This film will be screened as part of our short film competition on Monday 16 October at 7.30pm and Wednesday 18 October at 6pm.
Stills
This film will be screened as part of our short film competition on Monday 16 October at 7.30pm and Wednesday 18 October at 6pm.
Michael Vella, born on the 7th of October 1988 and his brother Tommy Vella, born on the 3th of October 1990, are two filmmakers from Cologne, Germany. After publishing his first works as cinematographer and video artist as part of diverse ensembles of the Cologne fringe theatre scene (for example "Geister Ungesehen" awarded with the Kurt-Hackenberg-Price for political theatre and "Sturm" awarded with the Cologne-Theatre-Price), Tommy decided to work as a cinematographer together with Analogtheater to create their first experimental film "Camping Paraiso** - Über das Sterben" directed by Daniel Schüßler (Opening film: Internationales Grenzland Filmfestival Selb, Honorable Mention - Best Experimental Film: ArFF Barcelona Film Festival, nominated as Best Experimental Film: Berlin International Art Film Festival, Finalist: Swedish International Film Festival). Michael, being interested in sound and film in general, recently started working with theatre groups in Cologne. He worked together with his brother on "Geister Ungesehen", recording sound and later, as a sound mixer for Analogtheater, on their film "Camping Paraiso** - Über das Sterben". While working together on several sets Michael and Tommy realised that they both felt a big desire to start their own film project and wrote the book for their first film project "Eina" which they also directed together, while respectively taking care of cinematography and sound. The film got funded by the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW which made it possible for them to produce the film in Sweden with Sophie Rossfeld as lead actress. "Eina" premiered at the North Film Festival in Stockholm in 2023 winning Best European Short Film and Best Actress Short Film for the performance of Sophie Roßfeld. Since then Michael and Tommy toured film festivals all around Europe with their first short film winning Best Short Film at the European Short Film Festival, Best Adventure Short Film at the Emerging Talent Film Festival and Silver Award Best Short Film and Silver Award Best European Short Film at the Sevilla Indie Film Festival.
