Award Winners 2008
And the Encounters Short Film Festival 2008 winners are……
BRISTOL, UK: SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2008: The Encounters Short Film Festival tonight announced the winners of its 14th annual international competition to find the world’s best new live action or animated films of under 30 minutes length.
At a gala ceremony - held before a capacity audience - a judging process begun in June, with the submission of 1,183 entries from 63 countries, reached its finale with presentations of the festival’s principal prizes to the following:
(1) INTERNATIONAL JURY AWARD, for the best entry overall
DENNIS
Directed by: Mads Matthiesen (Denmark, live action, 18 mins)
Danish filmmaker Mads Matthiesen receives £3,000 and the festival’s top prize with DENNIS, a film about a son trying to break away from his possessive mother, and a fragile teenage mind trapped inside the body of macho man.
(2) BEST OF BRITISH AWARD, for the best UK entry
(sponsored by the British Council)
SEPTEMBER
Directed by: Esther May Campbell (UK, live action, 21 mins)
Bristol-based filmmaker Esther May Campbell delivers on the promise that has already seen her tipped by the UK Film Council as a Star of Tomorrow by clinching the £1,000 prize for best British entry with an atmospheric story, shot where motorways speed through ancient countryside, near Severn Bridge, about a meeting between a young no-hoper and a girl who is learning to fly.
(3) ITV WEST AWARD, for the best entry from SW England and (4) SOUTH WEST SCREEN AUDIENCE AWARD, chosen by festival attenders
(sponsored by ITV West and South West Screen)
LEAVING
Directed by: Richard Penfold and Sam Hearn (UK, live action, 22 mins)
Bristol-based Richard Penfold and Sam Hearn’s powerful drama about domestic violence adds to its triumph in the Turner Classic Movies channel’s short film contest by wining both the £1,000 ITV West award, for the best festival entry to be made in the South West, and the £1,000 South West Screen award as the festival audience’s favourite South West entry.
(5) CHILDREN’S JURY AWARD, chosen by children from the Bristol area
OFFICE NOISE
Directed by Mads Johansen, Torben Søttrup, Karsten Madsen and Læke Enemark
(Denmark, animation, 3 ms 45 secs)
Denmark achieves its second success of the ceremony when OFFICE NOISE, revealing how tensions rise when a tidy rooster meets a clumsy elephant, is judged this year’s best film for children by voters aged 8-14 from the Bristol area.
(6) DEPICT! AWARDS, for the best entry of 90 seconds or less
(supported by Aardman Animations, Arts Alliance Media, BBC Film Network, Films at 59, the NFTS, Shooting People and Watershed)
a) ENOUGH (Jury prize)
Directed by Tor Kristoffersen (UK, live action, 90 secs)
b) BREAKING THE MOULD (Online audience)
Directed by: Rebecca Manley and Luca Paulli (UK, animation, 90 secs)
c) WHAT’S VIRGIN MEAN? (NFTS award)
Directed by: Michael Davies (UK, live action, 90 secs)
Watershed and Encounters’ 10th annual Depict! competition, for the best micro-movie, gives prizes to three winners this year. Tor Kristoffersen gets the Jury prize with a troubling tragedy about teenage drinking; the Online Audience prize goes to Rebecca Manley & Luca Paulli for their animated circle of life story, with original music, about a windfall apple on a colourful journey, and National Film and Television School’s Special Mention prize goes to Bristol-based Michael Davies for his comic view of what happens when a small girl asks her mum a big question. To view the winning films in full, visit: www.depict.org
(7) 4MATIONS INTERNATIONAL NEWCOMER AWARD, for new animation talent
(sponsored by 4mations.tv)
OUR WONDERFUL NATURE
Directed by Tomar Eshed (Germany, animation, 5 mins)
Tomar Eshed, of Germany, wins £2,500 as the best newcomer to animation with a nature ‘documentary’ that takes a very different view of water shrew mating behaviour than, say, Sir David Attenborough and the BBC’s Natural History Unit.
(8) NAHEMI / KODAK PRIZE FOR CREATIVE FILMMAKING, for the best student film
STAND UP
Directed by Joseph Pierce (UK, 6mins 50 secs)
The NAHEMI/Kodak prize for the best film by a student goes to Joseph Pierce of the National Film and Television School and his dark comedy about a stand-up comic, the truth behind his laugh lines and an unforgiving audience.
(9) KODAK / NAHEMI CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD, for student cinematography
[sponsored by NAHEMI / Kodak]
ISLAND TO ISLA
Directed by: Jem Garrard (UK, 12mins 49 secs)
The Kodak/NAHEMI award, for the best cinematography in a student film, goes to the camerawork on the film by UCCA Farnham student, Jem Garrard, about a Scottish island postman who rows to the mainland every day to collect letters.
(10) CARTOON d’OR NOMINATION
The festival’s animation jury also nominated the following films for European’s chief animation prize, the Cartoon d’Or:
SKHIZIEN, by Jeremy Clapin, 13 mins, France
VARMINTS, by Mark Craste, 24 mins, UK
THIS IS JO3, by Once Were Farmers, 3 mins, Scotland
Encounters 2008 concludes on Sunday 23 November with a day-long programme of compilation screenings providing a final chance to enjoy this year’s top entries. For more details, see: www.enounters-festival.org.uk
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Media enquiries:
For more info, please contact
Sophie Mair on +44 (0) 7951 220029 or Liz Harkman on +44 (0) 117 929 9188 or email: info@encounters-festival.org.uk
For the full festival programme, see: www.encounters-festival.org.uk
To download images, see: www.encounters-festival.org.uk/Press-pass
NOTES TO EDITORS
About ENCOUNTERS: The Encounters Short Film Festival is run by Encounters Festivals Ltd. It began in 1994, as Brief Encounters, and initially focused exclusively on short film (ie films under 30 minutes long). In 2001, it was joined by a second festival, Animated Encounters, for animated film of all lengths. Since 2006, both events have taken place back-to-back, to pack in more screenings and enable filmmakers from both sectors to take part in events of shared interest.
Chief funders are: Bristol City Council, South West Screen, and the South West England Regional Development Agency. The Encounters Film School is sponsored by Skillset. Principal Sponsors are: Films@59, HP Labs, the UK Film Council and Watershed. Major sponsors are: Aardman, Film Four, ITV West, the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England.
Additional sponsors are: BAFTA, Babelgum, BBC Film Network, British Council, Bristol Media, HIT, Kodak, NAHEMI, Norwich Union, the Polish Cultural Institute, Smith & Williamson Solomon Hare, UK Trade & Industry, and 4mations.tv. Sponsors in kind are: A Productions, Andy’s T-Shirts, Arnolfini, Becks, Brian Wogan, Doghouse Post Production, Fed Ex, Goldbrick House, The Hospital, Ibis Hotel, ITFC, InBev Ltd, Mercure Holland House, Tijuana Design, Premier Travel Inn, Pixillion, Visual Impact and Wonky. Media sponsors are: Shooting People, Imagine and Vertigo.
2. Images from many of this year’s films and events can be downloaded from http://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/Press-pass
3. Encounters returns for its 15th successive year in November 2009. To keep abreast of entry deadlines, news and plans, please visit the website and sign-up for the festival’s e-bulletin.
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