Wimbledon’s first film festival a great success!
Wimbledon SHORTS, a short film competition run by the Wimbledon Film Club, held its first festival and awards event at the Polka Theatre last Saturday.
The competition was launched last November and attracted around 150 entries from local filmmakers and from as far afield as Australia, USA, Canada, Asia and Europe. The quality of the entries was excellent so the judges had a difficult time selecting the shortlist of 20 or so which were screened at the Polka Theatre last Saturday. Comedian, author and all round local celebrity, Tony Hawks, hosted the event. After a lively introduction Tony introduced an amazing variety of films ranging from quirky animations to atmospheric art-house movies and edgy thrillers. With the shortest at just over a minute, many of the films were over in the twinkling an eye but others kept the audience on the edge of their seat for nearly 15 minutes.
The judging panel included world-famous film-makers, critics and writers including:
- Ashvin Kumar: director of Oscar-nominated short film Little Terrorist
- Derek Malcolm: world-famous film critic.
- Josh Appignanesi: director of “Song of Songs” feature film and short filmmaker
- Juliet McKoen: director and screenplay writer of awarding-winning feature film Frozen
- Manu Luksch: artist and filmmaker, director of The Ambient Project
- Dominic Buttimore: director of Th1ng animation a prominent animation company.
- Lucy Kane: MD of Time & Leisure, multi-media platform publisher, art journalist.
But the audience were also one of the judges for a special ‘Audience Award’ selected on the night.
After the screening the awards were presented by actress Yaourou Konate, star of many films including ‘Run Fat Boy Run’.
Winners
The following prizes were awarded:
Best Animated Film Award
Kevin Richards
'Joystick’
Best Merton Film-maker Award
Daniel Cormack
‘Nightwalking’.
Wimbledon Film Club Best Short Film prize
Trevor De Silva
‘Would Like to Meet’.
The Audience Award
Joint Winners
Noel Kearns
'The Cleaner’.
Trevor De Silva
‘Would Like to Meet’
On collecting his best short film award Trevor De Silva said “It's so important for short film makers to get their work seen, and festivals like this really help. I hope you keep it going and that it becomes a regular fixture on the festival circuit.”
Kevin Richards, winner of the animated film award, told the audience that this was the first time his film had been screened before an audience.
Daniel Cormack, winner of the Merton Filmmaker prize was unfortunately unable to collect his award as he was getting married that day!
Johnjoe McFadden, Chairman of the Wimbledon Film Club, said, “It was terrific watching the films on the big screen but it was also great chatting to the filmmakers and discussing their work and ambitions over a glass of wine in the bar. This event would not have been possible without the vital support of our sponsors: Time and Leisure magazine, B2C Agency, Wimbledon Business Group and Confucius Restaurant. The evening has been a big success and we hope to repeat it next year.”