short film review

THE HORROR OF IT ALL

2008-02-25T10:42:00.006-05:00

OH, THE HORROR OF IT ALL!

The Nevermore Horror film festival in Durham, NC, has always presented excellent programs of horror themed short films, but the 2008 crop of entries surpassed even those of previous years.

Horror and science fiction short films are probably the single most viable of the short film genres following comedy shorts, which of course have been part of filmmaking from the start. All films were short films back in the beginning, and filmmakers can still learn plenty from silent short films about telling a complete genre story in short form.

Comedy horror, particularly Zombie comedy, is a subgenre of this short film subgenre that's increasingly notable at film festivals in both the short film and feature length entries. Short films, though, lend themselves particularly to comedy treatments.

"Prombies," a black and white homage to many other horror films as well as an accurate satirical take on what boys really want on prom night, as our reviewer, Nicole Black noted, is one of the cleverest takes on the whole zombie idea we've seen so far. Zombies, it turns out, provide a rotting canvas for metaphors of all types. George Romero's latest feature length "Diary of A Zombie," has been criticized for pounding home its idea that media has become our reality, and he pioneered the use of zombies to satirize modern life, such as consumer society ("Dawn of the Dead," the original version).

"Prombies" achieves this quite effectively, managing to throw in filmic homages to producer Val Lewton's shadow haunted B films of the 1940s ("Cat People,"), other zombie films, and the whole slasher genre. The jokes work extremely well. A line such as "He's eating her alive!" takes on double meaning in a laugh provoking context, for instance. The empty high school halls, shadowed and echoing, are a suitable horror setting. Fans of old 1950s TV shows such as Superman and B movies will recognize the much over-used stock suspense music, but it is quite appropriate here, its familiar rise and fall evoking the same sort of feel as the moody black and white images.

Still, "Prombies," manages about all the screen time it could sustain at this short length (briefest of the films discussed here).

"Gay Zombie," and the multiple-award-winning "Zombie Love," a musical with send-ups of Hollywood and Bollywood musical conventions, all work as short films, but lack enough substance to sustain feature length. They could actually benefit from judicious cutting even at their current lengths.

But I'm guessing that of all the short film genres, again, save comedy short films, the horror and comedy horror shorts will find real markets earliest. Today, the chance to see them, especially collected in group programs, remains one of the best reasons for attending film festivals internationally.--Allan Maurer

Comedy Horror Shorts at Nevermore

2008-02-25T09:32:00.010-05:00

Nicole Black reviews the “They're Coming to Get You, Barbra!” program at 2008 Nevermore Horror Film Fest in Durham, NC:

The Nevermore Film Festival at the Carolina Theatre showed four comedy-horro-shorts. Included were: French film maker Guillaume Tunzini's Fathers-in-Law, Florida State University Film School and Frederick Snyder's Prombies!, Michael Simon's Gay Zombie and Yfke van Berckelaer's Zombie Love.

In the eight minutes it takes to completely view Fathers-in-Law, you'll find yourself both laughing at the stupidity of the scene and cringing at the absurd explosion of blood that follows. It does manage to surprise.

The zombie action begins with the seven-minute showing of Prombies!, a clever take on what high school boys really want on prom night. While the the acting and music may appear overdramatic in the beginning, they are a part of the film's charm, and the witty dialogue makes up for it. The idea that sex turns teenaged boys into one-track minded zombies is a hilarious concept on its own.

Gay Zombie can be hard to watch if your vision is not up to par. The lack of lighting in the film causes scenes to be murky, dark and blurry. Digital projection and digital filmmaking both leave something to be desired compared to 35mm at times. But if you can stick it out, the 20 minute short has an inventive twist on zombie existence. Viewers will follow the sexually confused and undead protagonist on his journey to fit in. The movie does have parts that reek of a dumb high school flick with the typical girlie makeover and clothes modeling scenes. Overall, the film is fun.

The 37-minute Zombie Love short takes the audience through a zombie and human's quirky quest for love. From the time Claudia finds the finger of the zombie-poet, Dante, who saved her in the graveyard, she is obsessed with meeting him again. Dante tries to become more human to win her affection, not realizing its the zombie in him that she loves. The musical's whacky lyrics and dialogue will make you laugh the way only something so nonsensical can. References to the films of Bollywood will have the audience in an uproar of laughter. The film is fantastically original and the most entertaining of the four.

Written by Nicole Black

Oscar nominated shorts show "astonishing creative revolution."

2008-02-15T07:58:00.004-05:00

The venerable New York Times, reviewing this year's Oscar nominees for short films, notes that the genre is no longer restricted to the amusements that used to precede feature films.

