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Franswa Sharl wins Crystal Bear

Press release from The Lantern Group

Screen Australia-funded short film Franswa Sharl has been awarded the prestigious Crystal Bear Award for Best Short Film at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival.

Written and directed by Hannah Hilliard and produced by Linda Micsko, Franswa Sharl is about a  12-year-old boy who reinvents himself as a French girl while on a family holiday in Fiji so he can  enter a competition – much to his father’s dismay.

A fictionalised account of a bizarre stunt  pulled off by co-writer Greg Logan, Franswa Sharl is framed in the exotic and colourful landscape  of a Fijian resort in 1980.

On awarding Franswa Sharl, the Berlin jury said, "We couldn’t help laughing when we saw this  charming and funny story based on a true story. Nonstop fun! For a moment we forgot the world around us. The actors were simply great."

"The audience reaction in Berlin has been amazing – the best response a filmmaker could possibly
hope for," said director Hannah Hilliard.

Callan McAuliffe stars as the young Greg Logan who will go to the most extreme lengths to win the  attention of his father. McAuliffe has recently been cast as the lead in the feature Flipped. Other  Franswa Sharl cast include John Batchelor, Diana Glenn and Steve Lemarquand.

Franswa Sharl screened in Berlin’s Generation KPlus section – a program targeting the youngest  cinemagoers aged four years and over.