Oscar-qualified Short Film ISTINA (truth) by Tamara Denić Student Academy Award Winner

Tamara Denić’s Student Academy Award Winner and OSCAR-qualified short ISTINA (truth) dives into the dangers that come with fighting for basic rights

Los Angeles, CA (Oct. 16, 2023). In Tamara Denić’s ISTINA (truth) we follow Jelena, a news photographer in Belgrade campaigning for basic democratic rights. Casting a light on the dangers of this work, Denić’s short film takes us through the tumultuous events that eventually lead to the protagonist, Jelena, moving away from her home and family in the hope she and her daughter can escape the threats she faces. This thought provoking short qualified to be considered for a 2024 Oscar® through winning the Student Academy Award; making it the 6th Hamburg Media School graduation film to do so.

Logline: A news photographer is threatened by right-wing extremist groups in Belgrade, Serbia and flees to Germany with her daughter. However, she soon realizes wherever she goes hostility and threats follow.

Director Tamara Denić graduated from LMU in Munich, before studying film directing for her master’s degree at the Hamburg Media School in 2022, as a scholarship holder of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. She also worked as a dub recording supervisor, film and editorial assistant, and video editor, among others.

Her short film Get Home Safe has already been selected for almost 50 international film festivals. Her graduation film ISTINA won the Audience Award Medium-Length Film of the 44th Max Ophuels Film Festival, is among the 2023 BAFTA finalists and won a Student-Oscar at the 50th Student Academy Awards.

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Christian Siée completed his master’s in creative producing at Hamburg Media School in 2022 with a VFF scholarship. Before he studied media economics at the Stuttgart Media University and worked with Warner Bros, Wiedemann & Berg and Bavaria Fiction in Munich. As a Fulbright scholar, he pursued his film studies in Los Angeles and later worked at German public broadcaster SWR. He produced the short Get Home Safe and his graduation film ISTINA. Currently he is at Letterbox Film Production / Studio Hamburg, working on various shows and international co-productions.

Alongside Tamara Denić and Christian Siée working on ISTINA were writer David M. Lorenz, and cinematographer André Stahlmann. 

Past films from Hamburg Film School that have won the Student Academy Award include Watu Wote (2017), Sadakat/Fidelity (2015), Raju (2011), Ausreisser (2005), The Red Jacket (2003).

ISTINA (truth) has qualified to be considered for a 2024 Academy® Award.

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