Now, the times points out, they run up to 40 minutes and include sophisticated and technologically advanced work that has "sparked an astonishing creative revolution."

The Times' piece also notes that of the films nominated this year, none were made in the United States, let alone Hollywood.

Shorts reviewed include: “Madame Tutli-Putli” (from Canada); Aleksandr Petrov’s “My Love,”; Hugh Welchman’s version of “Peter and the Wolf,” which uses the Prokofiev score sans narration or dialogue; “Even Pigeons Go to Heaven” from France, "in which a greedy priest tries to sell an old man a machine that will take him to heaven," and “I Met the Walrus,” a Canadian film that animates a short interview with John Lennon in 1969..

Among live action shorts,the Times' Steven Holden sees Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth’s life-and-death drama “At Night” (from Denmark) as the most compelling.

He says, "Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown’s western “The Tonto Woman” from Britain is the visually austere but pretentiously executed story of an itinerant cattle rustler who befriends the socially outcast wife of a rancher."

“The Mozart of Pickpockets” from France, which Holden says is "the too-cute story of a deaf-mute child who attaches himself to professional thieves."

Finally, he mentions Andrea Jublin’s “Il Supplente” (“The Substitute”), from Italy.

Here's a link to the review (registration may be required)

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/movies/15shor.html?8dpc

Journal of Short Film Releases Vol. 8

2007-08-12T19:58:00.000-04:00

The Journal of Short Film releases Volume 8 (Summer 2007)
in July. The JSF is a quarterly DVD featuring exceptional,
peer-reviewed short films. To date, the JSF has published over 80
filmmakers from 10 countries. Volume 8 includes the Journal’s first
films from Romania and Iran.

Volume 8 covers more ground than most previous volumes, walking through
fields in Romania, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899, busing the
streets of San Francisco, and touring a prehistoric site in Mexico.
But before a theme can take hold, the collection of 11 films continues
the Journal’s policy of diversity. Other settings range from urban
Iran to a sheep farm to a morgue to a birthing room full of surprises.

The Journal was pleased to host Chicago-based filmmaker Deborah
Stratman as a guest editor for Volume 8. She is known for her work
through her production company Pythagoras. She was highly praised for
her short work In Order Not To Be Here, and she recently completed
Kings of the Sky, a feature documentary about Muslim Uyghur tightrope
walkers in western China.

The Journal continues to have a free and open submissions process.
Submissions should be sent to The JSF, PO Box 8217, Columbus, OH
43201, USA. The Journal also remains ad-free, committed to independent
and underrepresented work, and insistent that art and entertainment are
not mutually exclusive.

Following is a list of the films in Volume 8:

1. LAMPA CU CACIULA (THE TUBE WITH A HAT) – Radu Jude [Romania] (2006,
23:00) A father and son carry their TV set to the city to have it fixed
before the afternoon movie.

2. THE BOY IN THE AIR – Lyn Elliot (2005,
2:00) An enigmatic advertisement inspires a letter. The corporation
writes back.

3. MANUELLE LABOR – Marie Losier (2007, 10:00) A
collaboration with Guy Maddin leads to a birthing scene unlike any
other.

4. ART/WORK – Avram Dodson (2006, 5:00) A realistic look at
the relationship between the artist and the day job.

5. FLIP-FILM –
Ellen Ugelstad and Alfonso Alvarez (1999, 1:05) A staccato peek at San
Francisco from the inside of a bus. Made in the tradition of Biograph’s
1890 Mutoscope.

6. MARDHA HAMDIGAR RA BEHTAR MIFAHMAND (MEN
UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER) – Marjan Alizadeh [Iran] (2007, 8:00) Two men
and a woman: it seems men understand each other better.

7. UNIFIED
FIELDS – Brandon Walley (2006, 9:00) During a hot summer weekend in the
country with my family, I tried to capture an odd sense of
interconnectedness yet isolation.

8. OUTERBOROUGH – Bill Morrison
(2005, 8:30) A split-screen extrapolation of a film taken while
crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899.

9. NOTHINGNESS – Arzu Ozkal
Telhan (2005, 2:55) Nothingness is about resignation; an unwilling
state of existence under the weight of insatiable humanity. 10.
MARTIN – Bill Basquin (2004, 5:00) Martin is a poetic portrait of a
sheep shearer and his philosophical musings on rural life. 11. TO THE
SOUTH WAS 72 – Sabine Gruffat (2005, 11:00) “A personal guided tour of
the largest prehistoric city north of Mexico.” -Anonymous
For more information:

contact@theJSF.org

UK short Free Speech intrigues at Atomfilms

2007-08-12T19:33:00.000-04:00

There's such a wooly wide world of really fine short films available on the Internet, through film festivals, dvds, and mobile media, it's impossible to keep up with all the action.

