FEST New Directors/New Film Festival is a cultural organization that during the year organizes several film events, with learning as the main subject, and collaborates with a lot of different organizations worldwide.
Their educational week is called Training Ground and will be held between the 24th and 30th of June 2014, and consists of more than 20 different workshops and master classes from top experts from all over the world.
On the still growing list of famous speakers you can find among others:
· Alex Rodriguez – Film and commercial editor Oscar nominated for his work on the film “Children of Men”.
· Peter Taylor – Best Camera Operator 2004. Worked with films such as Gravity, Troy and Gladiator.
· Gareth Wiley – Film producer & executive producer that worked together with Woody Allen in several films and that won a Golden Globe for his work with Vicky Christina Barcelona.
· Eugenio Caballero – Oscar winning Art Director for Guillermo Del Toro´s film Pan´s Labyrinth.
Training Ground (http://fest.pt/?page_id=1501&lang=en) occurs parallel with the film festival FEST – New Directors | New Films Festival (http://fest.pt/?page_id=385&lang=en). Furthermore they have during the same week and under the same roof side events such as Pitching Forum, Filmmakers Corner and much more. They work actively with networking throughout the whole event to get as many as possible of the hundreds of participants to meet with each other and the experts, to share experiences and ideas with one another. They have a café during the day in the same building as the event, and also an official restaurant and later on, an official bar, during the whole event with the purpose in creating a space to facilitated these meetings and encourage networking to the fullest. They never separate the experts and participants, they all enjoy the event in the same spaces, together.
The price for the pass for the whole week is 59 Euros, and 89 Euros with camping included (be sure to bring own tent!). The pass gives the participant access to all the activities, workshops, master classes and all screenings at the film festival. There are as well other accommodation options and can be found at the webpage (www.fest.pt).
Many low cost companies fly to Porto, such as Ryan Air and Easy Jet, and TAP offers a discount to all Training Ground participants of 10%.
