The registrations for the ShorTS Comics Marathon 2024 are finally open!
The comic marathon organized by the ShorTS International Film Festival, scheduled this year from June 29th to July 6th in Trieste, begins the search for new talents of the ninth art who want to challenge themselves by reinterpreting the story of a famous film… in comics.
After opening its doors to all of Italy, making the Instagram page www.instagram.com/shortscomicsmarathon its headquarters, following the extraordinary success of the last edition (51 participants and 40 completed comics of excellent quality), this year too the available time will be one month, from Wednesday, May 15th to Saturday, June 15th.
All participants, regardless of age and gender, will be asked to redraw in comics the film assigned to them according to their expressed preferences from a list of over 100 historical titles. With some modifications…
As in the last two editions, indeed, the comic resulting from the union of all the works will follow the adventures of Allan Spielberg, a boy with an important surname, who from a near future where cinema no longer exists returns to the past to understand what exactly the seventh art is. Jumping from film to film, at the end of the last adventure, he returned to his present with a firm conviction: “I have lived cinema. I will be the one to bring it back to life even in this time!”
The individual comics must be a minimum of 6 panels long. The technique is free as well as the style. The works must be presented in grayscale, but without excluding the possibility of also presenting a colored version to the jury.
Graphic grid, specific theme, and pilot comic will be released in a downloadable kit at the beginning of the marathon, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. The same day, the assignments of the titles to reinterpret will be communicated.
In writing the story, some fundamental guidelines must be followed to make the comic work both as a standalone work and as part of a larger graphic novel. Each contestant will therefore be followed by an editor who will assist them at every stage of the creation of the work and supported by professionals in the comic and film industries who will form the 2024 jury. In addition to a contest, the marathon can indeed serve as an experience and a comparison with a reality similar to traditional publishing.
The 15 (or more) works selected by the 2024 jury will also enjoy printing in a limited edition paper volume, which will be delivered to the home of each participant and to anyone who requests it for free, and distributed at events related to the ShorTS International Film Festival and connected to it.
All completed works will instead be published in episodes throughout the year on the marathon’s Instagram page and will compose a volume downloadable for free from the website maremetraggio.com.
Among the novelties of the 2024 edition:
– moments of virtual meeting with professional judges
– the return of the live marathon in the city of Trieste, on a day dedicated to comics during the festival dates, during which the top performers will be invited to attend.
– collaboration in the organization and promotion of the Marathon of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, Trieste Science Fiction Festival.