We just enjoyed a short (five minutes, 13 seconds) little UK film from 2005 on Atomfilms.com called "Free Speech." A husband and wife in a cramped bath fantasize about other lovers, but their imaginary menage-a-trois go wrong.

Both the actor, Danny Dyer, and actress, Jacqueline Oceane (what a great name!) are completely believable in this, restrained despite the emotional intensity, seductively voiced, and do it all sexily without showing any significant amount of flesh, although the language is talk-dirty-to-me vulgar, yet without offense. Until they take offense. Bitta bing. Play hits hangups.

More than 400,000 people have watched this film since it appeared in 2005, 3,000 plus this week.

And really, the only sex in it is verbal.

Skillfully written, acted, and directed. 24 on our 24 frame meter.

Con-Can, an International Online Short Film Festival

2006-11-24T15:10:00.000-05:00

Con-Can is yet another online venue which accepts short films for its annual film festival. Short Film fans can also view entries from the current and past festivals.

It's a well designed site featuring the work of international directors particularly heavy on Japanese and other Asian, but also Russia, Germany, the UK, and Australia, among others. The site offers a Japanese version.

"Robota" (see photo) is an offering from the 2nd Con-Can Festival of shorts. It gets a four star rating from viewers. Director Marc Beurteaux films Lego robots using stop motion animation techniques. Canadian Beurteaux won first prize for his previous film, "Tous Les Deux," at the Morbegno Film Festival in Italy in 2002.

"Robota" tells its quirky little story quickly and manages to include two robot battle scenes, one of Lego dinosaurian robots our wheeled hero bets on and the robot melee afterward which owes as much to Warner Brothers as to Ray Harryhausen (who used the same stop-motion technique in his 50s-70s classics such as Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers and Jason & the Argonauts.

The whole thing has an oddly futuristic feel, more "Blade Runner" than "Star Trek" because it's dark, but convincing in a strage way. The humor is decidedly clang-bang thank-you Robby-the-Robot, but it made me laugh several times and I bet an audience gets some real real guffaws when this is show on the screen. There's even a few sorta-scary special effects. The ending is perfect, not entirely predictable, and offers a real conclusion perfectly logical within this Lego robotland logic.

Beurteaux has talent, although in the time it takes to build Lego robots, go through the laborious stop-motion technique of shooting tiny movements so that a minute of motion on screen may take hours to film, as well as coming up with a script this good, he could probably shoot a feature. We hope he sticks with the shorts genre for a while, though. This is among the better animations we've seen this year.

21 on our 24 frame scale for "Robota."

Throw Impresses Charlotte Film Fest Audience

2006-11-20T17:00:00.000-05:00

That's James Drew, who co-wrote and co-produced the fine short film directed by Rick Fisher called "Throw." We caught both Drew and his movie at the very first Charlotte (North Carolina) Film Festival earlier this year. Photo by Renee Wright (copyright, Renee Wright, 2006)

We attend a lot of film festivals, especially in North Carolina and the Southeast U.S., our own territory. We seldom agree with the various "best of" picks at these festivals, particularly the short film winners. The judges' choices often remind us of Academy Award choices--oriented toward meaningful message films, not infrequently with a pseudo-artistic bent.

At the recent Charlotte, North Carolina film festival, we found the judges' choice of the short film "Lucas" a travesty. Watching this self-indulgent and weakly scripted piece with its lingering mirror shots of its mentally and physically challenged hero (anti-hero?) we tittered at its need to fill its already minimal screen time due to lack of real script. It had its moments, funny, tragic, and briefly interesting, but it didn't hold a patch to the short we found most moving and effective: "Throw."

We love real art when we encounter it. Real art is not the sort of pretentious BS of "Lukas," it's built on real experiences about real relationships such as those in "Throw." It also had the virtues of strong, moving performances from Michael Hardy, Robbie Lutfy, Catherine Smith, Cody Harding, and Steven Handy and of solid film-making. This isn't a film school calling-card, this movie stands on its own.

"Throw," which is based partly on the real experiences of the filmmakers, presents an admirably concise and dramatically powerful look at the choices artists must make between their love for creating and their need to pay rent and buy a new stove. In this case, the artist is a potter with a father who is more interested in seeing his son learn to paint a room than make a carefully crafted piece of pottery.

