15-minute meetings with festival programmers, sales agents and distributors and establish connections for possible future collaborations.

The afternoon saw the seminar titled "Value of Short Film", which started off with Wendy Bernfeld, Managing Director at Rights Stuff, speaking about new platforms and formats available for distribution and exhibition of short films- whether on-line or on new models of VOD.

The seminar was followed with four workshops on different aspects of creation and exploitation of short films. At the "Viral Cash-Cows" workshop, hosted by Bernfeld and featuring Carlos Ferrão, Ad Program Manager for Google and YouTube, and Markus Roder, Branding Consultant at Viewster AG, the discussion leaned towards the relation between short film as content and as film product.

A debate which was going in the opposite direction of the short film issue took place at the "Art and Short" workshop, where Silvia Simoncelli, lecturer at Brera Academy and ZHdK, moderated the theme of exhibition in gallery and museum spaces. The panel included Nadia Schneider Willen, President of Art Commission of BAK; Maria Morata, member of the Selection Commitee of Berlinale Shorts, and French film artist Neïl Beloufa.

The "TV, Web and Shorts" workshop focused on the impact on the industry of the increasing presence of short films on-line. Speakers included Daniel Deak, Managing Director at Daazo.com and Sydney Neter, President of SND Films, and Wälti served as moderator.

At the "Short Films as Lucrative Earnings in an Audiovisual Age" workshop, Stefan Bircher, producer at Shining Pictures, and Martin Zimper, Director of Cast/Audiovisual Media at ZHdK spoke about the successful business models and potential new fields of work in short film in the age of new media.

The final discussion of the day on the value of short films was concluded by Simon Koenig, short film promoter at SWISS FILMS, who said: “The short format is facing a promising future, as the varied distribution possibilities of the digital era, especially in regards to mobile devices and tablets, have – according to the experts – by far not been fully exploited.”