Film festival

A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some festivals focus on a specific film-maker or genre (e.g., film noir) or subject matter (e.g., horror film festivals). A number of film festivals specialise in short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events. Some film historians do not consider Film Festivals as official releases of film, like Jerry Beck. The best known film festivals are the Venice Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival, the latter being the largest film festival worldwide, based on attendance. The Venice Film Festival is the oldest major festival. The Melbourne International Film Festival is the largest film festival in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the oldest in the world. A 2013 study found 3,000 active films festivals worldwide—active defined as having held an event in the previous 24 months.

Tampere Film Festival

The Tampere Film Festival (Finnish: Tampereen elokuvajuhlat) is a short film festival held every March in the Finnish town of Tampere. It is accredited by the film producers' society FIAPF, and together with the short film festivals in Oberhausen and Clermont-Ferrand, it is among the most important European short film festivals.

The first festival was held in 1969, and since 1970 it has been held in its current form, which makes it the oldest short film festival in Northern Europe.

Approximately 500 short films are screened during the five days of the festival each year, and there are lots of seminars and other activities surrounding the festival. The festival gathers an audience of 30 000 each year. It is an important meeting place for film professionals and enthusiasts, as well as a traditional local event.

Grand Prix winners

Tampere

Tampere (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈtɑmpere]; Swedish: Tammerfors [tamərˈfɔrs] or [tamərˈfɔʂ]) is a city in Pirkanmaa, southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries.

The city has a population of 223,292 growing to 313,058 people in the urban area, and 364,000 in the metropolitan area (Tampere sub-region) on an area of 4,977 km² as of 2011. Tampere is the second-largest urban area and third most-populous individual municipality in the country, after Helsinki and Espoo municipalities (2014 data). It's also the most populous Finnish city outside the Greater Helsinki area and inner Finland's major urban, economic and cultural hub.

Tampere is located between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two lakes differ in level by 18 metres (59 ft), the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity. Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of Finland" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms such as "Manserock".