Or so it seems. The short film leads to a dramatic climax that is perfect in its revelation of the full meaning of what went before--although we are given strong forshadowing hints of it--and leaves the audience with a visercal understanding of what it all meant.

Drew says the father-son relationships of the film-makers played a role in shaping "Throw."

Many short film makers could learn more than a little about structure from "Throw."

In dramatic completeness at a short length, it reminds us of the work of Danica McKellar, the actress who portrayed Winnie Cooper in the TV show "Wonder Years," among many other roles on shows such as "The West Wing." McKellar appeared at the Riverun Film Festival at the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem earlier this year, where we saw her short film "Broken." Like "Throw," it manages complete, powerful and effective story-telling in minutes. Very impressive and up for one of our First Short Film Review Awards this year. That's Danica on the left in a photo by Allan Maurer shot at the Riverrun Festival. (Copyright, 2006, Allan Maurer).

"Throw" is also on the nominated list in several categories. If you get a chance to see it or McKellar's short films, do so.

Sundance Seeks Cell Phone Short Films

2006-11-19T16:34:00.000-05:00

The Sundance Institute will unite with the GSM Association to create a pilot film project for its annual U.S. film festival.

Partnering with the international mobile phone company, the Sundance Institute launched ae Global Short Film Project as a way to extend the film genre to millions of GSMA customers worldwide, according to a Sundance Institute news release.

"Cell phones are fast becoming the 'fourth screen' medium, after television, cinema and computers," Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford said. "We feel this experiment embodies fully, our quarter-century dedication to exploring new platforms to support wider distribution of independent voices in filmmaking."

"The emergence of mobile as the fourth screen is already changing the way people are educated and entertained," said GSMA Chief Marketing Officer Bill Gajda of the project. "This will explore the potential of the mobile medium to deliver compelling, cinematic entertainment...on an unprecedented scale."

The Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project will premiere its introductory six works at Spain's 3GSM World Congress in February.

Ringo Pits John Wayne Against Roy Rogers

2006-11-18T22:54:00.000-05:00

"Ringo" pits cowboy stalwarts John Wayne and Roy Rogers in a brief cinematic duel created from more than 20 public domain films by the two stars.

Directed by Dave Monahan of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, it unreels to the tune of Don Robertson's story-song of the same name. Monahan said at the screening that Robertson graciously permitted them to use the song in the short, which has been making the festival rounds.

Ringo is cleverly cut and paced, with the iconic images of Wayne and Rogers spliced into an artificial conflict not a lot less convincing than most of the "B" westerns they made. It's interesting that those old cowboy images can still arouse a tingle of emotion in those of us who grew up with them, but they entertain everyone.

Westerns don't hold the American imagination they once did. But for baby-boomers like me, who caught all those "B" westerns on tv at an impressionable age, there's a place in our psyhe where these images once reigned.

Even without the psychobabble, though, this short works for audiences.

It's five mintues and 30 seconds fly by as fast as Wyatt Earp on the draw. The song and the images mesh perfectly. This is purely an inspired gimmick, but it's one that works.

22 of 24 frames on our short film meter

Short Film Festivals Seek Entries

2006-11-17T14:06:00.000-05:00

Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Germany, May 3-8, 2007
Entry Deadline : January 15, 2007
See their site for submission info:

Oberhausen Short Film Festival

Tampere Short Film Festival, Finland
Finland, March 7-11,2007
Entry Deadline : December 1, 2006

Tahiti Film Festival seeks short romantic films

2006-11-16T16:35:00.000-05:00

Bora Bora is the place to be beginning Dec. 6, 2006 for the first ever Tahiti Romantic Film Festival. If you can't make it to the islands this year, you can still participate: The Tahiti Online Film Festival is seeking romantic shorts, maximum length 10 minutes. Entries are open thru Dec. 31, 2006, and FREE. The prize - very worth it - a trip for 2 to Tahiti.
Go here for more details:
tahitifilmfest's blog

The Journal of Short Film releases Volume 5

2006-11-16T15:57:00.000-05:00

Columbus, OH-- The Journal of Short Film released
Volume 5 (Fall 2006). This volume celebrates the one-year
anniversary of the Journal and maintains its commitment to diversity,
experimentation, and independent work.

The JSF is a quarterly DVD providing its subscribers collections of
exceptional, peer-reviewed short films. It was the first DVD
publication to make the Top 10 list of BEST MAGAZINES in 2005
in TheLibrary Journal.

The biggest news surrounding Volume 5 is the JSF’s focus on a single
location of vibrant filmmaking—Philadelphia. Many of the volume’s
filmmakers come from Philadelphia, and the collection demonstrates that
exciting work is happening in different communities all over the world.

