The nominees for the two short film categories at the 4th annual Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AATCA) Awards were announced today.
The contenders for best short animation are God Squad (Nicholas Kempt, Troy Zafer), Grace Under Water (Anthony Lawrence), Love In The Time Of March Madness (Robertino Zambrano, Melissa Johnston) and The Video Dating Tape of Desmondo Ray, Aged 33 & 3/4. (Steve Baker).
In the running for best short fiction are Florence Has Left The Building (Mirrah Foulkes, Alex White), Grey Bull (Khoby Rowe, Eddy Bell), The iMom (Ariel Martin, Anna Fawcett) and Welcome To Iron Knob (Dave Wade, Alexandra Blue).
The feature films in competition and the nominees for the AACTA Award for best feature length documentary will be revealed in the coming weeks. All feature film, TV and the remaining documentary nominees will be announced later in 2014. The awards will be presented in Sydney in January.
Director Nick Kempt’s God Squad plays on the gritty police drama genre, animating deities of past and present religions to play cops and criminals. A series based on the short is being developed for SBS with support from Screen Australia.
Writer-director Steve Baker’s The Video Dating Tape of Desmondo Ray, Aged 33 & 3/4, which screened at SXSW, portrays Raymond, a loner with a penchant for peeing in the rain, as a likeable, if not likely, dating prospect.
Melissa Johnson and Robertino Zambrano’s Love In The Time of March Madness follows a 6’4” woman whose success on the basketball court is at odds with her luck in love.
The only stop motion animation finalist, Grace Under Water depicts the story of a stepmother confronted with her past as she tries to bond with her stubborn and enigmatic stepdaughter Grace. It’s the second collaboration between producer-director Anthony Lawrence and writer Chrissie McMahon following their 2002 stop motion short Looking For Horses.
Eddy Bell’s Grey Bull, which chronicles a South Sudanese refugee who is confronted by his spiritual roots and at odds with his new life in Australia after he rescues a bull he believes to be his spiritual totem from his abattoir workplace, was named best Australian short at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival and best direction short film at the Sydney Film Festival.
Dave Wade’s Welcome To Iron Knob is set a small, sleepy town whose residents are keen to cover up an accidental shooting of a stranger by a young boy, in order to resume life as they know it.
Ariel Martin’s The iMom features Marta Dusseldorp and Matilda Brown in the tale of a preoccupied mother who leaves her 8-year-old son and baby daughter under the care of the family’s robot.
Florence Has Left The Building marks director Mirrah Foulkes’ third year as an AACTA Award nominee; her directorial debut Dumpy Goes To The Big Smoke was nominated for best short fiction film at the 2nd AACTA Awards and she was nominated for best supporting actress for Tim Winton's The Turning at this year’s awards. Florence Has Left The Building stars Jacki Weaver as a woman celebrating one last hurrah with an Elvis impersonator in an aged care home.
AFI | AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella said: “AACTA was pleased to launch an initiative earlier this year, Social Shorts, in support of short filmmaking. Social Shorts shines a spotlight on all short animations and short fiction films entered into the Awards, aside from the nominees announced today, by screening and curating them online for members of the public, as well as AFI and AACTA members, to view and vote.”
View the 4th AACTA Awards Short Film Nominees at – : http://aacta.org/the-awards/4th-aacta-awards/short-film-nominees-announced.aspx