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Six local digital projects nominated at 2012 SXSW Interactive Awards

Six digital projects have made the cut to represent the country at the prestigious SXSW Interactive Awards in the US.

Goa Hippy Tribe, The Gradual Demise of Phillipa Finch, Curious Creatures, The Dragon Children, The World's Biggest Pac-Man and Big Stories, Small Towns are all finalists at the annual awards, which is held to determine the best new digital works worldwide. This can include anything from mobile apps and websites through to kiosks and installations.

Goa Hippy Tribe, a finalist in the film/TV category, is an online social media documentary produced by Freehand Productions. Directed by Darius Devas, the doco is about a hippy reunion in Goa and was supported by SBS.

Also representing the country in the film/TV category is The Gradual Demise of Phillipa Finch, featuring the voice of Toni Collette (Mental). Produced by Rachel Okine of Hopscotch and based on the works of Emma Magenta, Phillipa Finch is a cross-platform 2D animated project incorporating interactive web components. It’s made up of a 17-part animated series, an iPhone game and an interactive “web experience”. The animated series screened on ABC1 last February.

Big Stories, Small Towns, by Martin Potter and Anna Grieve, is a web doco project that showcases stories of people living in regional communities around the country. The multiplatform documentary is a finalist in the Community category at the Austin, Texas awards show.

The Dragon Children, from SBS Online, is an interactive multimedia website exploring the success of Chinese-Australian students within Australia’s education system. The key creative team includes Johnny Lu, Ken Macleod, Nicole Redenbach and Matt Smith. It’s been nominated in the Educational Resource category.

The World's Biggest Pac-Man, produced by Soap Creative, is an online game nominated in the Amusement category. The game, which has enthralled more than 2.3 million visitors from 194 countries, allows PAC-MAN fans across the globe to create and play their own maze, adding it to an endlessly growing map of interconnected levels. The site was built to promote the power of Internet Explorer 9 and uses HTML5 technology to do so.

And finally, Curious Creatures – nominated in the art category – is an interactive installation combining animation, sound design, gaming, installation art and electronic music. The installation exposes users to strange encounters with inquisitive and beautiful creatures from the surrounding woods at a festival site. The team consists of Jimmy McGilchrist, Craig Walsh and Carli Leimbach.

The SXSW Interactive Awards will be held on March 13. For more information on the awards – founded in 1997 – click here.

Note: Screen Australia re-issued a press release with the sixth additional project that was picked. As such, this has been updated.

The projects are:

BIG STORIES, SMALL TOWNS
Creative Director Martin Potter
Producers Anna Grieve, Martin Potter
Interactive Producer Nick Crowther
Synopsis Big Stories Small Towns is a unique web documentary project created by filmmakers living in remote and regional communities, working with local people to bring their personal stories to the screen. The result is a series of inspiring short films, digital stories and slide shows – full of humour and hope – released to the world via a specially created website: www.bigstories.com.au. The heartwarming project showcases stories of people living in the regional communities of Murray Bridge, Raukkan and Port Augusta in South Australia as well as Banlung in Cambodia.

CURIOUS CREATURES
Creative Director Jimmy McGilchrist
Executive Producer Craig Walsh
Producer Carli Leimbach
Production Splendid
Software Development rezon8
Animation Production Monkeystack
Games Development Matt Ditton
Sound Design SAE Byron Bay
Synopsis Strange encounters are reported as inquisitive and beautiful creatures venture in from the surrounding woods at the festival site. Curious Creatures is a large-scale augmented reality projection project combining animation, sound design, gaming, installation art and electronic music. The work has been designed to reach new audiences in the festival environment. In 2011 it was installed at the Lismore Lantern Parade in Lismore NSW and Splendour in the Grass festival in Woodfordia QLD, Australia. Next stop in 2012 is Vryfees in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to a local audience of 250,000.

THE DRAGON CHILDREN
News Reporter and Producer Johnny Lu
Web Developer SBS Online
Online Creative Matt Smith
Online Developer Ken Macleod
Online Producer Nicole Redenbach
Synopsis The Dragon Children is an interactive multimedia website exploring the success of Chinese-Australian students within Australia’s education system, as part of its continuing commitment to Chinese-Australian audiences and the SBS Chinese Virtual Community centre project.

GOA HIPPY TRIBE
Production Company Freehand TV
Director/Camera/Editor Darius Devas
Executive Producer Paul Rudd
Web Developer SBS Online
Synopsis Goa Hippy Tribe is an online social media documentary about a hippy reunion in Goa, made by filmmaker Darius Devas and a vibrant community of online contributors.

THE GRADUAL DEMISE OF PHILLIPA FINCH
Production Company Hopscotch
Writer/Director/Creator Emma Magenta
Producer Rachel Okine
Web Developer Based on Birds
Animation Director Aaron Powell
Game Developer The Project Factory
Cast Toni Collette
Synopsis The Gradual Demise of Phillipa Finch is a cross-platform 2D animated project incorporating interactive web components, which brings acclaimed Australian artist Emma Magenta’s character, Phillipa Finch, to life. The project incorporates a 17-part animated series, an iPhone game and an interactive web experience called The Heartworks Project: a visual representation of a user’s current emotional state, told through the language and imagery of the animated series. Through this immersive, multi-platform experience, Phillipa Finch builds an interactive community based on a network of shared experience, within the framework of a story of love, beauty and hope.

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST PAC-MAN
Production Company Soap Creative
Clients Microsoft Australia, Namco Bandai
Synopsis The World’s Biggest PAC-MAN is a online game that allows PAC-MAN fans across the globe to create and play their own maze, adding it to an endlessly growing map of interconnected levels. The site was built to promote the power of Internet Explorer 9 and uses HTML5 technology to do so. To create a maze users sign-up through Facebook, which makes sharing their creations simple and easy. The maze created so far is the actual size of 37 real-life football fields. The site has received over 2.3 million visitors from 194 countries to date.