Western Australian films continue to have great award and festival success around the world. Here is the latest update from a number of WA productions:
The documentary God Made Them Blind (Aquarius Productions) has been selected for the Hamburg International Independent Film Festival having previously been selected for the Cambridge, England and Sun Valley International Film Festival.
Edgar and Elizabeth, written and directed by Renee Webster and produced by Melissa Kelly, has been selected for numerous festivals including: WOW Film Festival, St Louis Film Festival, Moondance International Film Festival (USA) (voted one of the most popular short films), Revelation Perth International Film Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival (voted 2nd overall in the Showtime Audience Top 10 for shorts), Rushes Soho Shorts, St Kilda International Short Film Festival, Adelaide Outback Shorts at the Shorts Film Festival, Rochester International Film Festival and the Flickerfest International Short Film Festival. This film is also short listed for the 2008 Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) Awards.
Produced by Jennifer Gherardi and written and directed by Denise Groves, Amy Goes to Wadjemup continues to be enjoyed by audiences worldwide and has been selected for the following festivals: St Kilda Film Festival, Little Big Shots, Get Your Shorts On, Imaginative Film Festival, Spiritual Cinema USA and The Good Vibes Project.
The short animated film Mutt, directed by Glen Hunwick and produced by Miranda Edmonds, has been screened at the Annecy International Animation Festival, Revelation Perth International Film Festival, Shanghai TV Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Competition of the 10th Mo&Friese Children’s Short Film Festival Hamburg, International Animation Festival of Brazil, Melbourne International Film Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival, LA Shorts Fest, Countryside Documentary and Animated Film Festival Cyprus. It has also been selected to screen at the Romania International Animation Festival, China International Animation and Digital Arts Festival, NYC Shorts and the Escape Arts Festival Ulladulla Australia. The film has received the Yoram Gross Animation Award at the Dendy Awards (Sydney Film Festival 2008), Cinema Nova Creative Excellence Award in a Short Film at the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival and has been nominated for the 2008 Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for Best Short Animation.
Legacy, produced by Poppy Dowle and directed by Grant Sputore, has been selected to screen at the Cambridge Film Festival in September 2008.
Producer Tenille Kennedy has made her first international broadcast sale for the short films Dogs, Caravan and Before Closing, which have been sold in Latin America.
Tim Maricic’s film The Making of a Winning Tropfest Film screens at the Sydney Underground Film Festival this month. It was previously screened in Sydney at Caught Short and at the Dungog Film Festival earlier this year. Tim’s other short film Crosswords, is also screening in Melbourne this month in the Queen Street Film Festival and was earlier seen at Westside Shorts.
Since winning the Best Drama Award and the Best Production Design Award at the 2007 WA Screen Awards, My Shout has screened at a number of key short film festivals in Australia, winning Emma Fletcher a further Best Production Design Award at the 2007 Bondi Short Film Festival and a Silver Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) Award for DOP Alex McPhee at the 2007 ACS Awards. Produced by Jeff Asselin and written, produced and directed by Julian Argus, the film was recently selected as one of 10 finalists to appear at an inaugural ‘Australian Showcase’ at the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival in London, the 2008 partner festival of the Adelaide Shorts Fest. It also screened at the LA Shorts Festival.
Quikmark Media’s short film Mockingbird, will have its world premiere at the 2008 Portobello Film Festival in London. Produced, written and directed by Scott Eathorne, Mockingbird is the story of a woman grieving the loss of a loved one, who then meets a teenage boy on the internet.
Sam Barrett’s film No Through Road has been selected for the following festivals: The Indie Gathering (2008 Star Award for Best Suspense/Thriller Feature), Kansas International Film Festival, The Spooky Movie Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival (nominated for Best Debut feature), Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival and the Melbourne Underground Film Festival.
Many of these short films have received funding support from ScreenWest, Lotterywest and the Film & Television Institute (FTI).