Anyone who’s up for putting together a film in a weekend with a team of up to seven people can apply as of right now. This also goes for non-students. The fifth edition of Film Jam Eindhoven will take place in March and the organization is hoping for eight participating teams.

Doppio member Kevin Dullens was one of the first participants and organizers of the film festival five years ago. Now he’s back in the organizing team, which also includes Dekate Mousa member Pim-Pepijn Terpstra. Both of them think everyone should have the experience of “making something you’re proud of with a group of people.”

It’s only at the opening – morning of Friday, March 21, in the Corona room in Luna – that participants will hear what requirements they’ll have to meet, as each group gets its own set of challenges. That will make the end result, the film screening in Lab 1, more interesting.

“Each group has to use a cinematography technique we’ve picked out for them,” Dullens says. “It could be a match cut, a tilt shift, a Dutch angle, or something like that. Or it can be a requirement for the screenplay, for instance the obligation to include a dialogue.”

“The genres are also divided among the groups,” Terpstra adds. “A period piece, a thriller, a buddy-cop film, or drama, for example.”

What will be the same for each team is one sentence, phrase or word that must be used. This will also be kept a secret until the opening. Last year it was ‘Well, I’ll be dammed’. The theme, also the same for everyone, is already known: Homage, an ode to cinema.

Every year the quality of the 48-hour films gets better, says Dullens. Anyone who’s interested can verify this themselves, because all the films are public. He hopes that jury member and head of Studium Generale Lucas Asselbergs, who’s been on the jury since the very first edition, also sees the improvement. “It’s because we now have more experience. For one thing, we’re realized it’s better to have the screening take place in a nice movie theater and give the audience a vote too.”

The ‘Oscars’ are crafted by the committee members themselves, but awarded by the jury that includes two professionals from the film industry in addition to Asselbergs. The award categories include best acting, best cinematography, best writing, best sound, and best use of the challenge.