Press Conference for Tainan 39 2015.

2 Feb – 39 Hour Short Film Contestival returns for its fourth edition, to be hosted once again in Taiwanese city, Tainan.

A press conference was recently held by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Tainan City Government to announce the short film festival, The China Post reports. The festival is organised and curated by Tainan residing Malaysian filmmaker Lynne Tai and Germany's Dayeh University assistant professor Till DiLumiere.

Started in 2012, every year the festival will see 39 teams competing to make 39 5-minute short films in 39 hours. Registration for this year has begun and will end on 8 February.

Teams who are accepted for the festival will be announced on 1 March, and they will have more than one month of preparation time as they will be assigned their genre on 6 March. The teams are allowed to practice with the actors and even write the English-Chinese bilingual subtitles into their editing timeline in preparation. However, no shooting will be allowed until the competition day itself.

"A Fool's Paradise", one of the short films from Tainan 39 2012.

The 4th 39 Hour Short Film Contestival will take place 11 to 19 April. It will open with lectures from filmmakers, local film instructors and researchers. During the Tainan Short Film Conference, the topic of "The Art of Short Films" will be discussed, with film experts hosting the discussion panels.

There will also be a special screening of German short films on the weekend. On 12 April, the National Student Short Film Competition will take place.

Till DiLumiere informs that "Anybody currently registered as a student at a Taiwanese university is still eligible to submit a short film of any genre."

Students have until 25 February to submit their short films, which must be under 15 minutes long with Chinese and English subtitles. The winner will walk away with a cash prize of NTD30,000 and a Panasonic FZ 1000 digital camera sponsored by Panasonic Taiwan.

The highlight of the festival, the 39-hour challenge itself, will commence at 9pm on 17 April until noon 19 April. The winning film will be awarded the Tainan Gold Award, consisting of the Tainan39 trophy, NTD30,000 and two plane tickets to Berlin. It will also be screened at the 31st Berlin International Short Film Festival in November.

(Photo source: facebook.com/Tainan39)