Renate Ranzi
Coordinator Film Location
Ambitious and aspiring filmmakers as well as seasoned professionals can benefit from the programme. Its aim is to promote the voices and ideas of creative people and, by doing so, create a more open, colourful, and diverse film and TV landscape. MASO is a safe space to create films and, above all, aims to reach talented people from underrepresented communities. An Advisory Board comprising international short films experts will choose who makes the final cut.
During the first stage, creative duos – an author or director and producer (backed by a production company) – will send in their short film project.
In the next stage, the selected teams will work on their projects and bring them to life, from development through production to distribution. The process will be overseen by internationally renowned experts during two workshops and various mentoring sessions. The first workshop will take place in November 2025 at FilmCamp Norway in Øverbygd, Norway; the second workshop will take place in April 2026 at ZeLIG - Film School for Documentary in Bolzano, Italy.
The teams will also be supported when it comes to developing their financing plan as well as distribution and promotional strategy. They will receive professional advice across all phases of their project and can exchange ideas and network with other participating teams. Once the shorts have been shot, the teams are supported when distributing their projects.
>>> Click here for the guidelines for application
>>> Click here for the Open Call for Projects
Deadline applications: 30th June 2025
Enrico Vannucci is a member of the selection committee of Pardi di Domani at the Locarno Film Festival and of the selection committee of LIM - Less Is More, and the artistic head of the short film training programme of MASO. He has worked in film festivals and markets since 2010, in particular collaborating with the Venice Film Festival and Talents and Short Film Market - TSFM, which he co-founded in 2016. He also co-founded Varicoloured, a holistic short film agency, in 2018, Talking Shorts, an online film magazine dedicated to short films, in 2020, and Talents Generator Factory, a company dedicated to the development of new audiovisuals by emerging and established professionals, in 2022. In 2021, he became a member of the European Film Academy.
Ivan Bakrač was born in 1987 in Montenegro. He is currently based in Belgrade, Serbia, where he graduated in Film Directing. His films have participated in many international film festivals and have won several awards. He took part in various programs such as Berlinale Talents, Talents Sarajevo and Zurich FF Academy. His debut feature After the Winter premiered at the Karlovy Vary IFF. Since 2017, he has worked as a film festival programmer and script consultant. He programs for the Free Zone Film Festival in Belgrade, and the Drim Short Film Festival in Struga, North Macedonia and is a part of the selection committee at the Network of Festivals in the Adriatic Region. He used to be a programmer at the Montenegro Film Festival Herceg Novi. Since 2021, he has been a member of the European Film Academy.
Ella Cieslinski is a German film director, based in Berlin. She finished her screenplay studies at Film University in Munich in 2018. Her diploma work won the best feature screenplay at Sehsüchte Film Festival. Since then she has written and co-written several feature scripts. Her short movies FOU DE TOI and FANTASY IS A FLEEING ANIMAL were shown at numerous international film festivals such as Hofer Filmtage. She has collaborated as a script consultant with both fictional and documentary film projects. She was also part of the short film festival jury in Trieste in 2021. Currently she is in post production for her first feature film.
MASO - Short Film Training Programme is initiated by IDM Film Commission Südtirol and Bolzano Film Festival Bozen.
MASO #2 is organized by IDM Film Commission Südtirol.
Credits MASO Visual Identity: Gianbattista Ciabatti