Joining the editorial board for Volume 5 was Lucy Raven, NYC-based
filmmaker and co-creator of The Relay Project. The volume’s ten films
come from veterans, students, and a variety of artists in between.
Genres like “narrative” and “documentary” fail to describe the
diversity of visions found in this collection.

1. LITTLE THINGS – James Twyford and Alex Feakes (2005, 4:45)
Everything’s a game when you’re four. Until you get caught. 2. DIRT –
Chel White (1998, 4:00) A fractured tale of one man's strange
obsession. Dark and humorous, DIRT is an ecological parable for the
21st century.

3. GRAND LUNCHEONETTE – Peter Sillen (2005, 5:00) This
film documents the final days of Fred Hakim’s unforgettable 42nd Street
lunch counter. 4. THE LEGEND OF BLACK TOM – Deron Albright (2005,
16:00) When a freed slave fights for the British bare-knuckle
championship, he faces not only his opponent, but an entire nation. 5.
NOEL – Hope Tucker (2005, 5:00) A songwriter’s identity remains as
obscure as his motives for penning an American holiday standard.

6. THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF EXILE –Sara Zia Ebrahimi (2006, 12:00) A
contemplation of the connection to family in a globalized world where
fewer people live where they “came from.” Filmed in Iran.

7. YOU,STARBUCKS – Jennifer Levonian (2006, 2:05) Set in the mundane
environment of a Starbucks, a couple engages in unspoken communication.
8. Something Rubber, Something Glue – Jen Schneider (2006, 14:30)
Sibling warfare erupts over the only bathroom in the house: a private
theater for role-playing, mirror confessions, and practicing for the
“real thing.” 9. BAND OF SISTERS – Joel Fendelman (2005, 8:00) A group
of 1.15 million women and men march through Washington, D.C., in the
largest march in U.S. history. 10. REVERIES FROM CISTAE MEMORIA –
Phillip Hastings (2005, 10:35) A delicately woven dream-journey through
fragmented and reconstructed memories. Nostalgia for what may or may
not have ever happened.

The JSF continues its open submissions policy and will welcome Sam
Green as a guest editor for Volume 6 (Winter 2007). Sam’s Academy
Award-nominated film The Weather Underground sometimes overshadows the
fact that he is a renowned short film maker. The Journal is happy to
have him on board and is excited to enter its second year publishing
great independent filmmakers.

For more information go to The Journal of Short Film

Here's a good review of an earlier volume of the Journal from Curt Holman of Creative Loafing: Review of The Journal of Short Film

King of Doc Contest Offers Great Prizes for Shorts

2006-11-16T07:37:00.000-05:00

TOKION Magazine and Dewars White Label present the KING OF DOC! Contest

Call for Entries
Send us your own 3-5 minute documentary inspired by the following
themes:

MISTAKES
Some people are always looking for new kinds of mistakes to make.

CHEAP LOVE
Talk is cheap until it gets into love letters.

INTEGRITY
A man's reputation is that which is not found out about him.

All submissions will be judged by TOKION editors as well as by a panel of our celebrity judges including:
Jonathan Caouette, Filmmaker - Tarnation
Ondi Timoner, Filmaker - "DiG!"
Bruce Sinofsky, Filmaker - Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

The Winners:
We will be flying the three winners to NYC to screen the winning films with us. We will screen your film, have a party in your honor, as well as give you the opportunity to be questioned by an audience of
your peers regarding the creative process that was involved in creating your film.

The grand prize winner will be offered a $5000 contract with Dewars White Label to produce Dewars White Labels next brand-education film. Were also throwing in a new Apple MacBook Pro laptop and a copy of Apples Final Cut Pro 5.1 production suite. The second and third prize winners will receive a complete software prize package from SONY worth over $1800 - including SONY Vegas Pro and Cinescore.

Eligibility and Details:
All entrants must submit at least three copies of their film on either DVD, Mini DV or VHS format. You must be at least 25 years old to submit a film into the KING OF DOC contest. All entrants must include return address and contact information including current phone number, email and photocopy of valid ID (drivers license, non-driver state ID, passport) stating age. TOKION/Dewar's White Label is not responsible for returning any submissions.

Submissions must be postmarked no later than Dec 11th 2006.
Submissions should be sent to TOKION KING OF DOC contest C/O TOKION
Magazine 341 Lafayette Street, Suite 587, New York, NY 10012.
Winners will allow films to be screened by Dewars White Label at Dewars White Label events.
Winning films may also appear in additional future Dewars promotional spots.
For all contest info log onto www.tokion.com/kingofdoccontest.

