Congratulations to the 2011 award winners!

Posted on November 4, 2011 by admin

to the programme!The sixth annual Show Me Shorts Film Festival is now open and kicked off in Auckland last night with a glamorous awards evening at The Capitol, where the winners of eight prizes for excellence in short film making were announced.

Jack Woon took home the coveted Kodak Best Film Award for his dreamy drama about awkward teenage love, The Great Barrier. Woon also took out the SDGNZ Best Director prize. A pre-recorded acceptance speech was sent up from Dunedin
where he is currently working on a new project.

 

Audience warming up for the screening

Australian film The Kiss by Ashlee Page took home both the Panavision Best Cinematographer prize and the StarNow Best Actor award for an outstanding performance by Nicole Gulasekharam.

Tammy Davis collected the Script to Screen Best Screen Play for his crowd pleasing directorial debut film about two thieves, Ebony Society, which he also wrote.

Judges Catherine Fitzgerald, Paul Grinder, and James Brookman paid tribute to the bright futures of all the filmmakers. “What a privilege to watch these films,” said film producer Catherine Fitzgerald, whose Samoan language feature film The Orator is currently in cinemas. “The diversity of stories, storytelling and talent made selecting nominees and winners a real challenge, but equally fills me with excitement in anticipation for what the future will bring from these filmmakers.”

 

With a total prize pool valued at over $10,000, the winners received a range of
tools that will help them continue to make more films, such as film stock from
Kodak, camera gear hire from Panavision, writing workshops and subscriptions to
industry publications.

  • Kodak Best Film – Jack Woon for ‘The Great Barrier’
  • Special Jury Prize – Peter Neville for the musical score in ‘Cockroach’
  • SDGNZ Best Director – Jack Woon for ‘The Great Barrier’
  • Script to Screen Best Screen Play – Tammy Davis for ‘Ebony Society’
  • SDGNZ Best Editor – Lewis Albrow for ‘3 Hours’
  • Best Student Film – Jonah Musitano for ‘Maurice’
  • Panavision Best Cinematographer – Nick Matthews for ‘The Kiss’
  • StarNow Best Actor – Nicole Gulasekharam for ‘The Kiss’

A big thanks to this year’s judges; to our amazing Partners for making the festival possible; and of course to all of the film makers and lovers who were able to make it to our Auckland Opening Night. We hope you are able to enjoy some more of this year’s festival at one of our 12 locations throughout New Zealand this year. See our Programme for a cinema near you or Media Glory for reviews, interviews, and discussion about this year’s festival. Show Me Shorts is here for a good time, not a long time!

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Announcing the 2011 Award Nominees

Posted on October 31, 2011 by admin

Show Me Shorts is now just a few days away from the 2011 Opening Night and excited to once again deliver some of the best short films from New Zealand, Australia, and around the world to our 12 locations throughout New Zealand.

This year’to the programme!s prize pool is valued at over $10,000, with the winner of the top award for Kodak Best Film taking away enough reels of Kodak motion picture film to shoot their next short film. The winners will be announced at the festival’s Opening Night event this Thursday at 8pm at Auckland’s Capitol Cinema. A limited number of tickets to this event are available to the public, but will sell out fast. Another Opening Night event will be held in Wellington on November 10 at the Paramount. Both events include screenings of the eight award winning films and complimentary drinks.

A few films to watch out for this year are the Australian film ‘The Kiss’ by Ashlee Page with five nominations; ‘Ebony Society’ by Tammy Davis, ‘3 Hours’ by Regan Hall, and ‘The Great Barrier’ by Jack Woon, each with four nominations.

The judges for 2011 are Catherine Fitzgerald (‘The Orator’, ‘Two Cars One Night’), producer, director and 1st AD Paul Grinder (‘Spartacus’, ‘District 9′), and movie trailer producer James Brookman (‘Billy T: Te Movie’, ‘Sione’s 2′). Here’s what they had to say about the films and judging process:

“There were so many extraordinary entries that it was no easy task choosing the winners. The program crosses all genres, captures the full range of emotions and features films that are truly unforgettable. After more than 6 hours of deliberations we all agreed that the future looks very bright for these talented filmmakers and the Show Me Shorts Film Festival.”– James Brookman

Ebony Society“Bikes, bandits and belches – finding a few common threads in this years Show Me Shorts Film Festival was the easy part. Choosing finalists and selecting the winners was far from easy. And thank god for that. To have to decide from such a diverse group of storytellers and unique talented filmmakers was a challenge. For me this years crop show short filmmaking by New Zealanders is alive and well, whether at home, inside a darkened animation studio or locations stretching from Dunedin through the outback of Australia to the streets of Jordan.”– Paul Grinder

