Press release from Scott Alexander
Short film "Celestial Avenue" has won the Grand Prize at the recently concluded 2009 Rhode Island Film Festival, qualifying the Screen Australia funded short for submission to the Academy Awards.
Written and directed by Cameron and Colin Cairnes, and featuring some brilliantly understated comedic performances from Angus Sampson, Jason Gann and Catherine Moore, "Celestial Avenue" is an offbeat musical comedy about love and personal transformation set in Melbourne’s Chinatown. The film also boasts a soundtrack by Augie March singer-songwriter, Glenn Richards.
Shot in March, "Celestial Avenue" was lensed by John Brawley on Lemac’s SI2K camera (the camera used in "Slumdog Millionaire"), using revolutionary custom built anamorphic lenses.
Says Producer Scott Alexander: "Upon realising we would not be able to shoot 35 millimetre anamorphic, our fearless Cinematographer John Brawley came up with this exciting alternative which he calls "minimorphic"."
Shooting in this previously untried way was not without its risks, but the end result exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Co-Writer/Director Colin Cairnes adds, "We were after that classic, stately widescreen feel. Everything from TV soaps to the news is shot 16:9 now so we wanted to give the audience a more cinematic experience."
Of the film’s quirky subject matter, Co-Writer/Director Cameron Cairnes says, "My brother Colin speaks pretty good Mandarin and I always thought there was a story in the caucasian man who speaks nothing but Chinese. We were toying with this idea around the time we first met Cath Moore, and thought Ê»we’ve got to write something for this actressʼ. I’m not sure whether it was inspiration or sheer laziness that made us put the two ideas together."
Rhode Island is the film’s first public screening and bodes well for the film’s journey on the festival circuit.