Short Film Depot Makes Fest Submission Easier

2006-10-16T07:11:00.000-04:00

The Short Film Depot makes submitting your short movie to mulitple film festivals easier. The free service allows you to register your film once and submit to many fests without filling in many forms.

The site is also loaded with information about up coming festivals seeking entries internationally. It's a great addition to the growing number of sites worldwide that take short films seriously.

Terrific tool and already nominated for our Most Userful site award. (Our Short Atttention Span Theatre Awards will be presented in December to the best short films,(Best short drama; best short comedy, best animation, best horror short, best sci-fi short, best North Carolina short, best actor, best actress, best supporting actor/actress) directors, cinematographers, Web sites (Most Useful, Best News, Best Promotional, Best Graphics), and other categories. Nominations are open until Dec. 15. Send your nominations to Editor.

MTV leading in Internet Short Film Site Acquisitions

2006-09-23T21:00:00.000-04:00

One sign of the increasing viability of short films as a medium gaining traction as a separate genre rather than just a path to feature film making is the consolidation of online short film sites under large corporate media umbrellas:

Viacom's MTV has acquired the two leading purveyors of short films online. It has purchased both iFilm.com (which it bought last year) and Atom Entertainment, which has four sites including Atomfilms.com. It bought Atom for $200 million, which should indicate that short video online is becoming a very viable medium indeed.

The deal Al Gore's Current TV -- another short film venue -- just made with Yahoo is yet another sign pointing to the emergence of short films and videos as one of the major media forms of the future.

This trend will only increase with the proliferation of portable devices capable of showing short films, the movement of the Internet to online everywhere status, and the increasing availability of digital filmmaking equipment that can turn anyone seriously interested into a filmmaker.

Palm Spring's Shorts Fest Awards

2006-09-23T16:38:00.000-04:00

The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films in August screened 333 short films, including 74 world, 56 North American, and 16 U.S. premieres.

First place award winners are eligible to submit to the Academy for Oscar consideration.

Norwegian director Hisham Zaman's "Bawke" won the fest's best of the festival award, which includes $2,000 and software.

Award winners receiving a first place prize are automatically eligible to submit their films to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar consideration. Norwegian director Hisham Zaman's "Bawke" won the festival's best of the festival award in the jury prizes, which includes $2,000 and a package of software. It also won best narrative short at the Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival. It's about the travails of a father and son, both illigal immigrants to Scandinavia. Alex Weil won the Future Filmaker award, for his CG animated "One Rat Short."

The Panavision Grand Jury award went to Hubert Davis' "Aruba." His prize includes a Panavision camera package valued at $60,000 and two days studio time at Palm Spring's Casablanca Studios, so look for a feature from Davis.

Vince Marcello and Israeli Leonid Prudovsky tied for the audience favorite live action short for "Zombie Prom" and "Dark Night." Best documentary went to U.S. director Desiree Handall's "Chicken." Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson, both Canadians, won the audience prize for animated short with "First Flight."

Best live action over 15 minutes went to Swedish director Jens Assur's "The Last Dog in Rwanda" Best live action under 15 minutes went to comedy "Happiness" by Sophie Barthes ($2,000) ($2,000). Run Wrake's "Rabbit" won best animation, and Sam Green's "Lot 63, Grave C" won best doc. Australian cinematographer Adam Arkapaw won the Kodak Award for best student cinematography for "The City Eats its Weak" and best student doc went to "Going Home" by Hung P. Nguyen and Juliet Porter's "Breathe" and Andrea Janakas' "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" won best student live action prizes in the "under 15 minutes" and "over "15 minutes" categories respectively.

Short Films Site From Iran

2006-09-22T07:30:00.000-04:00

Short Film News, a site which began in Iran in 2004, has launched an English language edition at Short Film News

Marjan Riaji, the site's attractive and intelligent editor and director, says that it focuses on Iranian short films and documentaries but is also covering short film events worldwide. It has an excellent list of festivals relevant to short film makers and links to a number of Iranian short films.

In this stressful time of discord between the U.S. and Iran, arts may do more to bring us together than diplomacy. In fact, the arts are diplomacy. The universality of the human experience comes through in movies as it does in travel itself. Iran has produced top notch feature filmmakers for quite a while and if Short Film News is any guide, its short film scene is equally vibrant.

We'll be reviewing some of the short films available via links on the site. As Riaji says in her "About Us" essay, the short film form has evolved beyond being merely a filmmaker's entry to features, becoming a genre unto itself.

