IGCAT has just opened a call for submissions to the Food Film Menu 2020 competition with the aim to place a spotlight on awarded and candidate Regions of Gastronomy and their culinary heritage.
IGCAT launched the competition with the aim to collect short food films that will help raise awareness about the importance of cultural and food uniqueness as a means to ensure a more sustainable future.
Under the theme Food Stories, IGCAT challenges young directors to tell fascinating stories from their regions, be they about local food products, recipes, chefs, food traditions, innovations or landscapes, to name a few.
Short films can be submitted to any of the seven categories: Regions of Gastronomy; European Young Chefs; Food-related Visitor Experiences or Food Gifts from the Regions of Gastronomy; Historical Food Routes; New Food Trends; Environment and Food; Food and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
A committee of IGCAT experts in the food, culture and film sectors will select one winning short film in each category and these will form our official Food Film Menu 2020. The seven winners will be publicly awarded in Brussels, during the European Week of Regions and Cities in October 2020, where the audience will select the Best Food Film Overall.
IGCAT has established partnerships with film festivals from across the Regions of Gastronomy including Astra Film Festival (Sibiu, Romania), FoodFilmFestival (Aarhus, Denmark), Kosmorama Trondheim International Film Festival (Trondheim, Norway) and Girona Film Festival that will showcase the Food Film Menu 2020 at their venues, giving further visibility to the winning short films.
The Food Film Menu aims to promote local food and craft products internationally; encourage young film directors to become ambassadors for their regions; and engage the public in interesting ways to stimulate pride and awareness of their culinary heritage and food futures.
IGCAT and the Regions of Gastronomy recognise the audio-visual sector as a powerful tool to safeguard and showcase regional food cultures, currently endangered by globalisation and climate change that threaten the survival of local plant and animal varieties and the related traditional know-how.
Therefore, the Food Film Menu will contribute to revalue and promote local food as cultural heritage, with the aim to ensure future sustainable development and community well-being in all our regions.
The Food Film Menu 2020 call for submissions is available here.
Deadline: 27 July 2020
About the European Region of Gastronomy
Candidate and awarded Regions of Gastronomy from Europe, guided by IGCAT, are working together to raise awareness about the importance of their cultural and food uniqueness; stimulate creativity and gastronomic innovation; educate for better nutrition; improve sustainable tourism standards; highlight distinctive food cultures; and strengthen community well-being.
About IGCAT
IGCAT aims to empower local communities by raising awareness of the importance to safeguard and promote distinct food, culture, arts and sustainable tourism assets. This is essential to balance against globalised food trends that are impacting on our planet, health and local economies.
IGCAT is a non-profit institute established in 2012, working with regional stakeholder consortiums in the fields of gastronomy, culture, arts and tourism. It counts on the expertise of a worldwide network of experts and works in partnership with specialised intergovernmental organisations.
IGCAT provides the Region of Gastronomy Award and is the official secretariat for the European Region of Gastronomy Platform. Furthermore, the Institute has developed the European Young Chef Award the Local Food Gift Challenge, the Top Visitor Experience and the Food Film Menu.