Business screen magazine (1946)

pleased as the first prize. Grand Prix and Inforfilni honors given Why Man CieaU'\ were supplemented by the seeond prize awarded Operutor in category F and by the fourth prize trophy given The Sianijicance of You in the highly-competitive category C. Operator was sponsored by American Telephone & Telegraph Co. and produced by the Festival's sole woman producer, Nell Cox. The Signijicance of You. sponsored by Uoise Cascade Ci'rporation. was produced by dcMartin. .Marona & .Associates. Denmark, with a third prize for Water to the Islands (category B) and France, with another "third"' for .\ature Morte (category C) were the only other countries to share prize honors at Berlin. It is useful to note the criteria which guided members of the Jury: (1) is the specific objective of tlie film acliieved? (2) is the fihn likely to communicate at the level of the specified audience? (3) judge technical ami artistic qualities of the film, consider visual quality, sound and tempo. Other active participants at Berlin included Japan (12 entries); France (13 titles); the Netherlands (8 titles) and Sweden (7 titles). Denmark submitted five films; Spain, four; Finland, two; Austria, two; and Belgium and Portugal had a single entry apiece. Among these 47 films, representing 10 countries, there were only two third prizes shared by Denmark and France, emphasizing the awards' dominance at West Berlin of the five big winners: Britain, Germany. Italy, Switzerland, and the U.S.A. Worthy of special note was the high degree of screening excellence achieved by projectionists in the two theaters of the Congress Hall at West Berlin. At some previous CEIF-sponsored Festivals, there was a considerable difference in screen quality between 16mm and 35mm prints. .Although the vast majority of entries at Berlin, especially subjects from European lands, were 35mm color prints (84 of 121 entries), there were 38 entries on 16mm print stock and every one of these was shown with exceptional clarity and brilliance. Four Festival winners were on 16mm, including two of the three U.S. award-winners. Underscoring the dominance of color in today's industrial motion pictures there was One of the worlds i;rejt iiiLtt'ng places, //est Berlin's Congress Hall was the festival site. only one black & white entry among the 1 2 1 films competing in Berlin, riie French entry, Ecrire Pour Etru Lu, produced for office training by Les Analyses Cinematographiques of Paris (a previous Festival winner), really didn't need color for its purpose but suffered audience and jury displeasure from an ill-fated attempt to hand-insert German subtitles in addition to its English subtitles and an original French sound track. It was all very confusing. Honors for the Festival's funniest film (though it might not have been intended that way) easily went to a Swiss entry, Tres Cliairs et Tendres which opened the Festival screenings in category A. Turning to ""pure" fantasy for its delineation of mechanized poultry production, this abysmally long film (55 minutes) dismayed early Festival viewers with sequences best summarized from these program notes: "A parrot is teaching the hens to speak. Tliey catch on without difficulty because modern poidtry breeding gives them contact and initiative which they didn't have in grandfather's lienhouse . . ." Of more serious import is our sobering analysis of the many aspects of modern industry represented on the screens in West Berlin. Major representation of such basic industries as automotive manufacture; atomic power, air transport, oil, chemical and pharmaceutical products, banking, shipbuilding, steel-making, heavy machinery and construction projects gave delegates real in sight into competitive aspects among the 15 countries. Agricultural interests varied from flower production, tobacco culture and processing and wine-making. Denmark and Italy were especially active in this subject area. Product presentations, with selling overtones through manufacturing demonstrations, showed brick making (Holland); concrete and cement (France, Spain); candles (Sweden) matches (Sweden); chinaware (Japan); salt (Netherlands) and textiles (U.S.A.). The currently important subject of ocean freight containerization was covered in two competing and similar films from Japan with such major firms as Mitsui and NYK showing these activities. The Japanese entries in '69 included a new car presentation ( Colt ) ; two important overseas construction project reports (Mitsui, on an Australian coal field project and Kajima-Tasei with a report on a big dam project in Malaysia); Hitachi showed a film on weather forecasting and a "product" film on stereo sound equipment. Japan's entry in aircraft building was featured in a Shin Meiwa film on its Stol Flying Boat PX-S. The Swiss aircraft maker, Pilatus, also showed performance characteristics of its Pilatus Porter. Overall, however, the 12 Japanese entries this year were not of the high quality and with the usual design qualities of past successes. Some distraction involving film Exchanging world film views at Charlottenburg Castle reception (I to r): B. Pictured at Berlin Senate reception (I. to r.): U.S. delegate Richard Roxas, Dugdale, Shell-Mex & BP Ltd., British delegate; Inga Millar, of Norway's Meetings & Presentations mgr., Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Mrs. Roxas; Produktivet Institut; U.S. delegate Ott Coelln; and Godfrey Jennison, Films Mrs. Jack Gabrielson; British delegate G. C. Hargrove, British-American To Officer, Shell Mex & BP Ltd., another member of the British delegation. bacco Co. and U.S. delegate Jack Gabrielson, McDonnell-Douglas Corporation. JANUARY, 1970 25