{"id":58029,"date":"2019-07-29T17:06:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T16:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/?post_type=vesti&#038;p=58029"},"modified":"2019-07-29T17:07:16","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T16:07:16","slug":"byzanfest-the-world-s-first-online-orthodox-christian-short-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"vesti","link":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/reports\/world-news\/byzanfest-the-world-s-first-online-orthodox-christian-short-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Byzanfest: The world\u2019s first online Orthodox Christian short film festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Byzanfest-The-world-s-first-online-Orthodox-Christian-short-film-festival.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"921\" height=\"440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-58003 aligncenter\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Byzanfest-The-world-s-first-online-Orthodox-Christian-short-film-festival.jpg 921w, https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Byzanfest-The-world-s-first-online-Orthodox-Christian-short-film-festival-768x367.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 921px) 100vw, 921px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Established in 2014, Byzanfest is the world\u2019s first and only online festival that screens short-films made by Eastern Orthodox Christian filmmakers.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Festival goes live from Sunday 21<sup>st<\/sup><span>&nbsp;<\/span>July until 4<sup>th<\/sup><span>&nbsp;<\/span>August 2019, running concurrently with live venue screenings which are hosted by Global Screening Partners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201eAs the world\u2019s media and entertainment have become increasingly on-demand and interwoven with social media, Byzanfest saw the opportunity to venture into an emerging concept: the online festival\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201eNew and innovative, such an event is not limited by the physical constraints of traditional venue-based festivals. Byzanfest looked ahead towards the future of entertainment and wanted to engage globally with both Orthodox and non-Orthodox audiences\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201eThe Festival encourages interactivity where viewers can share through all social media platforms. The Festival showcases films which reflect Orthodox Christian themes, beliefs, culture and values, as well as being artistically creative. It is worth mentioning all funds raised from this Festival will go towards funding small individual Orthodox film and art projects\u201d, Chris Vlahonasios, the founder of the festival explains.<\/p>\n<p>Twelve short films have been shortlisted for this year\u2019s Byzanfest, ranging from three to 25 minutes long, with entries from Orthodox filmmakers across Australia, Greece, the USA, Canada, Georgia, Romania and Serbia.<\/p>\n<p>Titles include \u2018Christmas Anti-fable\u2019 a Greek sci fi\/noir film by Efthimious Hatzis, \u2018The Gloater of Notre Dame\u2019 from Serbian director Bojan Teodosijevic, along with sci-fi\/comedy \u2018M.A.R.C\u2019 and comedy \u2018The Lonely Scientist\u2019 by American Nick Shaheen.<\/p>\n<p>In the Drama category there is \u2018The Alternate\u2019, the only Australian film, by brothers Stephen and Andrew Robinson, and \u2018A Cup and Bread\u2019 by American director Nicholas Loper.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3H3SmqPXHzI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3H3SmqPXHzI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The line-up also features a number of documentaries, including from Canada \u2018Fr. Tanase\u2019s Sanctuary for the Hurt\u2019 and \u2018The Making of Orthodox Wooden Icons\u2019 both by director Andrei Russu, and \u2018The Middle Way\u2019 by Luca Tarantini; as well as \u2018Icons\u2019 by American director Craig DiRienzo, and \u2018Under the Archangels\u2019 Wings\u2019 by Dinu Cristian from Romania, Neo Kosmos reports.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2>About the Founder<\/h2>\n<p>Born in Melbourne, Australia, Chris belongs to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. Whilst attending Melbourne Grammar School, Chris discovered his love of cinema, but pursued higher studies.<\/p>\n<p>At Victoria University, he graduated with Bachelor of Laws (Hons)\/Bachelor of Marketing degrees, majoring in Intellectual Property Law. Whilst at university, Chris made several short-films and worked on the sets of many others. Chris established the Queen St Film Festival (in honour of his law campus) where he directed and was patron from 2005-2009.<\/p>\n<p>Chris is the founder and owner of TRANSFIGURE MEDIA. Operating since 2008, TRANSFIGURE has become the world\u2019s biggest media and arts network exclusively for Eastern Orthodox Christians. The organisation\u2019s goal is to showcase, distribute, network, mentor and fund the art of Orthodox Christians working in various creative industries.<\/p>\n<p>He is also a member of Vatopedi Monastery\u2019s International Association of Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care (DMOPC). In June 2018, Chris, the only Australian representative, was invited to give a presentation at the DMOPC Conference in Crete, entitled:<span>&nbsp;<\/span><em>Jacob\u2019s Digital Well: how a single online media house can strengthen the faithful and help evangelise the world<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Chris also writes a column about media, culture and faith in TO VEMA, the monthly newspaper published by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Chris\u2019 major interests include: film, intellectual property, Orthodox culture, Byzantine art, freedom of speech, protection of religious rights, digital marketing and human communications.<\/p>\n<p>You can view the movies on the following page: <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Byzanfest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" style=\"color: #800000;\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Byzanfest\/<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":58004,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[1880,1808,2078],"category_vesti":[1133],"tags_vesti":[],"lokacii":[],"class_list":["post-58029","vesti","type-vesti","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-byzantine-empire","tag-byzantology","tag-film","category_vesti-world-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vesti\/58029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vesti"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/vesti"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vesti\/58029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58029"},{"taxonomy":"category_vesti","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_vesti?post=58029"},{"taxonomy":"tags_vesti","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags_vesti?post=58029"},{"taxonomy":"lokacii","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lokacii?post=58029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}