A Spotlight on Food in Film

In a special tenth year celebration, this 2022 we are delighted to have shared our Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year finalists. 

Thousands of images poured in from countries around the world. Once again the standard of entries has not only displayed incredible technical prowess but the most evocative and powerful storytelling.

This global competition continues to help connect us and offer an exclusive insight into the universal language of food culture. Across past ten years, we have seen such diverse storytelling across all of our categories, including that of our Food Film Shorts. 

In this blog, we wanted to delve into the importance of such storytelling throughout Food in Film specifically. We spoke with Miklos Terei, winner of Food Film Shorts 2022 to find out more.

 

Food Film Shorts

 

We wanted to see films from a few seconds to 3 minutes, that brought something fresh, new and exciting. Food in film encompasses food in any context, whether you want to make us HUNGRY with some delicious food preparation, make us THINK about an aspect of the food chain you feel should be put in the spotlight, CAPTIVATE us with your food film eye or just make us SMILE with something witty.

Throughout the years, our food film shorts entries have been inspired across our wide-ranging photographic categories such as the Politics of Food, Food for the Family, Bring Home the Harvest or World Food Programme Food for Life for inspiration. 

This year’s global judging panel, tasked with assessing the thousands of entries submitted from over 60 countries across the world, was chaired by legendary food photographer, David Loftus, and included Steve Giralt, Director, The Garage, George Motz, Filmmaker, Writer, TV Host and Hamburger Expert, NYC Food Film Festival. 

 

 

Food In Film Inspiration...

 

This 2022, Miklos Terei with his amazing film Da Crema, was awarded winner of Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Food Film Shorts.

 

'An absolutely mesmerizing tour de force, a perfect combination of food and ASMR'
- George Motz, Filmmaker, Photographer and Director, NYC Food Film Festival and Food Film Shorts Judge. 

 

We spoke with Miklos, who shared with us his background in Food in Film, and his relationship with the awards. 

 

 

Miklos, how did it feel to be awarded winner of Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year Food Film Shorts?

‘It's hard to find the right words. I was surprised, happy, emotionally touched and honoured, all at the same time. It was a crazy feeling watching the online award ceremony, with the highly commended entries, then the third, second places were shown and I still haven’t see my entry mentioned. I knew that I was finalist, but for a second I thought – ‘’they forgot me…’’ Then they said my name,  a part of my entry got played and it still took some moments to believe it!’

 

 

Tell us what the inspiration was behind the film?

‘My client DaCrema, to whom I made this image video, asked me to show the committed artwork behind the taste of their ice creams. It was obvious to me that artisan food production must be shown through high quality artistic images. DaCrema has a very small shop with a very small production space and moving the whole setup into a different location with different production phases and machines wasn’t an option. So, the lack of space also inspired me to choose this studio style video, which we finally recorded in their 10 square meter (= around 108 square foot) production space.’

 

 

Where did your journey with Food in Film start? Tell us about your background in this work...

‘I started to make food films about 12 years ago, the first ones were recipe videos for my wife’s food blog. Her interest and knowledge about food and cooking helped me a lot to be able to create better food films, as I gained a better understanding and respect for the background of a dish.

The first bigger milestone was the image video of one Michelin Star restaurant, Onyx in 2012. The success of that film led me into the world of Bocuse d’Or, making several films about this unique competition, including a 50-minute documentary.

Up to now, I have had the chance to make all Hungarian Michelin Starred restaurants' image videos.’

 

 

 

 

What would you say is the hardest food product to film?

‘Ice cream, maybe?

Anything can be difficult to film depending on the way you want to present it. It was particularly hard to correctly light the scenes in this ice cream image video, where you have to avoid casting light onto the black background, as well as avoiding any disturbing reflections on food ingredients and props, like glass pots.

But I think the hardest is to find the right way to represent your client’s brand and the message they want to tell with a film. Style, image, audio, direction, editing, everything should match to achieve this.’

 

Why, for you, is food in film so important?

‘There is a saying that “an image worth 1000 words”. When there are 25 images in every second of a motion picture, it is almost endless what you can say with a film.

A single food photo can be attractive and can also tell a story by itself. We can see a wonderful representation of this whole spectrum every year in Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year. With films, we have the power to engage other senses to have an even deeper effect on the viewer.

As there are so many meanings behind food – this is very well presented with dozens of categories in Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year, I believe filmmakers should also make meaningful and beautiful films about food.’

 

How did you hear about Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year, and where did your relationship with the competition begin?

‘I think it started in 2014 or 2015, when a chef who also makes beautiful food photographs told me about this competition and motivated me to enter. It was so uplifting that one of my first entries got a 3^rd prize right away. I even flew to London for the ceremony back then. I have entered for several years and the jury put me among the first 3 places, 3 times already. So, it is a quite strong relationship already, and now I got this huge honour of being selected as winner! Thank you again!’

 

Why would you recommend entering Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year?

‘It is a huge source of inspiration and motivation. You can learn and get highly inspired from all the shortlisted entries, even from the photographs, it doesn’t matter if you are a filmmaker or not. And the feeling of getting shortlisted, let alone a finalist, is very uplifting, especially in such a strong competition - it is already a huge achievement. I think I should not even mention what a motivation is to get a prize, as well.’

 

 

 

What's Next.... 

 

Want to see the film up close?

The exhibition of Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2022 Finalists, including our Food Film Shorts, will be premiering at The Royal Photographic Society, one of the world’s oldest photographic societies, in Bristol. The exhibition will run from 20 November - 12 December 2022.