Nik and I have a very special place in our hearts for the TRICKFILM FESTIVAL in Stuttgart. Over the years what started out as a professional relationship has developed into a warm personal friendship with many of the festival staff, so I was very disturbed when I received the following e-mail written by Paul Fierlinger and forwarded to me by a friend on 22 December. I understand that several other people in the animation community received it:
I just entered this post into my TVPaint users group forum, from where word spreads awfully fast:I just received this letter from the Stuttgart film festival. First, they asked us to submit Tulip and after we did so this came:
As you know, we loved „My Dog Tulip“ and would have liked to present it at the Stuttgart Festival.
Unfortunately now it is too late. The feature length film section is not only dedicated to the normal audience but also to distributors and sales companies. For them the film is not interesting anymore because they already know it.
We hope that you will produce another film of the same extraordinary quality and would be pleased to receive it for the AniMovie competition in due time.
This is the last straw for me... I am swearing off all film festivals for the rest of my natural life. There might be instances when a producer will go over my wishes in the future and over which I might be powerless, but never will my hand fill in a film festival form.
Paul
I felt that there had to be some terrible misunderstanding between Paul and the Festival and both as a friend of the festival and as a journalist I wanted to get to the bottom of the problem.
This is the letter of explanation that I received from the festival. I understand that it was also sent to several people who had gotten the first letter.
I was enormously saddened by your email concerning the „rejection“ of „My dog Tulip“ because I feel that there is a big misunderstanding.I didn’t want to hurt the feelings of Mr. Fierlinger who is such a great and extraordinary artist and also a great and charismatic person – I had the pleasure to see him when he presented his film in Annecy. It hurts me to know that he got injured and that he thinks that we don’t appreciate his amazing film in an appropriate way.
The misunderstanding maybe born because Mr. Fierlinger didn’t know the whole story. Let me try to explain and please take into account that I am not a native speaker.
We were interested in “My dog Tulip” for the 2009 Festival but they decided to make the European premier in Annecy which was absolutely O.K. for us.
We saw the film in Annecy and loved it. So we invited it for submission to the 2010 Festival. The film was submitted by Norman Twain and was selected for participation in the AniMovie competition.
We didn’t reject the film for the 2010 Festival but we wanted to show it absolutely!!! Norman Twain withdrew the film because we didn’t agree with paying a screening fee. We usually don’t pay screening fees for screenings in the competition sections but we invite the director or the producer. We offered a kind of “service charge” which he refused because “it was much too low I discussed with Norman until short before the catalogue had to be printed and in the end we agreed to disclaim. I really was sad about because for Uli and me it would have been one of the festival highlights and I really did my best to find a compromise with Norman. But I also had to respect the Festival budget and rules.
Norman Twain now proposed the film for the 2011 Festival. We didn’t invite it because the film now is unfortunately too old for the AniMovie competition with regard to the Festival rules. Which has nothing to do with the quality of the film but I don’t find better words to explain.
I am deeply concerned by Paul Fierlinger’s words and feelings! As you know I am working hard for the Festival (and my colleagues do as well). Like everyone here - I feel a big responsibility for the films, the directors and the producers. I highly esteem their work and love what they do – otherwise I wouldn’t do my job with so much pleasure and dedication. We always try to treat filmmakers and producers in the best way and to make them feel comfortable when they come to Stuttgart.
I understand that Paul Fierlinger is concerned and even angry about the rejection of his film. But I am really concerned that he seemed to have misunderstood the reasons and that he wasn’t informed about the process in the past.
Thank your for your attention!
Herzliche Grüße / Kind regards
Andrea Bauer
Programmrealisation / Programme Management
That letter completely explains the miscommunication as far as I am concerned. If a festival has regulations as to how old a film can be to go into competition, it cannot bend the rules no matter how lovely a film is.
It is difficult enough to organize and run a festival without having to deal with unfounded rumors about the unfair treatment of animators and films. If you have heard about or read Paul's letter I hope that the letter from the festival will clear up any doubts that you have about submitting your work to he Stuttgart Animation Festival in the future. If you still have any questions you can contact Andrea Bauer at:
Dealing with so many animators and films in so many different languages is a very difficult task and we who are native English speakers should understand that it is doubly difficult to communicate with us when the festival organizer and staff are not native English speakers. Misunderstandings are bound to arise, but let's save our criticism for festivals that really don't treat animators and films properly.