We hope to establish and ongoing relationship with Short Film News and other such sites worldwide, but meanwhile, go on over and have a look.

TCM Showing Day of Great Short Films

2006-09-07T20:03:00.000-04:00

The Turner Classic Movie Channel airs “The Shorts Circuit” Wednesday, Sept. 15 over a 24-hour period offers a rare chance to view the short films of a bevy of major directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsesse, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Francois Truffaut, Roman Polanski, Chris Marker (La Jetee, done entirely in stills but for one frame), Fred Zinneman, Jacques Tourneur (who directed the Val Lewton produced “Cat People,” and “I Walked with a Zombie,” Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, and Jane Campion, not to mention some of Chaplin and Keaton’s best.

Get your VCR or DVD recorders ready, because this is a veritable college course in the history of the short film.

In several cases, such as the Polanski and Scorsese shorts, the films are the work the directors did in film school, a route still often taken by budding directors today. Polanski’s “Two Men and Waredrobe,” made while he was in film school in Poland in 1958, was once a stable of college film societies.

A number of the French “New Wave” directors of the 1960s, including Truffaut, also began their careers making short films.

Veteran Hollywood directors George Sidney and George Marshall provide diverting entertainments. Sidney’s “Hollywood Hobbies” was written by Morey Amsterdam, who later played a comedy writer on the Dick Van Dyke show on TV. It portrays classic MGM stars such as Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy at leisure.

Several of Tourneur’s shorts are narrated by Pete Smith. Smith, chidf of MGM’s publicity department during the Hollywood studio’s heyday, also starred in a series of his own shorts called Pete Smith specialties, which I remember seeing in theatres as late as the 1950s and which TCM runs fairly often.

The show includes a rerun of TCM’s documentary about “Added Attractions: Hollywood Shorts.”

Look for additional posts before and after this day long festival of shorts.

Here's TCM's guide to the films: The Shorts Circuit

X-Gen Showing at Reel to Reel Friday Night

2006-07-20T17:24:00.000-04:00

"X-GEN" is a feature-length dark comedy about the destruction of Generation X. It's made by Sea Shanty Films:David Brigham, Matt Long, and David Wilmington. It screens Friday,July 21 in the evening at the Reel to Reel festival in King's Mountain. The festival is a cheap date: you can watch an entire evening of shorts and features from all over the world for a mere $7.50.

SeaShanty did its first film, a short satire of 1950's educational filmstrips entitled "The Wing Nut and You!", in January of 2004. It got airplay on Second Cinema, one of our favorite shows on Time-Warner leased accessl, and on NC Visions, the very well done UNC-TV annual show featuring NC filmmakers.

They're looking at options for wider distribution, but check out their Web site for lots more about the filmmakers, their work, a photo gallery from its premiere and more.

Reel to Reel Has Lots of Shorts

2006-07-20T12:18:00.000-04:00

This weekend's Reel To Reel Film Festival in King's Mountain has a ton of shorts, including animation from the up-and-coming Out of Our Minds studio in the Triad, NC.

Check out the details at our other blog: http://ncflix.blogspot.com

I Want to Be A Pilot Premieres

2006-06-21T11:58:00.000-04:00

I WANT TO BE A PILOT, is a poignant short based a narrative poem set in Kibera, Nairobi; the largest slum in East Africa.

Written and directed by Diego Quemada Diez, I WANT TO BE A PILOT is a poem based on interviews with 50 orphans from Raila Educational Center in Kibera. The film conveys the desire of a young boy that wants to fly away from the harsh real life experiences of the slums. Shot on location in Kibera, Nairobi.

The film will make its European premiere at the Huesca Film Festival Thursday, June 8, 2006 at 7:30pm. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science® has elected to recognize Huesca Film Festival as a qualifying festival for the Short Films category for their Oscar® Awards. Recipients of the Premio Danzante – Iberoamerican and International Category - will qualify for consideration.

The North American Premiere at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival will be Sunday, June 25, 2006 at 1:15pm, it will screen again Thursday, June 25 at 10:00pm. The LAFF held annually for ten days in June, showcases the best of American and International cinema. With an attendance of over 60,000, the festival screens over 175 narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and music videos. Now in its twelfth year, the festival has grown into a world-class event, uniting new filmmakers with critics, scholars, film masters, and the movie-loving public.

