A short film by Queensland director Dennis Tupicoff won the Grand Prize at the 54th Oberhausen International Short Film Festival yesterday.
The film, Chainsaw, is a tragic-comic story about a couple a timber-cutter and a supermarket checkout operator who faces the reality behind romance and celebrity, machismo and chainsaws. It was commissioned by SBS, and funded by the Australian Film Commission and Film Victoria Board.
The Oberhausen jury praised the 24 minute short for its "masterful synthesis of social commentary, formal experimentation, and its exploration of bareback riding both within the rodeo arena and beyond.”
Director-writer Tupicoff is no stranger to wins at film festivals, with his previous animated shorts Into the Dark (2001) and His Mother’s Voice (1997) having won at the AFI, San Francisco and Melbourne International Film Festivals.
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen was held on May 1-6 this year, and is the world’s oldest and most prestigious short film festival which helped start the careers of filmmakers such as Roman Polanski.