“What a privilege to watch these films – with many fresh, original and engaging takes on universal themes! The diversity of stories, storytelling and talent made selecting nominees and winners a real challenge, but equally fills me with excitement in anticipation for what the future will bring from these filmmakers and artists.” – Catherine Fitzgerald

 

NOMINEES

    Kodak Best Film 

  • Ainsley Gardiner & Chelsea Winstanley for ‘Ebony Society’
  • Jack Woon for ‘The Great Barrier’3 Hours
  • Regan Hall for ‘3 Hours’
  • Katrina Mathers, Merrin Jensen, Patrick Sarell & Daryl Muntonfor ‘Nullarbor’
    Special Jury Prize 

  • Lucas Bone for the musical score in ‘Cockroach’
  • Shane Radford for Production Design in ‘Koro’s Medal’
  • Alistair Lockhart & Patrick Sarell for animation in ‘Nullarbor’
    SDGNZ Best Director 

  • Tammy Davis for ‘Ebony Society’The Great Barrier
  • Regan Hall for ‘3 Hours’
  • Jack Woon for ‘The Great Barrier’
  • Ashlee Page for ‘The Kiss’
    Script to Screen Best Screen Play 

  • Tammy Davis for ‘Ebony Society’
  • Jack Woon, Simon Zhou and Olivia Howan for ‘The Great Barrier’
  • Ashlee Page for ‘The Kiss’
    SDGNZ Best Editor
  • Denise Haratzis for ‘The Kiss’Redemption
  • Lewis Albrow for ‘3 Hours’
  • Lisa Hough for ‘Redemption’
    Screen Hub Best Student Film
  • John Reid for ‘Devil’s Door to Heaven’
  • Jonah Musitano for ‘Maurice’
    Panavision Best Cinematographer 

  • Leo Bund for ‘3 Hours’Elaine Rides Again
  • Jack Woon for ‘The Great Barrier’
  • Nick Matthews for ‘The Kiss’
    StarNow Best Actor 

  • Nicole Gulasekharam for ‘The Kiss’
  • Darcy Ray Flavell for ‘Ebony Society’
  • Donogh Rees for ‘Elaine Rides Again’
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Announcing the 2011 Programme!

Posted on October 7, 2011 by admin

The Show Me Shorts team had a fantastic time with the Programme Launch event. Congratulations to the selected participants for the Short Film Lab and a big thanks to all the applicants who made it such a hard decision. The event was held in the beautifully renovated Capitol Cinema in Auckland and the team is excited about the buzzing atmosphere that it and the surrounding area with restaurants, bars, and coffee shops in Balmoral and Mt. Eden will bring to the festival this year.to the Programme!

Without further adieu, we are pleased to announce the festival Programme for 2011. Our number of venues is growing steadily, and in November 2011 we arrive in more locations than ever. A warm welcome to the people of Kaikoura and Taumarunui who increase our number of cinema locations to 12, and to everyone else, welcome back!

In response to audience demand, this year for the first time we include a selection of the best international short films for your viewing pleasure. Films from France, Ireland, Germany, South Africa and the USA complement our selection of the top films from New Zealand and Australia. You will find these films scattered throughout the themed sessions, of which there are now seven in order to accommodate the extra films.

The 2011 session theme titles are: Unexpected Adventure, Master Chef, Love You to Death, Extreme Measures, Small Pleasures, Unlikely Bedfellows and Hitting the Road. A common thread this year is the exploration into decadence and pleasure, particularly of the gourmet variety.

Attending one of our sessions delivers a package of about seven short films tied together by a common theme. The sessions run for around 80 minutes each, and the average length of the films is about 11 minutes.

If you live in Auckland or Wellington you can attend the Opening Night events to see all the award winning films as they are announced. If you’re new to Show Me Shorts or have trouble deciding which session looks the most tempting, you will find this a great way of sampling the festival. For those interested in the creative and technical process that goes into making some of New Zealand’s great short films, we are proud to again present the StarNow Short Film Seminars, featuring top industry experts in Auckland and Wellington.  In some of our locations, a package of highlight films will feature in place of themed sessions.

There is something for everyone in our line-up, and I can’t speak highly enough of the strong talent that is evident in the short filmmaking arena at present. We are pleased to feature several films this year that have already racked up awards at high profile film festivals like Toronto and Cannes. Not only are our filmmakers continuing to make striking and moving stories, they are excelling in this field and receiving recognition for their efforts both at home and abroad.

Here for a good time, not a long time!Don’t miss your chance to see the films this year. Show Me Shorts is here for a good time, not a long time!

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