Diego Quemada Diez was born in Burgos, Spain. He is an accomplished filmmaker who has worked in film for over twelve years. He started his film career working as a camera assistant for British director Ken Loach (“Land and Freedom”, “Carla’s Song”). At the end of the 90’s he made his first trip to the United States and graduated in 2001 from The American Film Institute (AFI). His thesis film, “A Table is a Table”, was screened at film festivals worldwide, it won the 2001 USA Winner Robert Surtees Heritage Award for Outstanding Achievement In Cinematography by The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). It continued to garner awards through 2003 at II Festival de Cine Creatrivas (1st Prize), Octubre Corto (1st Prize), Best Short Festival de Alcalá de Henares (2nd Prize) and SOLO PARA CORTOS Winner Special Jury Prize. Since then he has combined the development of his projects as a Director and working as a cinematographer. As a camera operator he has collaborated with directors in films like “Bread and Roses” by Ken Loach, “21 Grams” by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, “She Hate Me” and “SFC” by Spike Lee and “The Constant Gardener” by Fernando Meirelles. After he finished “The Constant Gardener” he remained in Kenya to film I WANT TO BE A PILOT.

His artistic exploration does not end with film; he has also written a soon to be published poetry book called “I Dreamed I Found My Octogonal Room”.

Atom Film Blog

2006-05-31T20:35:00.000-04:00

Hi folks. We've been all tied up at our day job putting out a regional magazine lately, but we did manage to attend the world's largest film premiere, Disney/Pixar's "Cars" at Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina, where we saw Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Tony Shahloub ("Monk"), Kathryn Helmond, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, and a slew of other celebs.

NC is the place to be outside of LA and NYC when it comes to film festivals and catching a star these days. At Full Frame in April in Durham we caught "Tootsie" director and sometimes actor Sydney Pollock, Ken Burns, and assorted other name celebs. Take a look at our http://ncflix.blogger.com blog or www.ncflix.com site to see pix.

I know this is off the short film topic, but these film fests are where we catch a lot of the cutting edge work in the genre.

Meanwhile, here's something that is on topic: check the Atom Films blog for links to some of Atom's more interesting offerings:

http://blog.atomfilms.com/

The Whistler at Trunk Films

2006-04-22T09:38:00.000-04:00

"The Whistler," a short, SouthPark like animation by Layla Atkinson of Trunk films may not please kitty lovers, but it manages a miniature version of those old Looney Tunes' elaborate animal machinations. The bird in this one minute epic may be caged, but it's no birdbrain.

"The Whistler" and other very short, clever animations from Trunk directors are available on their Web site: Trunk

Highly recommended animations! They're funny, subversive, different, and very effective.

This was another of Indiefilm's top ten funny choices from Aspen's Short Film fest.

23 of a 24 frame rating for Trunk.

If There Were No Lutherans, Would There Still Be Green Jello?

2006-04-22T09:17:00.000-04:00

"If There Were No Lutherans, Would There Still Be Green Jello?" by Minnesotan Gayle Knutson, is about the hilarious signs posted regularly by Rev. Steve Molin, pastor of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota, on the Church marquee.

They include such messages as: "In Eternity, only three things matter: Location, Location, Location." Molin is obviously a very funny guy. He advertises his Sunday remarks this way: "Have trouble sleeping? The Pastor's sermons are avaiable on tape."

You can check out the rather inadequate trailer, buy the dvd and book and learn more here: Jello

Reviews of Aspen Shortsfest: Choque

2006-04-22T08:45:00.000-04:00

Kim Adelman,the author of "The Ultimate Filmmaker's Guide to Short Films" reviews the funniest shorts at the recent (April 5) Aspen Shortsfest over at Indie Wire's new Shorts section. The best shorts inevitably make the round of festivals internationlly and many are now available online, a great boon to the short film fan or short filmmaker. Filmmakers could certainly learn a few things from the elegant, action-oriented structure of "Choque."

Adelman's list of the funniest shorts at Aspen includes "Choque," (Crash)by Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo, who was nominated for an Oscar for his last short film, ""7:35 in the Morning."

I didn't find it particularly funny. It's a bumper-car version of Latin machismo carried to extremes and the title is certainly apt. Here's a bit of bumper car inside info (I used to run the bumper car ride at an amusement park summers as a teenager) - there's only one front wheel and it goes in one direction, so you turn it completely around once to reverse direction. Which is why so many people, like the hero of Choque, get stuck in corners). The hero of Choque certainly gets turned around in more ways than one in this 10 minute 2005 short. His gorgeous date becomes the target of a group of young punks, evoking his ire (and idiocy). It's well shot, moves fast and has a clearly defined beginning, middle and end. In fact, the funniest and most defining line in the film is the last one. You can watch it for yourself (ain't the Interet wonderful?) here:
CHOQUE